Australian and New Zealand Gardening: BROMELIADS FOR NOVICES & ADDICTS APRIL 2012, 3 by splinter1804

splinter1804 wrote:
Hi everyone,

Well hee it is, Good Friday once again, isn’t the year going fast? I suppose next week will see all of the Christmas advertising begin once again as we head toward the “silly season”

Myac – I’m not familiar with Coconut Palms (I assume this is what you mean; or is there another plant called a “Coconut Tree”)? In any case, if it is a Coconut Palm I can only assume it’s like any other palm with rough bark that doesn’t drop. I’ve grown brom’s on the Cocos Palms at my daughters place and they seem to grow fine. The only thing I’ve found is that if you are attaching them with staples which I think is the same thing that Wendy knows as “U” nails, (even the long ones), they tend not to hold very well in palms as the timber is too spongy and you are better tying your plants on. Believe it or not, the best thing to use is old “Panty Hose” as they are nylon and won’t rot, they are very strong and they will stretch to ensure a tight attachment. Once the plants are attached the Panty Hose can be concealed by draping a bit of “Old Man’s Whiskers” over them which will soon grow and cover them in no time at all. (See the 3rd pic in my post yesterday which shows the Old Man’s Whiskers just a couple of days after mounting and Pic 2 which was 12 months after mounting). You are better to drape on several small pieces as they will grow much faster than one big clump . When fixing to a tree with solid wood beneath the bark such as the Pepper Corn tree as in my other two pictures, I just nailed them on with galvanised “Spring Head” roofing nails. These were driven through the hard rhizome at the base of the plant and into the tree and it doesn’t seem to cause any harm to either the tree or the plant. I have also mounted them on “Paper Bark” trees, but you need to remove a bit of bark at the point of contact so that the roots can make contact with the actual solid wood beneath. If you just mount them over the soft "paper bark", once your plant gets a bit of size, the paper bark won’t support the weight and they just fall off, (bark and all). The other thing to remember is that mounted plants require more water than those in pots as they dry out much quicker due to the greater exposure to circulating air.

Wendy – Those seeds are powering away and I imagine you’ll be able to show us flowering plants in about six months at this rate, they really are looking good. I see you are still using the plastic containers we talked about a long time back when you were trialling different methods. Some with holes in the sides, some with holes in the bottom, some with no holes at all and with and without lids. What method did you finally settle on as being the best for your conditions, and what mix are you now using?

It seems like little Emily has inherited the creative skills from you and Johnny as she always seems to be making something different each time she comes to your place and certainly seems to know what she wants to make and how she’s going to achieve it, while all the time poor Johnny has been evicted and sent off fishing (what a terrible punishment for the poor bloke, I’ll bet he has difficulty coping with all the stress Ha! Ha!) As for shopping, well we have the same trouble with our two year old grandson who loves to go shopping with Mummy and Nanny and every time they get to the checkout they find “extras” in the trolley that he has grabbed on the way past the shelves.

Wendy, that ?Aechmea is certainly a most attractive plant and I’m sorry I can’t help with a definite ID, but I would suggest there is also the possibility it could be a Portea as well. However, if you have no objections, I could post it on some of the other forums I visit and hopefully get it identified for you. I think it would look better though if I cropped out the DG writing at the top of the pic., so if you have no objections let me know and I’ll follow it up.

I’ll finish now with a few random pic’s, Pic. 1 is Neo 'Volcano', Pic. 2 is Neo. 'Ice White River', Pic. 3 is Nidularium Innocentii 'Orange', Pic.4 is Neo. 'Red Imp' and Pic. 5 is Neo. 'Sunrise'

See you all again tomorrow,

All the best, Nev