I was gone most of the day on a photo shoot, so I just noticed that my bird of paradise bloomed. The bud started forming a couple of weeks ago. Usually I see a bloom, sometimes two, in late November or early December. The later bloom is probably because I pulled the 6-foot-tall plant out of the pot last summer to replace the soil. The bloom usually lasts about a month. I have two bird of paradise and a tropical hibiscus in a warm bright stairway. It's like a tropical microclimate.
This bird of paradise only blooms in late fall and winter. The hibiscus blooms year round. All three plants are about 10 years old. I bought one of the bird of paradise plants in Phoenix and brought it up here in a suitcase. The one that is blooming, though, I bought in Tacoma at the Jungle Fever plant nursery.
Fan of Paradise by Kate Lynch
The painting behind the bloom is by my old friend Christine Smith Anderson of Aspen, Colorado. I think it's from the late 1970s and based on a map of Cripple Creek, Colorado.
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