Bird of paradise too tall & possibly leggy

dilby · September 2023

Hi everyone - I have a bird of paradise in my living room which has grown too large. I’m also not sure if it’s particularly leggy and would welcome other input on that. It gets what I thought was quite a lot of light; it’s south facing and is by a large set of bifold at the south, gets morning sun from the east from another large window and has a roof light above it. It. Ah get quite droopy althoigh admittedly its very droopy now partly because we have been away and our neighbour forgot to water it! But in general I regularly water and mist it.

It’s just far too large for the area (we have already cut off three stems there right flat up against the ceiling) and I’m not sure what to do with it and whether it’s the right fit for the space. If not I’d gladly give it away to a better home. It’s also worth noting that there seems to be three plants in the one pot (how it came) and I’m not sure how normal it is. I considered removing one or two of these but wasn’t sure if that would end up being very sparse as new shoots seem to come from existing stems.

Thoughts greatly appreciated, thanks!

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/6030279/uploads/editor/cm/iaj8xvy78avw.jpeg

tigerburnie · September 2023

No expert, but I did grow one from seed many years ago, it flowered and was thriving, it seemed to like neglect as much as anything else, but wasn't that tall, are you perhaps over feeding it and don't repot it either they need to be root bound to flower(which I realised after around 10 years of re-potting every year into bigger pots)

Plantminded · September 2023

They are often sold in groups of three to look bigger and justify the price. I had one like yours which just got too big for the position it was in, again similar to yours. I had to replace it with something smaller and less vigorous within two years. It needed lots of water too.

Bird of paradise too tall & possibly leggy

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