Designing with Protea Venus

Protea Venus is here to sweeten your Valentine’s Day with its radiant red blooms. This relatively new species, with its striking appearance and bold character, is quickly becoming a favorite among designers. Known for its impressive size, delicate yet strong flower bracts, and dramatic color, it brings an exotic touch to any design project. Whether you're creating a floral arrangement or styling an event, this beautiful protea offers endless creative possibilities.

Before diving into design ideas, it's important to understand what makes Venus so unique. This protea is a South African-developed hybrid that’s a mix of aristata and repens (sugarbush). Venus stands out with its rich, red bracts tipped in white, soft, red central dome and long straight stems.
 

Here are a few ways we've incorporated it into designs.

The rich red and white tones of Venus make it a popular choice for bouquets. Pair it with colorful waxflower, lush Leucadendron and textural grevillea for a romantic, high-impact bouquet.

Venus works wonderfully as the centerpiece in intricate arrangements. Its bold shape ensures it doesn’t get lost among other flowers, and its natural beauty makes it an eye-catching focal point.

For home decor, consider using Protea Venus in a wreath. A hanging wreath filled with these striking blooms can create a jaw-dropping visual impact. The strong, architectural nature of Venus makes it perfect for such displays.

Venus is a flower that can transform any design with its unique blend of elegance, drama, and timeless beauty. Whether you’re creating a vibrant floral arrangement, styling a wedding, or incorporating it into your interior décor, this stunning bloom offers endless possibilities for creativity. With its bold structure and beautiful color palette, it’s no wonder that Venus has become a go-to flower for those looking to make a statement.

The Protea Attraction - Hummingbirds

Despite being stunning cut flowers, proteas not only add color and texture to floral designs, but they also attract a symphony of nature's nectar-seeking guests like birds, bees, and butterflies. Once you've had the pleasure of observing these pollinators in action, it's only natural to want to see them more often, like my favorite... the hummingbird.

Hummingbirds love proteas thanks to the flower's abundance of both pollen and nectar, especially over the long winter months. It’s fascinating to watch a hummingbird as it darts around from bloom to bloom and the dance it performs is unlike any other bird. Its bright, shimmering colors, rapid flight, and the ability to hover in midair are a few of the traits that make it so unique. During courtship dives a hummingbird can reach speeds up to 60 miles per hour and can average speeds of 20 to 30 miles per hour. It can rotate its wings in a circle and it's the only bird that can fly forward, backward, up, down, and sideways. Such high-energy movement requires that it feeds every ten to fifteen minutes. These amazing birds bring so much excitement and wonder to the field.

Hummingbirds are most attracted to flowers in shades of red and orange.

Our top 3 Hummingbird-Friendly Proteas

Protea - Sugarbush

The best-known genus of the protea family and the one for which it’s named. These flowers vary in size, shape, color, and form and rely on their showy bracts for visual appeal.

Grevillea Flowers – Bush Lollies

These lollipop-like flowers, also referred to as Bush Lollies, Bush Toothbrush and Spiderman, provide masses vibrant, textural blooms throughout the year. Their popularity comes from their willingness to flower and flower.

Leucospermum - Pincushions

Leucospermum or more commonly called pincushions put all their art into the colors of the flowers themselves as well as the flowing shape of each curving component. These fanciful blooms atop sturdy stems make for colorful rest stops (or landing pads) between flights.

Red, White & Blue Centerpieces

Beautiful centerpieces are a lot like wonderful guests. They add a festive ambiance, lure the eye, and spark interesting and inspiring conversations. With the summer’s abundance of fabulous florals, fruited stems and branches, anyone can easily assemble an arrangement that's dynamic, alluring, unexpected… and it might even become the talk of the table.

Consider hosting a 4th of July gathering and set the scene with a colorful arrangement fashioned with gorgeous proteas and array of other fabulous flowers and foliage. The good old red, white and blue is a classic color combination that will never go out of style, especially if you're gathering is on the 4th of July. Take the arrangement pictured above, for instance: The patriotic color scheme is vibrant and cheerful and the basket conveys a picnic vibe which is perfect for the occasion.

One of the best ways to get inspiration for centerpieces is to look to your table settings and consider the food you plan to serve… they can all kindle great ideas. You could echo the blue in a tablecloth or incorporate the same fruit you use as a garnish on desert.

Scroll down for a little more red, white and blue inspiration.

2023 Color of the Year: Viva Magenta

CHEERS to the Pantone Color of 2023: Viva Magenta 18-1750. Described as “a shade rooted in nature descending from the red family and expressive of a new signal of strength.” Considering this hue is meant to “encourage experimentation and self-expression without restraint”, it’s fitting that protea lovers will embrace this color. Not only are there plenty of magenta protea to choose from but, they too are symbolic of diversity, individuality and the courage to stay true to oneself.

Viva Magenta is “powerful, empowering, brave and fearless, and a pulsating color whose exuberance promotes a joyous and optimistic celebration. It is a new animated red that revels in pure joy, an electrifying, and a boundaryless shade that is manifesting as a stand-out statement. Viva Magenta welcomes anyone and everyone with the same verve for life and rebellious spirit. It is a color that is audacious, full of wit and inclusive of all”.

When it comes to proteas which are appreciated for their vast selection, meanings and overall “unique” nature, this color selection is perfect. Here’s just a few of our picks to look for in 2023.

Ceres

Venus

Brenda

Andrea

Lienbencherry

Banksia Coccinea

There are certain things that exemplify Australia, that are true icons of the amazing Land Down Under and there is no doubt that the Banksia is one of them. Banksia have earned a place on this list as they can be found all over the country. Many varieties have names that describe a certain physical characteristic, like the Banksia coccinea… or also known as the Albany banksia, the Waratah banksia or the scarlet banksia. Native to the coastal sand dunes or the southern edge of Western Australia, Coccinea is considered the most picturesque, though by far not the biggest of the banksia flower spikes.

The blossoms of the scarlet banksia illustrate the signature qualities of this protea genus, a barrel-shape inflorescence with hundreds of tiny flowers mounted on a woody cone in corn-cob-like rows. The male flower parts are the white and the longer female ones are intensely red. A general reluctance to reflex keeps these structures or pistels looped back in on themselves until they are finally released at anthesis - the period during which a flower is fully open.

Color Enhanced Banksia

The brighter the better in some cases, and that’s what we’re loving these days when it comes to banksia.

The banksia is a bold and textural bloom that’s displayed in many of our favorite designs. For any season, there’s always a way to make them work no matter what the occasion is. I think the uniqueness of a banksia is what makes it loved by so many of us. When it comes to designing with banksia, the options are seemingly endless. Such an exceptional flower can be transformed by the designer, projecting a different look depending on what else it is paired with it. You can go with red, white and blue hues, or add more color to the stems and create a virtual rainbow.

Color Enhanced Banksia are eye-catching flowers when combined with lively, vibrant colors and the unique bloom shape. The flower spikes provide a textured look and feel, indulging even more into the brilliance of the colors and showing them off with intensity, boldness, and flare. Banksia are hardy flowers and they dry beautifully, making them a perfect option for or almost any occasion, like Independence Day, Halloween, Thanksgiving or Christmas… the possibilities are endless.

Where the Leucospermum Grow

Fields of leucospermum or more commonly called “pincushions” sway in the breeze blowing through the hills, creating a vibrant welcome mat for those who venture up into Rainbow Crest. These vibrant red, orange, peach, yellow and bi-colored flowering heads are formed mainly with long, sprout-like structures that end in a globular knob called a pollen presenter. Together, the mass of styles look a lot like pins bristling from a “pincushion”, a similarity that has given rise to the popular name for this genus.

Leucospermum comprises some forty-eight species, of which all but three are endemic to South Africa’s Cape Province. Flowering time is generally winter through late spring. Unlike flowers of the genus Protea, which rely on their showy bracts for visual appeal, leucospermum put all their art into the colors of the flowers themselves as well as the flowing shape of each curving component. These fanciful blooms atop sturdy stems create colorful focal points not only in the field but when displayed in floral designs.

In the Field: Leucadendron Safari Sunset

It’s officially ‘Safari Season'! Often one of the first hints of the season in our fields... leucadendron Safari Sunset serves as a gauge for warmer and longer days. These barometers of summer begin to emerge as spring winds down, revealing their deep-red bracts and long stems from July all the way through October.

There’s no doubt, Safari Sunset is the most well-known leucadendron, with millions of stems being grown in numerous countries around the world. A New Zealand raised hybrid cultivar, this mix of L. Laureolum x L. Salignum has proven the importance of crossbreeding in the protea industry.

Like a burst of color in the field, Safari Sunset brings a rich look to floral designs as well. Stunning no matter how you display it, this leucadendron looks great when blended with an array of flowers and greens or even used as a focal flower in boutonnieres. Here are some wonderful ways you can enjoy this fabulous foliage during the summer and well into fall.

Spring Faves: Leucospermum

Video click here.

Leucospermum are the eye candy of our spring protea harvest, and if you’re not already reveling in their splendor, we’re betting you will be soon. Who can resist all the beautiful flowering heads with masses of styles that look like pins bristling from a pincushion? Fanciful blooms atop long sturdy stems create colorful focal points not only in the field (or garden) but when displayed in floral designs. It’s magic time! And now it seems every year, we get to enjoy a new variety or cultivar as many of the Hawaiian Hybrids are becoming more readily available.

You see, back in the 1970's the University of Hawaii started working on an exclusive collection of new and improved cultivars of pincushions. The goals were aimed at improved color, increased vase life and good stem length. The results - some amazing hybrids, many of which have quite complex ancestry, some with even ten species parents.