Australian and New Zealand Gardening: Bromeliads for Novices and Addicts - May 2013, 3 by springer99

springer99 wrote:
Good morning everyone, wow, it doesn’t take long to be behind in replies.

Bree I love Neo Pemiento, mine has flowered and is pupping now and even with all the new hybrids I have, I will be keeping a pup to replace mum for sure. Kahala Dawn is the other one I love and often have to stop and think which is which. My Gunpowder is in the garden and seems to like it much better out there than in the brom house.

Sue sorry about all the bad weather you had and tunnel house being on an angle now. Sounds like you have cleaned it all up again, but what a pain. I really like the Neo Shep as well, not one I have seen before. I will have to look it up as it sounds like it will be a nice one. I love that Ae Silver Streak too, looks great in the basket too.

Trish I love the orchids, we only have a couple of simple ones, but gee I would love to have more of them, if we owned our own home I think we would have a lot more plants, orchids would be everywhere in trees and companion plants maybe to help give a bit of shade on the broms in the gardens. Oh we dream all the time about what we’d do. One day maybe.

Ian have fun at Bloomin Broms this weekend, I only know one couple who are going, ex members of the club, lovely people. Myself and others I know are not going. I hope you have fun and learn plenty.

Shirley, glad you found the camera, sounds like something we would do. I can probably count on my hand the number of broms we have that are actually planted in the ground, all the rest are in pots just sitting in the garden among the mulch. Couple of reasons for it. Firstly we don’t own this place, so we can easily move them when we need too. Second, like I said we can move them easy…. So if they are in the wrong spot, not enough light, too much light etc, it’s super easy to relocate them. Third…taking pups off is far easier when you can carry the pot to the bench and not have to dig around in the garden. Those are the main reasons. I love your Vrieseas platynema Variegata and Forrest. I bet you can’t wait for your Forrest to be huge.

Nev that’s very interesting about the FCBS registry, I didn’t know that. She learning new stuff all the time. Yeah sticking the spikey ones in the garden further can work well, you should see the photos of the front garden, now that has some nasty spikes in it, but I put them in the middle or towards the back to keep the spikes away from little eyes. Then put some more friendly ones at the front, I would prefer the kids snagged by a Skotak’s Tiger, than poked in the eye by an Aechmea sphaerocephala. I agree about the way you label your seeds that you have not pollinated yourself. I usually write Neo (whatever it is) X open pollinated. That way it covers it all, could be selfed, or yes the bugs could of done something for me. We are pretty big on taking photos in this house hold… take was too many… so I often know what else was in flower at the same time by photos if I didn’t take notes. I love your orchid pics too Nev.

Have I missed anyone, I hope not, kids keep distracting me.

Well the fingers are nearly back to normal, thumb still a bit sore, space bar reminds me each time, lol. I had a big brom tooth hanging out from under it, no wonder why they use bamboo under nails as a torture…. Oucchhh.
The weather has been cool and overcast the last couple of days. I took some pics of the Alc’s yesterday that have been in full winter/Autumn sun for just over a month now, gee they change quick. Can’t wait to see comparison shots at the end of winter.

Cheers Tash

My apologies if I have shared these pics before, it's easy to lose track lol
1 Alc Devine Plum really getting some nice colour to it's former green self a couple of months ago
2 Neo Gee Whiz which always looks good. Brought this from a good friend up here as a big pup, but is looking fantastic now.
3 Neo Macho
4 Neo Kahala Dawn.