Australian and New Zealand Gardening: Bromeliads for the novice and addict. April 2013, 3 by splinter1804

splinter1804 wrote:
Hi everyone – I've got an early start this morning so I can have a bit of a chat and post a few pic's. I was flat out yesterday as the day was just a continual flow of visitors to see my wife and how we are managing and with offers of assistance from everyone. Friends of my wife from her Family History Group and friends of mine from our local Brom Society made the day go very quickly as we chatted and drank lots of cups of tea. It's great to be surrounded by good friends and loving family and all providing a degree of support.

Although I haven't had the time to respond to all of the recent posts, I have been trying to read them all and admire all of the beautiful pic's. My poor garden is just so terribly overgrown at the moment; I never thought brom's could grow so much in just a couple of weeks when unattended and they seem to have taken over. I walked into the top shade house yesterday to have a look at the Bill's, and they have grown so much I couldn't walk between the benches without brushing against them, so as soon as things get back to normal, I'll have to start dividing and re-potting them in preparation for a sale. In fact I propose to have a rather large “one off” sale now that I have my Neo. list completed and know what I can and can't sell. With the Bill's I can sort and list them as I divide them. I'll keep a couple of each for my collection and the others can be sold off. I'll try to get a few pic's today to show what I mean.

Ian – I like your idea of the bath tub. You will find it very valuable during the hot dry weather as it will help a bit with the humidity. A friend of mine has trays of water scattered throughout her collection which is situated on the flat concrete roof of her home. This gets very warm and dry during the hotter weather and she says the trays of water help her to grow better plants (and she grows some magnificent plants). She also says she adds just one or two drop of Kerosene to each tray of water to prevent the mossies from breeding, but you won't be able to do this if you plan to “dunk” your plants, but there are no doubt other products you can add to the water to stop the mossies from breeding.

I agree that your plant does look like a Vriesea, however we also shouldn't rule out the possibility of a Guzvriesea either as these have a very similar spike habit, anyway time will tell us what it is.

Your Bill 'Party Girl' looks good, you've done a nice job of growing that one and I think your Bill. 'Golden Joy' will give you more of the golden colours after which it is named if you grow it in more light.

Neo. 'Burnsie's Spiral' is always an interesting plant because as it matures it seems to grow on top of a stalk. Until then it will produce normal pups from the bottom but as the stalk grows you will get the occasional pup from the side of the stalk. When it gets too lanky, I just cut it off and leave an inch of stalk below the foliage and re-pot it and it will start growing all over again. Meanwhile the remaining stalk will produce more pups if you give it a boost with some Osmocote or similar type fertiliser.

Although different colours, the leaf patterns of your Neo. 'Gold Dazzler' remind me of Neo. 'Lime and Lava'. They both have that look that they were painted with a brush with insufficient paint on it to cover the surface properly, I think they should look good side by side.

Your NOID Neo is a nice looking plant, it has both nice colour and shape and I wouldn't be surprised if it has Neo 'Charm' in the parentage as that was my first thought, so perhaps a Neo. Charm hybrid?

Trish – It seems like the “Brom Seed Bug” has really bitten you. I suppose you now realise you have to prepare for an invasion of seedlings which will eventually threaten to invade your whole property if you don't religiously keep culling them. But when the work gets hard, just think of what may possibly be in amongst them as they mature, perhaps a champion or two?

What is the Neo in the front right of the first pic and front left of the second? It looks very much like one I have called Neo. 'Dark Rose Blush'.

Shirley – What a great looking group of Alcantareas you have there. All looking so neat and clean and looking so well grown as well. You can't help liking a well grown Alc. especially the Alc 'Silver Plum' with its dusting of silver grey on the leaves. The green ones have the same type of silvering but it's just more obvious on the ones with the coloured leaves. Oh how I wish I had more spare space to grow a few of these beauties.

Anyway, that'll do me for today and I'm sorry to say I only have old file pic's to finish with but I'll take some more when I get time. Pic.1 is Neo. Gee Whiz 'Rubra', Pic.2 is Neo.'Honour Bright', Pic.3 is Neo. 'Gold Fever Select', Pic.4 is Neo. 'Kay Jay' and Pic.5 is Neo 'Golden King'.

Al the best, Nev.