Australian and New Zealand Gardening: Bromeliads for novices & addicts, October 2012, 4 by splinter1804

splinter1804 wrote:
Hi everyone – Well the rain's gone and so has the wind. The sun is shining, it's a really beautiful day and I wouldn't be dead for quids!

Breeindy – I have found down here that the spotted Neo's seem to be going out of favour, however I still like them and find they are good to break up the other colours. It seems to be a “fashion” thing which I imagine will eventually go the full circle just like the variegated ones did a few years back and are now popular once more.

Looking at your answer to Ian where you say, “I don't think my NOID has concentrica in it as it doesn't have any rings”, I hope I haven't misled you in my previous post, but what I meant was that if the concentric rings (or part of them) are present there is a good chance it has Neo. concentrica somewhere in the breeding, (it is merely one of many indicators). I didn't mean that all plants with Neo. concentrica in the breeding have to show these rings as they don't, e.g. many of the variegated and spotted types with concentrica in the breeding don't show these markings at all, but I suspect they are still carrying that particular gene which may well show up in a later crossing somewhere down the track.

Ian – Thanks for passing on the ammonia and metho recipe for the treatment of scale. It will certainly be one worth trying and I hope the friend you mentioned does eventually join our little group as we can all learn from each other.

I can't help you with the pic of your Aechmea I tend to go along with Sue to a certain degree with it possibly being Ae purpureorosea. I'm not familiar with this plant but looking at the pic's on the FCBS, none of them seem to have any leaf markings at all, and I know the same applies to Ae bromeliifolia, (albobracteata and the rubra form) as I have both and again without any leaf markings. The other possibility is that these marking may be from some sort of trauma e.g. spikes or scratches caused by another plant. It looks like the only sure way for an ID is to wait until it flowers Ian and then we can hopefully all be sure.

Shirley – That sounds like a pretty good haul of plants you scored. Galactic Warrior is a beautiful plant, but you need to just be a bit careful with the leaves as they are a bit brittle and easily broken. One of the elderly ladies in our society grows the best Galactic Warriors I've ever seen and she consistently wins prizes in shows with them every year. When asked what her secret is, she just says there is no secret, just plenty of 'light ' and plenty of “feeding”. (Incidently her food consists of dynamic lifter soaked in a bin of water with the resulting fluid diluted with water until its the colour of weak tea and used as foliar fertilizer every two weeks all through the year)

Ques. Tim Ploughman is another interesting plant with its curled leaf ends which look like they have been artificially curled. All this plus some good quality Neo's as well as a newly discovered computer skill; you've certainly had a busy weekend haven't you?. You really must share with us how you put the names on your pic's though, it will certainly be very handy when looking for a particular pic.

Sue – As I mentioned in a previous post there were two different plants of Neo Phyllis and I sent away for a pup thinking it was the one in the pic. of my last post only to find I finished up with a pup from a different one, and although it's OK, it's not as striking as the one in my picture. I've recently looked this second plant up on the BCR at http://botu07.bio.uu.nl/bcg/bcr/index.php?genus=NEOREGELIA&i... and find it is now called Neoregelia 'Phyllis OT'. Unfortunately I've still not been able to track down a plant like the one in the picture and it's just possible that it isn't even in Australia at all as that is an American picture.

The BCR also has this to say about it:
Qld, AU for a plant different to the other ‘Phyllis’ circulating in Australia. Plant 65 x 20 cm high, See detail under ‘Uncle Derek Says’

When I checked out the 'Uncle Derek Says' I found the following, written by Uncle Derek when he was registrar:

When we were setting up this data base we realised there were many duplicate names (over 100!) and decided to do something about them. In many cases we combined the name of the hybridist AND the Cultivar name. For example if you search on Neoregelia Tiger you will get many answers. In the answers you will see Baker's Tiger and Skotak's Tiger, which shows which Tiger you may be searching for. We hope to stop duplicate names in the future but it is possible it can still happen especially with hybrids that have been in circulation for some years without being registered.

Based on the above information it's possible that the “OT” after the name 'Phyllis' stands for Olive Trevor and it may be easy to find out if one of you lucky people who get to visit Olive regularly, simply ask her what she knows about this particular plant.

As for Neo. concentrica being a great parent, it is; and there are currently 500 plants registered as being products of concentrica as a parent.
See http://botu07.bio.uu.nl/bcg/bcr/index.php . As well as this there are very likely just as many (or more) that haven't been registered.

Sue your Aechmea NOID is either a species called Ae. triangularis or a hybrid called Ae 'Red Bands' which is a hybrid produced by crossing Ae maculata with Ae. triangularis.

I'm beginning to get orchid withdrawal symptoms once again when you post these pic's of beautiful Dendrobiums. Dendrobium lindleyi is another of the beautiful Indian Dendrobiums which like many from that country have those beautiful bright buttercup yellow flowers.

That's it for today, I'm starting to get RSI from too much typing so now for a few pic's. Let me say that I currently have a bit of a liking for the marbled type Neo's so I'll show you mine if you show me yours. Pic 1 is Neo. 'Running River', Pic 2 is Neo. 'Marble Snow', Pic 3 is Neo. 'Marble Pink', Pink 4 is Neo. (Marble Throat seedling) pic 5 is Neo. 'Pink Marble Delight'.

All the best, Nev.