STRELITZIAS.
IN THE GARDEN. Over the years I have written dozens of columns on the Home and Garden. http://www.gordonmoyes.com/category/publications/home-and-garden/page/3/
They include articles on aspects of our own large garden developed by my wife with support of our horticulturalist son, Peter. At the moment the two acres are bursting with new life. It is about to turn to spring. In the northern Hemisphere, Spring starts in April, and the Romans so named this month of 30 days Aprilis from the Latin Aperire which means “to open” in allusion to its being the season when trees and flowers begin to “open,” which is supported by comparison with the modern Greek use of anoixis meaning the opening of spring.
At the moment the big surprises are all the fruit trees so full of fruit after the wet season, the difficult to grow Rhododendrons (the Central Coast is too warm and humid) that have twenty or more flower heads and the flowering Strelitzias (bird of paradise). It is their third year in the ground and the first for full flowering.
Three years ago, our good friends Julie, Noel and George moved into a penthouse. The architect had ordered the large roof top garden boxes to be planted with bird of Paradise. But my friends wanted a vegetable garden. So thirty large plants were dug out, trimmed, and somehow we got them into the back seat, front seat and boot of my car. At home, we had one lawn area as a semi-circle around a two metre high standard flowering cherry, and at its feet a round bed of colourful azaleas.
The lawns (Sir Walter) stretch out to the semi-circular garden bed. Along the fence line is a hedge of colourful Sasanqua Camellias over 100 bushes long. Around the lawns and garden bed is the semi-circle of Strelitzias and behind them another row of tall agapanthus and in further back the orange crucifix orchids.
We have been waiting for the Strelitzias to flower. It takes about three years after planting or replanting. They originally came from South Africa and were named after the maiden name of Charlotte, queen consort of King George III. They grow higher than a man with leaves a metre long. The flowers top long stalks and open from a beak like sheath with three brilliant orange sepals and three purple petals.
These plants were introduced to London in 1773 making a sensation. The director of the Kew Gardens, Sir Joseph Banks named them “Bird of Paradise”. They require a warm climate and a sunny position. See examples of them http://www.sayers-strelitzia.com.au/reginae.html