ok, here goes, first question, probably of many... when I bought the house in Oct, the birds of paradise were in full bloom. Now the blooms have died, do I need to cut them off? do I need to do any pruning or anything?

The bed is right along the front of my house which faces directly East, so it gets full sun all morning. So far I have pruned the roses down near the base, and weeded out dandelions. that's it. There are two other plant varieties that share the bed, one is like a shrub or bush with long stems that have small pink flowers on the ends, and the other is like a grassy plant with shoots up to (if I remember correctly) purple flowers.

Rellie
I am a newbie gardener as well. My parents used to have several bird of paradise and this is from the experience I had then....may want to wait for more people to come through with answers.

Not sure what type of bird you have?

Oh yeah watch out for the sap....it can stain your clothes!

thanks, they are the orange variety. appreciate the help.