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

splinter1804 wrote:
Hi everyone – Once again I have my two little workers her to help me; another “sleepover” during the school holidays. You wouldn’t think that a six and four years old would be of much help, but believe me their help is invaluable as they can get places I haven’t been able to reach for years.

Yesterday they got down and weeded under all the benches for me and they are able to get in amongst the plants on the ground and stand up any that have blown over. All the little jobs that require bending (which I can’t do any more) they do it while I’m thinking about it.

I trimmed the side hedge yesterday and they picked it all up, put it in the green bin and all they wanted in return was to get a hold of the hose and hose the path (and each other). A job well done and they both enjoyed themselves.

Jean – Thanks for that valuable bit of information about “Adblock Plus”; I’ve downloaded it already and I’ve never seen anything downloaded so quickly, it only took about 10 seconds. All I have to do now is see if it works against these ads on D.G.

It’s not just a problem affecting laptops Jean, as I don’t have a laptop, just an old P.C. that Noah gave me when he cleaned out his Ark. I’ve always had adverts. popping up from time to time but never obscuring part of the screen like these ones are doing. I still haven’t had any word back from the D.G. admin. so I can only assume they didn’t get my message.

Trish – Yes that sudden variation in temperature certainly played havoc with the aches and pains in the old bones. I’ve heard it said by experts that cold weather doesn’t increase the discomfort from arthritic pain; all I can say is there are a lot of “oldies” beside me who will disagree with them. Anyway things were back to normal again yesterday, not too hot and not too cold, but best of all that rotten wind had stopped.

Regarding xNiduregelia ‘Something Special’, a few years back I planted some seed from my plant which was a result of someone or something pollinating the flowers before I bought the plant. According to all of the experts, the seed would be sterile as it came from a bi-generic cross, however almost all of the seed germinated. I kept about twenty seedlings to grow on and some were just like very ordinary Neo’s but there were six that resembled the ‘Something Special’ in size and shape but with lighter colouring. There are still two more to colour up yet and I’m expecting them to be the best of the lot as I find that it’s always the best ones that take the longest to grow; anyway we’ll see.

I’m sure when you check out the pic’s of your plants on the BCR you will be pleasantly surprised. As for the variegated Ae. fasciatas I posted yesterday (not mine), I have found with the ones I have that they are slower growing than the plain ones and are more cold sensitive. So although the breeders can improve the colour, there are other less desirable traits that occur when the genes are changed around and it gets back to that old rule which says, “For every “plus”, there is a corresponding “minus”. As for Bill.‘Stephen Stone’, the reason you haven’t seen it around is that I only registered it last year and at this stage I haven’t released any.

It looks like the DG gremlin’s been playing with your pic’s and turned two upside down. Anyway it doesn’t detract from the beautiful Vr.‘Rafael’ nor any of the other plants you’ve posted. I think the first thing that attracted me to Neo.‘Grace’ is the colour which seems to have an iridescence about it which makes it seem to “glow” in certain lights.
Your plants in the igloo look very happy in their new home (even if they are upside down) and I think you will find (like I did) that the more you squeeze in the better they seem to like it.

I’ll finish now with some pic’s of the xNiduregelia hybrids, firstly two examples of the poor quality Neo “look-alikes” and the final three are ones that look like the xNiduregelia parent, only with promising colour.

All the best, Nev.