Giant Bird Of Paradise Leaf Edges Turning Brown

Tips, Tricks

13365View count

4m 48sLength in seconds

I receive so many questions here, on my videos and via email. I decided to start a segment called “Ask Nell” because you all might have the same questions and/or be interested in the answers. The first one comes from Patti regarding her Giant Bird Of Paradise, or Strelitzia nicolai with browning leaf edges. Read more in the post & see pics here: http://www.joyusgarden.com/ask-nell-why-are-my-giant-bird-of-paradise-leaf-edges-turning-brown/ I'd love to answer your question! Leave questions here, in the vlog post or send to: info@joyusgarden.com with "ask nell" in the subject line. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- MY BUSINESS: JOY US GARDEN This is where I share all things gardening & creating. Let's make the world a more beautiful place! YOU CAN CHECK IT OUT AT: http://www.joyusgarden.com SIGN UP FOR MY MONTHLY NEWSLETTER SO YOU GET THE GOOD STUFF: http://www.joyusgarden.com/newsletter/ SOCIAL MEDIA MADNESS Connect With Me At: Twitter: https://twitter.com/JoyUsGarden Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/JoyUsGarden https://www.facebook.com/nell.foster Pinterest: http://www.pinterest.com/JoyUsGarden/ Google+: https://plus.google.com/+NellFosterjoyusgarden/posts ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The Giant Bird Of Paradise is native to subtropical coastal forests of South Africa where the humidity is higher and there’s more rainfall. This is especially true in California these days as we’re in the midst of a mega drought; yes, it’s extreme. It’s common for the edges of these plants brown but nowadays they’re downright crispy because even the maritime layer, aka fog, has been almost nonexistent. Also, you see a lot of split Giant Bird Of Paradise leaves and that is because of the wind. As with most plants, the older leaves will brown, yellow and split more than the younger ones. The leaves get browner and more raggedy as they get older. They don’t need much water at all once they get established but we haven’t been receiving enough winter rain to hold them through our dry months. After all, they do need some water … not no water. So Patti, water yours deeply every 2-3 months (until we get some substantial winter rains) and give it a 2-3″ layer of some rich, organic compost to help hold that moisture in. Thanks for the question Patti. If any of you have a question for me regarding plants, flowers and/or gardening, simply leave it below this post, in the video comment section or send it to info@joyusgarden.com (if you do this, please put “ask nell” in the subject line). There's more good stuff in the post: http://www.joyusgarden.com/ask-nell-why-are-my-giant-bird-of-paradise-leaf-edges-turning-brown/ Now let’s get gardening and make the world a more beautiful place!

Comments

Hello! Hope you can give me some advice on my birds of paradise plant. Ive had it for 6 months now, it was doing great until i went on vacation and left it to my husbands care. Mine is an indoor plant. There are 4 plants in one pot. One of the middle plants, which has about 6 leaves, has 3 leaves which are curling and turning brown on the edges towards the inside of the leaf. Started off with 1 leaf turning brown, now i have 2. One of them is a new leaf that sprouted just a few months ago. It was so beautiful and green and healthy and now its turning brown. These leaves are the tallest ones of the plant, which im guessing is the oldest plant of the pot. The other leaves of the other stalks in the same pot dont have the same problem (yet). Its really just this one stalk (is that the right word?). I water it about once a week or a week and 3 days depending on the soils dryness to the touch, i havent been giving it fertilizer for months now (could this be it?), I use regular tap water (i live in NYC), its currently by the window where it gets a few hours of sunlight a day.

Also, I have another birds of paradise just 10 feet from the one with problems, this one is doing great, no browning on the leaves, gets the same amount of water, sunlight and care.
They are identical pot size. PLEASE HELP! No idea what im doing wrong and would hate for it to get any worse!

Update on my bird... I think its dying every leaf has dark brwn specks on them .. I dont see anythin crawling on them.. I dont know what to do. An its it starting to get cooler here in NYC. It doesnt look healthy at all even though it feels strong

My Bird is a baby and it looks like the oldest leaf has a brown edge.Mine is a house plant so after waterin I covered her with a cut plastic bottle to make a terranium effect so now its moist in there. Im hoping this works . What's your opinion?

bending in the stem

my bird of paradise house plant leaves are bending the stem why

My bird of paradise leaves are bending and still growing what does that mean also it's a house plant

My bird of paradise leaves are bending and still growing what does that mean

I am happy enough to live in South Africa but far from the tropics where they grow. I did see them when whe were on vacation in Natal. They grow right next to the beach so they get lots of salty humidity

i love all your videos <3

Hi I just subscribed and I love ur channel I wanted to ask what I could do if my paradise leafs are droopy I just bought it

Hi Nell, I have a bird of paradise house plant and discovered that there were some bugs in the soil. I removed the soil and discovered that the root system had taken over the pot. The plant is over root bound. Can I cut some of the roots off?

What advice do you offer regarding pruning your Strelitzia nicolai? My 20' plant in Los Angeles has many brown leaves mostly due to reduced irrigation due to the drought. Would the plant regrow green leaves if I prune the stalk near the bottom?

Hi Nell, I think that I may be causing my Aloha grass to become brown and looking almost dead by over watering. I water twice a week for 20 min each time.
what do you think?

Hi Nell, I recently was given a bird of paradise plant and am wondering how to best take care of it. When moving it, some of the splits in the leaves torn even more we had to cut off the top part of the leaf because it was just hanging off if we didn't. Will we need to cut off the entire leaf/stalk now? Can we just leave the leaf with the top half of it snipped off? Or will this hurt the plant? The leaf was healthy before it tore. Thanks for any advice you could offer!

Hi Nell, I have a Bird of Paradise house plant that I recently bought off craigslist. It looks fairly healthy, but it has brown spots in the middle of the leaf not the edges. We live in Tacoma Wa, so I know keeping this plant healthy will be a challenge. I have googled what to do but have only found what to do if they are browning on the edges. Do I treat it the same? Thanks for any help!
-Nate

I love and have always had a giant white bird of paradise plant since my grown sons were small boys. My current one is at least two years old, acquired from Home Depot. I recently repotted to a larger pot and moved it out to the patio where it gets very bright even light (no direct sunlight).

It seems very unhappy! Leaves from 3 individual plants are drooping badly, withering slowly. The stalks are limp. I pruned off some and I could see the fleshy parts are drying out.

The soil is on the wet part because if the recent transplant. We live in Las Vegasand our temps right now are very temperate, switching from 80s to 70s these past weeks I've decided to let the plant dry out until I can see the bottom soil dry before watering again, keeping the leaves from drying.

Altogether, my experience with this particular plant is that it is highly sensitive to location. I brought home two plants from Home Depot and placed them in a hallway downstairs. One failed quickly, so I relocated the survivor to a bright, warm upstairs room. It got better and larger--until the repotting and relocation two weeks ago.

I would love to put it in the ground eventually after it recovers fully. But, really, I'm taken aback at how it's reacting so sensitively to the repotting and move. Maybe it just needs time to recover from shock.

Hi! I am a new subscriber and I was wondering if you can do a how-to in soil prepping for your succulent garden and a how-to care for orchids. OH! And can you show us what and how you irrigated your drought tolerant garden efficiency ?