Giant Bird of Paradise - Strelitzia nicolai - 2.5L / 17cm / Medium
$30.00Shipping notice: These are soft plants with leaves that can naturally split due to the breeze or bumps. A beautiful intact specimen will be sent direct to your door but some minor battlescars can be expected after its journey both now... and forever. It's all part of this plant's charm.
Light Requirements: Indoor grown specimens - these require acclimatisation to the outdoors to avoid wind and sun damage. Bright Indirect Light is ideal, handles part-day direct sun and tolerates more sun with age.
Moisture & Soil Requirements: Must have evenly moist soil with good drainage in warm seasons - never soggy soil. Dial back watering frequency in winter unless you have dry air inside from air conditioning or heaters. Mist new leaves and maintain soil moisture while new leaves emerge so to avoid them sticking to themselves in dry air. Let this plant partly dry out between watering, the top 5cm or so can be dry before requiring water. If in doubt, use a moisture metre.
Growth & Nutrients: Large banana-like leaves, clumping growth habit, trunks develop over time but usually when planted outdoors. Can handle dry spells. Suits large apartments or homes with high ceilings and lots of light. Outdoors these plants do well when protected from wind and frost. To limit leaves splitting, only plant in a sheltered courtyard or against a sunny wall. Aggressive root system so keep this plant away from water pipes. Feed with a general-purpose fertiliser for containers from the start of spring each year to autumn when growth slows down.
Temperature, Humidity & Ambient requirements: Prefers warm, humid environments inside but tolerates a range of humidity levels. Humidity aids the leaves unfurling correctly.
Toxicity: Mildly toxic to pets and people.
Plant Size Guide
The plant in the photos is an example and an approximate guide only however we try to show an average sized example. Sizes, flowering state and colours change throughout the seasons and variation will occur. In summer & autumn, plants are often larger or the same size as than the example picture but around winter and spring, they can be a little smaller but still at a size similar to the example. We aim to update the pictures to reflect significant differences.
Plant Heights - because the plant's foliage must fit inside our Plant Cartons, the actual height of a plant's central trunk (meristem) will be shorter than the box it fits in.
Small Plants - 14cm wide nursery pot - 1 Litre volume - Plants fit in a 50cm tall box.
Medium Plants - 17cm wide pots either 2L hanging pot or 2.5L nursery pot - Plants fit in a 75cm tall box.
Large Plants - 25cm wide pot, 10L volume. Plants fit in a 100cm tall box.
XL Plants - Plants over 100cm tall in pot sizes specified, 25cm/10L or greater and are hand delivered within Auckland/Northland only.
Dispatch Times
Plant courier orders are processed Monday, Tuesday & Wednesday.
North Island orders are targeted overnight delivery, South Island orders are sent on a 2-day target but these are not a guaranteed delivery timeframe.
Add 1 extra day after a public holiday as well as for rural addresses or remote towns.
Monday - We send orders placed on previous Wednesday, Thursday & Friday.
Tuesday - We send Weekend orders from previous Saturday & Sunday.
Wednesday - We send orders placed from Monday & Tuesday.
XL Plants are delivered only within urban Auckland & Whangarei and this service is for non-urgent orders. This excludes satellite destinations such as Beachlands, Pukekohe, Piha, Helensville etc and Whangarei Heads. We may deliver at any time Sunday, Monday, Wednesday or Thursday in Auckland and you need to have a sheltered accessible position for us to deliver to.
Plants in Transit
Each Small, Medium & Large plant is individually contained within its own protective cardboard Plant Carton which may be joined to other cartons in your order.
Plants typically take just a day or two to arrive, however they are usually fine in their cartons for 1-2 weeks, and many can go longer, so a few extra days are not usually cause for concern.
Whether it takes 1 or 7 days, let your plant recover from its journey by placing in gentle light and adding a little water and it will be back to its best within a couple of days. Let us know if there are any major issues via the contact page.
