By Margaret Sheard ….
In about 2005 one of my neighbours, Tom Hillman, asked me to look after his small Bird of Paradise plants which he had grown from seed, while he and his wife, Jean, went to the UK for 2 weeks.
Not having green fingers or being much of a gardener, I was very concerned that the plants may not survive during their absence, but I didn’t admit this and Tom and Jean happily left the plants in my keeping with distilled water and full instructions.
Thankfully the plants were still looking good when they returned to North Cyprus and Tom kindly gave me one of them as a thank you. I kept the little plant indoors for some years and then transferred it to a larger pot outdoors. During this time the plant didn’t seem to grow very much and I was then advised to plant it in the garden, where all of a sudden it started to flourish and produce the beautiful Bird of Paradise flowers, always in September.
It is now September 2020 and this is the first of my flowers for this year. It is such a beautiful plant and I hope it will continue to bloom for me every year.
