Have you checked out Silverhill seed? They have a good rep on RSA plant seeds and ship here regularly. Here is a link that might be useful: Silverhill

Mike, Some Australian proteacea do grow slowly - and take many years to flower. As to whether a seedling-grown or a cutting-grown flowers any quicker, I have no actual experience but I think either way you could be waiting many years for flowers. Anyway, your access to local info is probably better than ours, unless you want to throw yourself on the mercy of one of the Australian Native Plant organisation http://anpsa.org.au/ and see if someone has a contact to another nursery, or a botanical garden or private garden who might give you a start. I guess the only alternatives, are to try to directly import a plant either mail order, or through someone you know who's travelling to Australia, picking one up and bringing it back as luggage. There are bound to be Australian Nurseries with the set-up to export overseas, but the cost to do so for one plant, could put it out of your reach since what-ever method of transportation or arrival condition your quarantine required (eg bare-rooted) would involve express couriers. Same goes for the alternative, really. You would presumably need an import licence at your end, and a phyto certificate at least from this end. However if you want to investigate further, this is the web-site for the Australian Nursery Industry http://www.ngia.com.au/MainMenu They may be able to provide a list of australian nurseries who export, and that might narrow down your search Good luck

Rainforest plants last longer than wattles, and I think you'd be able to grow them there. Get ones labelled "drought-hardy", as they have deeper roots which don't annoy, the way the roots of the plants of moister rainforests can. The drought hardy rainforest species grow naturally in dry rainforests, and tend not to be as tall as those from moist rainforests. As a type, they tend to be more suited to gardens. Hollywood - Pittosporum rhombifolium or Auranticarpa rhombifolia - would be about perfect. It's very dense, about 2m across and 5m high, with foliage almost to the ground if it's grown in the open. It makes a good, quick hedge if planted at 2m intervals. Some of the lillypillies would also do well - I'd suggest Acmena smithii, which has similar density and form to the hollywood. Trish

That's a nice looking Hakea. We only have the one species here, a white one. Plants from the southern coast of WA are better adapted to wetter and heavier soils than those from further inland and along the west coast. It's very much a maritime climate and quite wet for a lot of the year.