I saw this gorgeous flower in the supermarket today, and I fell in love. Does anyone grow this plant? If so , where did you purchase yours? I saw seeds for sale on Ebay,but I have never bought seeds on there. I was also wondering, what is the best way to germinate these seeds ? TIA
Patti
Protea
Hi Patti,
I too wanted to grow them, but they are not for my area. It's been a while since I googled them, so I have forgotten why. They are native to Australia and New Zealand. I contacted one of the nurserys that google listed and their site listed the growing needs. Oh well...They are something else. Let me know if you have any luck.
Nancy Lee
Patti, proteas can be hard to start from seed. If you want to start from seed, I would suggest buying from someone who also sells a "smoke kit" with them. Not actually smoke, but a little disc you disolve in water and then soak the seeds in. Sounds intimidating, but speaking from experience, it's simple (and I generally suck as seed starting!). Seems protea seeds are "sparked" to germinate by natural fires and these discs somehow do the same thing to the seeds. Otherwise, I've heard they are pretty difficult. Myself, I've started from seed and bought live plants. Seeds I bought from Seedrack.com several years ago. They had a good selection of proteas last I saw, but they have a fairly poor rating on the GardenWatchDog now. You might try just a lower $$$ amount order from them first. They came with the smoke disc and I got probably 75% germination when I purchased mine several years back.
I also got a live King Protea plant from Grassy Knoll Exotics last year. She shows to be out of them right now, but you might be able to contact her as to another source or when she might have more.
http://gkexoticplants.com/Miscellaneous.htm
One thing to consider - do a little research before you decide which protea(s) you want to buy. Many supposedly won't take our humidity. Having said that, I've got several King Proteas - two I started from seed about three or four years ago, and one - mentioned before - bought from Grassy knoll last year. All three seem to be ok so far.
Carter,
Thanks for info. Your right they don't like humidity. I would like to see pictures of your Protea.
Patti
Patti, lol, I can show you pics, but mine are still small plants. Not much to look at! Oh, and actually, I think many (if not most) proteas are native to Africa, not Australia (I thought that, too, before I started checking into them).
Thanks for the correction, Carter. I'm still upset that they don't like humidity, for I have plenty of that here. I take from your post that they are also very slow growing? Well, at my age, there is no sense...
Nancy Lee
I am also disappointed they don't like humidity .. They would have looked so pretty in my garden too.