Giant Bird Of Paradise Strelitzia nicolai

Giant bird of paradise is a clumping plant rather than a single specimen. Grey trunks carry large paddle-shaped leaves on the scale of a banana, and new stems keep pushing up from the base so the clump widens steadily. The flower sits high in the crown, white sepals emerging from a blue-black boat-shaped bract. It is used where a garden needs height and a tropical look in a hurry, as a screen, as a courtyard anchor, or as a large potted feature beside a pool.

Plant it once, because taking it out is a machine job

It grows in part shade through to full sun, stays evergreen, and gets by on low to moderate water once established, across the frost-free coastal belt from the tropics down. Frost is its limit. The failure mode is siting rather than culture. An established clump is held by a mass of thick fleshy roots that will not come out by hand, and the plant keeps widening at the base, so anything planted tight against a drain line, a pipe run, a paving edge or a boundary fence becomes an expensive problem later. Give it a couple of metres of clear ground on every side and keep it away from services. In a courtyard or on a balcony, a large pot is the usual answer for keeping the clump in check, though it needs to be heavy enough to hold a top-heavy plant upright. Expect the leaves to shred along the veins in wind. That is normal for the species and not a sign of poor health, though a sheltered position keeps them whole for longer.

Giant or standard bird of paradise

The choice against Strelitzia reginae is about scale, and about what you want from the flower. Reginae stays a low trunkless clump and carries the orange and blue crane flower at eye level, which suits beds and pots. Nicolai is grown for foliage and height, and its white and blue-black flowers sit high in the crown where they read as architecture more than display. Take nicolai for screening and structure, reginae for colour in a smaller space. For dark foliage to plant against those grey trunks, burgundy cottonwood is the usual partner. Very large specimens are in super advanced trees.

Thinning the clump and feeding through summer

Prune in spring. Cut old leaves and spent flower stems back to the base rather than shortening them, and take out whole stems at ground level where the clump has crowded or a trunk has flopped. Thinning one or two stems a year keeps the plant readable and lets light into the centre. Old bracts persist and go brown, so cut them out at the base rather than leaving them in the crown. Feed monthly through spring and summer with a complete fertiliser, or use a controlled-release product at the start of the season, and water it in well. In a pot, feed at half rate more often and top-dress each spring rather than repotting.

Choosing a size

This plant is available in 14 sizes, from 130mm up to 200L, priced from $16.95 to $3089.00 per plant. The size shown is the pot the plant arrives in, which is the rootball, not the height of the plant. The smaller pots hold younger plants that cost less each and establish quickly, which suits hedges, screens and mass planting where the plant count adds up. The larger sizes carry several more years of growth on the farm and give height and presence straight away, which is what you want for a single feature position or a screen that cannot wait. Not sure which to choose? Read our guide to when to plant in Australia.