resilience of the king

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bodster
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resilience of the king

Post by bodster »

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 :)
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grub

Re: resilience of the king

Post by grub »

Well you'd best send one up to be in the proving grounds Martin :lol:
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bodster
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Re: resilience of the king

Post by bodster »

I didn't know you'd been converted to protea growing grub :)
grub

Re: resilience of the king

Post by grub »

Only for testing purposes you understand, for the greater good :lol:
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bodster
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Re: resilience of the king

Post by bodster »

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
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Re: resilience of the king

Post by Dave Brown »

That is very useful info Martin icon_thumright 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 :wink:
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bodster
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Re: resilience of the king

Post by bodster »

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 :)
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Mick C
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Re: resilience of the king

Post by Mick C »

you'll convert us all yet Martin!
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Re: resilience of the king

Post by Dave Brown »

bodster 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 :)
So providing we don't get this cold every winter you may only lose one year's flowers :wink:
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bodster
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Re: resilience of the king

Post by bodster »

Mick C wrote:you'll convert us all yet Martin!
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 death
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Re: resilience of the king

Post by Dave Brown »

So it seems to protect the growing bud from extreme temperature and works as well for cold as heat then :wink:
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bodster
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Re: resilience of the king

Post by bodster »

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.
Ali K

Re: resilience of the king

Post by Ali K »

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 :D
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bodster
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Re: resilience of the king

Post by bodster »

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
pete G

Re: resilience of the king

Post by pete G »

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.
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