The flowers of Madeira.

LongK you are right. @pete - my humble apologies

I had been thinking about you, when we saw a variety of Protea growing. I can't grow them at all, but I think yours are actually growing outside.

 

I've got a P. cynaroides growing outside, but if I'm honest its not doing that well, just dont have the right soil conditions.
I spent years trying to grow Telopea, (Waratah) but reluctantly gave up.

 

Telopea speciosissima, bit of a mouthful but spectacular flower.

I remember seeing Telopea Safari Sunset growing in some private gardens there, I bought one from the Eden Poject years ago but only survived for two years.

 

@PeterS, these are Caesalpinia Pulcherima and Plumeria (Frangipani) in flower in August in the Governor's Residence next to the Santa Katarina gardens.

 

Well you cant expect them to put a parade on for just anyone.

 

Lovely pics Strongy. I have tried Caesalpinia Pulcherima (edit - from seed), but it didn't live very long - I gather its a difficult one.

We did go into the Governor's Residence garden, and we certainly didn't see those. It must have been too early. The Brunfelsia pauciflora picture was taken there, though we saw it in one or two other places as well.

 

I know I'm late to this thread, but the waratah (red protea) is specifically telopea speciosissima - the fanciest of all the telopeas that I have germinated and killed before getting flowers...
Pete - I saw that you have impressively achieved protea cynaroides from seed to flower - I only have managed the same for protea roupelli (then killed it) but the australasian proteaceae seem much harder...

 

Thanks Caroline - that's helpful. There were loads of them as cut flowers on sale in the flower market.

I wish I had the environment to grow any sort of Protea. I couldn't grow them outside in Yorkshire, and my heated conservatory is very humid - not good either.

 

Hi PeterS - the one I managed to get to flower was in a cold greenhouse. But when we had -15 C for a few days in early 2010 it finally succumbed (I should have moved it to the frostfree one). Where I am is pretty nippy most winters - but maybe not quite as hard as N Yorks.
Yes, keeping the humidity down is pretty important for Australian and S.African plants (until they get hit by red spider mite because it's gone too far...)
And I apologise to Strongylodon for not noticing that they had mentioned T. speciosissima - too buys looking at the pictures!

 

Hi Caroline - I have a conservatory which is just for plants, with a small space for sitting. I actively try to keep the humidity up so that I can grow rain forest type plants. But of course I try to grow everything in there and am only slowly learning what plants like high humidity and what don't. Some love it - Coleus, Bananas and Gingers etc, and some not quite so obvious ones are very happy like Dwarf Fan Palm (Chaemaerops humilis) and Bird of Paradise (Strelitzia reginae), but others like Plumbago are not really happy, and plenty have died.

 

Hi PeterS - interesting that Strelitzia likes humidity. I kept one for more than 30 years that I'd grown from seed as a teenager. It sat in the nearly frost free outer bit of a greenhouse with an inner section which had some heat. Totally lacking attention - too damp in winter, far too dry in summer. Flowered fine most years - till I decided to repot it from its bursting tub. Killed it. Recently bought some more seed to try again... Now the ginger (gardnerianum) loved the winter damp - but I had to take it out because it had sneaked its roots into the soil and was getting triffid like.
Apologies - waylaying the thread about Madeira... how do we branch this off?

 

I ain’t going there, not a ‘daff’ in sight

 

Joking aside, it looks fabulous