Skip to main content
  1. Home
  2. Inspiration

Can you grow a bird of paradise from a cutting? Here’s what you need to know to grow your dream plant

Tips and tricks for successfully propagating a bird of paradise plant

Amanda Scheldt
By
An orange bird of paradise bloom
Thierry Fillieul/Pexels

Whether they’re found in their natural habitats in the wild or as the centerpiece in an indoor garden, bird of paradise are eye-catching and perfect plants for adding some color and tropical flair to your home. This plant is native to South Africa and is well-known for its lush foliage and attractive tropical blooms with vividly colored flowers. The plant gets its name from the stunning flower’s resemblance to a colorful bird in flight.

For all its perks, the plant also can be costly to acquire and slow to cultivate from seed. So when you find yourself wanting more than one of these attractive plants, what can you do? Take a cutting and grow a new plant! No matter if you’re just starting out with a new cutting from a friend or you’re adding to your existing plant’s family, you can add more of these plants to your collection easily and at little or no expense.

Recommended Videos

Owners often wonder if they can grow a bird of paradise from a cutting. The short answer is yes, you can! Let’s dive into this guide to find out exactly how to do that.

Related
znird of paradise leaf
ittisak boonphardpai/Shutterstock

What is the best way to propagate a bird of paradise to ensure the success of your plant?

Many bird of paradise plant lovers understand this plant is relatively expensive to own and maintain. Due in part to their exotic nature and demand for warmer climates, the full-sized versions of these plants can range from $100 to $500. For this reason, many owners often wonder if they can grow a bird of paradise from a cutting, which is a cost-effective alternative for adding a full-sized plant to a foliage collection.

There are two main ways to propagate this plant: growing from a cutting or from a seed. While both methods of separating and growing can be successful, seeding can require more patience and time than growing from a division. For this reason, you’ll see faster results if you grow from a cutting rather than a seed.

znird of paradise bloom
Danny Iacob/Shutterstock

What time of year should you propagate your bird of paradise plant?

The best time of year to propagate a bird of paradise is during the growing season, preferably between spring and summer. Generally speaking, summer is the time of year when this plant is actively growing outside, so you want to divide your plant around late spring. That said, indoor bird of paradise plants may have more of an active period during spring, so you could even push back your division to late winter. Just make sure you’re working with a healthy plant to begin with, or else you may need to rehabilitate your plant down the road.

Bird of paradise plants do best when you divide them every three to five years, so you certainly don’t want to divide them up every year. That said, if you notice clusters of plants prolifically crowding an area, you can certainly divvy them up as you see fit.

Bird of paradise flower
David Brooke Martin/Unsplash

What to consider when propagating a bird of paradise

When aiming to propagate a bird of paradise plant, you must consider several things first. First and foremost, you can’t just rely on cutting a leaf from the plant to replant. While some plants can be reproduced from leaf and stem cuttings, a bird of paradise needs more than that to grow successfully. In order to propagate a bird of paradise, you’ll need to cut a portion of the plant’s root; the stem or leaf alone won’t have enough of the tissue needed to produce a new plant.

A bird of paradise planted outdoors
Jess Vide/Pexels

How to propagate a bird of paradise plant the right way

Bird of paradise propagation isn’t difficult and can be most easily and effectively achieved through plant division. Ideally, propagation should occur while you are already replanting a bird of paradise that has outgrown its pot. While it’s out, sever a piece of the bulb or the root with a sharp, clean knife. You can sprinkle some rooting hormone on the open cuts to encourage quicker and greater root depth. With each plant division, there should be a fan with attached roots for the regrowth plant. Then, you can plant the bird of paradise root division in a small and clean pot with high-quality planting soil.

Because new cuttings can be fragile as they start to develop their roots, keep your new baby plant indoors to protect it from the elements. While most gardeners are tempted to water the new division right away, it’s best to let the cuts heal without water first. After a few days, you can begin a regular watering schedule for the plant.

Potting soil spilled on a table with a blue metal hand shovel
Background expert/Shutterstock

How to transplant a cutting into a pot

Once a division begins to show solid regenerative growth, it’s safe to move it into the pot where it will live for a while. Here’s how to repot your bird of paradise cuttings with ease.

  • Fill a large pot that’s at least 12 inches wide and deep, choosing your planter based on the size of the plant with potting mix.
  • Add 2 parts potting soil to 1 part perlite for best results.
  • Soak the root system with a running hose for about 10 to 15 minutes.
  • Wait about 20 minutes so that the water has time to soften the roots.
  • Mark at least a 10-inch radius around the plant.
  • Following that marked radius line, use a trenching shovel to dig approximately 18 inches around.
  • Lift the plant and its root ball into the pot while fanning out the roots, being careful not to break the roots.
  • Backfill the pot with soil.
  • Water thoroughly until liquid drains from the bottom of the pot.

You can grow a bird of paradise from a cutting, but you want to ensure it comes from a division of the plant with its bulb or root, not the leaves. Also, it’s essential to note that unless you live in a warmer climate that’s not subject to freezing temperatures, it’s best to plant your birds of paradise in pots rather than directly in the ground. This ensures that you can propagate your plantings successfully and that you can bring them indoors to accommodate weather changes.

Editors' Recommendations

Topics
Amanda Scheldt
Amanda Scheldt
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Amanda is a self employed content writer with a diverse and multifaceted niche background. After over a decade in the…
Have more aloe plant than you know what to do with? How to propagate its pups
Aloe vera pots

The aloe genus consists of hundreds of plants, most featuring fleshy leaves that form a rosette shape. Within the aloe genus, the aloe vera plant is one of the easiest to care for and come by. Plus, it’s one of the easiest plants to propagate — and who wouldn’t want to create more aloe vera for its soothing gel that can be used to treat burns and skin irritations? If you want to learn how to propagate aloe vera, it’s not that hard. Ahead, here's what you need to know to successfully propagate aloe vera.

The easiest way to propagate aloe vera
The easiest way to propagate aloe vera is by division — that’s to say, taking an offshoot growing at the base of your aloe vera plant. You can simply pluck off a pup or use a clean knife to carefully remove it from the mother plant. The best time to remove the offshoot is when the leaves are fleshy and have formed a distinct rosette shape. It also helps if the pup already has roots connected to the mother plant. When propagating the pup, keep as much of the established root system as possible. Place your offshoot into a fresh cactus mix and allow the roots to settle after watering deeply. If you have an aloe with multiple pups, you can remove your entire plant from its planter for a better view of the roots.
How do you propagate aloe vera without roots?
It’s possible to propagate aloe vera without roots — in fact, you can even grow it from cuttings, which we’ll cover more extensively below. Propagating aloe vera pups without roots is very feasible, but you have to be careful with watering. If you find yourself with rootless aloes, you can place them onto your potting mix as usual and use stones or stakes to keep them upwards. Avoid watering them until about two weeks or whenever they have roots.

Read more
3 different methods you can use to propagate roses from stem cuttings
Person cutting roses in garden

Roses in bloom are lovely, so how can you make more plants from the roses you already have? Growing roses from stem cuttings may appear to be quite the undertaking, but it can be as easy as rooting any other plant. If you’re curious about how to propagate roses from stem cuttings, here are three methods to try — including the infamous potato hack that's been making the rounds on the Internet.

How to grow roses from cuttings in soil
To grow roses from cuttings in soil, all you have to do is find semi-hardwood stems. That’s to say, find a plant with stems that are slightly hardened but still have flexibility. It’s best to source your stems from a live plant as opposed to a bouquet, but the latter could work if you have the ideal stem hardness available to you.

Read more
3 easy ways to propagate your snake plant so you can share the tropical love
A collection of potted snake plants

Snake plants are a hardy houseplant popular among beginner and experienced indoor gardeners! Nicknamed the mother-in-law’s tongue, the snake plant looks beautiful almost anywhere in the home. It fits seamlessly into a home office, a bedroom, or a living room. It even makes a great bathroom plant, if you're lucky enough to have one with a south-facing window. Snake plants are known to help filter harmful chemicals from the air, giving them an added bonus on top of their easy-to-care-for nature. Let’s take a look at how to propagate snake plants (in three easy ways) and what you can do with all the new plant babies.

Why would you want to propagate a snake plant?
The main reasons anyone would want to propagate a snake plant — or any other plant, for that matter — are to add more to your collection or give them away to friends and family who love plants just as much as you do. Propagation is an easy way to take a plant your mom admires every time she walks in your home and give her one to care for.

Read more