In the ground, Twinberry and orange honeysuckle, when in bloom are top notch attractors, along with Lucifer Crocosmia and Jacob Cline Bee Balm. I have what is labeled as Dropmore Scarlet Honeysuckle in a 5 gallon pot, it is very popular, along with Chilean Glory Vine, also in a large pot. They have both overwintered in pots the past 4 years. I have grown cuphea the past 6 years or so, Cuphea ignea does not overwinter for me but seems to get the most use. I grow it with the cuter Bat faced and Tiny Mice type cupheas in baskets.

Dotty, Thanks so much for the reminder :-) Ever since I started my little project, I have looked forward to having a little gaggle of my own. As I've waited for many of my plantings to mature and bloom, I placed 3 different feeders with no success. I know they are around because they will come early in the AM sometimes when I'm watering and hover in front of my spray nozzle. I'll patiently explain to them where the flowers and feeders are but........:-( My inlaws live in a retirement center and they have them like crazy on their second floor balcony so I've had to leave my little mini garden of eden and go over there just to get my fix. They just replaced their feeder with one of the Oasis type that look like a flying saucer and that quadrupled their visitors. After reading your post, I spent a bunch of time this weekend on the HB forum here and researching on the net and went and bought a new feeder to try and see if I couldn't convince them to come NOW and be patient until I have more for them. I've got a lot of plants on GG's list and I'm going to add some grevilleas and more salvias as soon as I can find them. I get so busy going forward with each next phase that I forget how bad I want a garden full of hummers and butterflies. I get tons of the latter but thank you so much for reminding me how bad I covet the former :-)

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.

You're having a bad time, aren't you Penny? Have you been fertilising? If you have been, stop it at once! As Mallee points out in reply to your banksia question, fertiliser can be poisonous to some natives, expecially those in the Proteaceae family, which include banksias, grevilleas and waratahs. Some people fertilise those plants with a special native fertiliser, which, if sparingly used, can hurry up young plants a bit. However there's no real need to fertilise native plants at all. If you have fertilised your potted grevillea it may be possible to flush some of the excess phosphorus out of the soil by lifting the pot so the water can run out the bottom easily, and then watering generously. Mallee's other point about poor quality water is another good one. Have you been using water polluted with detergent? If you are in a position to use rainwater only on your Proteaceae it's a good idea. Can you use bore or townwater where you are? If you are restricted to greywater, you could try keeping a jug beside the sink where you put the detergent-free water (such as the rinse-water from the teapot). Trish