Giant Bird of Paradise Beside a Pool: A West Beach Case Study
The owner of this West Beach home bought it with the pool courtyard already landscaped by the previous owner's contractor: a row of giant bird of paradise (Strelitzia nicolai) in a bed less than half a metre wide, hard against a rendered wall. It photographed well. Within a couple of years it was a problem the new owner could not prune his way out of.
His brief to us was short: something low maintenance that complements the pool instead of fighting it, and fix the damage the plants had done. This page shows what we found, why it happened and what we built instead. If you have inherited someone else's landscaping around a pool, the mistakes here are the ones we see most often.
We have posted this page early, before the final photos of the finished courtyard, because we keep seeing the same mistake from homeowners and landscapers alike: the plant is chosen for how it looks on the day, with no thought for its full mature size or whether its style complements the residence and the people who live there. Final photos will be added as soon as they are supplied.
Before, left: giant bird of paradise five metres tall on the pool side of the courtyard, shedding into the water and only reachable from a ladder on the coping. Right: the same plants at the base, in a bed less than half a metre wide, trunks against the coping on one side and the rendered wall on the other.
Before: the courtyard as we found it, with the stone water feature, the focal point of the pool, partly hidden behind the strelitzias. The wall behind them is rendered cement sheet on timber framing, and by the time we saw it the sheeting had cracked and the frame behind was damaged. A wall built for a garden, not a garden chosen for the wall.
What the previous landscaper got wrong
Plant scale versus bed size. Strelitzia nicolai grows six to eight metres tall and its clump keeps widening. It was planted a metre apart in a bed less than half a metre wide.
The wrong plant against a lightweight wall. The wall behind was rendered cement sheet on timber framing. Trunks and old leaf bases sat hard against it, holding moisture and pushing as the clump grew, until the sheeting cracked and the framing behind was damaged.
The focal point hidden. The stone water feature is the focal point of the pool, and the strelitzias had grown across it until it was partly covered. Planting that should have framed the feature was hiding it, and with plants that size in a courtyard this size the whole back yard felt crowded.
Maintenance nobody could do. Dead fronds have to be cut out four metres up, over the water, from a ladder on the coping. The brown leaves in the photos are what happens next.
Everything it drops lands in the pool. Metre-long leaves, flower bracts and seed pods, straight into the skimmer box.
After, left: the same courtyard rebuilt on the existing pool coping. Custom-fabricated black steel trellis panels on posts set off the repaired wall, a low clipped hedge with climbers trained onto the panels, and nothing hanging over the water. Right: the same wall at night, with up/down lights on each post.
These are progress photos. Final photos of the finished courtyard will be added as soon as they are supplied.
What we did instead
Out with the strelitzias. The plants and their root mass came out first, and it was the hardest part of the job. Giant bird of paradise regrows from any piece of rhizome left in the ground, so the clumps could not simply be cut off at the base; the whole root mass had to come out. With no machinery access to the back yard, every bit of it was dug, cut and carried out by hand. That is how a poor plant choice works: one person’s lack of foresight becomes someone else’s cost, paid years later.
The wall made good. The cracked cement sheet and the damaged framing behind it were repaired and refinished before anything new went in. The clean white wall is now the backdrop, not something the garden is fighting.
The existing bed and coping kept. Nothing was rebuilt. The pool coping stays as the edge of the bed, and the bed that was hopeless for a six-metre strelitzia is exactly right for a low hedge and climbers. Fit the plant to the bed, not the bed to the plant.
Custom black steel trellis panels. Galvanised and Powder-coated steel panels fabricated for this wall, mounted on the wall with support from below and set off the render so the cladding doesn't support the entire weight of trellis and mature plant. They give the height and screening the strelitzias were providing, and complement the pool area without a plant that has to be five metres tall to do it.
Lighting built into the structure. Up/down wall lights on each post light the panels at night, and the fittings can be serviced without touching a plant. enhancing the pool making it a night time feature
Low, slow, tidy planting. A low clipped hedge along the wall and climbers trained onto the panels. The mature size fits the bed, the plants drop very little, and everything is trimmed standing on the deck. Nothing hangs over the water and nothing touches the wall. making the pool accessible from all sides.
Rules we apply to every pool garden
Choose for mature size, not nursery size. A plant that leaves the nursery in a 200 mm pot and finishes at five metres is a five-metre plant. Size the bed for what it becomes.
A style that complements the residence and the owner. A plant can be healthy and still wrong for the house and the person who has to live with it. Choose for the architecture, the setting and how much gardening the owner actually wants to do, not for how the pot looks at the nursery.
No clumping or trunking species against lightweight walls. Strelitzia, bamboo, bananas, large cordylines and palms all push outwards as they thicken. Rendered cement sheet on timber framing is not built to push back.
Low-shedding plants near the water. Leaves, flowers and seed pods end up in the skimmer box. Pick plants that keep their foliage and not fast growing crowding your view
Every plant reachable from the deck. If it needs a ladder on the coping to prune it, it is the wrong plant for the spot.
Lights that complement and enhance focal points Plants grow and cables chafe. Fittings on posts or walls last, and can be serviced.
Beds sized for the roots, with drainage away from the pool. Root mass and water both need somewhere to go that is not the wall footing or the pool shell.
Inherited someone else’s landscaping?
If your pool garden has the same problems, or areas that just look wrong Call Val on 0411 555 359