Banksia integrifolia
Archive entry 25.08.19
25th April 2015
A large shrub or tree reaching up to 20m tall in its native habitat, the eastern coastal strip of Australia. First collected by Joseph Banks, the botanist who accompanied
Captain Cook during his circumnavigation of the globe in the Endeavour, 1786 - 71. Candle-like yellow flower heads are produced in winter. There is a a large
specimen growing at the Eden Project that I have admired for years.
3rd December 2015
In spring I was able to purchase a seedling and it is just the thing to fuel my developing interest in the Proteaceae. It has grown surprisingly rapidly.
It started in the same greenhouse as the cacti but by the end of summer I had to move it to the Agave house. A few months later it had to be dug up again and moved.
It wasn't particularly impressed and lost a few lower branches, but I think it has now established in a new (more suitable) location. There isn't room for it to become a tree
but there is space for a moderate bush