Protea

A long, long time ago (well, almost three years ago) I posted some pics of hothouse flowers from a Parisian shop.  One of the shots was of Protea nerifolia, or protea. 

Here's a few thriving in the Longwood Garden conservatory:

This was in their Mediterranean collection, which is a greenhouse kept at lower temperatures than tropical stock and in a drier environment.  Mediterranean plants must be the toughest to house in a conservatory; they demand lots of sunlight and very little moisture.  And even then, this specimen looks like it's struggling a wee bit.

 

The species name, nerifolia of course refers to the leaves' similarity to the foliage on Nerium or oleander.