Welcome to 'PEP', our “Protea Education Program”. Our ultimate goal is to educate and inform about the benefits of Protea...flowers beyond the ordinary. Your questions, comments and suggestions are always appreciated.

If you missed any previous issues of the “Proteaceae 101” newsletter, please visit this page our Protea Tips and News page.

Let love blossom. Beautiful Protea flowers should be displayed without distraction, a wonderful flower arrangement that is elegant, simple and exotic. This Valentine’s Day, share the beauty of a Protea bouquet with someone you love; spoil them with a long-lasting Protea arrangement.

All Valentine's Day orders will ship Tuesday February the 11th for a timely Valentine's Day delivery. Order now. Order your Valentine's Day Protea Bouquets here.

From the time that Jan van Riebeeck landed in Table Bay at the southern most tip of the African continent, an ever increasing number of Cape plants made its way to Holland and Dutch gardens. Not unnaturally, the Dutch favored bulbous plants and succulents, with the results that protea were virtually unknown except for the occasional plant in the Amsterdam botanical gardens.

Far to the north, in Sweden, a young medical student made his way to the more affluent Holland to complete his higher medical degree. His name was Carl Linnaeus (1707 – 1778) and is considered by many as the ‘father’ of protea because he launching Protea into the botanical literature. He was a keen botanist and spent many hours studying and cataloguing these magnificent flowers. Even then, the Dutch did not pay much attention to this mysterious plant. It would be years later that another Swede, Carl Peter Thunberg, possibly Linnaeus’s most gifted pupil, stepped ashore in Southern African, and in the shadow of Table Mountain, started studying Protea in its natural environment. While Thunberg’s interest in Protea was purely academical, his sometime traveling companion, a young Scottish gardener named Francis Masson, had rather more ambitious designs on the Cape flora.

In 1772 George III appointed Sir Joseph Banks as the Scientific Advisor to the Royal Gardens in Kew. Francis Masson was amongst Banks’ first appointments and was off to South Africa on a quest for new plant material. And that’s how Protea got introduced to England. And it was the common Sugarbush - Protea repens, raised from seed by Masson in 1774, that was the first recorded Protea to flower away from it’s native land.
 

Protea repens 'Sugarbush'

Source: The Proteas of Southern Africa by J.P. Rourke

Want to try your hand at growing proteas from seed? Visit our Protea Seed Starter Pack Page now.

Did you know that Proteas ranks the highest amongst cut flowers when it comes to vase life? Order your Valentine's Day Protea Bouquets now.

If you’re looking for a gift idea, something special for your Valentine, you might consider our one-minute diamond and jewelry cleaner for only $4.99. Manufacturer's money back guarantee included.
 

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