Top Tips for Growing Strelitzias! Aka. The Bird of Paradise plant | RentMy

Top Tips for Growing Strelitzias! Aka. The Bird of Paradise plant

Feel like you’ve missed the boat because summer is already upon us and you didn’t find the time to plant seeds for your garden or balcony, let alone buy them?

 

Fear not - gardening is an ongoing process, and, while timing is important, don't be overwhelmed by a sense of being too late to plant.

 

June and July are fantastic months for sowing seeds, as soil and air temperatures are high.

 

Warm, long days with good light levels speed up the germination process but be sure to water plenty.

 

Here at RentMy, we’re always up for growing something different and trying something new in our outdoor spaces. Here are our top tips for sowing Strelitzias or the bird of paradise plant. It’s not hard to guess how the bird of paradise plant, or to give it its botanical name, the Strelitzia reginae, got its name.

 

From a distance, the plant looks like the head of an exotic bird – a stalky display of neon orange and electric blue. It’s a striking house plant or will transfer to a border in your garden.

Top Tips 

1.How to grow it

This herbaceous perennial is easy to grow but needs room as it’s two metres tall and it likes lots of light and warmth, so a sunny room is ideal.

It’s high maintenance as it needs lots of water from April to September. It’s also good to regularly mist the leaves.

Feed with a liquid house plant feed every two weeks from April to September. In summer, open the window so plenty of air can circulate around the plant. No pruning is required but you can cut off any unsightly leaves. Might not be ideal if you have house pets as it’s toxic if ingested.

 

2.How to propagate it 

You can sow seeds from early in the year through to summer, but it can take years for the plant to mature and flower. Two weeks before sowing, remove the orange tufts from the seed and place in a plastic bag with a hand full of fresh compost. Keep this in the fridge for two weeks.

Before you sow, soak the seeds for a few hours in warm water and then nick with a knife to speed up germination. Germination should take about four to eight weeks.

If you’re not a patient gardener, you can buy and divide a mature plant. Take the plant out of its pot and cut the root ball in half. You can also cut off root shoots and pot them up. There’s not a lot more satisfying than achieving growth from a root.

 

3.What soil to use

This South African native plant likes a mix of grit and soil-based compost. Whether you decide to keep this spectacular plant indoors or outside, you can place the pot on a bed of pebbles and water to ensure it’s well aired.

 

4.Outdoors

In summer, you could put your bird of paradise plant outside, where it will look great as part of an exotic planting scheme in a border. Just plunge it, pot and all, into the soil, in a sunny spot. Move it back indoors before temperatures begin to fall in early autumn. Or you can take it out of its pot and plant it in well-drained soil, but you must bring it in before the frosts.

 

5.Trouble shooting

If the leaf edges turn brown, it could be down to a lack of watering, humidity or too much feeding. 

Yellow leaves at the base of the plant are normal – these are just older leaves dying back. Yellow leaves elsewhere are caused by some kind of stress to the plant – lack of light or too much or too little watering.

Spider mites can be an issue – look out for fine webbing on your plant. Increase humidity and air circulation to help prevent this.

Mealybugs can appear on leaves and look like white, fluffy lumps. Quickly wipe them off with a cotton wool pad soaked in organic insecticide.

Remember – you can list your gardening equipment on RentMy.com when you’re not using it – and start making money from your items, as well as helping others to discover their own green fingers!

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