Bird of Paradise

So, my mom bought this bird of paradise plant way back in 2002. It was in a little 6" pot, and it lived on my porch and I watered it every once in a while.

When we moved into our condo, I replanted it into a tall Terra cotta pot that was about 8" at the top. Not a huge move, but better than nothing! It live on my porch and looked very happy. After a good long while, I decided to transplant it again. To my surprise, it was so root bound, with those super thick and fleshy roots, that I had to break the pot to get it out!

Lesson learned: it wants to be replanted more often.

I was in a 3-gallon pot for a while, then upgraded to the 5-gallon pot. That made it really happy and last winter, it finally flowered for the first time in 6 years!

You can usually see the new leaves coming in, they sort of have a spiral look to them, and then unfold after a while.

I was outside tonight, finally giving my plants some love and noticed something that didn't quite look like a leaf. No spiral, more like little inverted Vs. I think I have two flowers brewing.

There was creeping thyme in the pot with it, but was sucking up too much water, so I took it out about a month ago. I think that is was finally made it try to bloom since it wasn't fighting the herbs anymore.

So, I guess we will see what happens! I will be very excited to have it bloom again. Cross your fingers that I don't screw it up before then.