Protea

Anyone tried proteas before? I got a load of seeds from South Africa and they are popping up nicely - guess it will be a few years before they flower :D

 

I've got a king protea growing outside with protection in the winter.

I've tried a few others, (not many), but after a year or so they tend to die on me.

 

Hmmm, any idea why they didn't make it?

Did the King flower at all?

 

they grow wild on the mountains of the cape (south africa) in poor well drained soil ... summers are extremely hot (in the 30 degree C) with little or no rain, and winters are cold (but not as cold as the UK) and wet

so, I'm just guessing, but think that if you place protea in a conservatory and water during winter and let them dry out in summer, they may flourish?

they make lovely unusual cut flowers, and last for very long

 

Rootball I think getting the drainage right is one of the problems, the other is probably our dark damp winters, when its difficult to ventilate due to freezing fog etc.

My king has flowered for two years now.

 

Wow! Now that, is a flower :D

 

Pete that is fantastic.

I had a short try with a packet of mixed seed. But the only two that germinated, struggled for a couple of years then died. I never did find out exactly what they were. I came to the conclusion that the feng shui was all wrong for them in my greenhouse.

Did you use smoke paper Rootball to get them to germinate?

 

Nice one Pete . I have had a couple over the years but lost them after a couple of years ..

Dave

 

Yeah soaked in smokies for 24 hours - took a couple of weeks before I saw anything pop up. Key seems to be low temperatures, but having said that I have some other ones that refused to germinate and when I moved them to the hot polytunnel they came up nicely :WINK1: