Protea ‘Pink Ice’

Feather-petaled hot-pink blooms at branch tips are a florists treat! Upright, full formed shrub with coppery new growth that becomes grey-green. Durable. No phosphorus fertilizer.
Protea 'Pink Ice'Protea 'Pink Ice'Protea 'Pink Ice'
synonyms Protea 'Camelot'
Protea 'Silvan Pink'
height 8–12
width 6–10
tolerates Coast, Cool Summers, Drought, Fog, Pots, Salt, Wind
water
needs		 Low
water
info		 Proteas are well adapted to our Mediterranean climate, making them carefree plants with bountiful rewards. After a few years, when your protea is established, it will want deep watering every couple weeks, though it will tolerate more if the drainage is excellent.
hardy
to		 23F
exposure Part Shade – Full Sun
indoor
outdoor		 Outdoor
drainage In Ground: Cactus Mix, In Pots: Cactus Mix, Tolerates Sandy Soil
fertilizing Bloodmeal, Fish Emulsion, Low Needs, No Phosphorus
origin Hybrid, South Africa
california
native		 No
sunset
zones		 16, 17, 19–24

Sunset Zones Map

Outdoor Exposure Guide

Growing Notes

If you have clay and you have to try a protea this is the one for you! Pink Ice is considered one of the easier protea to grow, in a genus that’s known to be a bit touchy. It tolerates clay better than others (though of course it prefers good drainage) and also is also one of the hardiest protea hybrids.
This protea is also one of the best for hedging as it has a naturally full growth pattern that gets incredibly dense with pruning. Don’t prune more than two years of growth, where there are no leaves and the branches are woody. Proteas can even be espaliered or pruned into a loose informal screen by removing interior branches.
By tip-pinching buds early on (each time they have grown a few leaves), you can force your protea to become more dense. Since they bloom on the terminal buds, this will delay flowering.
Proteas have evolved to live in very poor soils, and so they should never have phosphorus fertilizer, which many a grower has learned the hard way. If you give your protea all-purpose fertilizer, it’ll likely be completely dead within a couple weeks. They do respond well to light acidic fertilizer, such as cotton seed meal, or nitrogen fertilizers such as blood meal and fish emulsion. Generally its better to sit back and see how the plant grows without fertilzier, which is typically not needed.

Special Interest

This plant is a hybrid of Protea compacta and Protea susannae.