Australian and New Zealand Gardening: Bromeliads for novices and addicts - Jan 2013, 4 by splinter1804

splinter1804 wrote:
Hi everyone - Well it's everything back to normal today as my son and grandson have just left on their way back to Bali after a lovely seven day visit with us to celebrate my wife's birthday.

Today's job is to tidy up the floor of the Neo shade house and put some fine mulch on the floor to hold a bit of moisture during the hot days. I've now got the “wind shutters” finally finished and it seems they are doing the job they were designed to do when they are closed and don't detract from the plants too much when they are open.

It seems as though I've been very lucky with the very hot day we had here as it caused very little damage. The only plants to suffer were the ones in full sun which I couldn't remove as they were planted in the ground and which I didn't worry too much about as I had spares under cover anyhow. One was a large Vr Phillipo-cobergii with three flower spikes coming and which suffered a bit of burning and the others were a few Neo's in an exposed part of the garden; so all in all I got off pretty lightly compared to others in our area.

I definitely put my low level of sun damage down to the fact that I “Seasolled” every two weeks leading up to the hot weather and also during the late afternoons on the day before and after the heatwave. I also had a similar result after using it during a previous heatwave which was on a New Years Day a few years back and I can definitely recommend it as a good product.

As well as helping with heat stress it is also good at providing extra protection against the cold during the winter months; all this as well as the fact that it's a great tonic to build up plants strength, "well being" and resistance to disease. I know I sound like a “Seasol Salesman” but I'm not; I just like to “spread the word” to my friends if I find a good product, and likewise if I find a “dud” as well.

I'll get off the old soap box now and post a few more pic's of the Vrieseas and Guzmanias to finish with.

All the best, Nev.