Australian and New Zealand Gardening: Bromeliads for Novices and Addicts - September 2014, 3 by splinter1804

splinter1804 wrote:
Hi everyone – Well it’s all over for another year and now all the cleaning up begins. Plants all over the place and it doesn’t seem like there’s anywhere to put them. I sold about $700 worth and still can’t see where they came from, nor can I find anywhere to put the ones I didn’t sell, anyway I’ll look on it as a challenge, they came out of somewhere so there must be somewhere for them to go back to; all I have to do is find the spots.

Teresa – I know you were just having a bit of a "stir", but you would be surprised how many times I was asked that question on the weekend, especially about the Neo. ‘Dunmore Ruby’ as it has a natural gloss. When you tell people this they just give you that look which says, “You’re a lying so and so”. It is interesting though, I even have three plants out of the same grex that look very similar to each other in size and colour, yet one has a natural gloss and the other two don’t; weird, but that’s nature.

Shirley – Sorry to hear you’re still not better. Was it a new back injury or an aggravation of an old one? They do have a habit of coming back to bite you every so often I’ve found, more so in the cold weather. Anyone (even the experts) who say the cold weather hasn’t anything to do with the return of pain is talking rubbish because I know it does.

Brian – It was good to catch up with you on the weekend, sorry we couldn’t have spent more time chatting but that’s the way it always seems at meetings and shows, there’s always someone wanting you for something.

That’s a nice lot of plants in your pic’s. The first one Neo.’Oh! No!’ has been around for a long time and was registered in the late 1960’s. It was bred by a man called Hummel who very rarely (if ever) gave the names of any of the parents of the plants he bred. It’s still widely grown for its colour which can be like the plant in picture No.1 on the BCR if it’s given adequate light. Interestingly there is another one getting around called Neo.’Hummel’s Oh! No!; it isn’t registered as such, looks the same as Neo. Oh! No! and is probably the same plant.

Neo. ‘tigrina is a species from Brazil which is also widely grown mainly for its fast growing spreading habit.

Neo. ‘Bird Rock’ is another interesting plant and its main feature is the silvery striping which can be viewed better from below. Your next one Neo. compacta is also a popular species and if planted near the base of a tree will eventually climb the tree. I recently posted a picture of one growing near the entrance to Paronella Park in Far North Queensland and it completely encircled the tree which was about 12 feet across and 30-40 feet high. I’ll see if I can find the pic and post it again.

Finally the little Ae. recurvata v. benrathii is one of the plants I would term as “bullet proof” just like most of the other recurvata forms, and will take full sun if acclimatised gradually and you can get some amazing colours into it.

Trish – You probably already know this but I’ll say it anyway. When you have a cold and are continually blowing your runny nose, after a while it gets a bit sore as the tissues dry out the skin around it. There is a tissue now that’s impregnated with Aloe Vera and it’s very gentle on the nose if you have a cold, a word of warning though, don’t try and clean your glasses with them as they get this greasy smearing all over them.

You say that you like Neo.‘Small World’, it’s one of my favourites also and like a lot of these great little midi’s, it was bred by the "Brom Guru" herself, Queensland’s First Lady of bromeliads, Grace Goode.

I too like Neo.‘Dunmore Ruby’; probably something to do with breeding it myself. Anyway it seems the judges liked it also as I won best Neoregelia with it. Neo. ‘Jaws’ is a beautiful brom also, it was just unfortunate I couldn’t get mine coloured up in time for our show.

Teresa – I remembered someone was having trouble with the scrub turkeys now that you mention it, what was his/her name? I remember the discussion and all the suggestions but not the name of the person. I think they said the turkeys were stealing the mulch and heaping it up to make their nesting mound.

That will have to do today and I’ll finish with a couple of pic’s of two different forms of Ae. recurvata var, benrathi (a dark form and a light form) for Brian and then three pic’s of Tillandsias from the show. Pic.3 Till. kautskyi, Pic.4 Till. tectorum and finally Till. cacticola.

All the best, Nev.