first off how old do they have to be to bloom, I thought it was 5 years or does it depend on other factors. I have had this plant for less then a year but it seems like its doing really well. It really mystifies me because this plant is really still a baby less then 4 feet tall.


My plant appears to be tying to flower its newest growth shows a bud devloping , it has 10 leaves on it now some of which are full sized. The newsest leaf is smaller then the previous new leaf pobably because of its bloom. Will blooming sap the plant? I know venus flytraps you should never let bloom but are theses different. I also repotted it a few months ago into rich fertile soil.

Can you post a photo of your Bird of Paradise (Strelitzia reginae) showing the developing "bud"? What you are seeing may actually be new leaf development. I've always heard that Strelitzia will not bloom until they are @ 5 to 7 years old but I'm used to seeing them growing in the ground here in Florida so I've never really paid much attention to how long it takes for blooms to form; maybe when they are crowded in a pot they will bloom sooner?

I never knew that you shouldn't let Venus Fly Trap (Dionaea muscipula) form a bloom, very interesting!

A plant that some confuse with Strelitzia reginae is the "False Bird of Paradise" or Parrot's Beak (Heliconia psittacorum) which seem to bloom more abundantly than the Strelitzia.

I don't want to grow a Venus Fly trap if I can't let it bloom! No blooms = no eating bugs! The plant needs the nutrients from ingesting the bugs to live, besides.

I'm also pretty confident that your Bird of Paradise couldn't be blooming yet. IF you can take video, you can probably take a still picture, too. We really need to see this plant to make an ID. If you have a Heliconia, it might be blooming, but even that is pretty doubtful.

i'm like 80% postive it is going to be blooming. Unless they can grow 2 leaves at once which I've never seen happen. The flower isnt going to be very big but its there all the same. I will post images as soon as I can. The newest leaf is going to be smaller too probably because of the engery it takes to bloom.


I think the plant is thriving under my care.

I bought a Bird of Paradise............oh, probably close to 10 years ago. It was a $5.00 impulse/charity buy from WM, I believe. Plant looked horrible so it was one of those "Live or die, it's up to you" cases. It looked kinda skanky for a couple of years, but after 3 or 4 years of watering, Miracle Grow, and hauling in and out of the greenhouse for the season change it decided to reward me. It is now in a 20 inch pot, and this winter has showered me with at least a dozen blooms. It seems to have its bloom spurt from Jan-March in the g'house, tho it has on occasion, had a couple of blooms in the summer when it is outside. I probably should repot/divide it, but I imagine if I do that it will take a couple of years "off" and not bloom.

I agree, if the plant is only a year old, it is more than likely that it is a new leaf stalk that you are seeing. I was told they have to be really root-bound to bloom.........mine sure is. If I do repot/divide, I'm sure I'll have to take an ax or a saw to it as it was horribly root-bound when I went from a 16 inch pot to a 20. I think I have a pic of it........

I don't know so much about any plant preferring to be root bound to bloom. Keep in mind that these Birds are outside, landscape plants, and when growing "naturally", they certainly can never be root-bound. That does not deter them in the least from blooming. My Birds bloomed in the spring and until mid-summer. Perhaps the oppressive heat stops that blooming. I don't know that. I would love to grow Birds again, but alas, they just get too doggone big. I have enough to do bringing in my plants during the fall/winter months as it is.

@AnnaZ Great growing .... that is a beauty!!

Root-bound if in a pot, or crowded in a tight clump in the ground, Ken. Those orange birds just don't want to bloom until they're crowded. I have one in my garden that I've been 're-habbing' for 3 years, and it's still not crowded enough to put up a bloom. As you say, the gorgeous clumps of blooming Birds you see in landscapes are very crowded, tight clumps. That's just the way they roll. Er, grow.

My agapanthus are the same way. If I rashly repot them, they take at least a year to bloom again, once they've filled in the spaces in the pot.

You must be right. All mine, when I lived on the MS Gulf coast were in huge pots. They always bloomed but I never un-potted any to see what those root-balls looked like.

I head they will flower sometimes as a result of stress. Weird but I think that sums it up. I repotted it earlier this winter. I'll just let it run its due course. I like the bloom I will try to post a video of it when it flowers.

Am I allowed to post videos on this forum?

I don't think so. But if you have a digital video camera, it almost surely will take still pictures too.

I think I replied to your post about your Bird of Paradise plant and uploading a video in the Tropicals Forum ... I don't think ATP supports videos but @Dave will be able to answer that question. Is there a reason you cannot upload photo's of your plant to the forums here on ATP?

I think crowding/pot-bound-ness often coincides with maturity, and gets the credit undeservedly.

You can post videos by uploading them to youtube and then copy and paste the link to the youtube video into the forum here.