Dying White bird of paradise!

by sam
(bradenton, fl)

Hi,
I live in Bradenton, FL and all 3 of my white bird of paradise I bought recently died. I went ahead and bought 5 more...now slowly 3 of those are looking wilted, with leaves curled and turning yellow.

What am I doing wrong? I water once a day now with city water from my garden hose, as we have only been getting a little rain every couple of days and made sure I planted them in full sun.

I tested the soil's ph and itcame out to almost an 8 so I bought soil acidifier that contains sulfar (elemental and gypsum). This was 2 days ago and they are still on a downward spiral.

Help!

* The photo below is of the new bird of paradise starting to die.

Comments for Dying White bird of paradise!

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Jul 22, 2020

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by: Jacki Cammidge, Certified Horticulturist

Sometimes it's best to give up when you've had this much trouble. If you've got the same plant multiple times from different sources, and the same thing happens, there is some issue with something that is probably insurmountable.

I think part of the problem is the water. There are no plants on earth that will thrive with chlorine and all the other chemicals that they put into treated water.

If this is your only source, put it in a bucket and let the chlorine evaporate out overnight before using it on the plants. When it rains, start capturing the water off the roof in a rain barrel to use on these delicate plants.

As these plants are already showing damage, this may or may not do the trick. In any event, stop running the hose onto them. The other problem could be that it's too cold - leaving it in a bucket overnight will help with that too.

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