So where are all the Protea enthusiasts?

Why cannot this topic be adequately discussed in the SA Native Plants forum?

Obviously, enthusiasts are not stampeding to post so there cannot be all that many. And with well over a 100 garden-related forums, many of them rarely ever visited, it doesn't make much sense to add yet another for what looks to be minimal activity as well.

Protea is very much a specialized genus. It has many variations like Clematis. It makes such a spectacular and unique flower, and it also has unique soil requirements. It more than deserves its own category. In Australia, this plant is worshipped. Finally, almost no one who wants to find this plant would think to look in South African Native Plants, and even if they did they would never find the category here.

Good luck with that. This site just don't care. Several here tried to get a Haworthia section, never happened. Myself, an Agave section. Guess I have to be happy that in the beginning they started with a Sanevieria which some don't have.

If we devide too much , we will just disappear. I would look for proteas in the South African forum and the Hawaiian forum. The guys on Mauii grow a lot of them.

I remember when there was so many postings on here that some thing you posted would end up in page 3 in a day or so. Seems every body got smarter or nobody post much.

But when you see hundreds of comments on a signal post, that tells you something. When more post are in a subject then the actual forum, that should be another forum.

The other web site a lot of us are at (National Garden Assc.) does the same thing. They refuse to put a new forum in. One post on Sansevieria that I started in House Plants I think has more than 3600 post. Still they refuse to put Sans into it's own forum.

@Stush2049 Pitts. PA, zone 6 Is that Garden DOT Org? I use FB, but the quality is generally really really low

For the record…

I did a search for ”Protea” and found just 426 post going back 22 years.

I also recall the Heuchera forum starting around 2010 as the last forum started.

tj

Westes, Yes that's the one. I use my computer and not phone to log on. Can post with as many pictures as you like and hi res. I think FB is taking over where this started. Can find almost anything of interest and that's were all the exerts have gone. I am on 'Mangave', 'Agave', and 'Sansevieria'. I hate all the sellers from overseas that post on there.

Most people are using FB groups these days. The plant groups are about the only reason I use FB and I find the local groups helpful and one or two excellent international groups although there's a lot of general ignorance in FB land too.

Having said that: even here, in their native land, proteas are difficult. Their soil requirements are very specific, even getting seeds to germinate needs particular methods and Rule 1 is never disturb the roots because we are now starting to understand their relationships with symbiotic fungi so that's a big reason why you won't get many growers worldwide.