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

splinter1804 wrote:
Hi everyone – We had a beautiful sunny winter's day here yesterday and no wind either. What a great day for the whole of our family to get together for a BBQ and afterwards all of the grandsons took their scooters to the skate-board park down the road and had a “ball”. The youngest (3 y.o.) had gone home for his afternoon sleep but of the three that went, the four year old was the most daring, he'll have a go at anything. He looked a real professional with his stack hat and knee and elbow guards on and never came a “gutser” once.

Hi to Shirley, Breeindy, Dalfyre, Ian, Trish, Tash and Cody; sorry I don't have time to comment on everyone's pic's, but they're all beautiful and interesting plants. Good to see Ian's development coming together with lots of hanging space and Cody who at last has “joined the club” with her first brom which as Tash had ID'd as a Guzmania.

Like Tash I can't give you a varietal name for it as it's probably one of thousands of tissue cultured commercial hybrids sold annually all around the world. You will be pleased to know though that they will also grow well inside the house while they are in flower, and the bracts (the red bits) last for anything up to twelve months on some plants but three to four months is about average, so it's a much better value-for-money option than buying a bunch of flowers. They are easy to grow but keep them out of extreme cold and direct sun as they will mark. We can give you further cultural advice after you've had it for a while, but what is a definite “no no”, don't stand your pot in a saucer of water like some people do, as it will cause rot.

Sorry to have to go so quick, but here's a few pic's to make your collective mouths water anyway.

They're all file pic's of other grower's plants – Pic.1 Neo.'Break of Day' and the following four pic's are all hybrids made by Lisa Vinzant of Hawaii, Pic.2 Neo.'Rum Raisin', Pic.3 Neo.'Easter Egg', Pic.4 Neo.'Pesadilla' Pic.5 Neo.'Riqueza'

All the best, Nev.