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

splinter1804 wrote:
Hi everyone – Well the hot day forecast yesterday didn't eventuate as we had plenty of cloud cover all day. Had a bit of bad news though as my trip to the knee surgeon was all in vain. He said he wasn't keen to operate because of my various circulatory problems which would greatly extend the recovery period and increase all of the other risks that go with an operation at my age. So all in all, a bit of a “bummer”.

Wendy – First of all let me say that even the “experts” get it wrong sometimes but Ross is probably one of the most knowledgeable growers I know when it come to species and in this case given what you have just said, I think he's got it right. With your plant of Ae. Macrochlamys even though you didn't have anything to do with the pollination, in my opinion it doesn't have to have been selfed to produce seed. Just the fact that you didn't pollinate the flowers doesn't rule out that insects did, and even if you had nothing else in flower at the time, they can carry pollen for considerable distances to do the job. Only time will tell, so lets wait and see what the flowers are like. At least you are fortunate enough to have got some seed to germinate and in my opinion, this is one of the most interesting aspects of seed growing; i.e. when you don't know for sure who the parents are and have to wait for flowering to get an answer.

You did very well at Olive's sale, the variegated Guzmanias are beautiful eye catching plants which hopefully will multiply quickly and prove to be good sellers. The only variegated Guz. I have any luck with is Guz lingulata variegata minor. This is a small plant only growing to about 6” or so in height but having bright scarlet flowers and also being a prolific “pupper”. Even this though does sometimes suffer a bit of cold damage but nothing as bad as it's big sister, Guz lingulata variegata major. I think Guzmanias are beautiful plants and with their very long lasting flowers (in some cases six months plus) can also be brought into the home when flowering thus saving the expense of buying cut flowers.

Shirley - That's a nice plant of Neo. 'Groucho' you have there and another example of Chester Skotak's fabulous creations. In this case he used the unlikely combination of Neo. (Carolinae variegated x Hannibal Lector) as the seed parent and Neo 'Tiger Cub' as the pollen parent. This bloke's amazing, and always turning out something different and I've just been privileged to see some pic's of his latest miniature Guzmania creations.

Sue – The hot day forecast for yesterday didn't eventuate fortunately and today is considerably cooler so as soon as I've finished this it's off out into the back yard for a bit more work on the brom's in the garden.

I hope everyone who isn't here today are all well and their absence isn't due to illness, anyway a big cheerio to you all.

That's it for today, I've run out of pic's of my plants so the pic's I'm showing today are file pic's from various other growers.1 is Ae Cylindrata, 2 is Ques. 'Tim Ploughman' variegated, 3 is the biggest colony of Neo Compacta I have ever seen. It is growing on a tree near the entrance to Paronella Park in North Queensland (too bad it wasn't in flower at the time). Pic 4 is Neo 'Marble Throat' which has been used as a parent for many of the beautiful marble throated types including the one in Pic 5 which is a colourful new hybrid from a New Zealand breeder.

See many more of these Marble Throated types at:
http://botu07.bio.uu.nl/bcg/bcr/index.php?fields=Parents&id=...

All the best, Nev.