Leucadendron Deaths

Just a few thoughts from my experience:

I wait to plant proteaceae til the fall, when they get natural rainfall, have a chance to sink their major roots before it heats up again and are unlikely to grow fungus from heat and water in the soil.

I don't know what kind of root damage it was, but: 
- if rot, then perhaps they were watered too much for the amount of heat in the soil.  I am prone to add water if their west-facing leaves droop in the hot August sun
-- if actual physical damage, I might have been a disturbance of the small proteoid roots during installation
 – no scoring the ball for these guys!
-- Could be animal damage (voles, gophers etc) but if several different areas were affected, not likely

That said, fynbos plants in general, and most proteaceae in particular are riskier to grow than most other plants. Besides wanting perfect drainage and poor soil, they hate to have their roots disturbed and would really rather have a fire once a while (like our natives) ;-). Still, there's nothing like them!
Gail Klein
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