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Re: Pretty Flowers... YES/Banksia coccinea

Whilst I no longer grow this species, I had a fair degree of success
with it in and unheated, permanently 'open' greenhouse on my nursery
up in the Midlands of England (51'N) during the late '70s.  It was
grown in the ground, in an acid, red loam (Kuyper Marl), lightened
with copious amounts of sharp sand in order to ensure very sharp
drainage.  The plant was acquired as a 3 year old seedling and took 4
years for the first spectacular flowers to appear.  Summer
temperatures often rose to close to 30C. and the shrub was given
prodigious amounts of water during hot periods.  All watering was
curtailed during autumn and the plant was frequently 'bone-dry' during
winter when temperatures frequently fell to below freezing, often
remaining at mere 1 or 2C during the daytime.  At its best, my Banksia
bore 38 flower heads open all at one time during 1980.

A friend who owned the most wonderful 'old-fashioned' type of nursery,
high up in the Malvern Hills, a few miles further south, had a
magnificent specimen growing in an open ended polythene tunnel.  It
regularly produced over 50 large heads every year.  Here, it had to
endure prolonged periods below freezing, although as with my plant, it
was grown in sharply drained, shale-like, acidic soil and allowed to
remain almost dust dry in winter.  This Banksia grew in company with a
splendid, 2.5metre high Leucadendron argenteum, a Stenocarpus and
several Proteas and Hakeas, all of which appeared to enjoy similar
conditions.

Both Banksias succumbed to the exceptionally severe, 'Siberian' winter
of 1981/1982, when prolonged freezing down to -20C was experienced
over many weeks.

I tried a youngster down here, out of doors, on the south coast of
England (50'N), but together with a nice plant of Eucalyptus
rhodantha, died suddenly during a very hot, humid period in the summer
of '95, despite having survived several winters.  The Eucalyptus had
just flowered for the first time and I was not a happy person!

David Poole
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