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

splinter1804 wrote:
Hi everyone – I didn't get any work done at home yesterday but we did get a lot of mess cleaned up at the museum. Brom wise, I've been able to arrange for all of the charcoal left when the loco fireboxes are cleaned out at the end of each running day to be tipped in a particular area where I have easy access. I will then be able to bag it up and distribute among my brom growing friends who use it in their mixes instead of them needing to pay through the nose for a tiny bag full at Bunnings.

Breeindy – It's about time you paid us a visit again Bree; seems like you've been spending all of your time travelling around sampling all of the great pub tucker. Now you've gone and made me hungry.

Sue – When I had orchids years ago I was told by Leo Giles (who was the internationally known owner of “Wondabah Orchids” at Pennant Hills) to just concentrate on the genera that I knew I could grow. He said that no man could grow them all without a ten thousand pound automated glasshouse that could duplicate all the different required growing conditions, and to try would just break your heart and kill otherwise good plants. So it seems you had better leave the Cymbid's alone and just concentrate on the Dendrobe's and Oncidiums.

Pleased to hear you can't see the Ae. 'Chantini Rose' pic either; it seems I've been blaming my computer when it's not at fault after all.

Thirlmere Museum is gigantic compared to our little set up, but then the Govt. put millions of dollars into it as it used to be the Rail Transport Museum. It also differs to ours in that it's all standard gauge main line stuff 4' 81/2 ”. Ours was just started by a small group of volunteers and gets no financial support from the council or the government and is all light railway stuff 2'0” gauge. About the only place using this gauge know is the cane fields of Queensland.

You have me inquisitive now about those pic's and I'll have to have a look. You say it's a while since you've been on that site, and you can say that again as the name has been changed for at least two years now from the “Bromeliad and Air Plant Forum” to the “Bromeliad Forum” so apparently once you become a member you're always a member unless you cancel your membership.

It sounds like you and Bree should get together and do a “pub crawl” if only to try and eat all the great pub food. I wish I could come with you as I always enjoy a good meal and I've got a good size belly to prove it.

Ian - I take my hat off to you when I read about the culling you've just done. I always find culling the most difficult part of growing seedlings and it needs a firm hand and a cold heart to go through with it. I find it just so difficult to toss beautiful healthy little plants just because I don't have the space to grow them on; but then the consequences of not culling is overcrowding which causes you to lose plants due to disease anyway so really it's a lose lose situation. Nevertheless I just can't help wondering if I'm tossing out a future champion or not, as I firmly believe you can't foresee what a plant will really be like and see it's true attributes until it is grown out and matures; in fact I've found since I've been dabbling with seedlings that the true form of a plant isn't really apparent until you grow out the initial pup.

I read with interest what you say about Neo's Macwilliamsii and Compacta. I (supposedly) have both plants although to be honest I can't see a lot of difference in them size wise, the (so called) Macwilliamsii has a sort of darker banding where the red and the green colours on the leaf meet (more like what is shown in your second pic of Compacta). To be honest I've never looked that closely at the centre of the plants and noticed any fine spotting but you can be sure I'll be going around my plants today to see what I can find. Most of the plants I've accumulated over the years are supposed to be Compacta and I didn't know about Macwilliamsii until I once saw it on eBay so I bought two plants, unfortunately when they arrived they were filthy with Fyspeck Scale. After several months and lots of cleaning and dipping, I eventually got rid of the scale only to find that these plants still looked the same as what I had always been led to believe were Neo. Compacta. Your mention of the fine spotting over the red colour gives me another avenue of identification, and when looking at the (not very good pic's) on the FCBS, I have found that the second pic of the Macwilliamsii supports what you are saying about the fine spotting also. The fact that something could be so obvious and I've never noticed it seems to me to indicate that all of my plants are Compacta and I don't have Macwilliamsii after all, but as soon as the sun comes up I'll know for sure.

Ian the reason you don't do well with Cymbidiums in your area is the fact that the larger flowered hybrids (and this is what we mainly have here) are derived from species that originally grow at higher colder altitudes. There are three Australian native species though which although miniature, should do very well in your area. There is Cymb. suave, Cymb. Madidum and Cym. canaliculatum which is probably the most interesting of the three because it ranges in colour from spotted, right through to the most intense dark purple that it appears to be black (Cym. canaliculatum var. sparksii) often called by the common name of the "Black Orchid”. To see pic's go to the sit below:
http://www.google.com.au/search?q=Cym canaliculatum&tbm=isch...

Bugger! You've got me back talking about orchids again, sorry about that. That's surprising about your Ae. Chianti 'Jean' as I've always thought it would be a tender sort of plant and because of its burgundy coloured leaves I've always grown mine in the shade house on the southern, shady side of the house with the Guzmanias and the Vrieseas. It's great plant to grow though as it has beautiful shiny burgundy coloured foliage and is a prolific grower and flowerer (I must have about twenty or more plants all hanging in a row).

Incidently, some of you might remember me telling of the Spotted Honey Eaters that nested in a hanging flower pot in the Vriesea shade house last year; well they are back again and are re-building the old nest in the same pot which I now have hanging between some Ae. Chianti and Ae. Mirlo plants and I'll keep you informed of the progress and with progressive pic's I hope.

Cody – Hi to you and Alex away over there in the US which is in darkness as I write this. The sun is just coming up here and it's a bit overcast with the chance of a bit of rain here....sleep tight!

Sue – It seems you're determined to keep me yapping on about orchids; I can't help but admire your pic of Coelogyne Christata its a beautiful species and one of my all time favourites. I'll never forget the enormous specimen plant I saw at the 6th World Orchid Conference which was held in Sydney. It was about four feet across and must have had about 500 flowers, and it's truly amazing how big these can be grown to, and the amount of flowers it's possible to get on some of the large ones. I know it's hard to comprehend but if you go to the site below you will see an example of just the type of size I'm talking about in the picture at top right.

http://www.google.com.au/search?q=coelogyne cristata images&...

I don't know if you're aware of it or not, but there are a hundred or more different coelogyne species and to see a sample go to: http://www.pbase.com/glazemaker/coelogyne

I recognise the seedling in the last pic as it was from a cross I did of Ae Nudicaulis x Gamosepala. I did it just out of curiosity and was surprised at what came out of it. All of the plants I have seen so far have been more compact that usual Ae. gamosepala and some, (like yours) have the typical gamosepala coloured flowers, but they do range in colours which was a nice surprise. Although nothing spectacular, it seems like some of the brom growers like them as they all sold as quick as they hit the sales table at the last meeting., One thing they haven't shown yet, is the distinguishing thumb imprint at the leaf base like true Ae. Nudicaulis plants have.

Ian – Your seedlings are looking great and it seems you are determined to remind me that I must get into my culling and finally get it over and done with.

Time to go again and the first three of today's pic's are more of the plants hanging in the open area between the shade houses and the last two show some of my more advanced seedlings.

All the best, Nev.