Grevillea victoriae has been doing fine through all these snows in Fremont (Seattle). After the Jan 20th snows melted off, the plant seemed to erupt with more blossoms. My hummingbirds spent more time next to our house during the snow and cold. If you do not encourage upright growth - i.e. if you have horizontal growth looking for sunlight - snows will weigh G. v. down to the ground. I have removed some horizontal shoots. I do knock snow off when it seems like we will have a lot of wind while the snow is on the branches - just in case branches would break with lots of snow Since the branches seem to be flexible enough to bend to the ground, they might not break. My plant has been in the ground for many years.

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.

I've never grown grevillea from seed and unless you can be sure that both parents are g. venusta - if that's species you want - you won't know until the seedling flowers that that's what it is, although with venusta the leaf form maybe an indication. Best means of cultivation, I think, would be from cuttings taken now to late summer. It's the only way you can be sure that the cutting will be the same (a clone) as the parent.

Hey Roughie. The thing with growing any Proteas from seed including Hakeas is that the seeds need to be in darkness to germinate. Put your seeds in a tray of propagation mix and then put just enough prop mix over the top of them to block out the light, don't bother with vermiculite. In my experience with growing Proteas from seed I have learned that they are very fickle with thier germination times. Some species will come up within a few weeks while others take much longer. I happened on four seeds of Hakea lissosperma (Needle Bush) while working on a herbarium and I thought what the heck, I'll give em a go. After months of care nothing happened then the growing season finished and they got months of neglect to the point of drying out completely. I didn't bother to take the tray out of my little Chickenfeed greenhouse I just pushed it to the back while I started off lots of other new seeds. 14 months after putting the Hakea seeds in one decided to pop up and is now growing like a rocket! By the way roughie, where abouts in Tassie are you? Matt.