Bird of Paradise : love it - emotes tropical drama in the landscape . The flowers are unique and exotic , especially to this transplanted Bostonian.
Turd of Paradise : nope , not ever . I love it too much to ever get tired of seeing it, plus it is such a workhorse of a plant that performs eloquently without being a demanding dirt diva.
It deserves an Oscar for best performance even when it has a lousy director or set designer.

You ALWAYS make me laugh, Deviant! TURD of Paradise ... I'll never look at the name the same way again!
And yes - you are right about it! It IS all those wonderful things ... so why do so many people have such a negative reaction to it? Maybe it is just severely overplanted here in Los Angeles, so we at Elysian are getting a skewed perspective from our clients.

I mean, the second most hated plant according to our clients is Agave attenuata (WHAT?!?) and the plant absolutely everybody wants is Ficus repens. How does one even begin to make sense out of that?

By the mid-1980s, I was seriously hating on this plant. But it's not so very common anymore, and I like seeing it again. For awhile there, it reeked of everything tacky and vulgar about the 1970s in California.

I like scrims of Ficus repens (same thing as Ficus pumilla?) creeping up a white wall. Reminds me of vacation resorts I stayed at in Palm Springs and Kaua'i.

No good once it covers the wall.

You know, Chuck, the fact that Strelitzia was really popular with the mid-century modern / case study architects who have been so trendy for so long now does influence how I look at the plant - and the 70's California thing has been similarly rehabilitated, don't you think?
So our gaudy Birds reap the benefits...

I'm not immune to the charm of tracery of ficus repens (syn. pumila) creeping up a wall, but that lovely pattern of tiny leaves becomes a big waxy, gnarled mess so quickly! I refuse to plant it. There are limits.

Now I want to know more about mid-century modern / case study architects.

One of my grandmothers had Strelitzia in her backyard, under some kind of Ilex, near Mister Lincoln type roses. Big swaths of red lava rocks instead of grass. Scalloped brick edging. Hydrangeas in the front yard whose flowers she'd spray paint silver or gold when they died.

To me, Strelitzia went with all those things.

Do you know the works of Richard Neutra or Rudolf Schindler? IMO, those are the two mid-century architects to start with. They were incredibly innovative, especially because they merged the indoor with the out ... something became synonymous with the 'California Living' thing. There are alot of Neutra houses in Palm Springs, and almost every tv commercial you see set in a modern house is filmed in one.
Schindler is more obscure, very tighed up in the societal and social impications of architecture, and super-cool. Check them out!

OMG, your grandmother sounds like my kind of woman, and her garden sounds great! And spray-painted hydrangeas? HELLO!!!

Well, it reminds me of my sister's college boyfriend who sent her these flowers on every special occasion. Dad hated the guy--I think he was a pothead--and so the flowers in my mind remind me of well, pot and my angry dad...

I Adore those beautiful birds! They live in my heart next to plastic lawn flamingos.
When we moved into our home 5 years ago it had been a rental for 20 years. Apart from weeds, there were freeway daisies, echium, and birds of paradise.
I turned my back for a second and DH had pulled out the strelitzia and thrown them away. Yes, he was born in LA.

Germi, I think the disdain we Angelenos have for BOP relates to what you always say about monoculture - plopping three or more of the same plants in the front yard and calling it a "landscape" just doesn't satisfy any aesthetic I'm aware of. I know you like Nandina, but that's another one that I often see used this way. It reads as "boring," so the plant itself begins to represent boring.

Plus, I can't stand plants that collect debris, which these seem to do.

I have the giant BOP with the white and purple flowers (strelitzia nicolai) in a container. It's about seven feet tall including the height of the pot. I think I'm kidding myself thinking it will ever bloom, but I have to say, it's a great, showy, structural plant in a container even with no flowers.

You may remember that our traveler's palm bit the dust in the freeze last year, but most people couldn't tell the difference between that and the BOP except that the palm was smaller.

Here's the strelitzia nicolai - http://www.plantoftheweek.org/week063.shtml

Susa - I love love LOVE GBOPS ... that's Giant Bird of Paradise, everybody - and it is a super cool version of the regular BOP. There is no bad way to use a GBOP.
Why don't you think it'll bloom, Susa? I'm sending blossom kharma your way!

Sumcool - see? It is an Angeleno problem - we are Bird of Paradise damaged. I'm trying to cure myself. It is so hard, but I'm trying!

Cathy - I'd never have associated this flower with pot! Only you, my dear... you kill me!

Because it probably needs special things, things like water, nutrients, attention, etc.

These days I would describe my gardening style as "Darwinian:" it's survival of the fittest, and plants must adapt to my negligence or die off.

I am so with you, Susa ... Horticultural Darwinism all the way!