Australian and New Zealand Gardening: BROMELIADS FOR NOVICES & ADDICTS JULY & AUGUST 2012, 4 by perke_patch

perke_patch wrote:
Hi everyone. Welcome Trish and Ian. Love all those pics from everyone especially that nice red/orange one in your first pic Trish. Love that colour. And Ian so glad there's another one of us trying the seed raising. Nev will have you an expert in no time. Sorry I didn't pop in last night now. don't know what I was doing that I didn't get to log on here. I think I got caught up watching something on TV in the office and the computer got forgotten. I know I turned it off before I turned TV off.

I spent this morning putting seedlings and seeds into the new area while Johnny went to see his mum. In between seedlings, I managed to do some baking. I made banana bread and berry muffins (both gluten free of course) Then while they were still warm we got visitors so we then spent ages sitting downstairs chatting, drinking tea and eating freshly baked goodies. Then this afternoon we were just going to make a cuppa and sit on the verandah for a rest and another couple of brom friends from Cooran popped in so we sat downstairs and had more tea and muffins. Lucky I baked hey. Anyway after a lot of walking around the yard and chatting etc we had a lovely day but not much achieved.

Oh I did plant a tray of Acanthostachys seed that someone had given me a few pods of. Wow those seeds were big when I popped them out and washed them. It was easy to plant one seed at a time and make sure they all had room to grow. I'm glad to hear they are quick growers. I can get them through the new seedling area and out into the yard before I run out of room hahahaha. As you all guessed I've managed to fill the new area. I'm emptying each of the plastic covered houses one at a time and washing the plastic covers to let in maximine light. I've been wanting to do that for a while now so the new area and 1 new plastic covered shelf gave me the space to do it.

Nev today I discovered that the area where the orlandiana rainbow and snowflake are has not got a bert full of ripe seed pods. it seems to be just that one overcrowed area where birds and insect hang out that has the cross pollination. the orlandianas in other areas of the yard have no ripe seeds. Oh and the macroclamys seem to be getting really fat pods so they are possibly with ripening seed too. seems to have been a lot of crossing happening in that area around the same time.

pic 1 is the new seedling are this morning after I started setting out all the seeds and seedlings. Sue the floor was what we put down for the spa and when we took it out the area that had been under the spa was a different shade to what was outside it. So we had to clean it and revarnish. Now the smell is making Johnny feel sick so this morning a bucket of strong & hot pine-o-cleen was poured all over it to neutralise the smell.

Pic 2 is Rylee this week when we babysat her and she tried her new motorbike I bought her. I had to walk around beside her pushing the pedal down to make it go. when the back couldn't take anymore she stood up to complain and actually made it go. won't be long and she'll get the hang of it. We will have both girls again on Monday night and all day Tuesday. Their mum got a job at Dreamworld and induction day is Tuesday. Hope she organised daycare quickly as Johnny doesn't want to be tied down every day. We love having them but both of them all day every day will quickly become a chore. Rylee on her own was easy the other day when mum had her interview. and Emily is no problem alone either as she loves to help us pot and work in the garden but 2 together always seems harder for some reason.

Pic 3 is the area which is producing all the ripe aechmea seed. the snowflake is on the end of the branch to the left of the tree. it seems to be sitting on the red gutter on the roof next door. This pic was taken last summer so some plants are in different spots now.

Pic 4 is a groups shot of our concentrica seedlings. I particularly like these three especially the top one which looks a lot like Alan Freemans hybrid called Narelle. I'll take some more pics of the seedlings tomorrow. we've potted out quite a few different ones now and pumped some fertiliser into them so they are really growing on now.
Bed is called again now so I'll lot off and have a shower. Goodnight all. hope everyone is getting some rain tonight. It's not looking promising for us here but we can still hope. Facebook is full of comments about the thunder and rain on the roof but not here unfortunately. If we don't get any we'll be buying water next week. Ah well.
Wendy