Australian and New Zealand Gardening: Bromeliads for Novices and Addicts - May 2013, 4 by splinter1804

splinter1804 wrote:
Hi everyone – Another cold morning here this morning. The rain's stopped but the forecast is for more this afternoon so I'd better sort out a few bits and pieces I can do under cover today, such as potting up some more seedlings to make way for the smaller ones I have to thin out and transplant into new containers.

Tash – It's great to see you posting once again and providing us all with useful information. That's all interesting stuff you've written about the “stabbing process” and it's great that you're sharing the information you've been given by others with more experience in this area.

I must admit I only did it a couple of times on a couple of surplus Billbergias and I did it with a long screwdriver which I pushed down until I reached the meristem and then just twisted it from side to side with the idea being that the meristem would be destroyed. I had previously been shown this by someone who does it regularly so I thought I'd give it a go and see what happened. Well I just got two pups from one plant and lost the other plant to rot and decided that it would be best if I left it to the experts from then on.

Thinking back now, it may be that I did mine at the wrong time of the year when the weather wasn't very warm and that could be the reason I lost one plant to rot; anyway, not to worry as my problem isn't that I'm not getting enough pups, it's that I'm getting too many and not having anywhere to put them.

Sue – On the subject of Termites, when I bred foreign finches we used Termites for live food during the breeding season. We would go out into the bush, find a Termite mound and dig it out (with the Termites inside) and just put the chunks into Hessian bags and tie the top. We would store them in plastic garbage cans with a lid and sit the whole lot in a tray of water to prevent any escapes.

I was never concerned about them getting into our house as I learned firstly, that once they are exposed to light and open air they are very vulnerable to dehydration; secondly, the black ants love to eat them and thirdly, what the black ants don't eat, the Skinks will get as they become quite ravenous at the sight of them and more or less get into a feeding frenzy. I guess the moral of the story is, to keep a healthy yard where toxic sprays aren't used. Encourage lizards and other predators and just let nature take its course and whatever you do, never kill or bait black ants as although they can be a nuisance, they are insurance against Termites.

I really can't add anything more to the topic of Neo. Tarapotoensis as I was once told it doesn't like cold winters so I never even tried to grow it down here.

Ian – NEWS FLASH!!!!!!!!
Regarding Neo. 'Red Bird', I'm now saying mine looks like the “real deal”. After searching the BCR and finding the only 'Red Bird' registered is a Cryptanthus, I then decided to have a closer look on the FCBS Photo Index and there they have no less than three entirely different plants named as Neo.'Red Bird'. One is the plant I found the other morning when I quickly just glanced through the names and was the first one I came across, and after checking more closely this morning I find there are two more with the same name. One is a c.v. of Neo Carolinae and is scarlet in colour and looks nothing like my plant and the other is a Caronne hybrid from a crossing between Neo.'Black Knight' and Neo. Ampullacea 'Midget' and the photo's look identical to my plant, so there's one mystery solved.

Ian, I too agree with Shirley and think your plant in Pic.3 is Neo 'Moon Over Fort Dix' which is a cross between Neo. (Skotak's Tiger x sp. Friburgo leg. Gurken) x Neo. Hannibal Lector. See: http://botu07.bio.uu.nl/bcg/bcr/index.php?genus=NEOREGELIA&i...

Trish – It seems you have the “magic touch” for your Vriesea ‘Platynema Var. x Uluru Sunset’ to give you such a nice crop of pups. I think with that many feeding from the mother she should be rewarded with a little extra fertiliser to help her feed her babies.

I must admit I'm not really that much into Guzmanias but I do very much like the colours in 'Sunny Time' and 'Hilda'. Those two pic's I posted yesterday were old file pic's but this year the 'Hilda' (which is now due to be divided) produced three magnificent flower spikes and was such a picture that we had it in the house in front of the old fire place for three months before I returned it to the shade house where it's now waiting for the warmer weather before I may (or may not) divide it.

They're great random shots of your garden and having said that, regarding the Termites and what is the safest sort of mulch to use, I think you've answered your own question as all you need to do is look to see what you currently have mulched your garden with as well as the top of your pots

Shirley – I know it's a bit of a chore having to put up a “topper” in the summer and take it off again during the winter, but I'm sure your plants will appreciate the extra winter sunlight and reward you with some beautiful colours which hopefully you will photograph so we too can enjoy them.

Come on Shirley, you can't get away with just saying you bought a couple of new plants from eBay without showing us the pic's, what's going on?

Wendy – Are you sure the score was four to you nil to Johnny and not the other way around? I know quite a lot of fisho's and they all have one thing in common, and that is they are all sometimes a bit careless with the truth.

Oh the advantage of having a caravan, when it gets too noisy you can just up stakes and move somewhere else. I don't know if you get it up your way or not, but we have an add on TV where a few blokes have just set up their fishing camp in a nice secluded spot when they see another car load coming in. So they just turn up their radio on full bore so they look like a noisy mob of “rockers” and the other carload just keeps on going. They then turn off the radio and sit back an relax again. I can just see you and Johnny doing something like that.

I can relate to what you say about leaving something at home when you go camping. When I was an apprentice, four of us would go camping each month. We camped on a property at a place called Ryana (I think that's how it's spelled) just west of Goulburn where there were plenty of rabbits to shoot. We would leave after work on the Friday and get there in the dark to set up our camp. We would all take part of the camping equipment so it wasn't just left to one bloke to do all the work. On this particular occasion (the middle of winter) when we got there I got out the tent poles and pegs, my mate got out the sleeping bags and groundsheet and the other bloke went to get out the tent and found he had left it at home. Not to worry, we made up a bit of a “lean to” out of the canvas ground sheet so all seemed well. It snowed that night and I've never been camping since!

Sue – It seems like you're copping a bit of wild weather up there and judging by the weather report on the TV last night there's more on the way, so best batten down the hatches.

I'd better see if I have a spare 'Galactic Warrior' just in case your Alsynite comes adrift and chops your plant to pieces; You have given me an idea though Sue; you see a few months back I got hold of 6 pieces of Lazar Light about three feet long which were off cuts from a “stuffed up job a builder did when he over ordered”. After seeing what you've done with that single sheet, I think I'll put these across the roof of my top shade house directly over the bench as there will be enough to go the full length. This might just protect the cold sensitive Billbergias sufficiently to prevent any marking from the cold.

Your xCanmea is certainly “eye catching” wow! What a nice bright colour. How does it handle the cold weather during winter having Ae Chantinii in it's breeding line?. I have a Canistrum with a beautiful bright red flower as well but by the time it's flowering all of the leaves have brown marks on them from the cold and they really spoil the effect which makes me wonder if it's worth growing it down here.

Jean – You certainly know how to make a bloke envious when you torment me by saying you have a Neo. 'Beauty to Behold' coming your way. It's a beautiful brom and I hope you have a lot of success with it. For those of you who don't know it, go and have a sneak preview at: http://botu07.bio.uu.nl/bcg/bcr/index.php?genus=NEOREGELIA&i...

I can't say I've heard about an “Elmore List”. I know about “Elmore Oil” and use it regularly for my arthritis and know it's made in a Victorian town called Elmore which is down your way and is north-east of Bendigo on the Campaspe River. Maybe this might be a good place to try and find out about an Elmore List.

Time I wasn't here so I'll finish with a few pic's once again; Pic.1 is the same plant of Guz. Hilda' I posted yesterday; except it's now three years older than when the other pic was taken and has seven pups poking their collective heads up through the leaves. The question is whether to divide it or try and keep it as a single plant.

As we've recently been talking about Alcantarea Grass Pups, Pic.2 is a group of these as they arrived by post for the members of an Alcantarea Study Group started by Rob Smythe. This is just to show the size they can be taken off and grown up in Queensland; down here where it's colder only about 50% survived. To give an accurate idea of the size, the white tubes are sections of normal drinking straws, so they're not too big are they?

Pic.3 is of a very nice clone of Ae. 'Bert'. It was grown by a friend in Far North Queensland and I was fortunate enough to obtain a pup through a swap. Unfortunately, although it's nicer than the usual clones around here; I still can't get the beautiful colours that they do up north such as those shown shown in the pic. Pic.4 is Ae.'Mirlo' showing just how dark it will get when grown in low light and Pic.5 is my Ae Pectinata taken the year before last.

All the best, Nev.