I brought some Protea seeds back from South Africa for my mother in law she planted them in sand and compost but they have all died apart from one ! any suggestions on how she can hold on to the last one .
Pete's your man. He has grown them. I was given a packet, which I sowed a month ago - so far two have germinated, so I would be interested in what anyone else has to say about them. Pete talked about treating them as halfway between an ordinary plant and a cactus. Apparently they like very good drainage - and the Potassium in normal plant food is poisonous to them. But I am only repeating what I have been told.
Hi blue, I'm not an expert but have had some sucsess with cyanoides and I have some seedlings of aurea coming along now. They hate lime, so ericacious compost is required, but I add about 50% sharp grit to this and some lumpy composted bark helps. the idea is to help with the drainage and "thin down" any fertilizer the compost may contain. A very sunny position is best but with good ventilation, they hate damp humid atmospheres, once they are really moving a fair amount of water is required in hot weather but much less in cool cloudy conditions. I think Peter found a supplier of special feed for them, one which doesn't contain phosphate which they dont like apparently, I tend to feed with a normal balanced feed but at a higher dilution. I hope this helps, good luck.
I had forgotten about the fertiliser - but easy to Google again. http://www.trevenacross.co.uk/search.asp put protea fertiliser into their search field. My mistake - its not Potassium (K) thats bad for them - but phosphate (P).
Thanks everyone for your help,she is still managing to hold on to it and it is doing quite well fingers crossed
