With its large, paddle-shaped leaves and bird of paradise flowers, this is one of the most beautiful of garden plants.

If you can grow Strelitzias you will have a real feature for your garden. They take a bit of establishing and don’t be fooled into thinking of this as a plant for full sunlight (which is what my gardening guide specifies). Recently, I saw it described more correctly as a plant for semi-shade, as can be seen from this photograph.

The photograph was taken in the botanical gardens of Harare, Zimbabwe. Having just arrived there from Scotland as a teenager, I found the impact of the warm climate and beautiful plant-life overwhelming, and this picture certainly brings across that flavor.

Enjoy!

Patricia

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Thank you Leo!

Well, I live in the Far North of New Zealand, and our climate is probably similar to yours, except that we get more rain, I think, and it’s not quite so warm.

We can grow many subtropcals up here though, and one of my favorits is Hibiscus.  I have to say it took me a while to discover the secret of growing them, and I had a few failures first.  Then one day I read an article that gave me a real lightbulb moment about these lovely plants, and this  is what I found out:

Given the right temperatures, their two main requirements are good drainage and an undisturbed root system, because they are very shallow-rooted. For this reason they also need protection from the wind.

I think mine might have been getting wet feet, so now I make sure to plant them on a bit of a mound so the water drains away well – and I usually put plenty of mulch or stones around them to make sure the roots don’t get disturbed – especially by my chickens!

Patricia

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I want to introduce you to my friend Patricia from New Zealand.  Patricia looks after this site for me and she is a fan of gardening and organics.

She’s going to add some articles here, which I hope you’ll enjoy.

Have a great day!

Leo

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