Australian and New Zealand Gardening: OUR BROMELIADS INTO 2015.. , 4 by splinter1804

splinter1804 wrote:
Hi everyone – When I first opened this forum this morning I was horrified to see that my post from yesterday wasn’t here. I had typed it on MS Word as I usually do, then cut and pasted it, previewed it, made a few alterations and sent it. The only thing I did differently was that I didn’t check (like I usually do) to see that it had gone through, and “Murphy’s Law” being what it is, it hadn’t. Fortunately I still had most of it saved on MS Word and hadn’t deleted it like I usually do after I’ve sent it, so I’ll start today’s post with what I wrote yesterday if that makes sense and below is where I started yesterday:

We had a great day yesterday at our workshop, the weather was fine and it was most enjoyable down in the park at the Rail Museum with the Crimson and Eastern Rosellas watching on from among the trees.

There were also a couple of Australian Noisy Minor birds (Not to be confused with the Indian Minor Bird which has become such a nuisance) hopping around the tables at lunch time getting bits of food from the members and for some of these people who live in Wollongong, this was quite novelty as they don’t usually see these birds in the city.

When I previously asked at our last meeting for a show of hands to see who was going, the count was nine; however, word must have spread as there were nineteen present at the actual workshop.

It was a “Do it Yourself Workshop” and was quite interesting, as members were asked to bring along a problem plant/s which needed some attention which we collectively discussed and then the suggested remedy was performed by the owners of the plants under the direction of a couple of more experienced growers.

We started out with one member who grows beautiful Cryptanthus brought along a box of pups and showed everyone how he treats them. He emphasised the importance of them being firm in the pots while initially growing roots, and to achieve this he just pushes the base into the potting mix (Which is a commercial African Violet Potting Mix available at Bunnings) and secured the pup with a thin rubber band which went over the top of the pup and under the bottom of the small pot. It was surprising just how firmly it held the little pup. He said he leaves these in place and by the time they have perished and fallen away the pups are usually well rooted.

He also demonstrated how he removes the small grass pups from young Alcantarea plants. Without taking them out of the pot he just gets a finger down into the mix and in between the grass pup and the plant and gently prises them apart. At this stage the grass pups are quite small at just a couple of inches high and most were devoid of roots. He said this didn’t matter as they soon grew some new ones once planted. These were potted in the same African Violet mix as used with the Cryptanthus.

I took along a box of small pots and Neo seedlings (3” high) of various crosses for sharing with members, and they were able to practice how to handle these plants which were smaller than they are used to growing, it will be interesting to see what comes out of these crosses as they were otherwise destined for the bin as I already had what I needed. (I suppose they could be called “practice plants” as Teresa suggested on Tuesday. There was one particular cross which I think will prove interesting and that was Neo. Rosea Striata x Rosy Morn and as everyone got at least one, we should see a good cross section of the results. We finished up with a Question & Answer segment, and good day was had by all.

Teresa – Your Mum sounds like she doesn’t have a “green thumb”, he has a “green hand” instead. I envy people with the ability to continually strike cuttings with no apparent special treatment; there is an elderly lady in our area who has the same skill, whatever cutting it is, she just pokes it in the garden, gives it a drop of water and forgets about it and the next time I’m there she has an established plant growing nicely. As for me, well I think I have a “black thumb”, because every cutting I try to grow just turns brown and dies.

Trish – I hope you don’t suffer too much wind damage from the edge of “Nathan”, the main things is that you, Joe and the girls are safe; the mess can always be cleaned up afterwards.

As for the “Problem Solving Workshop”, it went well, see above.

I can certainly put you down for a pup of Stephen Stone; however, the bad news is there are over twenty already on the list. I divided it into three plants to try and hurry up pup production and even planted an old Mother that was destined for the bin, and now three months later find it has three small pups peeping out from the base. It has always seemed to be a reasonable grower but I wasn’t sure just how good as this is the first time it’s been divided, so you may get a pup sooner than I first thought.

I love you Sedge Frog, how I’d love to have some of them in my garden. I only have the small brown frogs that are seldom seen and just make a “glump” sound of a night; pretty uninteresting, but a sign of a healthy environment all the same and still some of Mother Nature’s Children that have to be protected.

I like your new seat under your Avocado Tree; I can just imagine it with a nice collection of mini Neo’s filling up the space inside the concrete blocks. Also the bark on the tree looks like it would be a great base for mounting brom’s on, have you tried any yet?

I think your Vriesea is a “special one” of Jack Koning’s and is called Vr.‘Yellow Moon’. It originally came as a sport from his very popular ‘Milky Way’ hybrid.
See: http://registry.bsi.org/index.php?fields=Breeder&id=10118&se...

Brian – I have several plants of Marble Snow and have never seen any of them colour up like yours, not even as old declining mother plants. It is possible there are other clones of this plant and yours in one of them or even a hybrid bred from Marble Snow and wrongly named. Do you know where you got it from or anything else about it?

I don’t want to jinx you, but a change in leaf colour like that can also be an indication of rot; but in most of these cases it’s the middle leaves that change first. I’ll certainly be interested to hear what happens as the story continues and in particular what colour any new pups are.

Jean – I’m starting to think along the same lines as you regarding the size of brom’s; it’s not so much because of space but the fact that as I get older they are harder to manage. My idea is to limit my Neo’s to mini’s and midi’s (Plants with a diameter of under about 30cm). By doing this I could fit a lot more in and they would be much easier for these old bones to move around.

I’ll put on my thinking cap and try and come up with a list of suitable plants for you. You say you “love the stripeys and those with lots of lovely dark spots” and there’s quite a few mini’s I can think of that fit this description.

As I said above, the workshop was a great success and the impromptu Question and Answer session ;proved to be very popular, and I think people are more comfortable asking questions within a small group than at a general meeting where there is a hall full of peple.

I just hope the plant sales on Saturday go as well, as one of the growers has informed us that he can’t make it due to family commitments, so I guess it’s up to the rest of us to try just that little bit harder, as like most things, you only get out of it what you put into it.

You’ve posted three of my favourite “green leafed” Vrieseas, and these will be ones I’ll always keep as they always look good and are reliable growers and productive puppers. The Vr. ‘Evita’ and Vr. ‘Orange Sundae’ are particularly interesting as they have the ability to change their leaf colour from green to a nice light mauve/burgundy colour when grown in high light.

That’s it for now and I’ll finish with a few old file pictures starting with Pic.1 Neo.’Ivan’ (Unreg.), Pic.2 Edmundoa Lindenii rosea, Pic.3 Neo ‘Sarmentosa’ x ‘Cracker Jack’, Pic.4 Neo.’Thunderbird x Self’ and Pic.5 is Neo.’Thunderbird’ x ‘George’s Prince’.

All the best, Nev.