Hazel, congrats on your Protea baby!!! Did they need any special treatment, read about the smoke rings earlier? So you may be getting some more to sprout soon, how cool would that be! What's with the egg-box? Just curious as ever!
Gill
PS my plumie is real slooooooow as it's still ony 2/3inch leaves at the mo, however my seedlings are romping away and may soon overtake 'Celadine' height wise at their current rate of growth...plus, wait for it...3 out of the 4 have banches already! Very odd, I didn't think they branched till after producing an inflo (on saying that Celadine didn't branch last year after flowering so is still a single tip, mmmmmh). How are yours these days? See you back on the plumie forum maybe.

Hello Gill, I downloaded the information from thefinebushpeople site and planted the seeds individually into the little egg cells of the box in the suggested medium with a little variation (perlite and supersphag) and every night put them in the frig.at aroung 5 degrees and every day placed in a shady window in the warmth.I think I was supposed to plant each egg cell into pots after each seed germinated because the roots are fragile. Guess what? just like our plumeria seeds the seed case got stuck and so I did what I have done to the plumerias and gently lifted the whole seedling out and removed the coating. I thought as I've now got the seedling out I might as well plant it up without the egg box cell. I've now put the new baby into the greenhouse which goes nice and cool at night and high in the day(what!that's if it stops raining!)which I'm told is just what they need also I must not feed it unlike our plumerias.
My plumerias are great and yes my seedlings do branch. I'm so pleased your babies are thriving.I hope you get your protea seeds it's great fun rising to the challenge but I have't raised it beyond the seedling stage yet!
Hazel.

Hi Hazel, well at least you have got over the first hurdle with one protea seed so thats got to be a bonus for sure...good luck with the others!
Those seed coats are tricky little blighters aren't they? I too had probs with them. Who do they get to pull them of in the wild I wonder???
Keep us posted on their progress as I'm really interested in reading all about them. Just been looking at the FineBushPeople site...mmmmh, very interesting. Can't wait for daughter and her partner to visit S.A. in Oct!!!
Cheerio.
Gill.

Well I'm sorry to say all the rest of my protea seeds have rotted. My first protea seedling is looking good and is just over an inch high and growing painfully slowly. It is currently in a greenhouse getting what little sun we have here in the U.K. Can anyone let me know if it will be O.K. in an unheated greenhouse during the winter when the temperatures could drop to freezing?
Thank you.
Hazel.

It should be fine, mine stay outside all winter and last winter it got down to a freaky -5ºC (22F)! BRRR! and it did fine. Mine get plenty of water during the winter and do great, so don't keep it too dry.
Too bad you didn't have a drought like last year! your protea would have been happy as a clam.

Hello Heathen1, Thank you for your reply. I don't think even the unheated greenhouse will get that low but outside here in the U.K. would be pushing it's luck. Mmmm - Happy as a clam? I like that!

Hazel, so pleased to hear the protea is still alive and kicking. Pity about the rest of the seeds having rotted, same thing happened with my Desert Roses, I am left with just the one now and its doing fine, so fingers crossed for us both eh?
Why do we try to grow stuff that is clearly not native to our area? It's such fun having these challenges and gives us that bit of 'street cred' I guess! lol!!
What with my plumies, Canary palms, Desert Rose, Mango Dragon Trees, vicious aloes that stab me and draw blood on an almost daily basis, my 5ft strelitzia (which is pushing out 6&7th leaf so far this year but no sign of those elusive flowers) I am fast running out of room! Oh, almost forgot, my Hoya from my Ozzie Aunt is in bud too! Needless to say I have emailed DEFRA and am awaiting their reply as to if daughter No2 can bring me some packets of seeds back from South Africa in Nov or not. If she can, I would be more than happy to mail you some....interested?? (You can mail me at gms53@aol.com)
Regards, Gill.
PS think you may like the little character below!!!

Oh! Gill, He's lovely!I do think you're talented! I collect his books and other memorabilia etc and have all his very old annuals including his first.There's one on e-bay at the moment which I already have.
Thank you for your very kind seed offer but I'm all seeded out and with the heated propogater incident I'm a bit reluctant to chance my luck! I think my protea and my plumeria seedlings will be the last. I've already got to find space again for my adeniums,strelitzia,orchids,50+ plumerias and others back into the house.
DEFRA will get back to you as I asked import questions last year.
Kind regards Hazel.

Hazel, any chance of a pic of the baby Protea, would love to see what it looks like? What type is it?
Have heard from DEFRA, if plants ARE listed then can bring max of 5 retail packets of seeds without certification, but would have to declare them. More than 5 or loose non-retail seed then certif needed. If NOT listed then as many as you wish with no certif or need to decalre. Don't want any problems for them so will have a think about it, and may well pass on it, not worth the trouble especially as I'm running out of room!
Gill.

Hello Gill, here's a picture of my two spathodeas,the caesalpinia and the little protea. I am trying to send felix on the e-mail I sent you as per your instructions but it only sent the link. I will try again.
You will probably get better results on your tropical seeds in the Kew exotic seed section in main garden centers and without the trouble.
Regards Hazel.
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Yeahhh It worked this time!!!!

Hi Hazel, nice plants you have there. So it's a baby King Protea then, my word I hope it gets to flower for you, really exotic is that! How old are the spathodeas? The Caesalpinia looks healthy and compact. Hope they all survive the colder months to come snug and warm in the house.
Yes, I just got the link back in the email! hehe! You WILL crack it!
Will check out the Kew Exotics next time I venture to a big enough Gdn centre....but I recall what happened last time I went there all to painfully!
Hope your sister is well enough to go out for the meal with you.
Regards, Gill.

Hello Gill, The smaller spathodea is from seed I grew last year, also the caesalpinia. Both gave good germination and I was able to give the other seedlings away to friends. The larger spathodea is a rooted cutting of around 18 months which a friend in Belgium located for me in France. I had to pay double shipping as the French nursery doedn't ship to the U.K. so it has proved quite expensive ( around £30 including all the shipping) I do hope it will prove worth it.
I live only a mile from Ashwood nurseries famous for their gold medal lewisias and helebores at Chelsea and they usually have the Kew collection.You can google Ashwood nurseries. Let me know if you have difficulty locating the seeds and I perhaps can help?
Regards Hazel.

Hazel, thanks for the offer, I will bear that in mind. On thinking about it though as we are already in our Autumn, perhaps best if I hold off on getting any more seeds for the time being and TRY and wait till next Spring when hopefully we should have a better chance of germination. It is all sooooooo tempting though isn't it? Good luck with your 'trops' this winter.
Oh...BTW, I noticed my strelitzia seems to be splitting into 3 separate fans of leaves now as a few weeks ago it pushed out 3 new leaves all at once from different parts, and today a further 2 are coming through. This is going to be really difficult to house soon as its already well over 4ft and will soon have 15 leaves. I certainly hope for that flower stem to form this winter.
Take care. Gill.

Hello Gill, Many years ago at a garden centre I asked the owner how he knew when the strelitzias he had were going to flower rather than have a new leaf as they all look the same to start with. He said if the new point is from the last new leaf stem it will be a leaf, and if the new point came from below it would be a flower spike. This has proved correct for my plant. If you gave your plant loads of light and sun (Ha! Ha!) this summer your plant could flower this winter as they can flower here in the U.K. anytime. Keep looking!
Rooting for you! Hazel.

Hazel, yes, I had read that somewhere before. Unfortunately these are appearing from out of the last leaf sheath, so 2 more leaves I guess. They are quite 'pointy', but then I have no idea what a flower stalk would look like. Oh, well, at least its growing! Read also that leaves are produced during the so called 'summer' months and flower stems/buds during winter. One day I will get lucky although it had better be soon now that it has split into 3...earlier on with just the one 'crown', the leaves were all on one plane, now they are coming out all around a full 360 degrees, and each new leaf it progressively bigger and on a longer stalk. Good job we have high ceilings!
Gill.

Hi Hazel:
I have seen your Protea King Photo. It is still small and I hope it will grow for you. I find that King is pretty easy to grow. Don´t fiddle around with it very much. Wait for it to grow to at last 10" before repotting it.
What is your potting mix? It must be very light, lots of sand that will not permit water to accumulate at their roots. I grow mine in full sun. I have plants that are 8 years old and are about 8 feet high and 4 feet wide. They have lots of flowers.
Best luck with your plant have patients.
Season greatings for all of you.
Rudy