On 10/3/05 8:07, in article ,
"Chris Hogg" wrote:
snip
I lost several young Proteas last year, raised from seed
with much difficulty and angst over several years. Both this year and
last, my Echium fastuosum was setting flower buds nicely, only to have
them frosted off, fleece notwithstanding. With the cold winds we had
at the same time, the fleece was just ballooning like a parachute and
probably not offering much protection. The irritating thing is that
about a quarter of a mile away, and 300 feet lower at the bottom of a
south-west-facing hillside just above the beach, they're untouched!

Fortunately the plants themselves seem to have survived, although they
look pretty ragged ATM. But they come easily from cuttings, which I
take each year just in case, and grow rapidly, typically 2 ft or so in
a season. When they're successful, they're superb. Dozens of 12"
candles of Anchusa-blue flowers. Echium pininana (the very tall one)
seems to have survived OK, but I don't like it as much.

But as you say, some pleasant and encouraging surprises. Compensation
for the disappointments perhaps.

The antidote I prescribe is a trip to Tresco where proteas and echiums
abound. The latter grow wild. It makes me furiously jealous because we
just can't grow them here. They last one season, don't flower brilliantly
and never come through the winter. We suspect it's the wet as much as the
cold that does for them.
--

Sacha
(remove the weeds for email)