I will soon need to divide and repot my father's Strelizia. I have googled
for advice, but found the results either ambiguous or conflicting *and* from
various continents, so it is hard to discern the best season to attempt
this.

The plant is in South Yorkshire. It spends the summer outdoors on a
sheltered patio, and the rest of the year indoors in a conservatory. It is
now a large plant which, this year, put out several handsome flowering
spikes. I am assured it is getting too big for its place in the
conservatory, which is why I am being asked to divide it.

Does anyone in this group grow Strelizia, or know how to divide it, please?
I get the impression it could be an horrendous job, possibly somewhat
destructive, but there is no detail to guide me. I would *really*
appreciate some advice.

Thanks for your time.

Spider

In article ,
Spider wrote:

Does anyone in this group grow Strelizia, or know how to divide it, please?

Yes and no, respectively, though I have divided it.

I get the impression it could be an horrendous job, possibly somewhat
destructive, but there is no detail to guide me. I would *really*
appreciate some advice.

That's my experience. I had to, because it had cracked its pot, and
I couldn't lift a larger one. I cut through its base and attempted
to do as little damage to the roots as possible, but had to cut out
and remove about half of them (because I had cut them through higher
up). The plants did not flower the next year.


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.

wrote in message
...
In article ,
Spider wrote:

Does anyone in this group grow Strelizia, or know how to divide it,
please?

Yes and no, respectively, though I have divided it.

I get the impression it could be an horrendous job, possibly somewhat
destructive, but there is no detail to guide me. I would *really*
appreciate some advice.

That's my experience. I had to, because it had cracked its pot, and
I couldn't lift a larger one. I cut through its base and attempted
to do as little damage to the roots as possible, but had to cut out
and remove about half of them (because I had cut them through higher
up). The plants did not flower the next year.


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.

Thanks for responding, Nick. It's obviously going to be tricky. I'm not
worried about the lack of flowers next year (that seems to be expected), but
I am worried about the lack of a plant :~(. I'll just have to do it with my
fingers crossed.

Thanks again,
Spider

On Tue, 18 Aug 2009 15:01:37 +0100 (BST), wrote:

In article ,
Spider wrote:

Does anyone in this group grow Strelizia, or know how to divide it, please?

Yes and no, respectively, though I have divided it.

I get the impression it could be an horrendous job, possibly somewhat
destructive, but there is no detail to guide me. I would *really*
appreciate some advice.

That's my experience. I had to, because it had cracked its pot, and
I couldn't lift a larger one. I cut through its base and attempted
to do as little damage to the roots as possible, but had to cut out
and remove about half of them (because I had cut them through higher
up). The plants did not flower the next year.


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.

Hi Spider
I have much the same story as Nick with regard to dividing. I got a
couple of seeds to germinate from a pack brought back from Tenerife in
the late 1990s. Of the two resulting plants, one flowered at around 5
years and the other a year or two later. They were kept growing
indoors throughout all that time in a lounge next to full-length south
west facing glass windows / patio doors. With time they became very
large and the fat fleshy roots outgrew their plastic pots and
eventually protruded (and became stuck) through the holes at the
bottom of the pot, so eventually I had to release the plants by
cutting the pots away. I then took a sharp knife and basically
bisected the root system (fairly arbitrarily) without damaging the
leafy stems, so that each original plant became separated into two
halves that went into their own new pots. I used peat based compost in
which to grow them. I gave two of the four new plants away (not sure
if they survived in my friends' hands) and the other two that I kept
for myself have continued to grow fine. However, in the last few
years I have left them outside for the summer to be exposed to the
Eastern Scottish climate, and although their ability to produce new
leaves has not seemed to suffer at all from this, I have not since had
any flower spikes develop when I have brought them back into the same
place in the lounge to overwinter from about September onwards. The
plants are currently again getting quite big now, and as an
experiment, I have not put them outside over the summer this year to
see if this makes any difference to the flowering (or lack of it in
recent years).

Geoff
Dundee

Strelitzia needs to be very pot-bound before it flowers well. We divided one this spring, and it has taken 4 months before the main section started to show new growth. It will probably be another 12-24 months before it flowers again.

Turn it out of its pot, cut through where there is a gap in the tuber, retaining as many roots as possible. Repot in well-draining compost, making sure that the pot is going to be able to restrict it fairly soon. Keep watered.

wrote in message
...
On Tue, 18 Aug 2009 15:01:37 +0100 (BST), wrote:

In article ,
Spider wrote:

Does anyone in this group grow Strelizia, or know how to divide it,
please?

Yes and no, respectively, though I have divided it.

I get the impression it could be an horrendous job, possibly somewhat
destructive, but there is no detail to guide me. I would *really*
appreciate some advice.

That's my experience. I had to, because it had cracked its pot, and
I couldn't lift a larger one. I cut through its base and attempted
to do as little damage to the roots as possible, but had to cut out
and remove about half of them (because I had cut them through higher
up). The plants did not flower the next year.


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.

Hi Spider
I have much the same story as Nick with regard to dividing. I got a
couple of seeds to germinate from a pack brought back from Tenerife in
the late 1990s. Of the two resulting plants, one flowered at around 5
years and the other a year or two later. They were kept growing
indoors throughout all that time in a lounge next to full-length south
west facing glass windows / patio doors. With time they became very
large and the fat fleshy roots outgrew their plastic pots and
eventually protruded (and became stuck) through the holes at the
bottom of the pot, so eventually I had to release the plants by
cutting the pots away. I then took a sharp knife and basically
bisected the root system (fairly arbitrarily) without damaging the
leafy stems, so that each original plant became separated into two
halves that went into their own new pots. I used peat based compost in
which to grow them. I gave two of the four new plants away (not sure
if they survived in my friends' hands) and the other two that I kept
for myself have continued to grow fine. However, in the last few
years I have left them outside for the summer to be exposed to the
Eastern Scottish climate, and although their ability to produce new
leaves has not seemed to suffer at all from this, I have not since had
any flower spikes develop when I have brought them back into the same
place in the lounge to overwinter from about September onwards. The
plants are currently again getting quite big now, and as an
experiment, I have not put them outside over the summer this year to
see if this makes any difference to the flowering (or lack of it in
recent years).

Geoff
Dundee


Thanks, Geoff. Plenty of detail there. I'll obviously have to be very
careful and, perhaps only divide this plant to two divisions in the hope of
securing future flowering. I hope your two plants flower for you. Perhaps,
because they are once more filling their pots, there is some hope. We'll
both have to keep our fingers crossed.

Thanks once again for that detailed account.
Spider

"beccabunga" wrote in message
...

;861542 Wrote:
In article ,
Spider lid wrote:-

Does anyone in this group grow Strelizia, or know how to divide it,
please? -

Yes and no, respectively, though I have divided it.
-
I get the impression it could be an horrendous job, possibly somewhat
destructive, but there is no detail to guide me. I would *really*
appreciate some advice.-

That's my experience. I had to, because it had cracked its pot, and
I couldn't lift a larger one. I cut through its base and attempted
to do as little damage to the roots as possible, but had to cut out
and remove about half of them (because I had cut them through higher
up). The plants did not flower the next year.


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.

Strelitzia needs to be very pot-bound before it flowers well. We
divided one this spring, and it has taken 4 months before the main
section started to show new growth. It will probably be another 12-24
months before it flowers again.

Turn it out of its pot, cut through where there is a gap in the tuber,
retaining as many roots as possible. Repot in well-draining compost,
making sure that the pot is going to be able to restrict it fairly
soon. Keep watered.

--
beccabunga


Thanks, Becca', it's very helpful to know I'm looking for a tuber. I shall
have to be careful not to bruise or break it whilst prising it out of the
pot. Do you think, perhaps, that I would be wrong to attempt division and
repotting now? I have (in my ignorance) said I would, but common sense will
prevail if spring is the best time.

In this well-draining compost, should there be any soil-based compost to add
weight to the pot? I'm thinking of the large leaves which, during the
summer at least, could catch the wind? Oh, and another thing, do I need to
let the cut tuber callous over before replanting, or can I replant straight
away?

Thanks for your help so far. It's late now, so I'll look in tomorrow.
Spider

In article ,
Spider wrote:

Thanks, Becca', it's very helpful to know I'm looking for a tuber. I shall
have to be careful not to bruise or break it whilst prising it out of the
pot. Do you think, perhaps, that I would be wrong to attempt division and
repotting now? I have (in my ignorance) said I would, but common sense will
prevail if spring is the best time.

Er, it's not really a tuber, and certainly not A tuber. Strelitzia
has lots of fleshy roots, that get very entangled. Technically,
they may be tubers, but aren't much like potatoes :-)

You certainly don't want to do it any later in the year than now.
Whether spring would be better, I don't know.


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.

wrote in message
...
In article ,
Spider wrote:

Thanks, Becca', it's very helpful to know I'm looking for a tuber. I
shall
have to be careful not to bruise or break it whilst prising it out of the
pot. Do you think, perhaps, that I would be wrong to attempt division and
repotting now? I have (in my ignorance) said I would, but common sense
will
prevail if spring is the best time.

Er, it's not really a tuber, and certainly not A tuber. Strelitzia
has lots of fleshy roots, that get very entangled. Technically,
they may be tubers, but aren't much like potatoes :-)

You certainly don't want to do it any later in the year than now.
Whether spring would be better, I don't know.


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.

Thanks again, Nick. I have discussed doing the job in spring, but my father
is anxious to have it done now as they are running out of room in the
conservatory.

Thanks also to everyone who replied. I shall report back when the job is
done.

Spider