Giant Bird Of Paradise Question

[Breaktheory]

24 minutes ago, iDesign said:

Should be in fine - my house goes below 40 degrees each winter (sometimes for a week or more). I've never done any sort of protection on them.

Based on @Merlyn 's comments, it sounds like they see damage at "upper 20s", but don't die. That's what I'm reading anyway. Mine grow all year long without any apparent damage.

Maybe I missed that - I know he was talking about birds as well but hey if you’re hitting the 40s then I should be good to go!

[Merlyn]

@iDesign and @Breaktheory that's a fair assessment.  My BOPs saw 24.4-26F with frost at the end of January and were defoliated.  No trunks died, it just took 5 months for them to really start growing leaves again.  Part of that is that it was unusually cool all spring and then hot and dry in May and June.  They took moderate burn around 28-29F with frost in the winter of 2020-2021, and recovered a lot quicker in the spring.

Most of my bananas suffered about the same leaf damage at 28-29F in the winter of 2020-2021, but a lot of the trunks died off and became disgusting, nasty, stinky messes of sludge.  I removed most of my "big" bananas after that first winter (Mekong Giant, Sumatrana x Cross, Ice Cream, Saba, Manzano Apple, CA Gold, Goldfinger) because of the enormous amount of maintenance and stinky yard waste.  I've only kept a few bananas now, such as Super Dwarf/Truly Tiny/Little Prince and Dwarf Cavendish; Zebrina Rojo, Bordelon, Dwarf Namwah, Sikkimensis, and I think I have one Kandarian out there somewhere.  These are more ornamental than they are for food...though Namwah is supposed to be pretty good.  Several of them burned to the ground this past January, but all recovered.

The advantage of BOPs (to me) is that the leaves just dessicate and turn crispy when frostburnt.  I can clip them off easily with hand pruners.  Bananas turn to nasty, stinking, disgusting mush.

[Rain52]

They do get quite large even here at the beaches.. Jax beach. I try and take out the taller ones each year.. keep them in check. 

[gyuseppe]

these are mine,I have many, I like them a lot,they even produce seeds!
live without even burns on the leaves, at - 5.7 degrees celsius, in January 2017

[TropicsEnjoyer]

5 hours ago, gyuseppe said:

they even produce seeds!

what pollinated them?

[gyuseppe]

no, it produces seeds but not every year, in spring I see bees on the flowers, they must have been the ones who pollinated

[Merlyn]

@gyuseppe great pictures!  For clarity, do you mean no burn at -5.7C (22F) or at +5.7C (42F)? 

I've had no significant damage in the mid 30s, even with frost.  A few leaves might get burnt here or there, especially if they are facing directly upwards and get frost on them.  But below 30F (-1C) mine take significant burn, with maybe 50% leaf burn at 27-28F (-2.5C) with frost.  I saw complete defoliation and 1 out of ~30 trunks died at 25F (-4C).  My cold fronts are usually accompanied by frost, which makes it a lot worse. 

[gyuseppe]

1 hour ago, Merlyn said:

@gyuseppe great pictures!  For clarity, do you mean no burn at -5.7C (22F) or at +5.7C (42F)? 

I've had no significant damage in the mid 30s, even with frost.  A few leaves might get burnt here or there, especially if they are facing directly upwards and get frost on them.  But below 30F (-1C) mine take significant burn, with maybe 50% leaf burn at 27-28F (-2.5C) with frost.  I saw complete defoliation and 1 out of ~30 trunks died at 25F (-4C).  My cold fronts are usually accompanied by frost, which makes it a lot worse. 

 

yes ! at -5.7C (22F) but I'm 2 meters from the wall of my house, and I'm in a place sheltered from the cold winds of northern Europe

 

[gyuseppe]

 at -5.7C (22F) I have died   allagoptera arenaria, archontophoenix cunninghamiana, rhopalostylis sapida, rhopalostylis baueri, chamaedorea cataractarum,and many other species

[Merlyn]

1 hour ago, gyuseppe said:

yes ! at -5.7C (22F) but I'm 2 meters from the wall of my house, and I'm in a place sheltered from the cold winds of northern Europe

Gotcha, thanks for the clarification!  I am assuming no frost, is that correct?

For reference, I have 5 sensors around my yard with a datalogger.  During my coldest fronts the rear yard sensors are a few degrees F lower than the front yard, and the one near the house is consistently about 3F (1.6C) warmer than the nearby yard.  So being close to the house definitely helps a degree C or two.  My temperatures are also several degrees F colder than the closest "official" station at an airport.  The airport is ~10 miles away and on the East side of the "Urban Heat Island," and I'm on the NW side of the UHI.  With our typical West-to-East cold fronts this means I'm always colder than the official temps.  This is the coldest front I've recorded since living here:

For reference the GBP were in the backyard with the lowest recorded temps, and not protected from frost.

[gyuseppe]

yes that's correct, there was no frost

[D Palm]

On 1/20/2025 at 8:36 PM, TropicsEnjoyer said:

what pollinated them?

Yellow Jackets Love my orange BOP. They are more aggressive than a honey bee or bumble bee…stung 7 times in 2024 by them….ugh.

[Kim]

On 7/13/2022 at 12:02 PM, Kim said:

Yes, I absolutely need to invest in the right tools for the job. Or remove the darn thing and replace it with something better suited to the location. Like a palm? 

A couple of months ago I bit the bullet and paid to have my giant BOP dug out.  Then I went to a palm sale and found a good sized Coccothrinax argentata and a young Chrysalidocarpus onilahensis  to add to the garden, probably going with the Coccothrinax in the spot where the giant BOP was.  I set about digging a hole and found heavy BOP root congestion just under the surface. Oh the agony of it all! I'll be calling the guy who "dug" the BOP to do the planting for me, heh heh.

 

[Foggy Paul]

I’m bumping this thread because I finally broke out the sawzall and removed the tallest of ours. It was probably fifteen feet high and growing into the canopy of the neighbor’s magnolia. I like these plants but probably wouldn’t have planted them knowing what I know now. 
 

[paquicuba]

2 hours ago, Foggy Paul said:

I’m bumping this thread because I finally broke out the sawzall and removed the tallest of ours. It was probably fifteen feet high and growing into the canopy of the neighbor’s magnolia. I like these plants but probably wouldn’t have planted them knowing what I know now. 
 

I removed two cluster of the tall variety a year ago. They're a freaking mess. I kept the dwarf one, which is so well behaved.

[Rivera]

On 6/8/2025 at 5:38 PM, Foggy Paul said:

I’m bumping this thread because I finally broke out the sawzall and removed the tallest of ours. It was probably fifteen feet high and growing into the canopy of the neighbor’s magnolia. I like these plants but probably wouldn’t have planted them knowing what I know now. 
 

Here's our neighbor's plant. They told me they got it from IKEA as a houseplant, saying "I had no idea it would get so big!" 😂

Drinking up all that good Howea water on this side of the fence, no doubt. 

Girthy.

I'm going to leave the big stems but prune out some suckers for them, especially those that are on track to push the fence over. Despite their white water retentive roots (similar looking to Cordyline roots), something ensures they are totally unpalletable to gophers. 

[TropicsEnjoyer]

How long until my double grows some suckers? It’s been planted for at least 6months and is growing pretty happily. I see no signs of basal development though.

[Merlyn]

3 hours ago, TropicsEnjoyer said:

How long until my double grows some suckers? It’s been planted for at least 6months and is growing pretty happily. I see no signs of basal development though.

Most of mine grew suckers at around the point the main stem started trunking.  I don't recall them doing it sooner, but I can't say that I really paid a lot of close attention.  If you want denser you can always add more!  I just bought a $35 pot from Lowes with 3 individual plants.  Some pots had two, but a couple had three.  I sliced them back into 3 separate spots and planted them in a row.

[TropicsEnjoyer]

31 minutes ago, Merlyn said:

Most of mine grew suckers at around the point the main stem started trunking.  I don't recall them doing it sooner, but I can't say that I really paid a lot of close attention.  If you want denser you can always add more!  I just bought a $35 pot from Lowes with 3 individual plants.  Some pots had two, but a couple had three.  I sliced them back into 3 separate spots and planted them in a row.

Yeah i mean i could buy more if i want i just think they’re a bit expensive since they’ve basically got houseplant status. I think i’ve seen cheaper individuals for like 8 or 9$ at Hd and maybe lowe’s sometimes too though so that’s another option. 

Also if i have to wait for trunking how long does that take to happen, considering winter setbacks as well?

[Merlyn]

@TropicsEnjoyer I was surprised to not find any White Bird of Paradise under $20 or 25 recently.  I found one 50% off pot at Lowes that was $25.  A local nursery wanted $40 for a small 3g pot.

As far as trunking, I have some about 15 feet tall oberall, maybe 8 to 10 feet of trunk in 6 or so years.  There were several defoliation freezes during that time, but I only lost one trunk out of maybe 10 to 15 at the time.  But when defoliated it takes until June for them to really look good again and start cranking out leaves.  From a 3g pot, maybe trunking in 1-2 years?  I have one that looks like it is just trunking now, I will check my spreadsheet and see when I bought it.

[TropicsEnjoyer]

1 hour ago, Merlyn said:

But when defoliated it takes until June for them to really look good again and start cranking out leaves.

yeah exactly it’s annoying

mine just started growing 100% undamaged foliage a week or two ago 

and yeah as i said earlier they’re surprisingly expensivish

mine is in ground and gets regular fertilizer at least which i hope helps in the long run