Maddingley Botanical

Maddingley Botanical Specialising in Australian and Southern African plants.

Carefully grown, drought-tolerant plants, practical advice and seasonal workshops — helping gardeners grow with confidence.

Possum Magic ready to pop ❤️
23/06/2026

Possum Magic ready to pop ❤️

It's called the water sugarbush, but it grows on dry rocky slopes high in the Cape mountains of South Africa. Protea pun...
21/06/2026

It's called the water sugarbush, but it grows on dry rocky slopes high in the Cape mountains of South Africa.

Protea punctata roots into the seeps, the wet seams where water runs down through shale and sandstone long after the rest of the slope has dried out. Find a stand of it and you've found water.

It's a big upright shrub to about 4m (13ft), with broad leathery leaves and cupped flowerheads of pink bracts with a silvery sheen, the centres paler and almost cream.

That silvery cast gives it the Afrikaans name witsuikerbos, white sugarbush. It flowers from late summer into early winter, mostly autumn around March and April.

The real draw is cold. It comes from high country between 1,200 and 2,000 metres (3,900 to 6,600ft) where winters are properly frosty, so it shrugs off cold that sets most sugarbushes back. A protea for a cool inland garden.

Grow it in full sun with lean acidic soil and sharp drainage. As a seep plant it takes more water than most proteas, but it still rots if it sits wet.

No fertiliser, and no phosphorus. Like the rest of the family it's killed by fire and comes back from seed, so a stand needs time between burns to replace itself.

A tall hardy shrub that flowers through the cold months and lasts well in a vase. If your garden's too cold for most proteas, this is the one to try.

Protea punctata 'Water sugarbush'
📏 Height: To around 4 metres (13ft)
🌞 Position: Full sun
💧 Water: Takes more than most proteas. It's a seep plant, but never waterlogged
❄ Frost: Hardy. Wild plants sit through cold mountain winters from 1,200m up
🌸 Flowering: Late summer to early winter, mainly autumn (southern hemisphere)
🌿 Soil: Sharply drained, acidic, sandstone or shale
🌱 Fertiliser: None. No phosphorus in this family
🏡 Best for: Cold inland gardens, structure, cut flowers
🌍 Status: Least Concern, endemic to the Cape

📷 Di Turner, Nicola van Berkel, Riette Griesel, Fredy Mohoholo and Jenny Potgieter via iNaturalist.

🌸 Places are filling up for our first Protea Masterclasses this July 🌸Proteas aren't fussy. They just live by different ...
18/06/2026

🌸 Places are filling up for our first Protea Masterclasses this July 🌸

Proteas aren't fussy. They just live by different rules and once you know them, they're one of the most rewarding plants you'll ever grow.

The Art of Growing Proteas is our hands-on masterclass. Ninety minutes, start to finish, no jargon and no guesswork. You'll walk away knowing exactly how to grow them at home, in a bed or a pot.

The first ever sessions are two sittings, on one day, with limited numbers.

A copy of our new book Proteas Explained and a plant to take home is included.

📍 St. Anne's Winery - Myrniong
📅 Sunday 12 July
⏰ 11.30am and 1.30pm, limited spots
💻 Can't get there? Register for future online classes.

Don't be the one watching everyone else's proteas flower next Winter!

More info and book now at 👉 proteasexplained.com/masterclasses

Red Baron ❤️
17/06/2026

Red Baron ❤️

There are only about five places left on earth where you'll find Protea stokoei growing wild, all of them on a few cool ...
17/06/2026

There are only about five places left on earth where you'll find Protea stokoei growing wild, all of them on a few cool mountain slopes in South Africa's Western Cape.

It's listed as Endangered, and the more you learn about how it lives, the clearer it is why.

Also known as the pink sugarbush it's an upright, sparsely branched shrub that tops out around 2 metres (6.5ft), a touch more where it's truly happy.

The flowerheads are the thing you remember: soft pink bracts finished with a brown beard, oblong and roughly 9 to 13cm (3.5 to 5in) long and they never open fully.

That closed, cupped shape is the plant's signature. It flowers in the depths of winter, mostly May and June, sometimes holding on toward spring.

Wild plants cling to the Kogelberg, Hottentots Holland and Groenland mountains, on high-rainfall slopes in peaty, free-draining ground.

Here's where its troubles start. Sugarbirds are its only known pollinator in the wild, and like so much of the fynbos it lives by fire, holding its seed in closed heads until a burn passes and then dropping it onto bare, ash-fed ground.

The problem is the clock. This is one of the slowest proteas of all, taking around seven years just to start flowering, so a stand needs long gaps between fires to set enough seed to replace itself.

Burn the veld too often and it simply can't keep up. Add heavy harvesting for the cut-flower trade and the steady creep of alien invasive plants, and you have a species being squeezed from three directions at once.

If you want to grow one, go in with your eyes open, because it isn't an easy plant.

It wants full sun, lean acidic soil and drainage that's properly sharp. The bit that catches people out: it comes from moist mountains, but it'll rot if it sits wet, so drainage matters more than the watering can. Keep it clear of frost and skip the fertiliser altogether, as phosphorus is the quiet killer in this family.

Settle it in and you've got a cool-climate specimen with flowerheads that hold beautifully in a vase and a small piece of one of the rarest sugarbushes in the Cape growing in your own garden. Plants like this are easy to lose and slow to bring back. Worth looking after, if you ask us.

Protea stokoei 'Pink sugarbush''
📏 Height: 2m (6.5ft), to 3m (10ft) where it's happy
🌞 Position: Full sun
💧 Water: Low once established. Moisture is welcome, wet feet are not
❄ Frost: Tender. Wild plants sit in frost-free coastal mountains, so protect it
🌸 Flowering: Winter, mainly May to June (southern hemisphere)
🌿 Soil: Peaty but sharply drained, acidic
🌱 Fertiliser: None. No phosphorus in this family
🏡 Best for: Cool gardens, specimen planting, cut flowers
🌍 Status: Endangered, endemic to the Western Cape

📷 Images captured by Corinne Merry, Carina Lochner, Susan Wessels, Marian Oliver, Peter Thompson and capenature_hhjnk_team1 via iNaturalist.

Banksia Birdsong 😍
15/06/2026

Banksia Birdsong 😍

We’re in love with Protea sulphurea ❤️
14/06/2026

We’re in love with Protea sulphurea ❤️

Protea Donna ❤️
13/06/2026

Protea Donna ❤️

Banksia neoanglica grows on the New England Tableland of northern New South Wales into southern Queensland, mostly betwe...
13/06/2026

Banksia neoanglica grows on the New England Tableland of northern New South Wales into southern Queensland, mostly between 850 and 1,480m altitude.

Cold winters are part of the deal up there.

Where bushfires sweep through regularly you'll find it as a multi-stemmed shrub to about 2.5 metres (8ft), with a thick underground rootstock that springs back after a burn. It hangs onto its seed inside the woody cone until the next fire pops it open.

In the rainforest edges of Lamington National Park, the same species grows into a single-trunked tree up to 7 metres (23ft) that drops its seed as it ripens.

The flowers are the visual hit. Yellow-orange spikes around 10cm (4in) tall, opening from the bottom up. The long curving styles that stick out of each tiny flower start red, deepen to maroon, then go almost black just before each flower opens.

By the time the whole spike is out it looks like it's been wired with hundreds of dark hooks. It flowers from autumn into early winter, which is when most other things in a cold garden have shut down.

If you've got a cold inland garden, this is a banksia built for it. Full sun, sandy soil and good drainage are the basics, ideally on a slight slope. Grown from seed it's slow but reliable. Worth the patience.

Banksia neoanglica 'New England Banksia'
🌳 Height: 2.5m (8ft) as a multi-stem shrub, up to 7m (23ft) as a single-trunk tree × Width: 2 to 3m (6.5 to 10ft)
🌞 Position: Full sun
💧 Water: Low once established. Drainage matters more than watering
❄ Frost: Hardy. Wild populations sit through tablelands winters above 850m
🌸 Flowering: Autumn into early winter (Apr to Jun, southern hemisphere)
🌿 Soil: Sandy to loamy, well-drained, acidic. Loves a slight slope

📸 These stunning photos captured by Andrew Thornhill, Adrian Gale, Lisekool and Janetrineh on inaturalist.

Protea sulphurea ❤️
10/06/2026

Protea sulphurea ❤️

Address

Maddingley, VIC
3340

Telephone

+61403492327

Website

Alerts

Be the first to know and let us send you an email when Maddingley Botanical posts news and promotions. Your email address will not be used for any other purpose, and you can unsubscribe at any time.

Contact The Business

Send a message to Maddingley Botanical:

Shortcuts

Share

Category