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 “Proteaceae 101” please visit this page:
http://www.DiscoverProtea.com/new_media.htm
 

We are undergoing scheduled maintenance on our web sites and flower operations from September 24^th to October 21^st. We will not be able to process any new orders during this time. Recurring orders and orders placed before September 24^th will go out as scheduled. Due to our continued growth, we are changing, but, staying the same. Thanks to all the overwhelming support and positive feedback we have received over the past two years, we are streamlining our operations. Our Protea bouquets will remain the same (if it ain’t broke , don’t fix it), our Protea Seed Starter Packs will remain the same, we will be adding more jewelry items and the web sites and logistics will be overhauled. Thank you for your continued support and patients during this upgrade.

Below are two Giant Sequoias, Sequoia National Park. Note the large fire scar at the base of the right-hand tree; fires do not kill the trees but do remove competing thin-barked species, and aid Giant Sequoia regeneration.

Fires also bring hot air high into the canopy via convection, which in turn dries and opens the cones. The subsequent release of large quantities of seeds coincides with the optimal post-fire seedbed conditions. Loose ground ash may also act as a cover to protect the fallen seeds from ultraviolet radiation damage.

So, you ask, what does this have to do with growing Protea. Well, fire and germination off course.

The Proteaceae family is found in a vast variety of vegetations, from savannas and grassland to heavily overgrown hillsides. They thrive in areas that are prone to periodic veldt fires. Many of the Proteaceae have evolved specialized survival techniques in response to these fires. Their strong root systems and thick bark on some varieties, have given these extraordinary plants the ability survive the heat and smoke generated by fires. In fact, fire and smoke provide the major trigger in the wild for the Protea seeds to start the germination process. Seed can lie dormant for years waiting for the right conditions, usually brought on by wild fires. For these fire-sensitive species, habitat burning is the single most important cue for triggering germination of the dormant seed.

In growing fire-prone floras commercially, particularly those of Mediterranean zones, a solution had to be found to germinate the Proteaceae seed, without burning your growing fields every year. Following the discovery that smoke stimulated germination of this rare South African Proteaceae, the exploration of the benefits of smoke-mediated germination has expanded to different parts of the world and has been applied in nurseries and in rare flora conservation. 

It became clear that seed dormancy of Protea seed is broken when 1) the seeds absorb water; 2) the seed are subject to relatively low temperatures; and 3) the seeds have been exposed to smoke. Various methods have been tried; aerosol smoke, smoke dissolved in water and solids (activated clays or sand particles) that have been smoked have all been effective in promoting Proteaceae seed germination. Various chemicals have also been found to break dormancy in the seed, and even soaking the seed in green tea have been reported to trigger germination in some varieties.

Once again, thank you for your support. Talk to you again in November.