Crane flower

The iconic, vivid crane flower, or bird of paradise, is one of the most popular horticultural perennials around the world, and widely cultivated from Europe to the America’s to Australia.

But, did you know that it actually only occurs naturally in South Africa, along our eastern coast line in coastal bush and thicket. It’s also on the back of our 50 cent coin!

In the late 90’s Mr John Winter, former curator of Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens, started a programme of artificially selecting plants with desirable characteristics. The Strelitzia reginae “Mandela’s Gold” is one such derivation, which took nearly 20 years of careful selection and hand pollination to produce it.

Strelitzia reginae

Original artwork: available