I'm north of Fort Worth and mine is just beginning to send up little red shoots along the dormant branches. I sure picked a bad winter to try overwintering outdoors!

Pam

I'm in San Antonio and although all last year's growth is dead, I count the little sprouts my POB has as it being alive. It sure has a long way to go before fall, though, and I need to just bite the bullet and cut the dead stuff off.

Hi Roselee, my red one never even turned brown, the whole trunk stayed green and it started leafing out early. It is in the front, east north east, totally exposed.
The yellow ones you gave me, and the ones from their seeds, totally protected, no signs of life yet. I will never understand MN, LOL

Thank you both for responding, but Pam that seems wierd. You are way north of Patriot and me and you have live BRANCHES.

Patriot, sounds like yours are doing better than mine with it's one teeny tiny sprout. And I've had this clump for eight or ten years.

BTW, in warm winters like the winter of '08 the trunks/branches didn't freeze as they do in a normal winter so I let them stay. But they never leafed out to be as fresh looking as when I cut them back so I decided to always cut them back to the ground since they grow back and bloom VERY quickly. But it doesn't look like that will be the case this year. Well, we'll see.

I was really looking forward to the pink ones blooming this year though and they show no signs of life.

Well, Jolana ... I knew I was in a cooler microclimate being at the bottom of the hill, but this is crazy. It's really strange how my stuff freezes when the same things north of me don't! Colder climates have more driving them than simply latitude. Maybe it has something to do with the shallow soil here also.

It is weird and I will never understand it. I hope yours come back.
I was worried that I had lost just about everything but there are actually only a few things that haven't come back yet or maybe not ever but my faves have made it so I am very fortunate

I am sad to say that my red one has shown no signs of life yet here in San Antonio. I am probably expecting too much though since it was young and I had transplanted it around mid summer. Add to that- I haven't seen any in the area nurseries yet either.

I had mine buried in about a foot of tree trimming mulch because although I decided to leave it out for winter, I knew it would be borderline hardy. It is my favorite plant. I have great hope that yours will be okay and just slow to wake up Ragnaa ;-)

Pam

I thought mine would be fine in its large pot on the south side of the house and under the eaves. But alas...
no signs of life thus far. Waaaaaaah!

On the other hand, I had mistakenly bought a lilac tree variety that was not supposed to be appropriate for this area (a bit too far south), but it seems to have liked the
freeze and has blooms!!! Crazy.

the old one in the front yard is showing some signs of life. It survived Ike. The yellow, which was about 12' tall died in Ike. I put in a couple of small ones last year that all died.
Tally HO!

I'm in San Antonio. One area has a fence which is full of POB and has been basically as a weed for many many years. I rarely do anything to it, except occasionally trim (i.e. it's survived many winters, many freezes, many droughts). I trimmed back all the dead stuff a month ago but not all the way down to the ground. Still no signs of life :(

On a south facing fence I have two plants which have been in the ground since Spring 08. No signs of life there either.

Almost everything has come back except my Mexican buttercup and another whose name is escaping me now...(becomes a tree further south, is consider a perennial here)

I started mine from seed last year but I knew not to plant them out in that awful drought and then I kept them in pots and I brought them in on the bad freezes. I just planted them today. I heard all that talk on here about peoples horses getting thick coats and how it was going to be a bad winter. Never doubt a horse....a weather man yes, a horse no.

mine isn't sprouting yet, it's in a pot and i really put it in a protected place and covered it well-but no sign of life!

i'm considering going out and getting another just so i won't be so disappointed when/if mine doesn't make it

A small red one I had in a pot is just now showing life from the bottom so yours may be alive. Maybe put it in the sun to get it really warmed up and give it another week.

Still no signs of life on my pink ones though, but I'm not giving up on them yet.

My mexican bird pride of barbedos is BLOOMING!! I will take a picture tomorrow and post it here so you can see my baby, I did not protected it and he looked dead but one day it just sprouted all kinds of leaves and now he -she is blooming, I do have 2 small ones growing that maybe I could pull out if someone wants one, I also have seeds for that pride of barbedos, I would love to trade for some pink pride of barbedos seeds, pretty please?ROSELEE?will you? I can send you a seedling if you like or one of the ones growing from last year, Thanks for reading. Marccie

What??? Blooming! You live in Florida right? LOL. Let me get my seeds out and count them and I'll get in touch with you. I think I will be able to do that on the fingers of one hand, but since you have the magic touch for Pride of Barbados you deserve a couple.

BTW, common names are very confusing. There is a beautiful plant that's called a 'Mexican Bird of Paradise' that's in the same family, but is not the same plant as 'Pride of Barbados;. I'm wondering if the Mexican one is what you've got. It's a little more hardy. I should have one of those. It's very pretty, yellow with very long stamens and finer cut leaves.

Wow, I have never seen them bloom in May, that is something
You do have the touch

Hi I live in Texas actually Giddings let me come back and load up the pictures of mexican pride of barbedos that I have

Roselee,

Mine hasn't shown any signs of coming back either. I got it from you at the swap last fall and planted it right away. It probably got cold too soon for it and even a layer of mulch apparently didn't help.

I'm leaving everything for now. The Chocolate Plant you gave me last fall started showing leaves this week just as I was about to give up on it. Literally was about to put something else in there when I saw it was growing. Definitely a sign to wait a while longer.

S

Lets see if I can

Guys honestly those are not the pictures I clicked on photobucket I will try and repost lets see[IMG]http://i354.photobucket.com/albums/r401/marcie_new/prideofbarbedosandmiscmy003-1.jpg[/IMG]
[IMG]http://i354.photobucket.com/albums/r401/marcie_new/prideofbarbedosandmiscmy006.jpg[/IMG]
[IMG]http://i354.photobucket.com/albums/r401/marcie_new/prideofbarbedosandmiscmy007.jpg[/IMG]
[IMG]http://i354.photobucket.com/albums/r401/marcie_new/prideofbarbedosandmiscmy003.jpg[/IMG]

Hi guys I am just not doing too good, so I will have my niece come over this eve and clean up my computer for the first pics of papayas are not the ones I clikced on then the next time-set all it will post is the codes, I know its me, so this eve I will come back and see if I can repost, for now I must get some house work done or else I will be so far behind with my house work and my maid does not want to work(husband) so I must fire that MAID, sorry for all this trouble Thanks Marcie

Thank you Marcie for the picture. I got it to come up. By the way, to get the photo to appear in your post copy and paste the HTML code that appears beneath the picture on Photobucket.

It appears that your plant is Caesalpinia gilliesii, also commonly called 'Mexican Bird of Paradise.'

The commonly called 'Pride of Barbados' is Caesalpinia pulcherrima. Google it and you will see the difference.

I know it is all very confusing as both are sometimes called 'Bird of Paradise' and both are equally beautiful.

I should have used the botanical name, but common names are easier for me to remember, but they are not accurate. That's for sure.

Thank you for trying. At least I got to see your plant and put it on my want list :-)

Here is a link that might be useful:

That is beautiful, Marcie I am 21 miles west of you and I have one that doesn't even have buds on it
Good for you and FWIW, I believed you, lol

Today I have some sprouts showing around the base. Must have been the warmer weather over the weekend. So glad to have not given up on it.

I'm actually hoping mine didn't. No signs of them yet.
I've had 2 in the ground for 2 years now and I've had one skimpy flower.
I think they don't get enoungh sun in my yard.

Yippee! I have a pink PoB I grew from seed last year that I thought was a goner (even though I had it in my greenhouse this winter). But, based on y'all's sage advise on this thread I just kept watering and watching it. Low and behold, yesterday I saw a little speck of a green leaf on the side of this 6" stick! Thanks to all for recommending patience. It was such a baby, it hadn't even bloomed yet, so now I might actually be able to see it bloom! If there are other folks still out there waiting, don't lose hope!

Tonya

Yea, now this is the way to start off a day
Thank you and congrats

Tonya, I'm so happy your Pink Pride of Barbados made it! It should bloom this year and we'll get to see what the flowers look like.

I've given up hope, at least for the little Pink Prides in pots :-( but am keeping the vigil for the thigh high ones that are in the ground even though there is not the slightest sign of life yet. The orange/red ones have been slow to start, but look like they will make a complete recovery.

But I have seeds of several colors and I think it is warm enough to start them now :-)

Where is Marcie? I wanted to trade seeds with her.

I can't even get the seeds to germinate. Bought packs from 2 separate dealers, and the last ones have been in peat pots, and a home made green house (roasting pan with plastic cover) for 2 weeks now. Nada, Nothing and I just noticed some fungus forming. I'm about ready to give up.

John

Mine have come back from the dead. Even the one that survived Ike, AT&T digging giant holes in the yard and the freeze!
I've never been able to get the pink to grow well here and the only ones I knew of on the island didn't survive Ike.
NO life from the yellow one, will search for seeds and try again.
Several nurseries in this area have the Mexican one for sale.
Tally HO!

Mine has come back and is 8-12 inches tall! I am so happy! Oh yeah, it's the orange/red one.

Pam

Yep my orange/red ones just popped out in the last week. I never expect them to come out til May but this is still the latest in the 4 years since they were planted from 5 gallon pots. One with mulch, one without still popped out the same week which I didn't expect. Happy Growing David