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

splinter1804 wrote:
Hi everyone - Well I've been flat out like a toe counter in a centipede factory. We had our workshop last Saturday and now I have to get plants ready for our monthly meeting next Saturday as well as preparing plants for exhibition and sales at our annual show the weekend after, so it’s head down and bum up.

Has anyone heard from Colleen? It seems this back injury is hanging on for a lot longer than she originally thought it would. I can just imagine the difficulty she’s having trying to look after two young boys on her own with a crook back. However now the warm weather is coming it should make it a bit more comfortable for her.

Anyway get well soon Colleen and also anyone else who’s on the sick list.

Sue - These Nudicaulis seedlings that all the experts said would just be “selfings” are certainly proving them all wrong aren’t they? They seem to all have the Nudicaulis scapes and upright inflorescence and the Gamosepala flowers; and as you say, the ones with the white flowers do look a bit like Ae Nivea.

So far I’ve had varied flower colours right through from white, pale blue, deep blue/purple, mauve and purple petals, combined with the main body of the flowers which have been pale pink, apricot, tangerine, coral, deep lolly pink and magenta; so quite a cross section of colour. That’s what makes hybridizing and fiddling with seeds so interesting, you never know what you’re going to get.

Today I was looking at a couple of Bill’s I pollinated a few weeks ago and they still look like they might be making seed pods. Does anyone know how long they take before they are ripe? What about you Wendy, how long did yours take to ripen?

It’s easy to tell that spring is almost here, all of the Ae. recurvatas are starting to show some colour. The ones in my yard with the most colour are the ones growing in what’s left of the old Peppercorn Tree which had to be half cut down because it was dying. I had previously grown some recurvata pups on a couple of branches, but since the top half of the tree has gone they are getting unrestricted sun and are really starting to colour up nicely and in a week or two they should be a mass of bright orange.

Well that’s about all I have time for today so I’ll finish with a few pic’s which D.G. has got all out of order somehow. Pic 5 is Neo ‘Mesmerize’ a nice hybrid by Rob Smythe of Townsville, Pic 1 is Neo ‘Burgundy Moss’ which is unregistered so I have no idea who made it, Pic 2 is Neo ‘Rosatina’ x concentrica; one of the larger Neo’s with a diameter of about 22”, Pic 3 is one of the many clones of Neo Correia-araujoi which is a bit bigger still and pic 4 (a not very good shot) of the top of what’s left of my old Peppercorn Tree which is the home for a few Ae. Recurvatas.

All the best, Nev.