It definitely looks like a protea to me, but I couldn't tell you what kind. They are not native to Hawaii--they're from South Africa, I think.

Near Lake Hodges in Escondido, Ca, we have 4 large Leucospermum "Veld Fire" plants which are doing extremely well, though they get shade from Eucs nearby, and the soil is fairly dense. They are about 7yrs old, 7'x7' and covered with blooms in May. (see link below) I made about 50 cuttings a few years ago, but only one rooted (dipped in Physan, Dip n Grow, and put in 16oz plastic cups, 1:10 spagnum to course sand). It is about 4ft tall now and should bloom in 2015. The cuttings were kept outside during the fall, and didn't get the necessary heat & humidity. I just made 16 new cuttings, younger wood, drenched in Physan, dipped in root hormone powder, put in plastic cups containing 1:4 perlite & course sand, moistened with dilute Physan H2O and kept in a sunny window inside this time. I hope to get at least 50% of the cuttings to take this time though won't know for several weeks, so may be wishful thinking. I may put one in a large pot on the deck, but most will go into the ground in well drained sunny location. I would welcome any suggestions for propagation by cuttings if you've had success. I'm just a hobbyist, and not selling any plants, but like to share plants, seeds, and gardening tips. Also, would like to trade cuttings if anyone has a nice red Leucospermum. I need to trim the plants, and have many more cuttings than I can use, and don't want them to go to waste. Here is a link that might be useful:

Actually, cut flowers of Proteas, Leucospermums and Leucadendrons are not all that hard to find at higher end florists, or go to the Flower Mart in San Francisco. Flora Grubb nursery in the Bayview District of San Francisco always has a great selection of Proteas, Banksias, Leucadendrons, Leucospermums, etc, with many of them already in full bloom in one or five or even 15 gallons sizes. Annie Hayes of Annie's Annuals is a personal friend of mine,(as is Richard Ward of the Dry Garden), and you're right, she does have a great selection of South African plants, with nursery prices being cheaper than mail order. She typically doesn't have the widest selection of Proteaceous species from seed, but does sometimes have some juicy things propagated now from cuttings of stock plants at the nursery, such as Mimetes cuculatus. If you do make the drive up from the south bay, you can easily hit all the nurseries here in Berkeley, Oakland, Annie's in Richmond, and Flora Grubb in one day. The Dry Garden Nursery in Oakland often carries smaller one gallon specialty proteas grown from seed by local backyard growers, but the prices are likely to be a bit higher than one gallon sized plants from Sierra Azul Nursery in Watsonville. Sierra Azul Nursery in Watsonville has a very good selection of Proteacea plants, all grown right next door at Rosendale Wholesale Nursery, and their acres of display gardens are well worth a browse as well, Another source of Proteas would be the annual spring/fall sales at UC Santa Cruz Botanic Garden, or browse what they have at the book store/nursery near the entry/parking lot. In southern California, there is also Jo O'Connell's nursery that does mail order, and she has a good selection of Australian and South African Proteacea plants. She is located in Ventura, and her website is www.australianplants.com If you would like to get tapped in to the local horticultural scene and get better inside sources for plants, I would suggest joining either the Western Horticultural Society at www.westernhort.org and based in Los Altos, or the California Horticultural Society at www.calhortsociety.org and based in San Francisco. Joining either gets you a subscription to Pacific Horticulture Magazine, as well as monthly meetings, field trips to gardens, local wholesale nurseries, etc. You may find you get bitten badly by the bug/interest in South African plants, I know I have, and love designing gardens with Fynbos plants such as Proteas, Restios and succulents. UC Santa Cruz Botanic Garden and the demonstration gardens at Sierra Azul Nursery in Watsonville are both great local to you examples of what one can do in their own garden.

You're lookimg at a Mediterranian climate, dry summers and wetter winters. Temperatures do approach freezing but not all that often. They should be able to take short, light freezes, but not sit below freezing point for any length of time. The main worries with them is poor drainage, they're susceptible to root rots. And also over fertilisation. They usually come from nutrient poor soils that drain fast. Too much phosphorus can kill them so any fertiliser used for them should be low in "P". They grow very well in southern Australia because there's a lot of similarity with their native climate. Temperatures there can get below freezing but the days always warm up above. Summers get very hot, usually with low relative humidity.