Strelitzia reginae.

[karl66]

I would like to add some of these to the garden but have never grown/kept them?, are they easy to maintain & whats the requirements come winter?, do they just die off & come again like a lilly?, where's best place for good examples?. karl..

[Delboy]

Would probably be ok in mild winters but not a long term plant for us midlanders.
Eventually I think it would die.
Sure I've seen them in London but they are much milder.

Would like one myself, just waiting for the bad winters to pass

[karl66]

Del thanks. I want to start adding more colour to the garden without having anything that's to much hassle come winter, just been collecting some other info & cam across an old thread off here from 2011!!, I have no greenhouse so it may be a no go at present, I remember seeing loads of them in Tenerife last year. karl.

[flounder]

They can take -5c but that is if kept dry. That's not going to happen if planted in the ground and I wouldn't risk it not even down here. Can't you pot plunge each year, then take indoors over winter? It doesn't need to be a massive pot, being root bound does help with flowering.

[GREVILLE]

Flounder's suggestion is a good one, Karl. Mine is pot plunged in the soil some years. It's been in the same pot for the last eight years.

[pdid]

Yep definitely indoors overwinter. Mine seems to flower in Winter too so wouldn't be great for adding colour in Summer.

[Arlon Tishmarsh]

Yep definitely indoors overwinter. Mine seems to flower in Winter too so wouldn't be great for adding colour in Summer.

Seconded. Mine's kept in an unheated greenhouse over the winter period. A good "flowerer" as well.

[Westport007]

hi,

sorry to dissapoint you but bird of paridise plant will certainly survive the winters anywhere on the british isles.Its too cool in the summer and winter and they hate too much rain.tried one of these outdoors few years ago it manged to take root in the ground but then the leaves turned yellow with all the rain and rotted into the ground.