resilience of the king
resilience of the king
After the worst winter for 20 years I thought my king protea was stone dead. I chopped it back to the ground to see what happened and noticed today that the lignotuber is sprouting. It seems that this adaption for surviving bush fires works well for severe frosts too. Its harder to kill the king protea than I thought
Re: resilience of the king
I didn't know you'd been converted to protea growing grub
Re: resilience of the king
ah well, I'll keep a look out for a spare one for you then mate Those small ones at akamba should also develop the lignotubers so will make very nice robust mini kings
- Dave Brown
- Site Admin
- Posts: 19742
- Joined: Sun Jul 09, 2006 10:17 am
- Location: Chalk, (Thames Estuary) Kent, England 51.5N 0.3E
- Contact:
Re: resilience of the king
That is very useful info Martin It shows that in a one in 20 (hopefully) winter, although you lose all the top growth, the plant is a survivor. As you say if they are burnt in a fire the root stock can come back. I suppose the next question now is how quickly it regenerates
Best regards
Dave
_________________________________________________
Roll on summer.....
http://www.hardytropicals.co.uk
Dave
_________________________________________________
Roll on summer.....
http://www.hardytropicals.co.uk
Re: resilience of the king
I'll let you know that one Dave. I know in south africa they flower again in 18 months so perhaps two years here? As you might expect i've now started looking into which proteas have lignotubers so as to protect my collection in the future
Re: resilience of the king
you'll convert us all yet Martin!
- Dave Brown
- Site Admin
- Posts: 19742
- Joined: Sun Jul 09, 2006 10:17 am
- Location: Chalk, (Thames Estuary) Kent, England 51.5N 0.3E
- Contact:
Re: resilience of the king
So providing we don't get this cold every winter you may only lose one year's flowersbodster wrote:I'll let you know that one Dave. I know in south africa they flower again in 18 months so perhaps two years here? As you might expect i've now started looking into which proteas have lignotubers so as to protect my collection in the future
Best regards
Dave
_________________________________________________
Roll on summer.....
http://www.hardytropicals.co.uk
Dave
_________________________________________________
Roll on summer.....
http://www.hardytropicals.co.uk
Re: resilience of the king
I'm trying Mick Hopefully if we get a decent summer its going to put on some growth Dave. The big woody underground tuber does seem to protect it. I also found the same with leucadendron mrs stanley too. that has come back from near deathMick C wrote:you'll convert us all yet Martin!
- Dave Brown
- Site Admin
- Posts: 19742
- Joined: Sun Jul 09, 2006 10:17 am
- Location: Chalk, (Thames Estuary) Kent, England 51.5N 0.3E
- Contact:
Re: resilience of the king
So it seems to protect the growing bud from extreme temperature and works as well for cold as heat then
Best regards
Dave
_________________________________________________
Roll on summer.....
http://www.hardytropicals.co.uk
Dave
_________________________________________________
Roll on summer.....
http://www.hardytropicals.co.uk
Re: resilience of the king
It certainly seems that way. i think the fine roots rotted in the deluge that follwed the cold spell. this is what killed the other proteas. Theres so much energy in the lignotuber the king was able to reroot its self this spring. I'm going to try a few more lignotuber based ones and see whether thats a common thing.
Re: resilience of the king
Hi Martin, my king protea is doing the same as yours. It lived in a pot in the greenhouse for years but never grew much so I planted it out last year in a raised bed in ordinary soil. It has lost most of it's top growth and I was going to chuck it but I noticed last weekend that it's shooting from the base
Re: resilience of the king
Thats really good Ali. Sounds like its a common thing then - never throw out your king proteas. If you place it somewhere that its going to get a good baking this summer it should recover nicely. It just needs a hot dry and well drained location to recover
Re: resilience of the king
I was hoping to get a flower or two on mine before risking planting it out.
Its been outside all winter in a pot but frost protected.
Obviously its a good thing then to get the plant and ligno tuber to a reasonable size before planting out.
Its been outside all winter in a pot but frost protected.
Obviously its a good thing then to get the plant and ligno tuber to a reasonable size before planting out.