Australian and New Zealand Gardening: Bromeliads for the novice and addict. April 2013, 2 by weed_woman

weed_woman wrote:
Good morning
Bree, I do recall an event at the botanic gardens, probably a cultural thing, maybe global food fest or some such. They have quite a few festivals there as its such a nice place to spend time.
The hot house is ALWAYS closed on weekends. darn it! Wouldn't it be nice if they could install security cameras and then they could leave it open. But then, they would need someone to watch the security cameras!
I'll Dmail you about Saturday.The Gold medal in your first pic is similar to what the one on Ebay looked like. It must have been grown in shade, and the variegated portion was almost gold. I guess the bidders weren't very savvy, and got caught up in the moment. N. 'Gold medal' used to be called 'first Prize' variegata, so maybe the bidders thought 'Gold medal' was a new variety?Your finished product looks just like mine, so when mine pups, I might try one in different light too.
Your garden shot looks very busy, with so many broms to drool over at once.
Jean, I have N. 'Paradise point' but not sure if I have one coloured up at the moment. They are usually orange with a fine green margin on the leaf edge. They are plain green if fertilised (as Shirley says) and will colour up with more light, as it runs out of fertiliser.
Trish, for all intensive purposes, I'll change my name to Shirley to answer your post. heh heh
You must have had a big day at work?
I like your neo. 'Grey Nurse' I do have that one, but yours has alot more white/cream, I think. Its from the same parentage (Carolinae x carcharodon) hence having the sharky name
I feel your pain, with the 60km driver! We have roadworks on our stretch of the highway, that have been going for 2 years. its now 80km for quite a few kilometres, which is painful, but when you have to follow someone doing 60km for the whole stretch, its enough to make me tear my hair out! And it happens nearly every day. (I'm starting to go bald) We also get the roadwork machine and tractors, from time to time, and following them doing 20-40km should not be on! I think they should float them on a truck. Anyway, thats my moan....for now.
Your garden bed looks great, and the half dog in the background is a great ornament! I'd love a pup of your grey nurse if/and when it produces any, if no one else is one the list first. Keep me in mind.
Shirley, not tech problems again! You seem to cop more than your fair share. Sounds like you might be wearing it out? :-)
If I remember the pics of your block, you are situated a bit up the slope? We are at the bottom, so most of the house is on the flat, which only leaves the uphill slope to use. And its south facing, so can be quite shady in winter.
I hope you get your few fine days. We've had a couple, despite predicted rain, and they are telling us now its going to get cool. I am hoping for a dry day today, till at least this afternoon, so I can mow a little patch at the front of the house. Its been wet there for days.
I looked up your Neo. 'Bobs Pride' as it thought it might have been related to Neo. 'Maggies Pride' but it wasn't in the FCBS photo index. Nevermind. I like your Aechmea 'Mirlo' I've never seen one in the flesh, so to speak. Does it seem quite hardy?
photo one is two new Cryptanthus. C. fosteriana and C. 'It'
Photo two is Billbergia 'Pink Champagne' which I have just moved into a bit more sun.
Photo three is my Tillandsia area. I've just pulled out quite a bit of Sanseveria and given it a tidy up. It was also full of some neos that weren't achieving their best colour, so I took them out too.
Photo four is the Neo. zonata that I took out. There was also a huge clump of N. olens x chlorosticta, which goes an awesome colour, but they were all green
Photo five is the colour the N. zonata should be.
Sue