"Ed Roper" in news:td48c.4175$oH2.2615@lakeread01:

...I received two birds of paradise flowers from a friend who bought
them from a flower store....they are currently in water and I would
like to know if its possible to transfer them to soil and 'save'
them....what would be the process to do this?

looks as if need divisions
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&ie=ISO-8859-1
&q=strelitzia+propagation+