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

splinter1804 wrote:
Hi everyone,

It seems like I may have overdone it a bit with the re-potting yesterday as I was in the lounge chair all night again coughing. I had another check-up with the Dr. yesterday morning and he said my chest still isn’t clear and I have more antibiotics to take, so it seems I’m not as good as I thought I was, BUGGER!

Karen – I understand what you say about the lorikeet food but for some reason I thought you had budgies as well and that’s why I thought you fed seed.

I like the pic’s you posted especially the first one, what is the name of that plant? I’m a bit partial to variegated plants especially ones that have a bit of form about them like that one has.

Wendy – Well it seems like Shirley really had a ball, new plants, new shade cloth in fact everything right up until when the kettle blew up and she lost everything she had typed. Now she probably can’t buy a kettle because she spent all her money on brom’s, so it looks like she’ll have to rub two sticks together and boil the old billy. It’ll be interesting to see what the strange seedling turns out to be won’t it? There’s always something unexpected with growing seeds.

I wouldn’t mind a few Portea petropolitania var noettigii seeds if you have any to spare, it’s one I don’t have and neither does my seed growing friend, Laurie. Perhaps we could swap you a bit of some other seed for some if you have excess. I also wouldn’t mind a bit from your unnamed Aechmea like the one in your pic., I thought at first it may be Ae ‘Shelldancer’ but the inflorescence is straight and unlike mine which is curved, but then it may just be a different clone.

As for the recurvata ‘Peach Parfait’, I didn’t pollinate them and it was growing beside a few other similar sized compact plants such as Recurvata ‘Sunrise’, ‘Little Surprise’, Nina’s Special’ and ‘Rising Sun’, so anything’s possible when you have ants around. Add to this the possibility of a ‘selfing’ and the possibilities are endless.

As for the length of time for them to grow, I’ve found them slower than Billbergias, but faster than Neo’s but then that’s just down here which would be much different to up where you live where I imagine they would grow much faster. I personally haven’t grown any ‘Peach Parfait’ seed but I definitely think they would be worth trying anyway.

Shirley – Seems you had quite a “ball” buying brom’s at Wendy and Johnny’s and I’m sure we all are waiting anxiously to see the pic’s of your haul!

Bad luck about the kettle, and I can understand your frustration at losing all you had typed, anyway you can always type it again if you can still remember it after all the “brom shopping excitement”.

I looked up “Cobbler’s Peg” on Google and it seems it’s what we call “Devils Pitchforks” down here and I agree, they are a real pain in the arse when they attaché to your trouser leg or woollen jumpers are even worse. I was amazed to read all about the uses they have as well as being medicinal, see: http://earthlyenergies.blogspot.com.au/2010/08/cobblers-peg-...

I had already posted this info this morning, but realised I had accidently posted a BCR pic by mistake and had to get D.G. to remove it before the Copyright Police came knocking on my door.

I’ll now try again and finish with a few more random shots from some old files of “MY” plants.

All the best Nev.