Australian and New Zealand Gardening: BROMELIADS FOR NOVICES & ADDICTS MARCH 2012, 2 by splinter1804

splinter1804 wrote:
Hi everyone - Well it looks like the antibiotics have finally “done their stuff”, I had a good night’s sleep last night and at last I feel like I’m going to live after all. In fact I feel so good this morning I’m going to start sorting and potting up my Neo seedlings today so possibly some pic’s tomorrow.

Colleen – It’s good to hear you have a fellow bromaholic in the area; now you’ll really waste some time talking brom’s every time he drops around, I don’t know, these bromaholics just don’t know when to stop; but its great conversation anyway. As for the orchids; well don’t worry about them, they’re easy to grow and brom’s and orchids really complement each other. Like brom’s, there are many different genera, what sort were they?

The trampoline frame sounds like a great idea; you could hang plants from beneath the shade cloth and put all the old mothers on the ground underneath. A great recycling project!

Colleen, you speak about road blocks between states; are inspection stations for cattle tick back on again? The last time we went to Queensland we weren’t even checked and when we went into South Australia we were just asked if we had any fruit and if we did we either had to eat it or bin it.

I remember years ago when I was bringing some orchids back from Queensland (and this would have been the early sixties) I was told I would need to get a certificate from the nursery to say the plants had been cleaned and dipped before I could bring them into NSW. I did this, and the bloke on the tick gate didn’t even look at them, and what’s more he told us that next time not to go to the extra expense of getting them dipped and getting a certificate, as they can be dipped at the tick gate free of charge, but just bring a plastic bag to catch the drips!

In any case, it’s always better to take them out of the pot and wash the roots prior to bringing them as they’re easier to pack, they’re lighter and you don’t run the risk of bringing some bugs into your collection. The main problem with plants from the tropical areas is “fly speck scale”, but if they are coming from a reputable grower you shouldn’t have problems. The only time I got caught was with an Ebay sale from Cairns, quite a while ago now; when I opened the box the plants were all filthy with “Flyspeck Scale” I took pic’s of it and then burnt the plants. I contacted the seller who denied it until I threatened to expose him by posting the pictures and identifying him. He quickly then changed his tune and admitted that maybe there could have been the “odd scale” and he refunded my money. To be fair to him though, I think he was just a “back yarder” and didn’t even know what Fly Speck Scale was until I sent him the pic’s, so “all’s well that ends well”.

Karen – As far as your mice problem goes, I wouldn’t worry about it, they won’t eat much anyway! Besides they are probably just looking for a nice dry place to stay for a while out of the rain. I am curious though, you say you don’t feed your birds grain, so what do you feed them?

Shirley – Good luck with Face Book; I’m still struggling with it a bit, but again it was Tash who came to my assistance and pointed me in the right direction originally. It’s great to have these obliging young ‘uns you can call on with your computer problems isn’t it? There's just one thing you need to be aware of though, it can be a great "time waster" if you don't control it!

I’m sure your gardens that are overgrown (as you describe them) are no different to anyone else’s, we all have these and if we didn’t we wouldn’t have anything to do and it would no longer be a challenge. Please tell an ignorant “New South Welshman” what are “cobblers pegs”, do you have a pic? You make me so envious when you say how easy you can grow the Crotons up there; how I wish that were the case down here.

I’ll finish now with a few random pic’s


All the best, Nev.