Maddingley Botanical

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Maddingley, VIC
Maddingley Botanical

Specialising in Australian and Southern African plants.

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

06/09/2026

Leucadendron Harvest ❤️

05/09/2026

Banksia ericifolia ❤️

01/09/2026

This protea flowers on the ground and mice pollinate it. The heads sit flat in the mat, right down at soil level, and they give off a ye**ty smell. Small rodents work over them at night for the nectar and carry the pollen as they go.

This is Protea cryophila, the snow protea. The name means cold-loving and it earns it. It grows only on the highest peaks of the Cederberg, above the tree line and it spends much of the winter buried under snow.

It gets through up there by staying low. The plant creeps flat along the ground, one central stem throwing out branches into a dense mat up to 3 metres (10 feet) across, with leathery leaves folded in against the cold. The big woolly heads are white, tinged pink inside and frosted-looking even in full flower.

Fire kills it outright. It can't resprout, so it comes back only from seed, and it's slow to get there. Plants tucked into cracks in the bedrock can dodge the flames. Only four isolated peaks still hold it and too-frequent fire is the real worry, so grow it from seed and leave the wild plants alone.

It's a hard one to keep, a plant for a cold garden that actually gets snow. Full sun, sharp acid sandy soil and winter wet. No fertiliser and no phosphorus, the same as every protea.

Protea cryophila
📏 Size: Ground-hugging mat to about 3 metres (10ft) across, creeping flat
🌞 Position: Full sun, open and exposed
💧 Water: Winter rainfall. Wet in winter, drier in summer
❄ Frost: Alpine. Sits under snow through the cold Cederberg winter
🌸 Flowering: Mid to late summer
🌿 Soil: Acid, sandy and mineral-poor sandstone. Sharp drainage
🔥 Fire: Killed by it. Comes back only from seed, so it needs long gaps between burns 🌱 Fertiliser: None. No phosphorus in this family
🐭 Wildlife: Pollinated by rodents at ground level

📷 Photos: deriknieuwoudt, Tony Rebelo, helenmoss, Werner Theron, Marian Oliver, elladouglas, Peter Thompson, Ethan le Fleur and harandell, via iNaturalist.

30/08/2026

Looking for a last minute gift for your green thumb Dad this Father’s Day? Order by midnight this Tuesday, 1 September and we’ll get it express post to you for the price of standard postage. For more info and to order 👉 proteasexplained.com

28/08/2026

Banksia coccinea in bud, in a pot, in Victoria 😍

26/08/2026

Juliet 😍

25/08/2026

Leucospermum Scarlet Ribbon ❤️

24/08/2026

Blushing Bride 👰‍♂️🤍

23/08/2026

There's more of this protea below ground than above it. The shrub you see is low, but it grows from a thick woody rootstock buried in the soil, and that hidden lump is what lets it beat fire. When a grassfire burns the top away, it just resprouts.

This is Protea dracomontana, the Drakensberg sugarbush. Above ground it stays low, no higher than about a metre and a half (5 feet) and often less, with reddish stems and cupped creamy-white heads flushed pink at the tips.

It grows high in the Drakensberg grassland, up to 3,000 metres (9,800 feet), tucked among the rocks, through KwaZulu-Natal and the Free State and into Lesotho. One lone patch clings to a single peak over in Zimbabwe.

Its name means "of the dragon mountains", and it's built for them. It shrugs off hard frost and snow through the cold winter, then flowers in the late summer once the rains come. Birds and insects work the heads.

It's a tough plant, easy enough if you give it what the mountains give. Full sun, sharp-draining acid soil and water through the warm months. No fertiliser and no phosphorus, the same as every protea.

Check out our ultimate Protea growing guide 👉 www.proteasexplained.com

Protea dracomontana
📏 Height: Low shrub to about one and a half metres (5ft) high, often less
🌞 Position: Full sun
💧 Water: Summer rainfall. Water through the warm months, drier in winter
❄ Frost: Very hardy. Takes frost and snow on the high berg
🌸 Flowering: Late summer to early autumn
🌿 Soil: Well drained and acid. A high-grassland species on basalt
🔥 Fire: Survives it. Resprouts from a woody underground rootstock
🌱 Fertiliser: None. No phosphorus in this family
🐦 Wildlife: Pollinated by birds and insects
🏡 Best for: A tough, low protea for a cold, summer-rainfall grassland garden
🌍 Status: Least Concern and common through the KwaZulu-Natal and Free State Drakensberg into Lesotho, with a lone outpost in Zimbabwe.

📷 Photos: NT Mkhman, Helen Lewis, murraychristian, Morten Ross, juddirkel, marktownman and bugerou, via iNaturalist.

20/08/2026

Australis Pink 🩷

Address

Maddingley, VIC
3340

Telephone

+61403492327

Website

http://www.maddingleybotanical.com.au/

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