Australian and New Zealand Gardening: BROMELIADS FOR NOVICES & ADDICTS MARCH 2012, 4 by splinter1804

splinter1804 wrote:
Good morning everyone,

It’s good to see a few of you have come out of the woodwork since I last wrote. I’m able to report that it was a fine day here again yesterday and I managed to get a bit of plant sorting out done. My daughter and her sister-in-law are having a combined garage sale at the weekend and asked me if I could take some brom’s over so she had a bit more variety of saleable items. I thought I’d just have a bit of a look through the plantation and pick out a dozen or so plants and that would be that, but when I started going through the plants I thought, if I’ve got to take a few, why not fill the ute up and take a decent load over.

I got stuck in and selected sixty established Neo pups in 10cm pots which are all showing about half colour and sixty flowering Neo’s in 14cm. Pots. A few Aechmea Chianti var Jean (which are in flower at the moment), a J.C. Super Star also in flower, a selection of twenty Vrieseas in flower and two quite large plants; Vr Hieroglyphica with a two foot leaf spread and Vr. Phillippo Cobergii in flower which is four feet high. If I can sell a few of these I will make a bit more space and possibly consider doing it again.

The object of the exercise is to help my daughter with more variety of saleable items as well as downsizing my collection a bit. (I can’t even see where I’ve taken them from). I’ve kept the prices to what I think are pretty reasonable with the 10cm pot size plants $5 and the 14cm pot size $10 and the hieroglyphica and Phillippo Cobergii $20 each. So I guess I’ll just have to wait and see what happens and that the forecast rain stays away. They forecast rain for all week and so far we’ve had nothing but sunny days, so fingers crossed for it to continue.

Karen - Sorry to hear you’re not feeling well and it’s best you take it easy for a while and no more walking up that hill from the bus stop. Next time they won’t let you off at your stop, stay on the bus until it gets right back to the depot and then go and complain to the manager and demand a taxi home with a threat of going to the newspaper if your demands are not met. This will stir things up and really bring this thing to a head once and for all. (Gee I wish I were in your shoes, I love a good stir when it’s for a good cause).

Colleen – Glad to hear things are still moving forward with your “make over”; are the boys into collecting lizards now? And how do you make a lizard home from an old water tank? I know they make good veg. gardens as my old mate has one and we made it about two feet high to save him having to bend down to weed it and he thinks it’s great.

As for the plants with the high prices, I think we must consider that these, especially the variegated Alcantarea are pretty unique and probably the only one for sale anywhere at this stage. I think he probably just puts them on an Ebay auction to get an idea of just what collectors are prepared to pay; then he knows how much to charge for others as they become available . Because it’s so rare, possibly the buyer will have it mass produced by tissue culture and then sell them in their thousands all over the country for a much reduced rate. This then makes him/her a handsome profit and brings it within the price range of the average brom fancier.

There are of course risks involved for the person who wants to do this as the plant could die or the tissue cultured plants may not grow properly and could turn out deformed as they sometimes do, or any number of things could happen to the little plants on their way to a saleable size so it is still a bit of a gamble, just like buying a lottery ticket but with perhaps better odds.

Kristi – Good to hear you’re still looking in and enjoying our discussions and pic’s and it’s interesting that you’re just starting to come out of winter over there and we’re just going into autumn. What sort of birds are your winter snowbird visitors from the north? Do they just migrate there to breed in the warmer climate?

The little mini Neo Lillie Marlene wasn’t my plant but was one from that group of NZ pictures that I have been posting. I must chase around and find out if it’s in Australia yet as I also think it’s a great little plant and it does have such a great compact shape, and I’d really like to have one in my collection.

Well I guess that’s it again for today and I’ll finish off with a few more pictures: No. 1 Neoregelia 'Lady Luck', No. 2. Neoregelia Marmorata, No. 3. Guzmania Crimson Wonder, No. 4. Guzmania 'Cherry Ripe', No.5 Vriesea 'Splendriet'

All the best, Nev.