banks of banksia

When I was about 12, my parents took me to the Santa Cruz beach boardwalk. That was fine. There was lots of eye candy. There was all that silly adolescent posturing, which I was not a part of. What I really wanted to do was to go to the Santa Cruz Arboretum. I had heard that they had a garden devoted to that new group of plants, the Protea. I was fascinated with them. How could I not be? Flowers of some varieties were up to 12 inches across, like a giant pink artichoke. Others looked like fireworks, or birds. Some even had feathered petals. Their pollination was a mystery although some had hypothesized that they were bird pollinated. They had exacting requirements, not tolerating phosphorus fertilizers.  I had tried to grow one in my yard, probably Protea cynaroides, but it had never done well, not tolerating even a light frost, and putting out only a few spindly growths.

So after the beach boardwalk, my parents took me to the arboretum for a quick stop. I was thrilled. The plantings were new, but it must have been the right time of the year, for there were many plants in bloom. Allowed a half hour in the garden, I spent the ride home dreaming of these plants.

Now, something like 30 years later, I've visited the garden again. The plants are much larger. Much. There are some plantings (not proteas, but an oak-like shrub or small tree) that have warning tape around them, as it was discovered that they have properties not unlike poison oak. The flowers are just as thrilling. As you can read elsewhere, the family Proteaceae are called thus because of their protean or widely varying forms. They are now relatively common in the cut flower industry.


Banksia (from Australia)

Seed cones

Look at the bark! (behind a faded flower)

Grevillea

Protea:

Leucospermum:

Leucodendron: