Australian and New Zealand Gardening: BROMELIADS FOR EVERYONE IN 2014, 2 by splinter1804

splinter1804 wrote:
Hi everyone – Well the weekend's gone and we start another week; it will soon be Easter or so Woolies would have us believe as they already are selling Hot Cross Buns, can you believe that?
Anyway I spent yesterday finishing up tidying the area I was working on and in the afternoon went back to de-pupping and dead-leafing Neo's – there seems no end to it as there's more to do today.

Jean – Protecting your plants from the heat can be pretty exasperating at times and it seems what ever you do there's no escaping the heat damage. You don't necessarily have to live in a very hot climate to get sun damage to your plants, it's quite often the sudden (unexpected) rise in temperature that causes the most damage, as your plants just don't have time to adjust to that sort of change. Even if you live in an area where the normal temp is 18-20 degrees, a sudden unexpected rise to 30-34 for a couple of days will see your plants in trouble. If you live in some of the hotter areas where 35-38 is pretty normal, your plants won't suffer at all as they are acclimatised to that.

As you say, it's not just the sun that causes the damage, it's the high air temps as well. This can dehydrate small seedlings especially, in as little as a couple of hours. I remember during the last heat wave we had, I went to check on my babies which are in a covered in area on the southern side of the house and although protected from any overhead sun, were still open to the south with just shade cloth on the wall. On that particular day the dry westerly wind was swirling all around and coming from all directions. When I went to check on the seedlings the air was so hot, my nostrils were stinging and I knew if I didn't do something quickly the seedlings would just frizzle up. I know we are told to never water in the hot part of the day but I didn't have a lot of choice because if I hadn't done anything I would have lost the lot, so I got the hose and after draining the (hot) water out of it (which seemed to take forever), I set the nozzle on “fog” and let it go at everything. It worked a treat and you could almost hear the seedlings sighing with relief. I kept doing this on and off every hour or so and eventually the wind died down a bit and I was able to turn it off again as there was sufficient moisture around to maintain a healthy humidity.

I'm just reading your words to Colleen, “One minute you have a new empty brom house , next they are spilling out the door” and I can say that truer words were never spoken and I'm sure we all reach that situation sooner or later.

Nice pic's you've posted and as I'm always interested in looking at NOIDS I'm immediately drawn to the Neo in the last pic. I can't give you definite ID, but it does look very similar to a pup from 'Lambert's Pride', however another pic when it reaches maturity may well tell a different story.

Cody - I think you had just better stick to your climate and I'll stick to mine. That way we'll both be happy.

Colleen – It seems we have a bit in common because when I'm watering, my brain is doing exactly the same as yours as I plan what my next job will be.

That's a nice looking plant of Neo.'Carolinae Tricolor' in your pic. It's a good clean plant and very well grown, congratulations! When you see a result like that you really do know you must be doing all the right things.

Ian – I too was a bit surprised to see just how well Ae lueddemanniana tolerated the heat and the plant I have that was almost fully exposed came through our previous heat waves with just a few minor burns.

It seems now that Mother Nature has turned up the temperature control we have to be constantly on alert and be prepared to continually juggle plants from one position to another; in fact, it would probably be easier to cover the whole yard with shade cloth and be done with it.

That's a beautiful Bill in your first pic with its magnificent heavily spotted foliage, but it's not the Golden Joy on the BCR which was bred by Bill Morris back in 1990. That Bill.'Golden Joy' has (according to the description, violet petals) although the colour shown in the pic looks to be pale green unlike the deeper coloured ones on your plant.. The Golden Joy on the BCR doesn't have near as much nice spotting as your plant does either; I have 'Golden Joy' and it's nowhere near as nice as your plant. Your plant is far superior in every aspect.
See: http://registry.bsi.org/?genus=BILLBERGIA&id=878#878

I may be wrong, but I think your plant is the grex sibling of 'Golden Joy' which circulated for many years under the unregistered name of Bill.'Golden Joy (purple clone)' until it was eventually registered by Geoff Lawn as Bill.'Golden Joy Purple' In 1998.
See: http://registry.bsi.org/?genus=BILLBERGIA&id=11545#11545

Bill. 'After Glow' is beautiful plant which was bred by Don Beadle in 1983 from a crossing of Bill. vittata x 'Poquito Blanco' . It is another of those beautiful plants that really comes into its own when displayed with the sun behind it so it can really display its beautiful colours

In your pic of Neo.'Yellow King' and Neo.'Medallion', although both are beautiful plants, as far as my tastes go, I think 'Yellow King' is the nicer of the two.

Nothing more to do than say g'day to anyone still on the sick list, get well soon; and also g'day to any of the regulars who are still getting over the Christmas break.

I'll finish today with pic's of a few Neo's on the assembly line awaiting de-pupping and re-potting.

All the best, Nev.