Australian and New Zealand Gardening: BROMELIADS FOR MARCH ....2014, 3 by splinter1804

splinter1804 wrote:
Hi everyone – Happy April Fool's Day!

Theresa – Back in the 1990's, Keith Golinski started registering Alan Freeman's hybrids; and if you look at the BCR it seems he named them all alphabetically also. There was such an uproar on the Bromeliad Garden Web Forums about him tying up the BCR for so long and complaints that no one else could register their plants that he stopped when he finished the “H's” and had at that stage registered 500 plants and didn't register any more.

Ian – What you say is quite right, money seems to be scarce everywhere as do jobs. I guess this is the price we pay for technology which eliminates a lot of the jobs. I remember the first time we went to Bali I commented to my son about the gardeners at the resort cutting the grass with hand shears and not lawn mowers and asked don't they have lawn mowers in Bali? His answer was that if they used lawn mowers 20 of those blokes would be out of work, so technology does have its down side as well. Some wise old man once said, “For every plus there is a corresponding minus” and we can't disagree with that when we think about things, can we?

It's a pity you have to leave the plants under the citrus trees as they do make a nice contrast; can't you find an equally shady spot where you are going?

It seems that Hoh leopoldi-horstii is going to grow into one very tough plant, you'll probably need a chainsaw to divide it when the time comes. Can you post another pic. when it's mature please?

Interestingly, there was someone on Face Book trying to ID an Aechmea which looked vaguely like 'J. C. Superstar' only it lacked the 'J. C. Superstar' pinkish colour even though it appeared to be growing in good light. Is it possible this was that 'Gold Nugget' you speak of?

Neo. 'Apricot Nectar' is a plant well worth getting for your collection as I find it a fascinating plant which has many colour changes as it moves from pup toward maturity. Because of this, I sometimes think a better choice of name for it would have been Neo. 'Apricot Chameleon' .

Nid longiforium was originally named Nid. innocentii var. wittmackianum and as later re-named Nid.longiflorum. I've now been told the name has been changed again to just Nid innocentii, have you heard anything about this and have you seen it documented anywhere? The plant you show in your pic doesn't look like any of the above named plants as the green colour doesn't look right; your plant looks more of an unusual grey/green colour whereas every plant of this I've ever seen is more of a vegetable green colour, even when grown in deep shade. Quite apart from the leaf colour, the flower looks different also (See my Pic.1) When you settle into your new home would you be interested in swapping a pup of your plant for a pup of mine?

Shirley – Good to see you back posting again. Isn't it amazing, when we go away for a couple of weeks, on our return it always seems to be a month before we catch up with where we were before we left?

They may be old photo's you've posted but they're a great collection of colour. I was a bit surprised to see a little bit of similarity in the markings of 'Hula Girl' with those of Neo. 'Painted Lady' and went to the BCR to see if similar parents had been involved but was surprised to see it wasn't even registered. There's a Crypt.'Hula Girl' and a Neo.'Exotica Hula Girl’ but no Neo.'Hula Girl'.

I was also surprised to see that the beautiful Neo.'Peggy Bailey' in your picture doesn't seem to match the description of the Neo.'Peggy Bailey' on the BCR which was registered back in 1982. Unfortunately there isn't a picture, but the BCR describes it as: “Very large flattened rosette of 4" wide leaves with uniform rounded tips - leaf color is dark reddish w/minimal markings and mottled somewhat in canistrum fashion - plant grows to 36" diameter”. Without knowing the sizes of your plant I still don't think it's the same plant as there's no mention of its main feature which in my opinion is the pink leaf margins.

Also the Neo.'Gee Whiz Rubra' which has been travelling around Queensland for some years now and which is a plant I even have; there is no mention of this name on the BCR either so maybe the “Rubra” is just something someone has added to a darker than usual clone of 'Gee Whiz' and it has become part of the name.

Nor can I understand why the beautiful Neo.'Grace Darling' x 'Hearts Music' hasn't been registered. It's certainly worthy of its own name instead of just being left in limbo with the formula name.

All of your plants pictured are beautiful plants which I'd have in my collection any day, but when I start looking for the names on the register and find some aren't registered, I have to ask why would someone go to the trouble of giving a beautiful plant a name and not follow through and make it official with a registration? It's not like it's a difficult process, it can be done “on line”, takes about five minutes and is free. Maybe I should just accept the name without question, but then it's my nature to question as I'm interested in seeing who the parents of these plants were.

Well that's my whinge for today and I'll finish with a few pic's of some of my Nidulariums for a change. Pic.1 is my Nid. Innocentii, Pic.2 is Nid.'Nana'., Pic.3 is Nid.'Madonna', Pic.4 is Nid.'Litmus' and Pic.5 is Nid. fulgens 'Orange Bract' (Spotted form)

All the best, Nev.