5 Protea repens Seeds (Sugarbush) Red Form - Indigenous to South Africa - Worldwide Delivery

This sturdy, dense shrub produces fairly large deep red flowers during winter. It is an excellent addition to any "wild-life" garden as the large amount of nectar produced by the flowers attracts birds and insects. The plants are tolerant to a large variety of growing conditions but will show some frost damage at temperatures below -7 degrees Celsius.

The amazing variety in plant size, habit, flower size and colour of the genus Protea was the reason it was named after the Greek god Proteus, who could change his shape at will. The species name of 'repens', meaning 'creeping' is misleading as Protea repens is an upright, much branched shrub, which normally grows to a height of 2.5 metres but can reach a height of 4.5 m. Protea repens was grown under glass in the Royal Collections at Kew in 1774 and flowered around 1780, the first protea ever to have been flowered in cultivation away from the Cape. It was also the first protea to have been grown outside in gardens in Australia, New Zealand and California from about 1890. Protea repens was the National Flower of South Africa up to 1976 and has inspired songs such as "Suikerbos ek wil jou he", which was composed on Lion's Head near Cape Town.

Protea repens has been exploited for centuries, as a source of firewood as well as for the nectar produced by the flowers and more recently by the cut flower industry. The abundantly produced nectar was collected in the past to be boiled into a sugary syrup, the so-called 'bossiestroop', an essential component of 19th century medicine chests in the Cape. The cut flower industry utilises the variation in flowering time and flower colour and has produced many beautiful hybrids or varieties, such as 'Guerna', 'Liebencherry', 'Sneyd', 'Sugar Daddy' and 'Venus'. These plants and the cut flowers they produce can be found in nurseries in New Zealand, Australia, Israel and of course South Africa.

The "flowers" of Protea repens are actually flower heads with a collection of flowers in the centre, surrounded by large colourful bracts. The shape of the flowers is very distinctive, chalice-shaped, and forms an inverted, brown "ice-cream cone" seedhead. The flowers are pollinated by Scarab Beetles and Protea Beetles and many other insects, as well as by birds. The birds are attracted by the nectar as well as by the insects visiting the flowers. The development from opening flower to complete closed flower takes from six to eight weeks and the seed develops over the next seven months.

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