On 11 Jan 2006 02:52:47 -0800, "La Puce" wrote:


Chris Hogg wrote:

I have many of these, as you might expect (Trevena Cross nurseries are
just up the road!). I'm very pleased to hear that many will cope
without winter sun. But you've given me a few that I hadn't thought
of, which was what I was hoping for. Many thanks.

I was on the Trevena Cross website yesterday!! I've been successful
with 3 Proteas seeds (outta 8) and they seem to know what they're
talking about. Which make me think about the possibility of growing
Proteas where you both are! Are you?! I'm just about to transplant mine
now but they will off course stay in my veranda as it is far too humid
and damp where I am. I'm so worried I get it wrong ... but it's very
exciting )

Congratulations on getting them to germinate. I have a flower bed with
15 protacea (proteas, leucadendrons and leucospermums), about half of
them grown from seed. Planted it out last summer. Each plant had about
100kg of grit and the best part of a bale of peat dug into its
planting hole before they were planted, to ensure good drainage. Some
of the proteas are looking a little sad after the frosts over the
Christmas holiday (-2C), although surprisingly they're the ones
supposed to be more hardy. I hope they'll recover. If not, I'll try
others.

I prefer the proteas and leucospermums for their flowers, but the
leucadendrons seem to be a little hardier. TVX nurseries didn't have
any leucospermums until recently, and I had great difficulty
germinating them. Many complete failures. Do you know about smoke
treatment for assisting germination? I use it, but I find that often
it doesn't help. The pots remain stubbornly empty :-(

Where do you get your seed? I used to get mine from the South African
botanical society, but they've stopped sending free seed to overseas
members. In the UK, Chiltern do some, and there are several commercial
suppliers in SA that I might try e.g Silverhill Seeds.

When you pot them up, use a very free draining compost. I use a mix of
equal parts acid soil, peat, perlite, washed quartz grit-sand and well
rotted pine needles, with a generous helping of horticultural
charcoal. Avoid fertiliser, especially phosphates.

They do like plenty of fresh air, preferably a breeze most of the
time. Mine are prone to getting a black leaf fungus that starts at the
leaf tips and works back to the stem. It will kill the whole plant if
not treated. I found the hard way that the only effective remedy is
Mancozeb, available to gardeners as Dithane 945 in the UK and commonly
used for potato and tomato blight.


--
Chris

E-mail: christopher[dot]hogg[at]virgin[dot]net