It’s prime time for the striking bird of paradise blooms

It’s wintertime in La Jolla, and that means that the birds of paradise are blooming. These beautiful flowers and trees are native to South Africa and are related to the banana plant.

The spectacular bird of paradise flower, with blue petals and orange sepals held up on the beak-like modified leaf. Jeremy W. Smith Photos

As evergreens, they don’t lose their leaves so they make an attractive addition for an easy-to-maintain garden.

Bird of paradise plants (Strelitzia reginae), with their bright blue and orange flowers are much showier than the trees (Strelitzia nicolai) that have cryptic blue and white flowers high up in the tree. One of these plants may take five years to bloom if planted from a seed, but the bird of paradise may also be propagated by dividing up a mature clump of plants.

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3. Beautiful flowers make the Jacaranda a San Diego favorite
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5. Natural La Jolla: Keep your eye out for green sea turtles at the Shores

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Posted by Staff on Feb 8, 2012. Filed under Natural La Jolla. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry