Protea Species, Giant Protea, King Protea (Protea cynaroides)

Protea Species, Giant Protea, King Protea
Protea cynaroides

It took six years to bloom..but are they large or what?

Yay!

Thanks Kell..that's a lot of springs waiting to see if buds form. This really is a hobby for Methulasa. Right? lol..I mean you got to get into gardening young and quickly find a home to wait 30-50 years for everything to get large.
Or I guess be wealthy and buy them big.. ha..

You remind me of my old bonsai friend. Burl was about 30 years older than I was. We were great pals. We would go to nurseries picking out bonsai wannabes then train them. We would sit for hours chatting as we admired our works. LOL But he constantly grumbled that he should have started doing bonsai when he was 20 for he would be dead before his grew old enough to be of interest. And he was correct. He died. But we did have fun. Gardening is a lot about lusting. Have you noticed that?

Also,lots of fantasy. Everytime we pick up a plant at the nursery- we see it big wowee-wow-wow! ..in the future of our garden.
A few times Kell things sort of lined up. in 1993 I planted a Howea palm thinking of the day it will grow so tall in the backyard it will look great from the street. I really did.
Well,it's 2020 and you can see a head of fronds above the roof...from across the street. I would say its only 3 years into that phase. Might be 30 more years before its WAAAAY up there and visible from a block away. I don't think I have more than a decade left. Family history so far.
That's the other thing. I can't move. I mean I'm rooted deeper than a Mesquite tree to the bay area! We all can't be Ruth Bancroft with our acre garden made into city botanical garden or Loren Whitelock and his acre or so of Cycads that were then taken by the Huntington.
Maybe why I'm putting what I can in ground. Crowded in ground still beats waiting decades for a potted plant to grow.
Although ,I do have a 40 + year old Bonsai dwarf Schefflera I started in 1978!

No photo of your 40 + year old Bonsai dwarf Schefflera? I want to see it!!!

You are so correct! Fantasy for sure is a big part of gardening. Part of the magical thinking that a tropical plant will for sure survive a bit of snow. LOL Or for sure I can find a spot for that huge tree in my over planted yard. I once bought a so expensive Acer pseudoplatanus 'Eskimo Sunset' because I could not survive without it. Sadly it could not survive with me! https://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/showimage/453187/

I could be studied for my lustful, fantasy gardening. It is a disease! LOL My husband tells me my brain stutters. It gets hooked on a plant and my brain keeps stuttering telling me I need it over and over again.

The worst is when you do not even care for a particular species but you are addicted to its genus and therefore you need to acquire every species you can find. LOL No thought can be given to where it will live or if you even like it. I was like that with Plectranthus. LOL Of all the plants I could get obsessive about, I picked Plectranthus.

I am off to look up Howea palm. LOL And fantasize it high above your house looking over you as you garden.