Chris Hogg wrote:
Congratulations on getting them to germinate.

Thank you. I took care of them as if they were my children.

I have a flower bed with
15 protacea (proteas, leucadendrons and leucospermums)

How truly wonderful.

(snip)

I prefer the proteas and leucospermums for their flowers, but the
leucadendrons seem to be a little hardier. T

(snip)

I haven't got a clue what they are but have long thin hairy leaves
which make me think I have maybe a leucadendron of some sort. I only
which it was the argenteum )

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 :-(

No. Never tried. I have a perfect veranda as a greehouse.

Where do you get your seed?

From the depth of my friend's pocket, fluff included. She returned from
South Africa and said 'here, look what I've got for you'. She simply
collected a few hairy seeds.

Come to think of it, perhaps you could help me finding out what I have.
The seeds were minute, round, brown and firm. They were surrounded in a
fine tangled white/grey hair to which the seed was attached. I planted
a bit of the hair with the seed.

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.

Yes. Will do. What pot do you use? Plastic or terracota?

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, thank you very much. I will however try not to use chemicals.
The black fungus, is it because of damp do you think?