Australian and New Zealand Gardening: Bromeliads for Novices and Addicts - September 2014, 2 by splinter1804

splinter1804 wrote:
Good morning everyone – Well it’s still raining here again this morning, not heavy but just wonderful continuous drizzle which will soak into the ground and not run off and be wasted like sometimes happens when it’s heavy pouring rain.

Brom’s in the garden, although they were looking OK, have now brightened up and are obviously relishing the rain we’ve had. The transformation in their appearance is truly amazing.

Preparing plants for the show can be quite a job but yesterday “took the cake”. The lady who does our main display sent out and S.O.S. for a couple of “large” plants for the main display she does each year, and like the silly old brom fool that I am I volunteered a couple of Alcantareas so she could use them. Wow! What a job it was preparing them. Although they were previously in the garden I though it wouldn’t be a problem as they were still in pots. I didn’t however anticipate just how much they had grown. They were in 7” squat pots but when I took them out of the garden, I found they wouldn’t even stand up and kept toppling over as one in particular, (Alc. ‘Silver Plum’) had grown a bit crooked as something must have bumped it sideways in the garden at some stage. It was now 3.5 feet across by 3 feet high and crooked in the pot.

To rectify things required about two hours work as it was a very big plant and to stabilise it I had to use a ten inch squat pot with some Skoria in the bottom to lower the centre of gravity and I then positioned the plant and shoveled Skoria all around it up to the three quarter mark before topping it off with potting mix. This did the job and it no longer had a tendency to topple over.

I then had to do the “clean-up” which involved using long forceps to remove two years of fallen leaf debris from the leaf axils of the plant before washing each individual leaf.
I then washed the pot and dressed the top of it with a bit of Spanish Moss (this is allowed on plants that aren’t part of the actual competition) and wrote out a new name tag.

All we have to do now is find some way to get them to the show. Fortunately the deal was, I said I’d supply the plants if someone could get them to the show (half an hour away); so not my problem.

Teresa – Yes, beautiful plants grown by a wonderful lady who spends all of her time either growing brom’s or helping people less fortunate than herself. When asked at a recent Brom. Society meeting what the “magic elixir” was that she fed her plants on, she said it was the same brew she had used for years on everything in the garden, and for anyone interested, here is her recipe:

In a large plastic garbage bin full of water, she suspends a porous hessian bag containing half of a 4.5 litre plastic bucket of "Dynamic Lifter" (Pelletised chook poop) and allows it to steep for 2 weeks. She then removes the bag and mixes the remaining liquid with water until it's the colour of weak tea; this is what she applies to her plants each week. (Sounds like the old advice of “little and often”).

It's applied all over the potted plants with a watering can and applied to the Tillandsias with a hand sprayer. She says that depending on the quality of Dynamic Lifter, she can sometimes get a second batch from the used bag by soaking it for another three weeks and still mixing it at the same dilution ratio until the colour is the same as described above. I think anyone who likes to try this will be pleased with the results as I have seen just how well her plants are grown; and by the way, she says she does have a little talk to the plants each day also.

Colleen – Good to hear you’re on the mend again and I can only presume it’s the same with the boys as well.

The question of “mark-up” on plants varies from seller to seller. I know that some Brom Societies and Garden Clubs take 10%, 20% or 30% from plants sold by members of that society. As this money goes toward the running of the society, some of the small societies just starting up charge more than the larger more established ones. As for some of the regular retailers, their markup can be anything from 30% -75% depending on the article for sale, how long they have to hold it before they can sell it and what care or maintenance it has to be given whilst awaiting sale; e.g. birds and animals have to be fed, watered and cages cleaned, whilst plants have to be watered. It will be interesting to see what markup your local hardware store adds to the price.

What colour is the variegated Billbergia you speak about is it green and cream? If so it is possibly Bill.‘Foster’s Striate’ (See Pic.1) This is a plant that has a habit of putting up plain green pups occasionally and it also has the bad habit of attracting white scale.

Shirley – We’ve been fortunate, we’ve had a bit of wind with the rain, but not the gales they forecast.

Thanks for the instructions for starting a new thread, I’ve saved them on my desktop so I can find them easily and I’ll give it a go next time, however, be ready to receive an S.O.S. just in case I stuff it up.

Thanks for the info on the plants you posted. No doubt the size of ‘Dyn-O- Mite’ is influenced by the three miniatures in its pedigree i.e. Neo. (carolinae variegated x ‘Fireball’) x (‘Fireball’ x pauciflora). The kind of “spiral look” you speak of in the Neo.’ Skotak carolinae’ could be coming from the carolinae influence. There is a Neo. ‘Spiralis’ which is a c.v. of carolinae, as well as Neo ‘Burnsie’s Spiral’ which is a c.v. of carolinae forma tricolor both have spiral tendencies.

Neo. ‘Spiralis’ = http://registry.bsi.org/?genus=NEOREGELIA&id=7190#7190 (Terrible picture)

Neo ‘Burnsie’s Spiral’ = http://registry.bsi.org/?genus=NEOREGELIA&id=3408#3408

Looking now at your pic’s, and although Neo ‘Grace’, Neo ‘Roy’s Special’ and Neo ‘Kahala Dawn’ are all beautifully grown plants, I’m saving my comments for the two I’ve never seen before, Neo.’Beaming’ and Neo.’Water Lily’. They are both Grace Goode hybrids, however both of your plants looks more attractive than those in the pic’s on the B.C.R.; Your Neo. ‘Beaming’ with its attractive dark leaf margins and Neo.’Water Lily’ with its wonderful shape. Just a moment while I wipe the “drool” off the front of my shirt.

The spiral shape you speak of in your Neo.’ Skotak carolinae’ is very obvious in the picture you’ve posted today. I have a picture somewhere of a similar looking plant in a Thai brom show and I’ll have to find it and see what name they have on that one.

Well that’s it from me today and I’ll finish firstly with a picture of Bill.’Foster’s Striate’ for Colleen to compare with her Bill that’s producing some green pups, Pic.2 is Alc. ‘Silver Plum’ ready for transport to the show, Pic.3 is Ae. extensa in the other end of the trolley which will be keeping ‘Silver Plum’ company, Pic.4 is one of my own hybrids, Neo. ‘Bea Hanson’ x ‘Rosea Striata’ and finally another one of my own which I’m thinking of exhibiting in the show, Neo. ‘Blackout’ x ‘Mister Odean’.

All the best, Nev.