Proteas

Can anyone out there help me - I have a young proteas plant grown from a 3 inch cutting. Its been growing in a pot indoors for about 12/18 months and is now about 24 inches tall. How do I encourage it to grow sideshoots to bush out, as at the moment it is just one long stem and every couple of months or so, a new crown of leaves appears at the top.

 

Hi, Conny-boy, I'm not sure about how to encourage side branching on a Protea as I have only grown a couple and although they did branch early I lost them in their third year. They are not the easiest plants to grow, I'm not sure whether perhaps cutting the top out would be a solution, perhaps others here can give you more advice.

 

Conny-boy some interesting info on this site try the links at the bottom of the first page.
http://protea.worldonline.co.za/gardtip.htm

 

I grew a protea cynaroides (king protea) some years ago and did find that it tended not to branch.
But the long floppy stem eventually produced a flower in late winter one year.
After that I had to prune the plant and it never flowered again.
So, not sure but my guess would be, dont prune if you want flowers.
But its a large varied collection of species and my experience of one is not much to go on.
I now have a small one year old seedling of the same, and its growing prostrate, so who knows? :D

 

Thank you, Strongylodon, Walnut and Pete. Its quite mild here in the west of Ireland and we have the right kind of soil - ie, very acid, free draining etc, so i think when the weather warms a little bit more, i will try it outside -nothing ventured and all that.