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pot luck For a spectacular show of flowers, the South African plant Strelitzia reginae, known as the bird of paradise, is worth growing in the home or conservatory. This houseplant is a clump- forming evergreen perennial and grows to about 3ft (0.9m) in height when contained in a pot. Its spear-shaped leathery leaves have an attractive blue-green coloration and are carried on long stalks, and if you are familiar with the foliage of bananas you may see similarities, since it belongs to the same plant family, Musaceae.
The bird-shaped flowers appear in the spring or summer and consist of a green, sometimes flushed-red, horizontal bract from which emerges a crest of orange and blue blooms. The impressive flowers - six to eight inches (150-200mm) in size - are held erect on 3ft to 4ft-long (0.9m-1.2m) stems.
Although this plant...