...sorry about the blur!
(http://i15.photobucket.com/albums/a364/Mrsava/birdofparadise.jpg)
2 big buds this year, but it is still early so more may come.
Then my bunch of bananas. Still growing, slowely but surely. Have read that it could take a full year for them to ripen. I am in no hurry! ;D
(http://i15.photobucket.com/albums/a364/Mrsava/bunchbananas.jpg)
Makes me homesick for Hawaii!
Lovely, EJ! My Bird of Paradise is still at producing flower stage, love them!! Can't believe you got bananas!! LOL! Lottie  ;D
Something to cheer us all up now that we going into the gloomy weather EJ. Such a delight to see them. :) busy_lizzie
Wonderful EJ.as busy-lizzie has said "something to cheer us all up" Lorna.
Is lovely your Bird of Paradise. I meant to buy some seeds last Nov when I went to Amstardam. But I forgot >:( >:(
Tim,I know how you feel. When I saw that banana it reminds me when I was little still lived in Hong Kong. I have homesick too :'( :'( yuet
Making me homsick too! Beautiful EJ, great to see the bananas, now your sprogs will see they grow upside down! :D
Where do you grow your banana EJ? In a pot or ground + consevatory or greenhouse etc?
D
EJ your a real green fingers! great bananas!!
x jem
Fanks everyone!
I grow my nana plants in huge pots of regular compost in the conservatory. They are watered with either fishtank water, water butt water, or tap water! Fed as and when I think about it,. It has taken ooodles of years to get my first ever bunch of bananas, but the gorgeous BofP does the business every year now!
Hi EJ almost forgotton about the bananas good to see them getting bigger.
Please keep us posted on how they go
WOW EJ....Nanas...fantastic, well done you!
Yeah n she's blonde to boot... ;D ;D ;D ;)....but I do like her Nanas :o :o
Wow - that's an early flower! ;D ;D
I've got one bud again this year - but plant is mid-split. It was repotted after last year's flowering and has made heaps of leafy growth. The flower has just reached the same height as the leaves so am going to have to move it next week to a lower bench because it's bashing the conservatory roof!
Still, very glad I've got another spike - I reckon the 'how do you get them to flower?' question is the most common one among BoP growers, and I still think I was lucky to get one after 4 years. Because of the red spider mite predator success, at least this year it's not been nibbled.
Congrats!
Have you got any on anyof the other varieties like the juncea or Mandela's gold? I lost my Mandela seedling - wretched sciarid grubs ate off the shoot. :'(
moonbells
oooo Moonbells, glad you posted. How did you encourage yours to seed last year??
I have juncea, and another 2, which I can't remember off hand. My darling Ava bought seeds from Ebay 2 years ago I think, so I have a mini plantation of plantlets in the conservatory. I shall post what they are later.
I am going to repot mine possibly tomorrow as it is bulging out the top of it's current pot, and I bought a gorgeous giant blue glazed pot when I was in Devon as the famous Brannhams pottery is having a HUGE clearance sale. Pottery bargains as far as the eye can see!
Hi EJ
It wasn't so much encouraging it to seed as forcing it by hand pollinating!
If you look at the blue bit, it's got a white sticky bit at the end poking out. If you push down the sides of the blue bit, they open up to show pollen. Stick your finger in it, and dust it on the sticky bit. I only did one of the flour flowers, so I guess you can get a lot of seeds if you do all of them!
It took until August (from Feb) to ripen the pod.
The downside is that it may shorten the flowering period for a given flower, then on the other hand you have 4-5 flowers per spike and two spikes. I have no idea if self-pollination works; none of the resulting seed have germinated yet but then that's no surprise for Strelitzia! Have half planted, half still sitting on a shelf waiting to go in. I ought to sow them really.
Good luck with the repotting. I did mine midsummer when I could take it out on the lawn: the roots had grown through the pot drainage holes and I had to cut it off piece by piece! Took ages... but it's now very happy in a larger pot with more, smaller holes. :)
moonbells