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Strelitzia Reginae
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Frequently Asked Questions.
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I love bird of paradise flowers. So when one day I noticed some
seeds in the garden centre, I bought them. Then read how tricky the
things are to get to grow. "Hard to germinate, easy to grow
on". Hmm. Planted three seeds and gave the other half packet to Dad,
who also loves the flowers. Most websites will tell you they take between
3 and 10 years to flower for the first time, so they are a patience
plant! Hereīs my experience of mine, over some nine years now.
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Sown: May 17th 2001 and left in a conservatory. Humid, reasonably
bright. Warm!
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I checked a lot in the first month then totally forgot about the pot, which
was by then at the back of some staging. I had a clear out of stuff in July
and realised there was a quarter-inch thick shoot sticking out! That was
quick for germination! Poked about and fished out the non-germinated seeds
(one had rotted, the other was still solid) and then replanted the ok one.
It subsequently germinated in August 2002 (!) and got given to Dad, who
left it on a windowledge and it got forgotten. :-(
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Come January 2002, mine was doing nicely: the tiny leaf at the bottom
was the original shoot, and it grew another leaf every few weeks. But I
began to see why it takes so long to flower!
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I then kept it watered, fed it very occasionally and watched it grow
leaf after leaf through 2002 and 2003. Dad finally got one to go, and put
it in his greenhouse, but it doesnīt seem to be growing at the same rate as
mine, perhaps because itīs cooler in winter. In January 2004 it occurred to
me to take another photo (left). Much bigger now! Started to wonder if it
was possible to get a flower earlier rather than later. However, the summer
had its own surprises, and not terribly nice either.
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I found out the hard way that Strelitzia suffer badly from Red Spider
Mite. Grumble. I lost leaf after leaf to yellowing, crispy edges and the
horrible little nasties. Tried organic methods, but they all failed. In
desperation I sprayed it with a pesticide for vegetables (in the hope it
was less bad for plants if it could be put on edibles) and that finally
stopped the infestation, but by then it was looking very sad indeed. I
watered it, fed it and put it at the back of the conservatory and left it
to recuperate, wondering how much of a setback it had received.
Again forgetting about it was the key. On the day before my wedding in
October 2004, I thought Iīd better clear up the conservatory in case it was
needed for photos, and the Strelitzia surprised me again. There were two
shoots sticking out of the crown, not one! So I gave my bridesmaids a heart
attack as I bounced about grinning, thinking it had split.
It hadnīt. It was growing a leaf out of the centre, and the other was
the long-awaited flower spike. What a wedding present!
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Here I am in the first week of January 2005, and the spike is now a
metre tall and starting to widen and turn orangey in colour. I think at
some point in the next month it will start to bend into the beak, and
then I look forward to it opening! Watch out for the pictures...
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I have a hope that it may open by Christmas, but itīs more likely to be
mid-January at the rate itīs growing. Either way, itīs less than 4 years,
which is pretty good!
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27th November, 2004
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February 2nd 2005
ITīS OUT!
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February 23rd
And yet another set of petals! Now the crest is really looking
spectacular. And I think thereīs a fourth set inside, too.
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March 11th
The fourth set of petals has been up for a couple of days. The first
set has gone over now, leaving the other three still bright. Itīs certainly
put on a lovely display - I have no idea when it will flower again, but
at least I have my photos!
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February 12th
And hereīs the second lot of petals - and a second style/stigma too.
I hand-pollinated the first one so Iīm hoping for seeds (though this
may only work if pollinating another plant - but thereīs only one way to
find out!).
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March 15th
Oh help thereīs a fifth set just peeking through the beak... itīs not
over yet!
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April 2nd
Except it was over - it was just the last petal. Still, the seed pod is
now swelling rather nicely...
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May 15th
Peeked in pots, risking finger blight. One juncea seed seems to have
vanished totally, one Mandelaīs gold has germinated! Repotted in its own
pot. Other two seeds were looking ok and not soggy (I really want to know
where the other juncea is - probably hiding in the compost).
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July 2005
There is something odd happening in the pot. Not one but two slightly
crinkly leaves grew very quickly out of the centre last month, and now
Iīve yet another mangled pair coming, at rather odd angles too. I
have a suspicion that it means the plant really is trying to split this
time... The seed pod is still reddening, and so far hasnīt shown any
inclination to split open. The Mandelaīs Gold seed put up a tiny leaf and
then stopped. Just sits there, so Iīm hoping this means itīs getting a
decent root system set up now itīs got means of photosynthesis. Things
are rather better than last year as Iīve got predators keeping the red
spider mites under control and so the leaves are all nice and green.
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Strelitzia Reginae `Mandelaīs Goldī, sown April 17th 2005
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The main plant mid-split, with seed pod near the roof!!
(The African violets, bougainvillea and Phalaenopsis orchid all
rather like it in the conservatory, too.)
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August 2005
Sadly the seedling shown above is no more - something had been eating
away at the stem and it just came off. Probably sciarid larvae. Grr.
To compensate slightly, the splitting of the main plant continues,
though the first leaves out are a bit crinkly! And the seed pod has ripened
and split, giving me six incredibly shiny seeds with orange tufts :-)
Planted three immediately (and will cover with cling film to stop any
sciarids getting in.) Three going to whoever yells first on Allotments 4
all or emails me using the addy on the front page of this site!
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End August 2005
Peekaboo. New flower coming! Huzzah! This time I spotted it early on,
and itīs on the other side of the plant to the last one, or rather on the
other plant if this split ever sorts itself out.
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December 5th 2005
Home after a weekend away and find Iīve got a bloom out already - so it
will be at its best for Christmas. Wonderful! Almost unbelieveable that the
last flower only died back in March.
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July 2006
The main plant is now growing three leaves a time, and large ones at
that. I didnīt expect a three-way split, as the third heart started as
just one leaf! The first attack of red spider mite in late May seems to
have been beaten back (mostly due to the predators again, which I ordered
as soon as I saw the mites) and the seed pods from the flower above are
ripening rapidly. I expect theyīll crack in the next month. I managed to
pollinate three of the blue flowers this time and each then grows a
cylindrical pod within the `beakī.
Meanwhile, one of the last batch to be sown has germinated, and
thereīs no sign this year of sciarid so Iīm hoping it establishes and
doesnīt get nibbled off! (Would also be nice if the other three seeds
grow, but 1/4 seems to be about the right odds for strelitzia!)
August 2006
The seedling mentioned above fried in the incredible heat of July,
only to have a second one pop up a week or two later and start to fight
the sciarid, which has also appeared. This one is being coddled and the
temperatures watched very carefully! It is growing very quickly, and is
already unfurling a leaf. Bit different to the Mandelaīs Gold last year;
it must have stopped because of the sciarid grubs. Pah. Have discovered theyīre
immune to both Provado and bifenthrin so have no idea how to kill the
things now! Oh for the EU to reinstate malathion! That killed them... Iīm
only non-organic where the ornamental tropicals are concerned, and even
then, thereīs not much available now to kill stuff.
The better news is that Iīve got TWO flower spikes just appearing! So the
split was successful. Happy.
The home-grown seeds ripened and were extracted, and though Iīm not
convinced that theyīll grow, Iīm going to sow a potful to see.
September 2006
Should have looked closer. Thereīs a THIRD flower bud still within
one of the leaf stems. Oh, my.
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The two easy to spot
spikes
and a hidden one ( I
hope).
The new one - shooting rapidly upwards
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December 14th 2006
And the first spikeīs first flower is out. The three
of them donīt look too far apart in timings, so I reckon thereīs likely to be
a second by Christmas Day. Just in time for all the visitors! Of the small
ones, Iīve got the first one with two leaves, the second oneīs just growing
its second and the third oneīs struggling a bit as it got hit by the autumn
aphid invasion. Should pick up though, especially when it gets to the second
leaf. Luckily my notes at the top of this page do help - especially the part
where I commented that they take forever to grow new leaves! Dropped the
temperature in the conservatory by a couple of degrees so they last longer.
Though with three spikes, with luck theyīll last a few months.
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My original plant is now about 1.3m across and the same high. Good job
Iīve plenty of room!
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Flower spikes: the second oneīs bulging orange at the top so I donīt
think it will be long before the petals pop out.
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Kindergarten! The new ones, at least one of which was from collected seed
as I only had a couple of bought ones left. Five years and counting...
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Saturday December 23rd
Second spike out, second flower of first spike out. Turned the plant
around so theyīre easier to see, and realised how big it now is. Two more
views, with the big digicam. Clicking on the pics will give you a larger one.
All three flower heads visible on the right one.
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Sunday December 31st
And more pics, now that all three are now out and looking lovely. Iīm
only pollinating two of the flowers, to see if it does actually make them
last longer if they arenīt. And I can cross-pollinate the two, though given
itīs genetically the same plant, that shouldnīt make any difference.
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4th September 2007
What a summer my poor indoor plants have had. They were barricaded in
the conservatory by all the contents of the shed, which had to be transferred
after a tree destroyed the shed in January. I thought it would only be for
a few weeks, not expecting that the replacement shed wouldnīt be complete
until August. As a result, a lot of plants died through lack of water, both
because they werenīt reachable (Iīd pushed overwintering pots under
benches) and because I was too ill with hyperemesis to lift a watering can
for some months.
Somehow the strelitzia survived, though it did lose about half a dozen
outer leaves. The two larger babies also survived, and I think the smallest
one only succumbed because it was also being badly attacked by aphids. When
I could get to them again at the end of August, I started watering them
with as much as theyīd take, trying to get the soil to absorb some moisture
(it was bone dry). A lone leaf had started to grow on the main plant, which
was encouraging.
Today I realised just how tough these things are. As if I didnīt know from
2004. Another shoot has appeared - and itīs pale green one not dark, which
is characteristic of a bud. How on earth can it be flowering when itīs been
watered perhaps three times since March, for goodnessī sake? Well, in its
native South Africa,
they are often growing in dry conditions for months until the rainy season.
Something for which I am currently very grateful! I donīt think Iīll have
it flowering by Christmas this year, but Iīll settle for anything I can
get. Including survival. As it was, I lost the aspidistra, both the
stephanotis, and the streptocarpus; the two phalaenopsis orchids really
donīt look very well but are hanging on.
I shall look forward to it cheering me, in the dark months when I am
struggling with the exhaustion that is inevitable with a new baby, and
canīt do much else!
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Whatīs left of the main plant - three very separate crowns of four
leaves each. Babies are the little plants to either side.
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And the surprise bud, despite everything.
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11th September 2007
Oh brother. Second bud has appeared on the same crown as is growing a
new leaf. Donīt believe it!
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23rd January, 2008
We are almost at flowering point. Took a couple of shots just because
thereīs a colour change along the top of the flower when itīs about to
open; havenīt commented on this before.
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24th January, 2008
And the petals start to appear... pics also of the young plants.
Hopefully well on the way to getting flowers of their own in a couple or so
years.
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25th January, 2008
And weīre open.
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home
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6th February 2008
This is why strelitzia are hard to kill once they get going. This is
the main tap root, escaping the pot of the larger of the immature plants.
These roots are huge and fleshy and must store a lot of water and energy.
(I was going to use a pound coin for scale, then realised that not everyone
reading this will have seen one - but I figure thereīs a fair chance
everyone knows the size of an AA battery!) The smaller one also has an
escaping root, but the drainage holes are smaller.
With the now-flowering plant, Iīve had to cut the old pots off several
times in order to pot them on because of these roots, so donīt ever plant
them in any expensive ceramic pots unless you particularly want to have to
break them!
The second flower spike is now out, and the second flower is out on the
first spike. That one, from soil level to top of the petals, is 124cm (4ī
1"). The plant is only in a 10" pot. Dilemma for this summer: do
I repot it to a 12" pot or take a spade and split it into three
separate plants which then wonīt flower for a couple of years? Probably the
former, as I have the small plants for backup.
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19th August 2008
Update time. Iīve got a bud coming for this winterīs flowering, but
only one. All summer the main plantīs been struggling to keep its leaves
going, and I suspect endemic red spider mite and a severe case of pot-bound
roots are stopping it getting the food it needs even with regular feeding.
Repot is imminent, probably into the green pot I had a blueberry in. The
interesting thing thatīs happened is a very tiny shoot popping up in the
leafier of the two seedlings - like a seed which has germinated at last,
though Iīm sure there wasnīt one in there. I think... you can just see it
on the photos. Is it a lost seed or is it a bizarre offshoot? Unless I tap it
out and have a rummage, Iīll never know!
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7th September 2008
Carried out my rummage threat, though only from the top of the pot.
Astonishingly, it was a new germination, as I found the top of a seed
almost immediately, so now Iīve got to somehow get it out of the pot,
disentangled from the bigger plantīs roots and into its own!. Itīs been in
there for, well, must be 15 months, and I didnīt realise it was in that
particular pot! Meanwhile, Iīve got eight new seeds from the pod on this
yearīs flower. Will do them, along with the Mandelaīs Golds, with the smoke
treatment. Hopefully Iīll have loads of them soon! (Mind you, Iīve now got
four normal ones, and at a metre tall/across each eventually, Iīll probably
have to resort to having nothing else in the conservatory!)
Bit of a rhetorical aside: why do slugs like hiding under the strelitzia
pots so much? Iīve got an infestation of striped slugs in the conservatory
and Iīve no idea which plant theyīre breeding in, but I keep finding them
at the rate of 1-2 a day, usually under the strelitzia babies... I am
probably going to resort to slug pellets, as theyīre not outside where the
dead slugs can enter the food chain.
And an update on the entry for September last year: the aspidistra did
start growing again after I optimistically watered it for a few months, and
has been living in the garden all summer. Even the phalaenopsis orchid
which lost all its leaves has grown a couple of new ones, probably thanks
to the photosynthesis of its roots. Plants are often tougher than people
think.
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9th June 2009
Still havenīt sown any new seeds, probably because Iīm not sure where to
put them - the conservatory at the moment is a dangerous place for pots,
given a small boyīs liking for upturning them!
The existing strelitzia babies are tucked in places he canīt quite
reach... yet. Not doing too badly. They are all growing new leaves at the
moment, including the small one which I eventually did tug out of the roots
of the bigger one. Both have survived the ordeal. The mother plant has pulled
a fast one on me yet again. Firstly the flower spike never grew to flowering
size and just withered. I can only assume this is because of shock after I
repotted the whole plant after it had started to grow. It pretty much didnīt
grow any more after the repot, so hereīs a warning to everyone - be very
careful when you do your repotting! And it didnīt grow any new leaves for
ages either, and when it finally did, it was a very distorted one. Basically
two leaves stuck together back to back, with a stem which looked like two
seamlessly fused stems too.
I watched this closely - to see what would happen when *that* leaf grew a
new one. What would it look like? Well I now know - itīs grown two! One out
of each side. This isnīt what happened last time the crown split, but could
it be that happening again or...? As usual, watch this space (in a few
months!)
Meanwhile, a few photos. Latest leaf out of the mother plant is enormous.
Way taller than all the rest! But not out of the odd crown; thatīs the one on
the left as you look at the photo.
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mother plant, which has recovered well after losing so many leaves in
2007
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Fused leaves - fasciated?
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twins
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December 2009-January 2010
The odd leaf is indeed a precursor to another split, so I shall have four
crowns soon on the main plant. Over winter the new leaves have grown
incredibly slowly, probably not helped by the pot being so full of roots and
compost that itīs hard to water. I am awaiting some hotter weather (ie >20oC
outside) so I can take it out and dunk the whole pot into a tubtrug of water,
and let the compost rehydrate for an hour or so. Not too long, though, as I
donīt want the plant to drown!
I had only the one flower this season, but boy was it a long stem!
Pictures are from December 18th 2009 (bud) and January 8th 2010 (flower
open).
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Meanwhile the babies are growing steadily; They are now in 8" pots
and one of them is now home to a rooted African Violet leaf too, as I
needed somewhere to stuff the snapped-off leaf and it just stayed there...
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18th August 2010
And yet another surprise. I climbed up on a chair yesterday to see how
the seed pod was going on, realised it was cracking so cut off the flower
spike. After some struggling I managed to get seventeen seeds out of two
pods! I think I shall be sowing seed this weekend... my small boy
thought the orange-tufted seeds were fascinating. I decided to check all the
plants over. Now the main plant is over a metre tall. It was sown in May 2001
and I first spotted a flower spike in 2004 when it was pushing a metre. So I
was surprised by the larger baby, just 45cm tall, growing a bud! My reaction
to spotting it was, "HOW?" but it was sown in 2006, and shown as
the leftmost baby in this December 14th 2006 photo. (It
was the second seedling - the first is the one at the front in the middle pic
above and has nowhere near as many leaves). So itīs the right age, if not
size. Perhaps itīs a dwarf seedling? I have no idea. Just a big grin right now.
Itīs also the plant with the African Violet in the pot (which does very
nicely as a watering indicator!) I suspect this too will flower sometime in
the next 6 months.
Parent plant showing as yet no signs of any 2011 flowers. I shall have to
feed it again. Itīs happily growing monster leaves so isnīt deprived of any
nutrients, and I have been feeding it with tomato food! We shall see.
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31st May 2013
A long gap here. After the last post, I gave the surprise flowering plant
to my Dad, who managed to half kill it before the flower came out. I do
*not* know how he does it; heīs a good gardener for outside stuff but I
swear the inside of the house is inimicable to plantlife. Itīs invariably
hot and dry (they have a dehumidifier and are elderly) and so once again I
found myself trying to resuscitate a pretty dead thing. After two years I
have almost given up. It grows two or so leaves and they curl and brown
before even unfurling properly. Itīs down to two at the moment ( I did get
it to six at one point) and both are browning. Itīs headed for the outside
borders once we get past frost dates and then Iīll see if it make it to the
autumn. I am trying to work out if it got some disease when he repotted it
(hmmm) or whether he just broke the main root or something. Thankfully itīs
not spread to any of mine, so am hoping that means it was possibly duff
compost.
However. I got a lot of little ones from the last batch of seed, and
gave a few away. They should be flowering in about 4 years time! My
Mandelaīs gold is slowly but surely getting larger, and so is the one I
sowed at the same time as the dying one. I have another two babies, one
weeny and the other up to 5 leaves, all about 4" long at the moment. A
long way to go!
The mother plant is just huge. Last time I checked it had six crowns, is
now in an 18" pot and has a quite large money plant (Crassula Ovata)
growing in one side. They do like companion plants! It also has two tiny
cyclamen coum (seeded in from a shop-bought one) and for some reason, a
French bean seedling. I can only assume a small boy planted that while I
was doing the modules for the allotment! Last year it had four flower
spikes. Didnīt bother pollinating them this time, I have enough of them for
a while! Itīs currently growing new leaves after the incredibly cold
spring, so am hoping that very soon the temperatures in the conservatory
will finally climb into hot and humid, just like the strelitzias, violets,
orchids and chillis like.
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January 2011 - busting out of the pot!
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November 2011 - an astonishing five buds this time, and still havenīt
repotted it...
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December 2012/January 2013: four this season. Plant now in larger pot
(about as large as I can get - if it grows out of this one itīs for the
chop (into smaller pieces).
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Latest Saga Entry
18th
August 2013
Now is about the time that new
flower spikes start to appear, and so I went to look. One new one so far on the
main plant, and three suspiciously bulky stems which might indicate that there
are more. But the surprise today was that the big baby strel has its first
flower! About time too - this is the one which was a pictured seedling in
August 2006. Baby no longer but it’s never had more than 5 leaves on at a
time and has been very slow to grow. Sadly its sibling plant, the one I rescued
from Dad last year after he’d tried to kill it with the central heating,
gave up the ghost and met the compost bin. Ah well, you win some, you lose
some. I’m not giving him this one! But it means that after flowering next
season, I can carry out my long-standing thread to put a spade through the mother
plant and finally split it up, as now I have two flowering plants. Can’t
do it now or I’ll lose the 1-4 flowers it’s currently forming.
There are six crowns now and one definitely is blind; the other five are
possibles for flowers. I do hope I have five!
Thoughts on the dead one,
given how hard these things are supposed to be to kill. I think it must have
also had some kind of reaction to the potting compost, as well as the
conditions it was kept in. That or some kind of virus. I am slightly suspicious
of the latter even though none of my other plants has any problems, and it was
parked right next to a seedling which is still going. Its symptoms were a
failure to grow any leaf to full size without it going brown and distorted, and
some abnormal leaf streaks. The later ones weren’t even getting out of
the rolled-up phase before turning brown. I have no idea except perhaps root
rot through overwatering (though again, I’d have thought that improbable
here). Perhaps I should email the people in RSA who grow them commercially and
ask if they know. Either way, I’m not using that pot for strelitzia
again.
22nd
August 2013
Two flowers through on mother
plant, plus one bulge which is a bud going to appear any day now. Four all
told. Maybe more that I’ve not yet spotted!
youngster and bud The main plant (45cm pot now) One of the flowers The first peek of a
bud
(The very small one visible on
the right is my Mandela’s Gold)
21st
October 2013
Full house! Every single crown
on the main plant has got a flower spike! Total number of spikes on plant: six
(plus one on the young plant).
I am extremely pleased. I
forgot to note that I repotted the main plant as soon as the weather outside
improved enough to let me go out in just a t-shirt: I figure that it means the
plant can cope too. It’s already trying to push itself up out of the pot!
Other tropical/houseplants
(might as well give them a mention): the strelitzia companion plants have taken
off: the crassula ovata, seen as a small plant in Dec 2009, is now massive. And
I think the cyclamen will flower this Christmas. Meanwhile I’ve got one
phalaenopsis orchid finally growing a new flower spike after slugs ate the last
one, and another one just finishing flowering and growing more flower side
shoots. No flowers this year on the bougainvillea: I think it too needs a
repot/refresh of compost. It’s been there years and so I need to tip it
out, remove old compost and get some more in. Without, of course, getting torn
to shreds by the spikes. I also repotted my ficus benjamina earlier in the
year, and that is loving the new compost so much it’s trying to grow out
of the roof. I’m now cultivating cuttings as it will invariably get too
big in the next couple of years and need to find another home.
I also have now got minuscule
seeds on the venus fly trap I got earlier in the year. Anyone know how to
germinate them?
The other challenge I have at
this time of year is overwintering frost tender plants. I’ve got an
unheated potting shedful of chillies, and rather a lot of non-hardy fuchsias
and pelargoniums. The weather’s still warm-ish, but is definitely turning
colder now. I want to keep at least some of them in the conservatory, but
don’t want to import any more slugs, as this is how the resident
population got in. I can’t isolate them or use pellets as the room is
also our dining room, small person’s art room and also has contains
fridges, freezers and the odd cat or two. And currently houses several hundred
apples thanks to the monster crops this year. I’m sure I’ll work it
out eventually. Or eat the apples.
10th
December 2013
It seems appropriate to write
an update at the same time that Nelson Mandela’s memorial service is
taking place in Johannesburg.
The babies in my conservatory had all been tipping sideways in their pots, a
sure sign that the fleshy roots had escaped the pots and were pushing the
plants over. So it was a repot at the weekend. One plant was severely
rootbound, and I had to take my secateurs and cut the pot off. One reason I
always recommend growing them in plastic pots! Getting the pot off is easy if
you don’t mind losing the protruding roots, but I prefer to try and keep
them so that the plant isn’t damaged more than I can help and so doesn’t
suffer too much from repotting shock. A flowering strelitzia hates being
repotted if it’s in the bud stage: you can expect the bud to shrivel a
lot of the time.
The smallest strelitzia, the one
from my own seed, is now up to about 4 still-tiny leaves and the root was
pushing out. It’s now in a 4” pot. The next smallest (which I have
a sneaking feeling is the same type as my late lamented dead one, ie
semi-dwarf) has about 8 leaves but is still only about 6” tall. This was
the very rootbound one. Now in a much larger pot! The third repot was my
Mandela’s Gold. Now this one is very tall and has slim leaves, quite
different to the other one. It was pushing itself up in the pot, and when I got
it out showed lots of very twisted roots. Again now in a much larger pot. I
have a feeling this one’s going to take many more years before it
flowers.
Even the mature plant, which I
thought was repotted for the last time, has again started pushing its rootball
up and out. This makes it very difficult to water! I’ve not been giving
it as much water as I perhaps could, they don’t much like standing in it,
but need a fair bit to grow their flower spikes. As a result it’s growing
the spikes quite slowly but steadily. I expect it will flower, spectacularly,
about February. The only one that is behaving is the junior adult, as it was
only repotted a year ago. Its first flower is now bending over, so I am hoping
for a late December or early January flowering. Fingers crossed!
Meanwhile my main phalaenopsis
orchid has started growing a third flower stem while the other two take a break
from flowering to grow some more stems on the sides. My smallest one has got a
2” flower stem after having lost the last ones to slugs. I’m
protecting it carefully! The other large one is also currently taking a
flowering break. The African violets are looking scrappy: I think next spring I
shall take leaf cuttings off all the main plants and start a new batch as some
of them have been going over a decade.