zuzu
Admin
Admin
| Posts: 468 |  |
Karma: 17
|
Re:About My Bird of Paradise - 2009/01/11 02:30
 Hi, and welcome.
Oh dear,  that certainly is massive, isn't it?
If you are in the Northern hemisphere, now (winter) should be a good time to attack the job - the best time for dividing them is not too long after they have bloomed.
The first difficult part about coping with your over-grown Strelitzia is going to be digging all or part of it out of the ground. 
Brace yourself for some back-breaking digging.
You might even want to consider calling in some help for that part of the job,
 I know I would.
To begin, I would probably trim back most, if not all of the foliage to make the plant more approachable.
Then dig out the root mass as carefully as is feasible,
the roots are very thick and fleshy, and you can expect it to put up a very good fight.
At the base of each "fan" of foliage, there will be a thickened rhizome - when (if) you cut back the foliage, try not to damage the growing points, for quicker re-growth of foliage.
I can't even begin to guess how many individual plants there may be in that mass! 
My own big bird is in a pot, it is perhaps half the size of yours,
and I would estimate it to be comprised of at least 50-75 individuals.
Once you have that beast out of the ground, then will come the "fun" of division ....
 don't kid yourself, this part is going to be messy,
more like a massacre than a surgery! 
I won't fib to you, a year ago last fall, when I wanted to divide it, my husband and I very nearly had an ugly spat. 
Now, I had an advantage here, because I didn't have to dig it from the ground, just cut away the bulging and ripping plastic pot from the roots.
But then, faced with the solid rootball (there was virtually no soil visible at all!), the only idea I could come up with was to cut it into quarters, and I could think of only one way to achieve that .... 
Well, hubby absolutely refused to allow his chainsaw to be used to cut apart the root/rhizome mass. 
He conceded that my plant was tougher than his saw, and said that both the chain and the bar would certainly be ruined.
We both gave up and promised to try again at some later date
... with an axe. 
We put the whole thing back into another, even larger pot,
which is already badly deformed and in danger of splitting.
Maybe a machete would work ... I just don't know,
it is truly daunting!
I would guess that you, too, will have to consider dividing your plant into "portions" rather than separating out individual plants, 'though you might possibly be able to pull a few individuals from the edges.
There is, however, a benefit to keeping a group of Strelitzia bunched together, they actually don't bloom well until they are root-bound ... so if you do decide to pot some of your divisions, keep that in mind.
A single plant in a nice roomy pot may not bloom for quite a few years. 
But, a fair-sized division squeezed into a pot with some good commercial potting soil could bloom within a year or two.
After dividing, and before potting your plants, I recommend a "resting period" of several days to a week (for both you AND the plants) this will give the cut/slashed/hacked surfaces time to callous before being exposed to the potting medium, reducing the likelihood of rotting of those injured surfaces,
 and it will give you time to start to love life again.
By the time you are finished with this job, you will feel like you have done battle with a dragon, and you will have a new appreciation of the BOP haters of the world,
I am NOT one of them ...  ... but I DO understand where they are coming from.
Post edited by: zuzu, at: 2009/01/11 01:42
Popular posts by zuzu
Share Where You Live ~
Long lost friend returns ~
What Flower Is This?
|
Forums 
post new topic
