A few years ago I first discovered protea. I was instantly
drawn to these amazing flowers. Lack of time and space while at school has kept
me from buying these fascinating plants, but after years of wishing I could
grow them I decided to take the plunge and buy some seed. I still have one year
left at UCLA but I figure the plants wont get too big over the course of a year
so I can manage them on weekends. I did some searching online and looked at a
lot of seed from different nurseries selling on eBay. After getting discouraged
about the expense of seed on eBay I ventured out to the abyss of the World Wide
Web and eventually happened upon the website for Fine Bush People. I found
their seed to be much better priced at 15 cents a seed and was happy to see
their shipping was also fairly priced. After getting a little carried away I
ended up purchasing 200 seed. Don’t forget to add the smoke primers to your
order if you buy seeds. You will need those to help your seed germinate.
Each order comes with very easy to follow instructions
On June 9th I put the nut like seeds of leucadendron
and leucospermum in the water with the smoke primer. I let them soak for a
total of 30-40 hours. They have a waxy seed coat that prevents water from
getting in and the directions suggested giving them more time to soften the
seed coat so it could be gently rubbed off. I soaked the seeds for 24 hours and
then removed the seed coat. The directions suggested soaking in regular water
for 24 hours and then smoke primer water for 24 hours but I opted to give the
seeds more smoke exposure and soaked them with the primer the whole time. The
‘fury’ seeds of protea I soaked for 24 hours in water and smoke primer.
I ordered 10 seeds of each kind except for protea cynaroides
I ordered 20 seeds. In order to keep each seed type separated I put each in its
own plastic 2 ounce cup for soaking. According to directions each smoke primer
disk is good for 100 seeds or 50ml of water. Measured out it comes out to just
enough water to cover the tops of seeds in each cup. I just put what looked
like enough water for each seed type and did not bother with measuring.
I put tape on each cup and wrote the name of each plant on a
cup before putting the seeds in.
I also took each smoke primer disk and cut it
into ten equal parts so that each cup would get its own slice of primer.
I
added the water first so I could pour out any excess then put the slice of
primer in. I let each primer soak for about five minutes and swirled it in the
cup to start releasing the smoke and mix it evenly. I then added the seeds. Some if not all the
seeds tried to float due to water tension so I spent a lot of time going
between each cup and pushing the seeds into the water until they were saturated
and stopped floating.
I made a mix of two parts peat moss, one part vermiculite
and one part perlite. I used a nursery plant tray with smaller holes so it
would hold my mixture. I also decided to try the idea of using egg trays to
germinate seed. I only had four egg trays so I planted each one with one type
of seed. The rest of the seeds I divided out in the large seed tray. I used
plastic forks with tape as my plant tags. I found they were a cheap solution
and were very easy to stab into the soil.
The temperature during the time you give your seeds to
germinate is very important. According
to the directions seeds germinate during the cold Western Cape South African
winter period. The seed therefore needs to be kept cool during germination. Nut
like seeds need to be kept at 59- 68º F during the day and 39-50º F at night. The
hairy seeds need to be at 39-50º F. At the time of planting we had cool 60º F
nights in San Diego but I decided that was not cool enough especially when
temperatures jumped to 80º F. I opted to
store my seed in my basement because it keeps a steady cool temp regardless of
the outside temps. My guess is it’s a consistent 50-60º F.
Here is what I got
Protea eximia
Protea longifolia
Protea roupelliae
Protea scolymocephala
Protea venusta
Protea burchellii
Protea compacta
Protea cynaroides
Protea grandiceps
Protea neriifolia
Protea nitida
Protea repens
Leucadendron album
Leucadendron dregei
Leucadendron sessile
Leucadendron discolor
Leucospermum conocarpodendron
Leucospermum cordifolium
Leucospermum reflexum
Hopefully in 1-3 months I will have good news and be able to
post fun new pictures of my protea.
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