Since late spring, the eastern most of the three Red Bird of Paradise (a.k.a. Pride of Barbados) has outpaced the other two shrubs in the courtyard by quite a lot. Last year, this one was also the largest after getting a slow start, but this year, it took off right at the start to be the biggest of the three.
The big shrub looks to be about six feet tall by eight feet (or more) across. We planted some small bottle brush shrubs late last year to replace the sage bushes that didn’t do very well. At this time, the one bottle brush shrub is almost completely covered by the giant Red Bird.
The Red Birds will start to fade out this fall and we will, as usual, chop them nearly to the ground to await their return next summer. Click on the image to enlarge.
