Beautiful colours Bill. Almost looks like a sea Anenome waving it's tentacles aruond. chas

Love that colour. A very nice, but hairy "toothbrush" :>)

I applaud you for the effort you have gone to, to get your grevillea growing in a pot. When you water the pot, perhaps you could try immersing it in a bucket of water, until all the air bubbles stop coming out of the pot. This really is the best way to water pots. Sometimes potting mixes become "hydrophobic" which means they repel water, and it is difficult to water pots from above when this is the case. Perhaps you could try buying a smaller Grevillea banksii, the one in the picture is large and does look like it should be in a bigger pot. A smaller plant might be easier to handle and would have a greater chance of getting used to its situation, early on. If you buy a plant that is reasonably advanced it has become used to its place in the nursery. Then you take it home and plonk it on your balcony and it could go into shock. A word about the cow manure, make sure it is well rotted. You sound like you are interested in plants, perhaps you could do some research into your "local species", I am sure there are horticulturists in Brazil who must be interested in preserving the local plants. Sounds fascinating. Drainage is important too, so let the pot drain when you have done the immersion in the bucket. It is equally important to make sure the pot does not have too much watering. So make sure there are dry periods between watering. You could stick your finger into the potting mix to get an idea as to how wet the mix is. I have seen this tree growing near me and it is huge. Here is a link that might be useful: Plants of Cerrado region.

HJ, I'll post a picture of the boab flower when it is out but don't hold your breath as I've been waiting a couple of weeks now. Marion, I'm not really sure from the photo. I'll try and get a close up of the leaves in the next day or so, it is getting too dark now but probably won't be until Monday though. Mine is definitely a grevillea, one of the rainforest ones and I'm fairly sure it is baileyana. The leaves are bigger - longer and wider than buckinghamia and the backs of the leaves are slightly hairy with a goldy/bronze colour. Especially noticable in windy weather. According to my natives book there are another couple of rainforest grevilleas that have silvery/white backs.