The Red bird of paradise is a robust deciduous shrub with a soft feathery texture and mounding habit, growing 6-10 ft. tall and as wide. Its bluish-green foliage is bipinnately divided into numerous small leaflets; striking orange-red and yellow flowers occur in terminal clusters from late spring into summer.

Red bird of paradise comes from the West Indies and shows widespread adaptation to hot microclimate locations in the Inland Empire where it thrives in summer heat and low amounts of summer water. It is one of the most colorful flowering accent shrubs for courtyard and southwestern plantings in commercial and residential settings. Weekly watering during its summer flowering cycle will prolong blooms, otherwise it grows well with low amounts of supplemental water in summer. The many stems grow very fast and this plant should be pruned hard late in the fall to manage its size and encourage dense growth.