Australian and New Zealand Gardening: bromeliads for novices and addicts, sep, 2012, 4 by splinter1804

splinter1804 wrote:
Hi everyone,

I have a pretty busy day ahead of me today with appointments everywhere so not much time here this morning.

Bree – Although you say the plant in the pic is large, what is the actual width across the overall plant?

Neo's classed as large area can go any where up to 3 feet across, and this is an area where I think the BCR and FCBS Photo Index both fall down, they show the pic's but don't give any sizes. I think Ian's idea of the 1” wire mesh behind the plant to give an idea of size is a great idea but it does detract from the pic of the actual plant. I think it's easy enough to say the plant has a diameter of “such and such” and a height of “so and so” and that way when viewing the FCBS and BCR sites everyone would know exactly what they are looking at; at present the picture alone just tells half of the story.

I love the pic of your “not so little” dog, and looking at the nice shiny coat he/she looks to be in great condition.

Ian – More great pic's, I really like the little NOID in pic 3, it could be one called Neo 'Red Tips' although it's hard to say as it's extremely variable grown in differing degrees of light.

Trish – More pic's of well grown plants, however the asparagus is what really catches my eye as it's my favourite veg. The hibiscus is nice also.

Wendy – I have to agree with you about the footy on Tuesday night, the Cowboys “got robbed” but then Manly (the NSW Manly) always seem to be able to intimidate the ref's in every game they play. They say down here that everyone has two teams they barrack for, their own team and which ever team is playing against Manly.

Anyway, back to brom's; Nice pic's of your minis, I have 1,2 and 4 although we can't get the colour in them down here as you can up north. Melissa could be worth trying as a parent for breeding variegated minis as the fine variegations are often a sign of a plant that transmits the variegations to its offspring............................Time's caught up with me so I'll have to finish this when I get home later.

Well I'm back home again after all the appointments and can finally finish off this post. I've got my fingers crossed as I can hear a bit of thunder and they have foecast rain so maybe they have got it right at last, I hope so.

Sue – First of all let me wish you good luck for tomorrow and let me also say that with all of the work you've put in you certainly deserve a prize.

That's fantastic colour in your last pic, but then I'm a through and through Neo fancier so what would you expect?

I'll finish with a four pic's of a seedling I made by crossing Ae Caudata onto Ae Recurvata. The Ae Recurvata influence is very strong and until it flowered it just looked like any other recurvata and was destined for the green bin as I have a yard full already.

It wasn't until it flowered and I looked more closely at it yesterday, that I notice the difference in the flower colour which is pale apricot and quite different to the normal recurvata flowers so it looks like it will get a reprieve after all. In the close-up in pic 4 you can see one of my spider friends just below the bottom two flowers. They are non-venomous to humans so consequently I never spray them, preferring to let them eat the bugs in preference to me spraying toxic poisons all over the place. Finally for all you dog lovers, a pic of my little mate of seventeen years, “Clyde”. He's seen here sleeping on his old chair beside me when I was on the computer. Sadly we lost him to a stroke just recently.

All the best, Nev.