Australian and New Zealand Gardening: LOOKING FOR SPRING..... BROMELIADS 2015, 2 by splinter1804

splinter1804 wrote:
Hi everyone - I'm feeling a bit down this morning as I've just been out to get the paper and while there I had a close look at the brom's in the front garden and am shocked to see the extent of the cold damage.

It looks like several plants are completely destroyed and several others will just have a single pup remaining (if I'm lucky). Even the large Ae. blanchetiana types that were almost large enough to flower have several broken leave caused by the wind and now the cold conditions on top of that really make them look quite daggy and nothing like the majestic looking plants they once were.

I'm not even going to attempt to tidy them up until the cold weather is over as even the dead leaves are offering a degree of protection to the pups beneath them, so I'll just have to plan what's to be done and get into it when the warm weathers arrives.

Jean - It's strange just how much our tastes are alike, as my favourite poster was also the first one. What surprised me even more, was when the lady who made them asked me for a few pic's, I put that one in as an afterthought as it is just the flowers of the common Bill. pyramidalis. It just goes to show that even common plants have a degree of beauty when we really have a good look at them.

I totally agree with what you told Brian, "been there and done that" and it all started when I first grew orchids and started with a small bush-house twelve feet wide and sixteen feet long, (two panels of paling fence). The length was determined by the length of the panels of the paling fence (eight feet) and as the collection grew I just added a couple of extra panels until it eventually grew to forty feet long and ultimately I reached the back fence and it ended at eighty feet in length.

This was of course before the days of shade cloth and required the frame to be covered with 2" wire netting with ti-tree brush threaded through it to give the correct amount of shade, (much more labour intensive than building a shade house these days).

Trish - Good to see you can drop in for a quick "Hello" and we look forward to another of your nice long posts in the future.

Seeing Jean mentioned the word Nidulariums, that's what I'll select for my pictures today. In my opinion, they are a very much underrated bromeliad which for some reason have never gained the popularity of Neo's and other more commonly grown types. Their big advantage is that they will grow and flower in shady areas where other don't do any good.

Pic.1 is Nid. leprosa, Pic.2 is Nid. procerum, Pic.3 is Nid. 'Nana', Pic.4 is Madonna and Pic.5 is a nice little NOID I once bought at the markets.

All the best, Nev.