Hi! How wide is the base? Are you feeding it? If you plant a large one, you get flowers sooner. From seed it may be a few years. They flower sooner in full sun but the leaves look better in some shade. Also, they can stretch and grow larger in part shade.

Hi Coolplants, Our BOP is planted in full sun almost. It gets some shade from bougainvilleas on either side. I have a photo. I would say the base is about a foot or more wide. Seems to be pretty slow growing.

Yeah I was wondering the same thing, Dazed. Mine has a bit less shoots than yours does but it's also in full sun and I planted it there last october.

From what I have read, it takes up to 7 years for a BOP to bloom...generally when they reach 7 ft high. (I finally bought myself one today. LOL)

Ok that means I have 5 more years to wait, Kameha a year more and you 7 years. Ha. I wonder if its worth the wait. The foliage is really not that great to look at. I hope you bought a big one.

Ok that means I have 5 more years to wait, Kameha a year more and you 7 years. Ha. I wonder if its worth the wait. The foliage is really not that great to look at. I hope you bought a big one.

It took my white BOP at least 5 years before it bloomed. I think it was close to 10' when it finally bloomed and started to spread. In the end, it was way too big for where I had planted it (looked more like a giant traveler's palm) and I had to cut it down. Now I have a little one...going to try and keep it as a houseplant this winter!

This is mine...Im trying to find out its age...

Tazdevyll---Thanks for the pics! Your looks different from mine (prettier) So far many of the BOPs I have seen have the same leaves as the photo I posted...Is this a different color? White maybe? Do you know if the leaves become like yours as the plant gets taller??

I honestly have no idea. Nor did the guy at the Nursery. I never thought about asking what color it was. I asked him if it WAS a Stretlizia Reginae (Sp?) and he said he assumed so. Whatever color it is, I dont care. I been after this thing since June. LOL And for 3 plants in one pot for $34.95, it was a good deal. Im assuming this plant is 2 or 3 tho, as most nurseries wont sell a plant that is younger than 2.

Oops. might end up being a double post, hit the keyboard.

Anyway..

Dazed yours is Stretlizia Regina, orange BOP, which is clumping and not too tall...probably gets about a foot taller and will keep spreading as long as it has room

Taz, yours is Strelitzia nicolai, giant white (with blue tongue) BOP and will get much, much taller. I cut mine down when it was over 10'. My guess is the one you have is probably somewhere in the 1 to maybe 2 year old range. You can probably count on it blooming when it is over 7', I think mine was closer to 9 or 10'. I just purchased another 10" pot from target with 4 of them about the same size as yours for 11.99. I'm going to separate them and spread them out in the yard where they will have room for the mature height (this time!)

Thanks for the info wannarunfaster. I looked up the images for the nicolai variety and they are huge compared to my regina. :-) We must have paid about $30 or more for this one.

Wow! Thank you for that! Im actually now more happier. I wanted the white one for a while, and kept stopping myself from buying the seeds online. Im glad I waited! $11.99 for 4. Now ya make me feel bad! LOL (Recounted mine, and I seem to count 4 as well.) Debating on TRYING to over-winter ONE of them. Y'all are lucky you live in the "no snow" areas! And yes Dazed, from what I saw of the cut flower ( the thing that started my hunt) it IS worth the wait for its "feathers."

Ok I hope I added the link right. But I decided to check the difference as well. ANd I came upon a site that showed it when flowered as well.

You have to scroll down a bit.

Taz

Here is a link that might be useful: BOP pics

Taz--Thats a really nice pic of the two varieties together! Thanks for sharing it..The nicolai towers over the regina! There are quite a few nicolais at the nursery. Maybe I will consider buying one..

Listen, Taz, you can fly from NJ to Ft Lauderdale in the winter for about $140. The way I figure it...if you pick up about 5 white BOP you can sell them to your friends and break even plus pick up some other tropicals for yourself!

Are you going to plant some out side and the rest as houseplants? You could probably take them in and out for at least 2 years, maybe 3 considering that they will be growing slower during the winter. They can take light freezes...just nothing too long.

Enjoy it, it is beautiful! And next time fly home with one on your lap! :)

LOL Dont give me ideas like that! LOL I'd be coming home with a whole bunch of stuff that I DONT have room for. LOL (not like I have room now.) Debating on either building or saving money to make/buy a greenhouse or at least an A-Frame. Or Just have my dad elongate the window in the garage. LOL (Thats the ONE room the bunnies arent allowed in.)

They have the nice cacti down there too dont they? ARGH!
So now Im saving money for my seeds for w/s. AND saving money for a nice winter vacation.
You'll take me around? LOL

Dazed, I hope I havent hijacked your thread, and if I have, I apologize. =)

Taz

Sure Taz, anytime!

I wanted to add...if you spend another $100 on your airline ticket, you can fly down here to the Bahamas and pick up some 'real tropicals' ;-)

This has been a fun thread. Hope we have more to add as our birds grow and bloom!

LOL Dazed. I would LOVE to go back to the Bahamas. Absolutely beautiful out there. I took a trip a few years ago on one of those cruises with a friend of mine. We drove down to Ft Lauderdale. Took the cruise over to the Bahamas. Nassua I think it was. I was quite upset we only had 9 hours there. I was under the impression we were there for 2 days. OOPS. Went over to..cant think of the name of the hotel...but its one of the big famous ones (like that helps LOL) Its pink and HUGE...I think it starts with an A but not sure. Then back to FL and off to Disney. Came home with a BAD ear infection (nasty pool water at one of the hotels we stayed at) and a miserable cold.
So now, its $240 huh? LOL
Im gonna have one of the oddest looking yards in NJ. LMAO
Taz

Dazed--pull the mounding of thatch mulch at the base of the BoP away from the root base. I understand your use of mulch, but S. reginae need sunlight and heat to reach the soil at the crown of the plant (where the rhizome and gree stem meet). switch your mulch to a bark or other matter than lays to 3" deep in a ring no closer than 4" to the crowns.

It is misleading to say orange BoP take 7 years to flower--that is probably from germination to flower. It depends on size that you acquire, and, often times, the BoP is planted too deeply (or over time in the nursery, the crown gets covered deeper and deeper with litter and mroe soil ,etc.).

Much like the bearded iris of northern gardens, the rhizome should be a bit shallow in soil so that light hits it.

Thanks for that info Poiu. I will pull away the mulch in the morning. I do think that it is planted too deeply.

Thanks again.

Taz, Its beautiful this time of year over here. Lots of tourists down this summer. We are on grand bahama, much different from Nassau. We have a beautiful botanical garden here which unfortunately closed down for restoration after last years hurricanes and still yet to re-open. Haven't been there since i was a kid.