FINALLY a fertilizer for proteas thanks to Waltzing Matilija

While most of the posts on Succulents and More are about succulents, some fall into the “more” category. This is one of them.

My love affair with the Proteaceae family (informally referred to as “proteas”) goes back a long time. Over the years. I’ve grown the most common members in my garden: Protea, Leucadendron, and Leucospermum from South Africa as well as Banksia, Grevillea, and Hakea from Australia. As beautiful as they are, they do have some special requirements you need to know in order to be successful with them. Above all, they’re intolerant of too much phosphorus in the soil so general-purpose fertilizers can harm or even kill them. (They still need phosphorus, just not at the levels usually present here in California.)

In Australia and South Africa, protea fertilizer is widely available. Not so here. Until recently, nobody in the U.S. manufactured fertilizer specially formulated for proteas. My friend Troy McGregor, Australian-born plantsman extraordinaire and owner of Waltzing Matilija, a small nursery specializing in rare and unusual plants from the southern hemisphere, has single-handedly changed that.

“I’ve spent years tinkering with retail and commercial fertilizers, trying to find something that would provide the proper nutrients to my plants without overdoing the nutrient load or giving them too much of what they don’t need,” Troy says. Nothing he tried worked the way he wanted, so he decided to create his own blend: Gondwanaland Protea Fertilizer. It’s a slow-release product good for 3-4 months. You can apply it right on top of the surface without having to work it into the soil. In fact, you shouldn’t mess around with the soil because you might disturb the delicate feeder roots near the surface.

My Leucadendron ‘Jester’ will appreciate a feeding – for the first time ever

Handy scoop included

As you can see, you don’t need a whole lot because proteas aren’t heavy feeders

Troy sent me a bag of Gondwanaland Protea Fertilizer to try, and I took the opportunity to also apply some chelated iron and pelletized sulfur to my proteas (currently three grevilleas, three leucadendrons, and two banksias). Since Troy’s fertilizer already contains sulfur and iron, adding extra probably isn’t necessary, but I had some handy so why not.

Proteas have evolved in soils naturally low in phosphorus. Our native soils, and most commercial soil mixes, do contain phosphorus, often at levels higher than proteas would like. There’s some evidence that cereal grasses (oats, wheat, etc.) as well as brassicas (cabbage, broccoli, turnips, etc.) extract phosphorus from the soil, but for most home gardeners, planting barley or collard greens around their proteas isn’t feasible or desirable.

But there’s an alternative: making the phosphorus in the soil less available. According to Troy and Ernesto Sandoval, the former manager of the UC Davis Botanical Conservatory, dropping the pH of the soil to 6 or less and adding extra iron binds phosphorus in an unavailable form. That’s exactly what iron and sulfur do. It does take a while for them to have an effect so they’re not a quick fix, but they’ll make a difference in the medium term. You could be all scientific about it and measure pH before and after, but that’s not me – I’m more of a fly-by-the-seat-of-my-pants kind of guy.

One of two recently planted Grevillea lavandulacea ‘Tanunda’ in my garden. A small dose of protea fertilizer will give them a good headstart.

Another benefit of extra iron: It prevents/treats chlorosis (pronounced yellowing of the leaves), something grevilleas are prone to.

This post may contain way more information than you ever wanted to know. If so, simply get a bag of Gondwanaland Protea Fertilizer and be done with it. You can order it directly from Troy through www.waltzingmatilija.com. It’s not cheap, but a little goes a long way.

While you’re at it, be sure to download Troy’s free ebook Succeed with Proteaceae in Your Garden. I posted about it back in August (here). It’s an easy-to-understand guide that helps you keep the proteas in your garden happy.

Full disclosure: This post may seem like a shameless plug for Gondwanaland Protea Fertilizer, but it really isn’t. Troy did send me a bag for free, but he and I have been friends for a long time, and I whole-heartedly believe in what he does at Waltzing Matilija. And I gladly would have paid for the fertilizer because it promises to be a great product.

© Gerhard Bock, 2024. All rights reserved. To receive all new posts by email, please subscribe here.