With large flowers and leaves reaching 18 inches in length, Bird of Paradise can quickly fill a space with tropical flair. But, since these plants are prized for their size and beauty, many plant lovers are reluctant to prune for fear of damaging their foliage. Thankfully, pruning can be a safe and easy way to encourage the health, and continued growth, of your Bird of Paradise.
Pruning can be helpful to remove faded, wilted or discolored leaves, as well as manage the overall size of the plant. To prune your Bird of Paradise, use a pair of pruning shears and cut back the leaf or bloom at the base of the plant, removing the entire stem in the process. But be careful, a Bird of Paradise grows slowly. Only cut back what is necessary.
Ready to learn more? Keep reading to find out how pruning can help your Bird of Paradise, when to do it for best results, and how to effectively use this plant care technique.
What is Pruning?
When you think of pruning, you may think of someone cutting an ornamental plant, like a bonsai, to help it maintain a certain appearance. And that is partially correct. However, pruning is both an effective technique for keeping a plant healthy, as well as beautiful.
For every stem, leaf, or flower that a plant produces, it expends energy. It also requires significant resources, such as sunlight, water, and nutrients, for a plant to sustain new growth. And all the effort required to produce and sustain new growth can take a toll on the plant’s roots, forcing them to work overtime to keep your plant in good health.
As leaves and flowers age, they naturally turn yellow or wilt. While it may be hard to imagine that cutting a plant is good for it, pruning can help your plant remove dead leaves or sections that have grown old or unhealthy, which conserves your plant’s energy and allows it to be more effectively used towards new growth.
By allowing the plant to dedicate its resources to healthier leaves, flowers, and stems, pruning can help a plant grow faster in the long run. This is because the plant has more energy to focus more time and attention on strong roots and new foliage.
It’s important to keep in mind that pruning a plant is every bit as individualized as cutting a person’s hair. Some plant species grow quickly and can be pruned dramatically each year to produce new foliage. Other plant varieties produce leaves and flowers much more slowly and lose their beautiful appearance with too many cuts. Additionally, each individual plant is different and may need varying amounts of pruning to keep it vibrant.
But don’t worry, while it’s understandable to be a bit nervous about pruning, since no plant owner wants to harm their plant, the tips below will help you prune your Bird of Paradise in the best way for its long-term health and beauty.
Does a Bird of Paradise Need to Be Pruned?
The short answer to this question is “yes!” In fact, nearly every plant, from roses to cacti, needs to be pruned. However, the amount of pruning a plant can tolerate, and your reasons for pruning will likely vary.
Native to South Africa, Bird of Paradise is a tropical plant that can grow exceptionally large, even when grown indoors. While many houseplants that you’ve grown likely had dozens of leaves, which they shed regularly, Bird of Paradise is an evergreen plant.
While the term evergreen might remind you of a pine tree, there are a variety of evergreen plants that thrive in different climates. Tropical evergreens, including palm trees, tend to have fewer leaves, which typically grow slowly. Often these leaves remain on the plant for several months, and sometimes for years.
On average, a Bird of Paradise will produce up to one leaf per month during the growing season. With fewer leaves overall, each Bird of Paradise leaf plays an essential role in photosynthesis – the process through which plants absorb light to produce energy. With this in mind, Bird of Paradise plants cannot be pruned quite as liberally as some other plant varieties since a reduction in leaves can dramatically reduce their ability to absorb light.
However, this does not mean that you should be afraid to prune your Bird of Paradise – only that you should do so carefully to make the best choices for your plant’s health and appearance.
So, now that you know that there is more to pruning a plant than simply grabbing scissors, how should you begin? To answer that question, we should first look at when it is best to prune your Bird of Paradise.
When Is the Best Time to Prune a Bird of Paradise Houseplant?
While it is always acceptable to trim away a yellowing or damaged leaf, one of the most important factors in undertaking a significant pruning of your Bird of Paradise is to know when it is in its growing season.
But why is this important? Every plant has a season in which it produces most of its growth for the year, and for many plants, including Bird of Paradise, this period extends from spring until fall. During this time, the plant absorbs the maximum energy from the sun and channels it into producing new leaves and flowers.
As the temperatures begin to cool and the days grow shorter, these plants enter a period called “dormancy,” which is similar to hibernation. Throughout the dormant period, plants will slow their growth, focusing on the health of their roots and storing up nutrients for winter.
During this time of slower growth, plants are less able to adapt to changes in their environment or any damage to their leaves and stems. Since pruning does inflict some stress upon your plant, it is best saved for a time when your Bird of Paradise is better able to recover, so aim for springtime pruning.
Reasons to Prune an Indoor Bird of Paradise
While we have mentioned that pruning your Bird of Paradise can be good for the plant’s general health, there are some specific indications that you should strongly consider pruning your Bird of Paradise. Below are some of the most common reasons that your plant might need a trim.
Reason 1: Dead or Dying Leaves
While a yellow leaf may look to be in better shape than a brown or dry leaf, yellow leaves no longer support your plant. Though it is possible that a leaf with only a tiny amount of yellow can return to a healthy shade, significant yellowing and browning are usually signs of plant stress or leaf aging.
As these leaves continue to fade, they will drop from the plant on their own. However, this can take weeks to occur, and, in the meantime, they will continue to drain energy from the plant until they fall. By taking matters into your own hands, you can help your Bird of Paradise conserve energy that can be channeled into new, vibrant growth.
Reason 2: Broken Stalks or Damage
It is always important to treat your plants with care. However, even the most diligent plant owner has broken a plant stem or damaged their plant in the process of moving or repotting.
Plants such as Bird of Paradise can be especially susceptible to such damage due to their top-heavy structure and slender stems. Sometimes, these stalks will even begin to lean under their own weight, eventually breaking.
When this type of damage occurs, it’s best to prune away the damaged stem entirely. While this may seem like an extreme action, it will allow your plant to conserve energy and help to reduce any danger from bacteria in the injured section of your plant.
Reason 3: Aging Leaves and Stems
As we previously mentioned, yellowing is a sign of aging leaves. However, it is also possible for older leaves and stems to retain their color while losing their strength and vibrancy. When this happens, these older leaves and stems may appear limp, noticeably drooping compared to the plant’s other stalks.
Older leaves can also develop splits and tears and, while these aren’t necessarily fatal for the leaf, they can impact the appearance of your Bird of Paradise. In these situations, it may make sense to prune away these aging sections of the plant. Doing so will reduce the possibility of the older stems breaking under their own weight and will help preserve the beauty of your plant.
Reason 4: Reducing Size
Bird of Paradise is a large plant, and while its towering size is loved by many plant owners, it can get a bit out of hand. Combined with the height added by the planter, some of your Bird of Paradise leaves may reach the ceiling of your home.
Additionally, Bird of Paradise can grow wide because of the spread of its stems. This, too, can start to encroach on the space in your living area. One way to manage the size of your plant is to prune away any excessively large or unwieldy stalks, constraining the size and spread of the plant into something a bit more manageable.
Tools for Pruning Bird of Paradise
Since pruning a large plant can be a substantial undertaking, you will need to get the right tools before you begin. Even if your Bird of Paradise hasn’t achieved its full growth potential, you can expect its stems to be firm and possibly resistant to cutting. With this in mind, the simple scissors you use for crafting and household tasks may not be enough.
Instead, look for specialized pruning shears. These shears often have special grips, reinforcement, and angled blades to help cut through stems that might be challenging to detach. However, for a large Bird of Paradise, you may need additional cutting power, in the form of a lopper or a pruning saw.
Whichever pruning blade you use, one helpful pruning tool is a pair of high-quality garden gloves, which can be an investment in safety and comfort. While some garden gloves are made of cloth and are intended to protect against dirt, look for gloves designed specifically for pruning. Often these gloves will extend up to the forearm and be made largely of rubber or leather. While this may seem like overkill, pruning a plant with thick, fibrous stems can increase the risk of cuts or bruises, and it’s best to be cautious.
Disinfectant will also be another important tool to use when pruning, since cutting a plant’s stems can introduce bacteria into your Bird of Paradise. But this does not need to be an expensive purchase. Though there are special disinfectants on the market, you can use antibacterial soap and water to cleanse your scissors or lobber. You can also use 70% to 100% rubbing alcohol to clean most blades effectively.
Lastly, since pruning may disburse dirt and dead plant matter, you may want to consider using a tarp, plastic bags, or newspaper to cover any surfaces on which you might be working.
How to Prune Your Bird of Paradise Plant
After reading our list of top reasons to prune your Bird of Paradise, you may already have an idea as to what your plant needs. But if not, look over your Bird of Paradise for yellowing leaves, damaged stems, or drooping sections. These should be the first to go.
When pruning a Bird of Paradise, you will want to make your cut as close to the base of the impacted stem as possible. In other words, don’t just snip the leaf off of a long stem, leaving the bare stem in place. That stem will not likely produce another leaf, but it will continue to drain energy from your plant.
Instead (whether your goal is to remove a leaf or remove a broken stem), cut at the base of your plant through the bottom of the entire stem. Set aside the cut stem and continue pruning until you have addressed your concerns.
Once you are done, make sure to quickly remove any cut sections of plant from the space, and do not leave any cut leaves in your Bird of Paradise planter. These sections may begin to attract insects and mold, which can harm your healthy plant.
Should You Deadhead Bird of Paradise Flowers?
A question related to the subject of pruning is whether you should “deadhead” the spent blooms of a Bird of Paradise. As with many flowering plants, it can be helpful to remove any blooms that are turning brown or dehydrating from your Bird of Paradise by pruning. Doing this allows the plant to focus energy on creating new flowers and preserves the plant’s appearance.
With some flowering plants, deadheading is performed at the site of the bloom and involves cutting, or pinching away, the flower. But with a Bird of Paradise, deadheading will look a bit more like pruning.
Cut the stem of the spent flower as close to the base as possible, using your gloves and sanitized pruning tools. Once again, dispose of any organic matter right away to reduce any bacteria, fungus, or insects that may develop on the pruned plant matter.
Putting It All Together
While trimming a plant as large as Bird of Paradise can be a bit of work, it is definitely worth the effort. Pruning enables your plant to invest its resources and energy in the form of new growth and will help keep it looking beautiful.
Just remember that, as an evergreen plant, your Bird of Paradise will produce an average of one new leaf a month – possibly less. As a result, it’s a good idea to start slowly with your pruning.
Take your time and prioritize your plant’s needs, and remember that you can prune again later if needed. With a bit of planning and patience, you can use pruning to keep your plant in beautiful shape, control its size, and encourage healthy growth that will flourish throughout the growing season.