07/22/2025
Bird of paradise blossomed
Hi.
I was gifted two birds of paradise by my brother about 5 years ago. I live in Colorado, and I don't really do much with non-native plants, but I'm ok with them indoors. This is the smaller of my two plants. It has lived exclusively indoors in an east facing room that gets no more than 4 hours of sunlight.
I have a pretty small home, so I worry about these growing too much, so I use a less nitrogen heavy fertilizer (20/20/20) every 2 to 3 weeks, and I stop around October.
My watering schedule is a deep watering every one to two weeks.
The temperature in my home is typically between 67 and 74, and the humidity is usually in the 30s.
A few weeks ago I noticed this one put up two stems, which bothered me a bit because I don't want it growing too much. I became suspicious it was a blossom after looking at it, but skeptical given my arid steppe climate. I accepted it was a blossom, and it opened up today.
My understanding is that it's fairly uncommon for these to blossom indoors, and I can't say I took particularly good care of it other than giving it a really cool and large pot. From what I've been reading, it also gets way less sunlight than it's supposed to for blooms.
My other BOP is a monster with 32" leaves, more direct sunlight, and is outgrowing my spot for it, but it has not made a blossom.
I am posting this to share, but also to maybe understand why it made a blossom from others who have had more experience with these plants than I have.