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

splinter1804 wrote:
Hi everyone – I hope everyone’s at least reading these posts even if they aren’t posting themselves. Firstly let me apologise for getting so much off topic yesterday, I do tend to get carried away sometimes especially when I can’t think of anything to write about brom’s or no one has asked any questions that require me to keep on the “brom track”.

Teresa – I think that’s a lovely idea of the candle & photos of your late friend along with a book for people to write condolence messages for her family. I’m sure the family will be very appreciative. It’s great that we have people who think of little things like this just to show that members who although no longer with us, are still in our thoughts.

As we have a membership with quite a few elderly people in our Brom Society, it’s not unusual that one will sometimes pass away during the year and each year at our annual Brom Society Christmas party we have a lady who gets one of the chairs and sets it up separately from the other chairs. It is the “remembrance chair” for the members who over the years have passed away and is to show others that even though these past members are no longer with us, they are still with us in thought.

Trish – You mentioned the glossy leaves on Neo.’Orange Glow’ (I’ve put you down for a pup) which I posted previously; it’s interesting that there are some Neo’s that just seem to have naturally glossy leaves and many’s the time I’ve had to strive to convince inexperienced people that I haven’t been using any sort of “leaf gloss” on the leaves of that or one of the other glossy leafed plants which I have in my collection.

It does become a bit awkward at show time though, especially if we have a judge who isn’t experienced in Neo’s and doesn’t know that some are naturally glossy. You see, our “show rules” forbid the use of anything at all which could be used to give an artificial shine to the leaves and if a plant is treated this way they can be disqualified from judging and removed from the table .

Some glossy leafed plants that come to mind are hybrids I have bred from the cross of Neo.’Bea Hanson’ x ‘Rosea Striata’, and of course Neo.’Dunmore Ruby’. I remember once entering this plant in our annual show and of being “grilled” by a trainee judge about my use of a substance to make the leaves glossy. In the end it became quite heated and we agreed to disagree, and I told him he needed to go and grow more Neo’s and come back when he had more experience, this of course went down like a lead balloon; fortunately he doesn’t judge any more as he failed his final test at the judging school.

Among other glossy leafed plants I have are also Neo. ‘Boldstreak’ x ‘McWilliamsii’, Neo.‘Gold Fever Too’ and Neo.concentrica x (‘Charm’ x ‘Cracker Jack’) which are pictured below .

I like the pic’s you’ve posted today and the plants in the igloo are starting to show good colour and a promise of things to come. I also like the look of Neo.‘Mitchii’ which the name suggests is probably a “pet name” (possibly named after a bloke called Mitch). There’s no mention of it on the BCR but it looks like a plant with a bit of potential and I’d love to see it again when fully mature. Do you know any more about its history?

Neo .’Sam Smith’; brilliant colour as usual (mine’s starting to colour up as well now) and of course ‘Dunmore Ruby’ with still a bit of growing still to do, but I’m sure you’ll be pleased with it when it’s mature.

I’ll finish today with pic’s of plants that are naturally glossy in appearance. Pic.1 Neo.’Dunmore Ruby’, Pic.2 Neo. ‘Boldstreak’ x ‘McWilliamsii’Neo. Pic.3 Neo.’Bea Hanson’ x ‘Rosea Striata’ (Although it’s still wet from the rain, you can still see the natural gloss of the leaves) , Pic.4 Neo. ‘Gold Fever Too’ and Pic.5 is Neo.concentrica x (‘Charm’ x ‘Cracker Jack’) .

All the best, Nev.