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Kangaroo Paw Plant -- Flowers Losing Color???
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Posted by cymom Austin, TX (My Page) on Thu, Apr 30, 09 at 11:07
| I recently planted red flowering kangaroo paw plants that I purchased from Home Depot. I planted 3 of them in various spots of my North facing front yard.
After a week, 2 of the plants started to "grey" in the color of the flowers...now they look to be all yellow. They plant itself looks fine, it's not wilted, the stems and leaves don't seem that affected. It's just the color of the flowers.
The other one seems fine.
We have been getting a lot of rain for the past couple of weeks, and I know they are drought-happy plants. Could this be the reason? Should I do anything to help it?
Any help would be appreciated. |
Follow-Up Postings:
RE: Kangaroo Paw Plant -- Flowers Losing Color???
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- Posted by bahia SF Bay Area (My Page) on
Mon, May 4, 09 at 12:12
| First question; is it all of the individual flowers losing color at the same time, or only the older, lower on the stem flowers, progressing in succession up the stems? If the plants themselves seem healthy, these two individual plants may just be showing signs of the flowers having been pollinated and dying. Most of the hybrids at the American mass market home supply stores have Anigozanthus flavidus in their parentage, and these hybrids tend to stay fresh and colorful much longer where they are not subjected to high heat such as you get in Texas. They stay colorful and fresh looking for much longer here in coastal California. I'd suggest just cutting the older flowering stems back to ground level, and you may also notice more problems with fungal attacks on the foliage under high heat/high humidity conditions. They do better with winter rainfall/summer dry conditions, such as they would get in habitat in Western Australia, but good air circulation, fast drainage and good sun are generally enough to keep them healthy here in California. When the plants do get Inkspot fungus on the foliage, I usually prune it out, or cut all the foliage back to the ground in early winter to encourage fresh new growth. I've read that in Australia, burning off the old foliage is a proven method of controlling this disease. |
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