On 12 Jan 2006 05:25:32 -0800, "La Puce" wrote:


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.

They've not come through their first winter yet. I may not have any by
April.

(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.

Google with smoke germination seed in the search box if you're
interested. The germination of dozens of South African and Australian
plants can be enhanced by this treatment. I used to keep bees years
ago, and still have my smoker. Trays sown with seed are put into a
small makeshift tunnel made from a few concrete blocks and a couple of
pieces of slate, and smoke pumped in for about thirty minutes.

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.

I'm no expert on Protaceae seed, and a lot of them are very similar.
Many proteas have hairy seed, while for leucospermums, smooth hard
seeds like tiny nuts are more common. Leucodendrons can be either
hairy or smooth. Don't forget that there are some sixteen genera of
protaceae in SA, not just those three!

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?

Plastic, but it's not critical IMO. Terracotta might allow the roots
to breathe a little more, I suppose.

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?

I really don't know, but quite possibly. They get it whether in pots
in a greenhouse with windows, door and roof vents always open (a bit
like your veranda I guess), or planted out in the ground. But the
humidity in Cornwall is always fairly high.


--
Chris

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