Hi all,

We have what we think is the clumping Bird of Paradise … Strelitzia Reginae, but the usually blue petals are black.
Does it mean that it’s something else, or that we’re colour blind ?

We’re also wondering if they’re toxic to dogs, because one’s been digging under them, and the other one got a stomach upset or something.

Thanks for your troubles.

Clogzz said:

Hi all,

We have what we think is the clumping Bird of Paradise … Strelitzia Reginae, but the usually blue petals are black.
Does it mean that it’s something else, or that we’re colour blind ?

We’re also wondering if they’re toxic to dogs, because one’s been digging under them, and the other one got a stomach upset or something.

Thanks for your troubles.

i’d suggest that you take some of the roots and plant hem on another site to se if the colour is all about the soil condition.. or genetics.. and that possibly yes that such plants could not be good food for dos but that maybe your dogs got their problems from something else because i doubt that the dogs would eat the plants.

Snail bait is a common problem with dogs in the garden.

have you put some blood and bone or dynamic lifter or other fertiliser around your plant? that would certainly be attractive to your dogs and cause them to dig. Don’t know if it would make them sick though…

bluegreen said:

have you put some blood and bone or dynamic lifter or other fertiliser around your plant? that would certainly be attractive to your dogs and cause them to dig. Don’t know if it would make them sick though…

When the mice spilt blood n bone all over my laundry floor, both my dog and mum’s dog spent some time lapping it up, with no apparent ill effects. I did manage to stop them before they got too much though.

Hi all, and thank you for these replies.

@ roughbarked
Thanks for this brilliant idea, I’ll do so, especially since we plan to clear the area of most of them to make space for planter boxes.
It’s a small area near the dividing fence, and they spread to our place from the neighbours of back then, who planted them; and delayed reaction … I have their E-mail address.

We haven’t seen the dogs munching the plants, but several stems were hanging down and flattened, with detached leaves scattered around.
The greyhound’s been a bit sick over the last few days, but looks over it by now.

Last year, our previous greyhound died of an illness that the merry-go-round of vets, specialists and professors couldn’t put a name on.
She just stopped eating, and in less than two weeks, a happy, lively dog turned to nothing.
First there was talk of stomach or bowel cancer, then of Crohn’s disease, but we still don’t know.

We don’t use snail bait, and I thought that by now, only the snail bait with a bittering agent was allowed.
We watch our succulents carefully, because they’re very yummy to snails, especially after all this rotten weather.

@ bluegreen
We haven’t used any fertiliser of recently, the Jack Russell dug while the greyhound was looking on.
Next door’s Labrador dug exactly opposite from its side, and the Jack made it into the neighbour’s patch.

@ bon008
We did notice that the dogs are attracted to natural fertilisers, and are relieved to read that they’re harmless in small amounts, but we haven’t used any of recently because we think that they’re of no use now until the next growing season.

Clogzz said:

Hi all,

We have what we think is the clumping Bird of Paradise … Strelitzia Reginae, but the usually blue petals are black.
Does it mean that it’s something else, or that we’re colour blind ?

Clogzz, if the petals are healthy, then I’d agree with RoughBarked that it’s something in the soil…could be the same thing your dogs are going after…congratulations to the Jack Russell, by the way!…are the petals blue on the other side of the fence? Maybe somebody threw something in the direction of the BoP, a fluid, and this caused the colour change?

Dinetta said:

Clogzz said:

Hi all,

We have what we think is the clumping Bird of Paradise … Strelitzia Reginae, but the usually blue petals are black.
Does it mean that it’s something else, or that we’re colour blind ?

Clogzz, if the petals are healthy, then I’d agree with RoughBarked that it’s something in the soil…could be the same thing your dogs are going after…congratulations to the Jack Russell, by the way!…are the petals blue on the other side of the fence? Maybe somebody threw something in the direction of the BoP, a fluid, and this caused the colour change?

If dogs are suddenly becoming seriously ill then tests should be done.
If all your dogs are dying of canacer then maybe you should have yourself tested. Some soils may be old dumping sites. Not saying it is but it is a possibility if the history of the land’s use points to that.
If unnatural things are happening ie: strange colour changes which could be either a new hybrid or.. something in the soil that affects the ability of th plant to colour the flowers., then it would be good to know which it is.

If the colour change is simply your new hybrid then yes you may be able to capitalise upon it.
the suggestion about looking over the fence is a good one.. but it is also likely that it is the same colour.

Maybe if Clogzz tried chicken wire over the ground, or some other means of keeping the dogs out of that patch, this would show after a while if digging there is making the dogs sick? As in, if they can’t dig there, and they get better, then the soil at that spot is a problem…

Where are you, Clogzz? I thought Western Australia?

RoughBarked has a point, as there are houses in our town which have been built over the old town dump…

Dinetta said:

Maybe if Clogzz tried chicken wire over the ground, or some other means of keeping the dogs out of that patch, this would show after a while if digging there is making the dogs sick? As in, if they can’t dig there, and they get better, then the soil at that spot is a problem…

Where are you, Clogzz? I thought Western Australia?

RoughBarked has a point, as there are houses in our town which have been built over the old town dump…

Not just houses… Here’s a quote from someone from uni’s blog:

“A park built on a tip, at the back of a shopping center? I’d better go and have a look…

The other day, for those of you lucky enough to find out what makes engineers and the like “moist”, James mentioned a revegetated park, which was built on a clay caped landfill this as I know now is the All Nations Park.

The All Nations Park was officially opened in 2003 to an approximate crowd of 10, 000 people with many of the multicultural activities which encapsulate any suburb of Melbourne.

The Park itself comprises 13 Ha of reclaimed landfill, with a lake area at the eastern end, as the park itself is sloped west east. Other aspects of the park include large grassed areas, play grounds with disability access and sculptures situated around the park. In the center of the park is “The Hilltop” giving a relatively great view.

The majority of plants within the park are native with the eucalypts getting up to around 5 meters throughout. There’s the usual tree lined pathway, but for a change no Elms or Figs…

Link to Darebin City Council website:

http://www.darebin.vic.gov.au/Page/Page.asp?Page_Id=756&h=-1&preview=true “

And yes, he did say that it’s what makes engineers “moist”, I was there when he said it! Haha.

Any orange petals at all? Could it just be Strelitzia nicolai?

http://images.google.com.au/images?gbv=2&hl=en&sa=1&q=strelitzia+nicolai&btnG=Search+Images&aq=f&oq=

Hi all, and thank you for your interest.

@Dinetta
The petals, and the whole plants look very healthy, are growing fast and are a lush green.
They’re against the south side of the fence, and don’t see sunlight for months.
There aren’t any on the other side of the fence anymore, because the people who planted them moved out several years ago, and the new people ripped them out.
The dogs dug to visit each other; the neighbours have a smallish Labrador, and it dug from its side of the fence, exactly opposite our Jack’s dig.

@roughbarked
The Jack Russell did the digging, and it’s been perfectly well since.
The greyhound didn’t participate, probably because there wasn’t enough room for her to reach.
She was a bit sick earlier this week, but has recovered since.
Our previous greyhound died in October, with no conclusive diagnosis from the caravan of vets and professors.
They did about 20 biopsies afterwards, sent them to the University of Queensland in Brisbane, with still no outcome.

We live close to the mouth of Currumbin Creek on the Gold Coast.
The area is made up of yellow brick houses with brown aluminium window frames, looking like the late 60’s vintage, but the electricity meter says 1980.
The ground, not calling it ‘soil’, is dirty beach sand.
There are people who’ve been living in this street since 1970, and they don’t know anything about there being a dump here before.
Even so, with Queensland’s past environmental record, it could be difficult to find out.

The chances of a new hybrid don’t look good with black petals.

@Dinetta
We’re on Queensland’s gaudy Gold Coast, where the ‘soil’ is made up of dirty beach sand.
If there was a dump here before, they’ve covered it with dirty sand from dredging of the nearby Currumbin Creek estuary.

I’ve put old roof tiles against the fence for now, and the neighbours have put pavers down to prevent the dogs from digging again.

@ frenzal_chik
They often make a dump in places that ‘need’ landfill.
That’s low-lying areas at risk of flooding, and a nice park can hide a lot of sins.

@hortfurball
Yes, there are orange petals, looking very normal.
We don’t think it’s the Nicolai, because the former neighbour who planted them wouldn’t have planted tall-growing Nicolai’s against a fence, and they don’t reach the top of the 1.8 m fence.
He knew a lot about plants; even very many botanical names, and has a plantation in northern NSW.
Or could it be the former neighbour’s hybrid that roughbarked refers to ?

Clogzz said:

Hi all, and thank you for your interest.

@Dinetta
The petals, and the whole plants look very healthy, are growing fast and are a lush green.
They’re against the south side of the fence, and don’t see sunlight for months.
There aren’t any on the other side of the fence anymore, because the people who planted them moved out several years ago, and the new people ripped them out.
The dogs dug to visit each other; the neighbours have a smallish Labrador, and it dug from its side of the fence, exactly opposite our Jack’s dig.

@roughbarked
The Jack Russell did the digging, and it’s been perfectly well since.
The greyhound didn’t participate, probably because there wasn’t enough room for her to reach.
She was a bit sick earlier this week, but has recovered since.
Our previous greyhound died in October, with no conclusive diagnosis from the caravan of vets and professors.
They did about 20 biopsies afterwards, sent them to the University of Queensland in Brisbane, with still no outcome.

We live close to the mouth of Currumbin Creek on the Gold Coast.
The area is made up of yellow brick houses with brown aluminium window frames, looking like the late 60’s vintage, but the electricity meter says 1980.
The ground, not calling it ‘soil’, is dirty beach sand.
There are people who’ve been living in this street since 1970, and they don’t know anything about there being a dump here before.
Even so, with Queensland’s past environmental record, it could be difficult to find out.

The chances of a new hybrid don’t look good with black petals.

@Dinetta
We’re on Queensland’s gaudy Gold Coast, where the ‘soil’ is made up of dirty beach sand.
If there was a dump here before, they’ve covered it with dirty sand from dredging of the nearby Currumbin Creek estuary.

I’ve put old roof tiles against the fence for now, and the neighbours have put pavers down to prevent the dogs from digging again.

@ frenzal_chik
They often make a dump in places that ‘need’ landfill.
That’s low-lying areas at risk of flooding, and a nice park can hide a lot of sins.

@hortfurball
Yes, there are orange petals, looking very normal.
We don’t think it’s the Nicolai, because the former neighbour who planted them wouldn’t have planted tall-growing Nicolai’s against a fence, and they don’t reach the top of the 1.8 m fence.
He knew a lot about plants; even very many botanical names, and has a plantation in northern NSW.
Or could it be the former neighbour’s hybrid that roughbarked refers to ?

An Aunty’s cocker spaniel that was left with my family while she spent several weeks in BrisVegas consoling a recently widowed sister, went into a decline and died…we say she died of a broken heart, even tho Aunty spoke once or twice on the phone (back in the 60’s, in my area, the phone was a privelege and long distance calls were “trunk calls”, with 3 minute pips) to her…

It’s hard when the animals go like this: no matter what love and attention and care you lavish on them, and still their health declines and no-one knows why…

Clogzz said:

Hi all, and thank you for your interest.

@Dinetta
The dogs dug to visit each other; the neighbours have a smallish Labrador, and it dug from its side of the fence, exactly opposite our Jack’s dig.

Oh what clever puppies!

What about a pet door that’s lockable, then they can visit when their respective owners feel up to it?

Obviously the dump theory is kaput.

If it’s got genuinely black petals, I saw on the internet where these are prized as a rarity, so I’d enjoy them if I were you…

Currumbin is a very nice area…I like that part of the Gold Coast, and Tugun in particular…

Hi Dinetta,

It’s sad to read of your aunty’s dog just declining away.
Irrespective of advances in veterinary science, there are still illnesses that science can’t explain.
I also remember the era of trunk calls with pips; they weren’t to be made too often because of their cost.

We can’t contemplate a pet door in the fence yet because the neighbours are slowly doing mostly electrical ‘upgrades’ to their house, and on their side of the fence is a gate that opens onto the street, with materials coming in.
The neighbours can trust their dog to stay inside, but we can’t trust ours, least of all the greyhound.
We’re mostly at work during the week, and so are the neighbours, and that’s when the dogs try to cross fences.
They ignore each other when both the neighbours and us are home.

I’ve had a quick look on the internet, but found nothing yet about black petals.
I’ll try to make photos to post here.
I’ve E-mailed the former owners of the house, who planted them, but the reply may take some time, as they’re not often playing with the computer.

Tugun has got even better since the opening of the ‘Tugun Bypass’.
It’s now a little village … the semi-trailers are gone.

Picture of our greyhound:
http://i132.photobucket.com/albums/q23/Clogzz/EmotiClogzz/Mia.jpg

Clogzz said:

Picture of our greyhound:
http://i132.photobucket.com/albums/q23/Clogzz/EmotiClogzz/Mia.jpg

Awww! She(?) is a very pretty greyhound!

Clogzz said:

Tugun has got even better since the opening of the ‘Tugun Bypass’.
It’s now a little village … the semi-trailers are gone.

Picture of our greyhound:
http://i132.photobucket.com/albums/q23/Clogzz/EmotiClogzz/Mia.jpg

I hope I get back to Tugun one day: went there with the kids, so we could go to Currumbin animal sancturary, as SeaWorld has lost its appeal…it reminded me of Coolum in a way, back in the 60’s before it was “discovered”…

Your greyhound looks a darling…so thoughtful of you to put a sheet on the couch (and what a snazzy cushion as well!) for her comfort…(TIC)…

Wow, quite a bit of activity going on next door, sounds like renos or upgrade of electrical work…brings me back to idly wonder if a sparky tipped something over the BoP to cause the black petals…? Looking forward to a reply from your former neighbours…

Clogzz said:

Picture of our greyhound:
http://i132.photobucket.com/albums/q23/Clogzz/EmotiClogzz/Mia.jpg

I like Greyhounds. :)

Bubba Louie said:

Clogzz said:

Picture of our greyhound:
http://i132.photobucket.com/albums/q23/Clogzz/EmotiClogzz/Mia.jpg

I like Greyhounds. :)

they are supposed to be the ultimate “lap dog” – sooky in nature and love nothing better than to curl up on the couch :)

Hi all,

She’s indeed a lovely greyhound, as they all are … affectionate, gentle, peaceful, quiet, clean and lazy.
She was surrendered, along with her sister, to the local vet by her former owners at the end of the greyhound racing season, because they couldn’t afford to keep them for several weeks without racing income.
There’s only ever one winner per race, so I don’t know how that goes.
The vet was using them as blood donors, and they were due to be put to sleep a few days later.
We rescued her after a call from the Greyhound Adoption Group, and a neighbour rescued her sister.
We didn’t choose ours … Mia; we got her because she ‘had to go first’, because she was whimpering loudly.

The electrical activity next door is somewhat sporadic.
It looks like they’re doing electrical work as their finances allow; much of the work being ‘do-it-yourselves’.
Installing an air conditioner is a job that they stretched over 7 weeks.
The last we’ve seen is pulling wires through the roof space.

The BoP’s already had black petals when we moved in here, so there’s nothing that the present neighbours did that caused it.
I tried photographing them this morning, but it wouldn’t have been any use, because just now there are only some vague orange petals trying to unfold.

Picture of our previous adopted greyhound, who died in October at the age of 6, from a still undiagnosed illness:
http://i132.photobucket.com/albums/q23/Clogzz/EmotiClogzz/Greyhound.jpg

this is Spud Murphy (long gone.) we think he was a greyhound crossed with an Irish Wolfhound, a stray that we took home. Certainly had the nature of a greyhound. Loved to sit on our lap, but his long legs were a problem…

Fascinating cross there, bluegreen.
The problem of long legs is obvious in this picture.
The man is about 1.9 metres tall, and the greyhound is a smallish 2-year-old female.
When I saw her, she looked about the size of a Whippet.

How do you post a clickable thumbnail ?

http://i132.photobucket.com/albums/q23/Clogzz/33/th_Molly.jpg

http://i132.photobucket.com/albums/q23/Clogzz/33/Molly.jpg

Clogzz said:

How do you post a clickable thumbnail ?

I see you already use photobucket. First tick the check box of the picture or pictures you want to post (hover the cursor over the picture to reveal the checkbox). Then scroll to the bottom of the page and click the “CREATE HTML AND IMG CODES”. It will then give you a selection of codes to copy and paste. For this forum use the first selection. Easy!

Thanks, bluegreen; that’s solved it.
I was using the second lot of thumbnails, as used on a board-type forum.
I actually have all the picture links copied to a ‘word document’, so as not to have to return to the bucket every time.
Thanks for your troubles.

Clogzz said:

Thanks, bluegreen; that’s solved it.
I was using the second lot of thumbnails, as used on a board-type forum.
I actually have all the picture links copied to a ‘word document’, so as not to have to return to the bucket every time.
Thanks for your troubles.

that is quite an elegant solution to the long legs problem. Our Spud tended to have them crossed up and sticking out everywhere and you were just as likely to have a foot in your ear as anywhere else.