Bow to the King

This is the king, the one and only King Protea, Proteaceae cynaroides argueably the most spectacular and best known protea. Well known throughout the world, it is very tolerant of many growing conditions and does especially well in most areas of Australia. I have grown this one for four years now and have never had a problem with it. This one flowers for most of the year as well, more so in the colder months. It is about at its best now. It gets pruned when my wife rushes out to chop its flowers off for her vase indoors. Thank god the flowers lasts for months cut. Give the plant a chance to regenerate.

Very prolific in South Africa, these plants have many variations in size and colour. My plant only grows 0.5 metre tall with lolly pink bracks around the flower head. Generally maximum size is no more than 2 metres and some variaties less than 0.5 metre so well be easily managed even in the smallest of gardens. I never feed nor water and it thrives. Same warning for this one as with any native Banksia or Grevillea NO PHOSPHORUS.

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Flickr : Proteaceae, South Africa, bracks, cream, flower, pink, protea

Doug.

Mass Orgy

This long cone like structure is the flower spike of a Banksia spinulosa var. collina. There are thousands upon thousands of flowers on this one spike and the bush is covered with about 50 spikes. This plant has been in my garden about 10 years now and it never stops flowering. It peaks in autumn and is still going strong late winter. Never water it, never feed it, all I do is prune it when it gets too wild and that is usually after peak flowering. Its planted in a raised bed on clay base soil, the only problem it seems to get is an abundance of bees in a frenzy around it when peak flowering. You cannot disturb the bees passion otherwise they get upset with you.

These plants are related to the Proteas of South Africa and most of these plants have similar growing conditions. In particular to all Proteaceae plants is they are light feeders and definitely no phosphorus. So don't go throwing grass clippings around these plants.

Doug.

Flower of the Season - Autumn 2008

It is now late autumn in Australia and this beauty Tibouchina lepidota has been flowering for several months now. In the suburbs of Sydney, if you go for a drive or take the train, you will see this shrub in every second garden it is so popular. It is my Flower of the Season for 2008.

This plant is in my front garden and was only planted 18 months ago. I thought I lost it last winter due to some heavy frosts in the area had turned some of the stems black and it lost all its leaves. I was patient and waited til late spring to prune the dead stuff off. It is now almost a mitre tall and covered with flowers.

These plants originally came from Ecuador and Colombia, which are pretty steamy places. I don't think they get frosts there. Thats basically the only problem with these plants is lack of tolerance of frosts but if you can get them to live for a couple of years, you've won the battle to keep them thriving. All I do during the year is to give them a feed with all purpose slow release fertilizer in spring (after pruning of course) a deep watering once a week during the warmer months and try to protect from frost in the cooler months and thats it.

Regarding frosts, make sure you deeply mulch around the bush and could try one of the polymer sprays which are commercially available. In Australia there is a product by Yates called "Stressguard" this works a treat and have used for many years on a variety of plants.

Doug.