Australian and New Zealand Gardening: Bromeliads for Novices and Addicts - July 2013, 2 by splinter1804

splinter1804 wrote:
Hi Everyone – Another quick chat to-day as I have to work at the Light Rail Museum all day and time's a bit limited so I may have to finish this off this afternoon when I get home.

Theresa – Just to add a little more about the toughness of Bill Nutans; where I lived previously was mainly a dairy farming community, and years ago one of the farm houses had burnt down and was never re-built. Years later I found a quite large clump of Bill. Nutans which had once been part of the garden and since then had frequently been walked on by cows and was still surviving and flowering – now that's tough!

Cody – Yes I keep forgetting your seasons are the reverse to ours here. How I wish we had a bit of your warm weather now as the mornings seems to be getting colder each year or maybe it's because I'm getting older and feeling it more.

Ian – I was looking for an article I had somewhere on just exactly what you get when you cross this with that e.g. species to species, species to F1 etc. unfortunately I can't just put my hand on it this morning, but according to what I read, if you cross species to species, all the resulting seedlings will be the same species and it's not until you introduce a hybrid into the equation that things start to get a bit more complicated. I tested this theory once by selfing Neo. Kautskyi and also Neo. Ampullacea and all of the seedlings I kept were the same as the species parent.

Your garden's looking good mate, now if only I could get mine to look like that; unfortunately lately all of my “get up and go” has “got up and gone”, but I guess there's always tomorrow.

Trish – Your mention of Neo.‘Mr ‘Odean’ reminds me of a discussion I was part of with a couple of other growers at out last show when one of the “trainee judges” interrupted and seemed quite “put out” that someone had written on their name tag Neoregelia ‘Mr ‘Odean’. He was very quick to point out that this was incorrect and it should have been the name it was registered under which was Neoregelia 'Mister Odean'. I mention this to illustrate just how “picky” some of these judges can be and by the way I can't repeat here what I told him! Just remember if you ever show it, to write the name as it was registered because who knows, you may just get that same judge.

When you get to the stage of planting out all of your seedlings and you find you have too many; don't forget to offer the excess around to your friends before you bin them as you never know whether you're binning a champion or not; I've always found that if you do the right thing by our friends you can always get a pup back from anything worthwhile.

That's a beautiful Neo. in Pic.5 but I don't thinks it's 'Catlan's Leopard'. For a start, Catlan's Leopard doesn't have the “fingernails” on the leaf tips and it's more heavily marked than your plant and not near as well shaped and compact. Please put me down for a pup of yours and I can swap you a pup from mine if you like. See Pic's 1 and 2 for comparison.

Shirley – Re. Your question about what to put on the name tag of a seedling when you know the Mother's name and not the Father's; you are better off writing Neo 'Red Pride' x (Name Unknown).

If you just write Neo 'Red Pride' hybrid, people don't know whether the Neo. 'Red Pride' was the “Mother” or the “Father”.If you write Neo 'Red Pride' x (Name Unknown) you know the Neo 'Red Pride' was the Mother because when writing a formula name you always write the “Mother's”(seed Parent's) name first.

That's a nice looking NOID in your first shot especially with the darker subdued spotting.

Jean - I don't know of a Neo. Kahala 'Midnight' and it isn't listed on the BCR although there are three other Kahalas, 'Charm', 'Dawn' and 'Sunset' and all from different hybridisers none of which is bred by Zaghini. Although Shane Zaghini is a hybridiser with 68 registered hybrids, 'Kahala Midnight' isn't one of them at this stage.

As for Neo. 'Avilla Peppermint', I can't find a plant of that name either but I have found a Neo.'Avila' and a Neo. 'Peppermint' so take your pick.

It's now late afternoon and at last I can finally finish this post. The pic's today are Pic.1 Neo.'Catlan's Leopard' pre flowering and Pic.2 is Neo.'Catlan's Leopard' fully coloured and in flower (just for comparison with Trish's plant). Pic.3 is Neo. 'Happy Thoughts', Pic.4 is Neo.'Fairy Dust' and Pic.5 is Neo.'Golden Fantasy'.

All the best, Nev.