Caesalpino Pulcherrina, Mex BofP

Can anyone give me growing information on these little beauties? Here's a photo of my seedlings. I'm wondering when they should go to ground, how much sun they need, and how much space they will require.

Thanks in advance for any info!

They need full sun, good drainage, not all that much space, and a whole lot milder winters than I have here in Illinois! Their flowers are spectacular, and their correct name in case you want to look them up is Caesalpinia pulcherrima.

Guy S.

Thank you! These are supposed to be especially pretty, with 3 different colors of flowers on them. I doubt they will over-winter here either, but I understand they majorly self-seed, so I'm hoping their babies will be arriving year after year!

Wish me luck!

These are one of my favorites! They have beautiful tropical looking blooms...orange, yellow and red, combined in one bloom. Just beautiful. More commonly known around here as Red BoP. (The Mexican BoP known around here has yellow blooms, is woodier and doesn't look quite as lush & tropical. A bit more cold hardy (here) and makes a nice small tree when trimmed that way.) Both are great xeriscape shrubs. Left unchecked here, the Red BoP gets 6-10' tall or more, and as wide.

The Red BoP usually go dormant here but if they're not cut back each winter, the leaves turn a deep reddish/purple. The foliage is beautiful in the summer. The ones that are routinely cut back each year grow back very lush and thick. Sometimes they die completely in winter here, but not a lot.

They are quick growing and come up pretty easy (I score them), and one year I had about 100 container seedlings, lol. The seed pods burst into open air or can burst when touched, but they can be left to dry on the plant and collected easier by prior bagging.

Very interesting...but that brings on another question!!! Someone sent me several "Mexican Bird of Paradise" - there's red, pink, orange and white. Will they all be the same plant as the photo above, with those wonderful ferny leaves???

And yet another question...why do some of the seeds have an orange furball on the end??? They are very cute, but I have no idea what to do with them...lol! The other ones I scored and soaked in hand hot water over night.

Thanks for you input!

I have a few pinks sown that I hope come up, eventually, lol, but I think they grow a bit more leggy and sparse than the reds, and probably like a more humid environment than I can provide, lol. I don't know much at all about the pinks.

With the orange "furball" seed, it sounds like tropical BoP seed instead of the red or pink BoP...could the orange and white be the orange and white tropical birds...strelitzia reginae and strelitzia nicolai? If so, the white gets huge (I have one growing outside, too tall for my roof, lol) and the orange gets to around 4-5'. Both get spectacular blooms. (My white bird has never bloomed yet.)

Sequee... The orange fuzzy ball one is A White Bird Of Paradise a strelitzia. You need to soak of the fuzz off before planting.

The pink Mexican Bird of Paradise is a rarer one. They all look the same as seedlings when they come up.

Yes, the ones I got from you with the "fur" are labeled white - you are so organized it's almost scary - LOL!!! I also picked up a few in THE BOX that are furry and are labeled red.

I am soooo excited about these...can harld wait to see them. I had no idea the Caesalpino Pulcherrina and the Strelitzia were the same things. It's so confusing, but I am enjoying the heck out of all this! I just hope I'm not starting them too late!