Daily Plant: Proteas

Proteas are one of the most hardy plants you can grow and will need such little care you can almost forget about it once planted and does not need great soil either to get started. Under the right conditions Proteas can withstand the hottest summers and very wet winters so long as the plant has perfect drainage which applies to most species apart from protea pink ice which will grow in partial clay based soil.

All the work to ensure they will survive on their own needs to be done once planted, weeds need to be taken care of as soon as they appear as proteas do not compete well when planted from seed or seedling, it is ideal if plant can be mulched as soon as appearing to keep weeds down. Fertilising of Proteas with artificial fertiliser and if fact super phosphate fertilisers can kill Proteas so its best to avoid these type of fertilisers and instead feeding proteas with Epsom salts is much better, Epsom salts will boost the magnesium in the soil, this is best done in spring. Pruning should also be down in spring after the plant has bloomed generally just to dead head the old spent blooms. Thanks for reading and have fun in the garden.