Australian and New Zealand Gardening: AUSSIE BROMS LOOKING TO SUMMER.... Nov 2015, 3 by splinter1804

splinter1804 wrote:
Hi everyone – Well Jean anyway. I’ve finally heard from Trish; her and Joe are both OK but have had a lot of travelling after the death of her brother in law and they’ve had to arrange for a suitable “dog sitter” for the girls while they have been away and to top it all off, a 25 year old bloke ran into the back of their car and damaged it as well but fortunately no serious injuries. But wait for it; the excuse he gave as the cause was, he was fixing the tongue on his work boot ?????? And I thought I’d heard them all.

Anyway they have to go away again for the funeral and Trish asked me to ”say a BIG HELLO to all our DG Forum Brom Buddies and please let them know that I will be back on the forum hopefully in a couple of weeks roughly. I have so really missed chatting with everyone and am really looking forward to seeing how everyone is and what they have been up to”.

We had our annual Bromeliad Society Christmas Party yesterday and it was held at a private property which was once an old farm with the house over one hundred and fifty years old. Our ex-president’s daughter and son in law bought it and are restoring it with the idea of using it as a venue for wedding photography; and doing a magnificent job of it also.

The best bit is that it’s a farm I frequented often as a boy at Dunmore where I lived and spent many happy hours roaming around the area with the farmer’s son and a couple of other childhood mates as well. It really brought back some happy childhood memories and I was able to tell the new owner a lot about its past history and advise him about some of the out buildings and what they had been used for; I was even able to point out a wooden ceiling in an old shed where we used to hide and I had my first cigarette. So all in all it was a very nostalgic day for both of us as Ailsa also live at Dunmore and it was when she was ten years old that I first met her in the little post office store her parents owned and ran.

The party was also a great success as it was the first time our new trophy was presented (“The Catherine (Rena) Wainwright Memorial Award) which was named in honour of our dear old friend who just recently passed away, and it was lovely to have her daughter there to make the presentation. To top it off I was won by our ex-president who was also a very close friend of hers and I’m sure she would have been exceptionally pleased with the result.

We’re “babysitting” my eldest son’s two little dogs this weekend as he and his family have gone down the coast for a few days and their boys wouldn’t hear of anyone else minding their dogs except nanny and poppy, so it’s just like old times with dogs around the house again.

Jean – My recurvatas have been out and finished flowering a couple of months ago and the colour has almost now reverted back to green again.

Although I like the colours of both of the kautskyi plants in the pictures I posted, I do favour the yellow as it really makes a statement when mixed in with other colours, and besides there aren’t many that are that bright yellow colour.

What are Coprosmas? Is there a plain green version and is it perhaps what was commonly called a “shiny leaf hedge” here in N.S.W., if so I think I once also tried them to give a bit of colour in the garden but found them very slow growing, do you have any cultural tips?

Today’s pic’s are 1. Canistrum fosterianum, it usually only gives me one flower but the brilliant scarlet is a winner every time, 2 is Neo. ‘Allan’s Marbles’, 3 is Vr. ‘Angela’, 4 is Bill. macrocalyx, and 5 is quite a large plant called Neo ‘Gee Whiz’ (Rubra).

All the best, Nev.