Hawai'i Gardens
Blue bird of paradise seeds need help to make offspring
By Heidi Bornhorst
Special to The Advertiser
Dear Heidi: I have a blue bird of paradise plant in my backyard. My wife and I really like it and want to get more offspring from it for ourselves and our family. I am not sure how to go about it.
The flowers have made some of what I believe are seeds — little black nuggets with orange "hair" on them. I tried growing the seeds by planting directly into the soil and germinating in a wet paper towel; neither worked.
The plant has two keiki growing up from the front. Do I need to dig these out and replant them to get new plants? If so, what do I do and what do I watch out for when doing this?
This plant constantly makes beautiful large flowers, and I want more in my yard!
— Wayne Renshaw
Dear Wayne: The blue bird of paradise (most people call it the white bird, though the flowers are white and blue with purple "boats"), is a great plant. It is tough, durable, can get large, and is good for muffling noise and screening views. The flowers are awesome on the plant or as a cut flower for arrangements. The leaves are also good for arrangements, being leathery, large and long-lasting.
What you described are the seeds. They are round and black and very hard, and have a bit of orange fluff attached. (The fluff is to attract fruit-eating birds that pick up the attractively adorned, 'ono looking seeds, and drop them somewhere new to grow. The seeds of bird of paradise are so hard that they won't sprout without some help from you. You need to nick or abrade the seed so that water can get in and activate the growing process. (Horticulturists call this nicking process "scarification.")
Make a nick with a file or clippers, or run the seed over some coarse sandpaper. You can also do the hot water treatment, either alone or combined with scarification. Heat water for one minute in the microwave, or until just dancing in the tea kettle and pour the hot water over the seeds (do not boil or nuke the seeds while the water is heating; just pour it over them). Let the seeds soak for 24 hours and then plant them in a pot of clean potting mix. They are fun to grow this way, but may take a while.
The other method is to dig out the keiki at the side of the parent plant. Get a sharp balling spade or trenching shovel, excavate the roots and then sever the keiki from the parent plant. Replant the keiki in a pot that accommodates the roots, or directly into the ground in its new spot. This is hard work, especially if you have many keiki on the plant, or if the soil is very rocky or has a lot of clay.
You can also buy plants at landscape nurseries, or ask your garden shop to order some for you. They are sold in various sizes and will grow fairly rapidly from a potted plant.
While white birds of paradise will grow in any well-drained soil, they thrive in rich organic soil and like the same kinds of medium to high potassium fertilizer that bananas do. (They are related to bananas, gingers and heliconias.) You might look for a fertilizer bag with numbers like 10-10-20, or ask a garden shop for advice.
As with any flowering plant, give your white birds as much sunlight as possible to promote flower production and blooming.
Heidi Bornhorst is the director of the city's five botanical gardens: Foster, Lili'uokalani, Wahiawa, Koko Marina and Ho'omaluhia. She also is the host for a gardening segment at 5:30 a.m. Tuesdays on KITV.
