Xtremehorticulture

Xtremehorticulture of the Desert

Pruning Globe Mallow and Bird of Paradise

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Q. We have a very old globe mallow shrub that looks bad after a frost. When and how should it be pruned to bring it back to its former glory? Do Mexican Red Bird of Paradise need regular pruning? How can one tell what and where to cut? Globe Mallow growing in extremely poor soils in Las Vegas. A. Globe Mallow can be a spring flowering perennial which means it can live for over two years provided it does not get damaged. Growing in the desert without irrigation it can be rather scrubby. But with a small amount of water and fertilizer it can be a beautiful woody shrub that can grow 2 to 3 feet tall and 3 feet wide. Close close-up of the flower of globe mallow growing under stressed conditions. If the globe mallow is looking kind of old and ratty you can cut it down to an inch of the soil and totally renew it or you can selectively cut down some of the older stems and renew it slowly. If you want to keep it bushy from head to toe then take about one third of the oldest wood out now, next year take another third and the following year take another third. This will renew it over a three-year cycle and help keep the foliage and flowers from top to bottom. You would do this pruning immediately after it finishes flowering. Flower of the desert bird of Paradise Mexican red bird of paradise usually gets a pruning to the ground every few years because of hard freezes. You have a couple of choices, much like your globe mallow. You can cut it to the ground or selectively remove one third of the oldest wood to the ground and in a three-year cycle. You would do this pruning during the winter months or before new growth starts in the spring or after flowering is finished.

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Red Bird of Paradise Is Poisonous but….

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Q. You had a post on your blog about red bird of paradise. posting on my blog Will this bush hurt my dog?  I don’t think she would grab the flowers.  I want to grow a big bush in this area of my back yard as my deceased husband loved the flowers.  I heard the bush is poisonous. Flower of the red bird of paradise A. Like so many plants, the dose makes the poison. Yes, this plant if it is taken in large quantities would be poisonous to dogs, cats, humans, etc. However, I would point out to you that this plant is also sold, the leaves and stems primarily, for Ayurvedic medicine and has been found by researchers to have antiulcer and anti-inflammatory properties. Please keep in mind that about 80% of all landscape plants are poisonous. Some are more poisonous than others. Take as examples oleander and the castor bean plant. Many of our houseplants are also poisonous such as mother-in-law’s tongue or snake plant and many others. All I can tell you that in small quantities I would not be too concerned. However if an animal consumed a lot of the plant it might cause harm or worse. My former floriculture teacher once went on television around Christmas time and demonstrated by eating the leaves of Poinsettia that it is not poisonous in small quantities. The white milky latex found in the plant may cause some burning but it does not kill you as the press has portrayed. I will not tell you that it is non-toxic and not to have some concern about it but on the toxicity list I would probably put it as mildly toxic and keep your pets away from it if they tend to chew on things. I would also not use the flowers as a garnish for a meal.

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Red Bird of Paradise Will Regrow After Winter Freeze if Protected

1 Comment / caesalpinnia, caesalpinnia pulcherrima, desert bird of paradise, Mexican bird of paradise, preventing freeze damage /

Q. I’m desparate to have at list one of the beautiful Red Bird Of Paradise in our backyard. Four years ago we planted four Red Bird Of Paradise 5 gallon plants in the backyard and the front of our house. They looked healthy during the first summer and fall but they did not bloom. The next spring they all regrew from the ground. The old branches all dried out during the winter time.  This process has been repeating for the last four years. I replaced two of the original plants that did not survive the winters at all. The problem is that what grows back in spring does not get any higher than around 16 inches during the summer and they do not bloom either. Though, they look nice and healthy. A. If this is truly the Mexican Red Bird of Paradise it is probably freezing back during the winter since it is nearly an herbaceous perennial in our cold desert climate. You would treat it much like you would any other plant that regrows from the ground each year. The trick will be to make sure you protect the crown of the plant from dying from low temperatures during the winter. You can do this by pruning it to the ground in mid December or after a mild freeze and mounding soil or dense mulch until about the first week of March. At that point in our climate the threat from a late spring freeze is over and you can give it a kick in the pants with an all purpose fertilizer and water. Bougainvillea will be and perform the same. Background on Red Bird of Paradise Flowers of red bird of paradise. I am not sure where I got this picture any more. We almost never plant red bird in Las Vegas because of freeze damage. The Yellow Bird of Paradise is more cold tolerant but it too will freeze back in cold winter locations if temperatures get much below 20F (-6C). This is about the same threshold for freezing as the salmon colored dwarf oleander. Yellow bird of paradise trained into tree form in Las Vegas. I am not a big fan of it like this but it can be done. It would probably be better if it did not stand alone in a planting but had an understory of plants.  Background on yellow bird of paradise I would put this Red Bird in a hot, protected part of the yard where it can stay out of winter winds and has a south or west facing wall it can get heat from during the winter. Make sure you amend the soil at the time of planting with lots of good compost and a fertilizer high in phosphorus. If you can get it to make it through a winter I think it will bloom for you. It sounds like it is just not getting enough size to initiate flowers. Amend the soil at planting, water it deeply when you water and make sure it is getting enough water (perhaps increase the size or number of emitters) and put down one application of a flower inducing fertilizer like rose food in the early spring and don’t fertilize it again. But it IS winter tender here.

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