On 6 Oct 2003 23:56:53 -0700, (shawn) wrote:

Hiya,

Hi Shawn

I'm not a gardner so speak slow =) My landscape was overgrown
from many owners letting it grow, I've just about got everything
cleared or cutback.

I think this is what it is, it has the grogeous orange like crane
looking flowers. I have 2 of them, around 4 feet tall and with a wide
spread, however like everything else around here they're both within
12 inches of one another.

Sounds just like Strelitzia reginae to me, and Victoria (animaux) has
provided a good website for information.

I want to keep 1 of these where its at and move another to another
location as they're very crowded and I can't get in there to maintain/
clear out the dead leaves.

Is this possible? how large of a root ball/system should I expect? How
do I do this? Can I then divide it and have multiple plants? how is
that done?

Also I assume you do not prune these but instead just cut the dead
leaves off?

I am in the UK (Scotland) and my experience is from growing them from
seed. I germinated two seeds from a packet that I got as a tourist
visiting Tenerife around 6 - 7 years ago. The resulting plants were
kept originally as houseplants in pots and I was lucky enough to get
flowering at around 4 years for the first and a year or two later for
the second. Since then, I have been putting the pots outside for the
summer, starting around May/June and bringing them back inside before
the first frost that we experience here around late September/early
October. However, in direct relevance to your query, as my plants
matured over the years they each began eventually to adopt the form of
two discrete plants growing from the same rootball. They were always
kept in pots at which stage the fleshy finger size thick roots in the
root ball were jammed tight in the pot. I then took a knife to cut the
roots through the apparent dividing line between the "two" plants and
separated them with bisected rootballs into two pots. One plant was
done last year, and the other just a couple of weeks ago. The recently
bisected plants look healthy in two pots, and last year's two bisected
plants also grew well after this treatment and I recently gave them
both away to friends since I don't have the indoor space to keep too
many. With the naturally browning old outside leaves forming as the
plants mature, I just pull down towards where the leaf joins the crown
of the plant and when ready the complete leaves and stalks will pull
away naturally (with a little force!). I expect that you will be able
to divide and maintain your plants in a similar fashion, but there may
be other more expert advice available in relation to your exact
location which I don't think you identified in your message.

Hope these thoughts of an amateur grower help.

Best wishes
Geoff


Thanks for any information as I love these but I either got to kill
one or replant it.

thanks!
shawn