If they've germinated (which they have, if you see the white shoot) plant them now (before it grows into the papertowel.)
Don't plant them too deep now, since they've germinated you don't have to bury them as deep as you normally wood. Remember: it's better to UNDER plant them than to over plant them. I just barly cover the seeds with damp vermiculite (this will pull the seed cover off the plant as it raises above the soil.)
Oh! Plant them with the white root down! Beleive it or not, it does make a difference.
Don't wait for several appendeges to appear, or you've waited way too long.
They'll need about 8 hours of sun, but not hot, direct sun at this time (too hot!) If you're in an area that's warm enough, put them outside. If not, be sure there is good air circulation for them too.
After the first true leaves appear (the first leaves are "seed leaves") you can start "weaning" your seedlings outside, with a little more direct sunlight every few days.

Here is a link that might be useful: Flying Flowers - my site

I think you are doing it the hard way. I soak my seeds for 24hrs in water. Then I put them in soil when it is warm. They germinate. They don't transplant well. So I use the 6pack annual containers so that when the plant needs to be transplanted you can use the whole ball of soil.

I agree with usha. After soaking the seeds for 24 hours, I just plant the seeds directly into the ground. Since these plants are so numerous here, I gather seeds from plants yearly. And satart new ones in the spring.

My thanks to you of all, for your kind responses. i have the first stage behind me in getting my seeds started. I got the seeds on ebay, after seeing only two of these wonderful plants in this area. No one knew what they were called, and the local nursries were no help, maybe cause i didnt know the actual name...anyway, i germinated them in a paper towel, and have moved them to dixie cups, where they have started to show the first true fern like leaves. it has been hot here (97 yesterday) so i am shade exposing them only.

My next step will be to pot them, perhaps with tin foil in the pot first?????(any reason to not use foil?? with a hole for drainage) i think the foil will make it easier to move them into the ground later at a little more mature stage. I thank the three of you for your kind help. I had already started this method when usha and lantana_babe offered their kind ideas, and i am enjoying the hands on approach to seeing them develop.

thank you butterfly lady for your words of wisdom. you guided me to know exactly how to raise them successfully, and i do appreciate it!!! by the way, i tried to visit your site, but tripod seems to be out of operation, regrettfully......... :-(

thanks again, to you three for your generous suggestions .

I'd use a peat pot, or one made from newspaper. These are recyclable, and will break down in the soil. When ready to plant, you just pop the pot and all in the ground.
You can just line a pot with newspaper (several layers thick) fill with soil and plant your baby. When ready to transplant, just put paper & all in the hole (remove the pot though.)

I don't know why my site didn't work. Maybe Tripod was temporarly down.

my dear butterfly lady....your helpful information is greatly appreciated. i will proceed as suggested. and, so far so good with my plants....thanks to the kind ideas i have received.

i enjoyed your site, so comprehensive and extensive. i will peruse it further as i have time...

well, it seems i have more questions than i expected and you, butterfly lady, have been so helpful, i am so appreciative... i was dismayed the other evening to see my seedlings had folded their leaves together ... :-(
i was concerned i had over watered them, or something, but, the next morning the leaves were open again...it seems they do that every night to preserve moisture perhaps... anyway, my next question is this...i have three red and two yellow MBOP seedlings...i was going to locate them in four different spots, but since they are single stalks...should i plant them all in one area close together to make a bush? will it take some years for them to become bushy plants on their own? it would be the front of my mobile home so i want them to appear bushy as soon as possible....might i impose on the benefit of your experience about this issue of how they develop??? thank you so much.....

Ken McInnes

I have the desert bird of paradise, which is related. In my yard they sprout up after a good rain. When they are small I have no problem transplanting them. They do have long tap roots so move them when they are small.

I just got a couple of the reds, so don't know a lot about them. But I have loads of the floppy yellow ones. They self seed very easily and seem to grow fairly rapidly, although I don't know how long until they flower. Transplanting can be difficult, as the tap root is hard to get...but they seem to recover from the shock after a month or so and regrow the lost leaves quickly.

-dr

thank you all for your very kind support. i thought i might update y'all with the status of my BOP's. The five shoots are about 8 inches tall now, in their individual dixie cups, and being exposed to several hours of late and early sunshine.

perhaps this is doing it the hard way according to some of your kind suggestions, but, these are a scarce item around here, and for example, we dont get much rain at all, so....i am nursing them along.

Actually, i am concerned i might overwater them,(even with drainage holes in the bottom of each cup)....... so far so good, but i am flying blind and have no idea about what they need daily. (if any one wants to tell me how they judge the right amount...that would be great!!)

My next move will be to pot them in about 30 days...and maybe stake them too, as we have some strong gusts of wind. I will use newspaper to line the pots, for ease in transplanting. any added suggestions are greatly appreciated....as always
Ken

oooops...i just measured them..they are only four inches high....i had said eight inches tall...wishful thinking i suppose...

grasshopper... :-)

One thing I had to do after planting them outside was to put a screen cover over the first season. For some reason, the cutter bees love the leaves. :-) Once they get bigger, you don't need to bother. They will still eat the leaves, but not enough damage to hurt the plant.
I used what they call I think-construction cloth? (is actually metal) 1/4 " size, then some weed cloth over the top. Much better than chicken wire, which is too soft to hold shape and holes too large to keep much of anything out.

thank you, psa, and all of you others, for your kind suggestions...i am patiently taking them outside daily for about 8 hours of sun per day..they are sloooooooowly getting bigger. i have had no problem with insects thus far, perhaps we dont have that particular nuisance bug around here.... i will refer to these messages again when it comes time to plant the seedlings...and i do appreciate the guidance...

I just came across this thread. The leaves do fold up at night somewhat. I have some seeds of the red/orange type - caesalpinia pulcherrima, I think the call it - if you want more. I think you are worrying too much about the plants; they are quite sturdy here and I just do what others have suggsted - soak them in water for 24 hours and then plant. They come up almost 100%.

I'm planting a Mexican bird of paradise in Northeast Florida. Is it's native soil more alkaline than mine? How should I ammend the soil before planting?

Hee, I had to smile at this question - we started with three MBOP in our back yard when we moved in six years ago. We now have ten - with absolutely no help from moi! All seeded themselves. Which for me is ok, because I have the type of yard where it doesn't really matter where they grow. I do understand starting from seeds if you are needing to be a bit more careful.

BTW, I had always heard that you trim back MBOP after the frost. But recently I read something that suggested this is not a good idea. My plants have always done well, but wonder if they would do even better if I left them alone. Comments?

thanks for the input cindy...well, i should update my status here...since people have been helpful and deserve to satisfy their curiousity...so, here it is... i slowly brought my plants into the strong sunlight till i felt i could let them stay that way all day...but, it got quite hot..(desert temps of 105)... so, i watered more..however, they seemed to stall, and after several days, i inspected them, and the new shoots coming out from the stems were brown and dead!! the heat was too intense for those new shoots, it appears....in addition, they slowly turned a pale green, i thought it was adjustment to the heat...but it turned out to be spider mites..grrrr!!
so i sprayed,trimmed and moved them to shade again, and now i have fresh shoots starting again...at this rate it will be several years before i get a blossom, i suspect...
well, the point is enjoyment and not results...or do i have that backwards???? :-D

cindy, i have observed two owners here in the desert area of southern california, and they both cut their bushes back to about a foot high over the winter...when spring arrived both plants produced new leaves and now they both have beautiful flowers blooming profusely...and the plants have grown to about three to four feet high again....

That's pretty much been my experience - I trim mine back and get rewarded with spectacular results in the heat of the summer. So that's why I was surprised by the comment that you shouldn't trim, and wondered why.

I just planted two red and one yellow mbop. I noticed the bottom set of fronds are turning yellow. Too much water? not enough? otherwise seem happy. They are all one stick though, and I want a bush!!

hello azlcd.. i got five "sticks" and i want a bush too :-D
i played golf the other day (112 degrees)..and the whole course in palm springs was covered in these mbop plants..amazing!! but, they did look very wild and uncultivated. The ones I have seen at people's residences have appeared much more plantlike and orderly. I wish i had information for you about the yellowing leaves.... all i can relate so far is that mine turned very pale and i found that was due to spider mites. i hope someone with more experience can add their thoughts to benefit you... Good luck....

How do you transplant 2 year-old MBOP....Thanks

How do you transplant 2 year-old MBOP....Thanks

rogersheavylift ... like any shrub ... get the new hole ready (fill it with water and let it drain a couple of times), prune it back heavily. dig it with as big a root ball as you can handle in your shovel, and move it over to the new location.

Slide it in the hole

Gently pat the dirt down and soak it thoroughly. Water it daily for a week, \twice daily for a month, and then back off on the watering. Now is a good time to do this, because it has time to get established before winter.

duplicate post

This post was edited by sunnyque on Fri, Nov 1, 13 at 16:43

duplicate post

This post was edited by sunnyque on Fri, Nov 1, 13 at 16:44

duplicate post

This post was edited by sunnyque on Fri, Nov 1, 13 at 16:45

i planted 10 pink Mexican bird of paradise seeds. First I soaked them in half hot half boiled water until the water went cold then repeated this process twice until the seeds were plump. I used Jiffy pots and Jiffy pellets and then placed them in small plastic pots that were slightly to small for the Jiffy pots.I just covered them with soil and put them in a small plastic tray with a clear lid. (mini green house about $5.00). I put them in their cheap little green house in the sun about half the day for 5 days taking them in after the sun spot has shaded over. They have all sprouted after the 6th day. The Jiffy pots allow you to replant the seedlings without disturbing the seedling. They break down in the soil as the plant grows.
Sonia

The red Mexican bird of paradise tree I was speaking of above. This has to be one of the most no hassle trees I've ever had or plant I've ever had I just had what three seeds are put in a pot those already and have to buy plumeria which is in the shade and the Sun comes from the other side as the one down for the night from the middle to the west. But it is for the hot Sun too Saudi seeds started sprouting like that was in 3 days pretty in my seat I got from the the truth these were spent scenes meaning they were shaking in the pod eat the dark ones are even better. Open the pod get your CDL but Amanda nice. Very nice soil put them in about 1 inch down Miracle Grow potting soil.by super bloom trust me you have you some sprouts. The picture in my message is my tree its 7 foot tall and everything seems wonderful --it's very healthy except I didn't prune it downt fiery while.it was growing. Now its long and lanky big cluster at top and it kind kind of leans towards the sunshine because my neighbor's tree blocking half the yard wher I plan.to.build a gazebo

Ps red Mexican is like no water kind of plant and deadly is 10 foot wide 10 foot tall and higher!

Design it the way you wish.

Easy breezy for a first time tree. Also you may like to hear this, I played in my tree about 6 inches from the fence so I'm in for a big surprise trying to make this work yeah really sucks tonight

About my red Mexican bird of paradise it's beautiful I wasn't aware of how to prune it so I didn't and now two stocks are 9 feet tall. Really don't know if I should take them down before winter or after I would assume before winter like now in Texas in November should have been done in September I think but after doing this whole thing these next 3 months isomewhere where it can fit period within 10 to 12 foot Heights and 10 foot wide plant it's got to have a way to be out in the big open so you can ve it the way you want to and shave it all off or whatever

I threw several seeds from a hollow sounding seed pod wonder dry and ready to be used they will make a lot of jiggling sounds in there. The green ones aren't working out so well. I don't even try those. Out of the way I set mine a half inch under the soul and they sprouted of course is good soil miracle-gro potting soil. But they sprouted in the partial shade very neat little area I have on my front porch. Quite proud of him although I didn't take care of them after that I just have so many pods already from the plant in the back plant I have found the tags had said no water and absolutely doesn't require a lot of water at all kind of like a desert plant but we just had a lot of rain recently and it's pretty much knocked it for a loop between the wind and everything I need to know when to transplant this plant I'm in Texas