Australian and New Zealand Gardening: Bromeliads for Novices and Addicts - September 2014, 3 by bromishy

bromishy wrote:
Hi Everyone!

Spent half of today in the garden and the other half out running errands, the time spent in the garden was raking the whole back yard of leaves that have fallen from all the wetland gumtrees that we normal suck up with the mower but we both have a bit of hay fever today (Joe much more than I) so did not want to aggravate anymore. I also plucked out all the leaves out of my broms which took me a good hour. Joe watered all my broms which will just leave me to water the Vrieseas and seedlings tomorrow along with a bit of potting I want to do. I also forgot I cleaned up around our pool area liked I had planned but still need to clean-up all the broms that live there so possible will get to tomorrow if there is enough time tomorrow.

Hi Jean lovely to hear from you and great that everything is coming together with the move going well by the sounds of things. Totally understandable that you miss your hubby Robert who was such a bit part of your life and someone both Joe and I would have really liked to have met as he sounded like a very wonderful person from how highly you have always spoken of him. The hill where you sit when visiting at his resting place sounds like a beautiful place, so peaceful and relaxing and I can imagine how all those pretty pink and white flowers you described growing wild all over the place would look and why it would put you at ease spending time there.

Jean the area you described for your bromeliads sounds great and will work a treat with some shade cloth to protect them from the sun and we look forward to seeing pics down the track when you are settled in to see how they are all doing. Great also to hear you broms are showing improvement in colour, I too am noticing same around the garden especially with all the shade curtains are opened fully; I spoke to Mum also last weekend and she too is noticing great improvement in her brom colours and said they are all pupping well and she is wondering what to do with them all he he. I liked Nev’s idea about the shade cloth blinds too so maybe something worth considering. Jean I look forward to hearing from you again when you can as miss when you are not here chatting with us all but appreciates how very busy you must be and that you have taken the time to drop in and have a nice chat with us all.

Hi Brian pleased to hear you liked the backyard shots I posted of some of my brom gardens. Yes I do need to cover them during summer and have running curtains of shade cloth that I can open and close as I need and at the moment I have the curtains open so my broms can get a much natural light as possible, but come summer I will have no choice but to cover them and will only get to open up the curtains certain times on the day on the weekends when I am around to do so that is otherwise they will surely get burnt.

Hi Nev great to hear everything is coming together for the show, sure the weekend will be a great success and look forward to you sharing pics with us and hearing how it all goes. Did you end up getting any more rain?

Nev in relation to our discussion about Ae. ‘Blue Cone’, why is it that some of the loveliest of broms tend to be slow growers, I find this occurs with some of my Neo’s and wonder if it’s something to do with the parentage history or maybe I am just growing them wrong but then I am always happy with their size, form and colour when they do finally reach maturity just that they are slow growing and even slower to pup. Nev, now why did I not think of that, to call the tough NOID I brought from Cardwell (after YASI) a “Cyclone Proof Brom” LOL’; that would have left Joe speechless for a bit he he.

Nev thanks for your advice on our “girls” eating frogs. I checked with our local vet some time ago and if my memory serves me correctly, other than the obvious Cane Toad other frogs toxic to dogs are Green Tree Frogs (as well as other types of Tree Frogs) as they also exude a toxic substance and I think the Striped Marsh Frog that we see occasionally when I am digging in the garden but I only see the Striped Marsh Frog once or twice a year so they do not worry me and the “girls” seem to respect the Green Tree Frogs and they live happily in our garden and there are many around; but our “girls” tend to tease the Cane Toads by pushing them around with their paw but have learnt to not get to close and attack or eat them. I did take one of the tiny little green frogs into the vets and she was not too concerned about these ones but said that if they ate a lot of them than this could upset there tummies but I don’t think they eat that many as they are hard to see and camouflage well in our garden and are normally hiding in the broms.

Nev hope your friend you asked for the mosquito feedback feels better soon and not to worry about going to any trouble as his health comes first by all means.

I will have to check the settings on my phone as I do not think I turn by phone sideways when I take pics but you never know, I do tend to get a little carried away and get snap happy when I am surrounded by so many beautiful broms ha ha.

Nev most definitely I will post of my NOID Pic 3 when it matures and pleased to hear you like it so much. On another note nice pics you posted of the early entries, I really liked the beautiful Pic 3 of Ae. ‘Aztec Gold’ and Pic 4 of Neo. ‘Blushing Tiger’, I have never seen that many Blushing Tigers in the one pot doing so well.

Hi Teresa hope you well, what have you been up to?

Anyway time to put the kettle on.

Take Care & Happy Gardening!

Trish

Thought I would share some of the pics from our last trip at the Tablelands, Pic 1 & 2 are lovely status at a place called the "Gallos" that makes/sells nice home made cheeses and chocolates and lots more as the have their own dairy right there and people can go in sit and eat as well as go for tours to see how some of the produce is made.

Pic 3 - Is where we buy our tea from at the tea farm.

Now back to broms:

Pic 4 - Took a pic of this brom in flower when we were on holidays but not too sure what the brom looked like as did not take a picture of it (silly of me) but what attracted me to it was it's beautiful flower.

Pic 5 - Neo. 'Rosy Morn' - I noticed today that it's starting to colour up in the centre.