Australian and New Zealand Gardening: BROMELIADS FOR MARCH ....2014, 4 by splinter1804

splinter1804 wrote:
Hi Everyone – It seems that the rain has finally stopped although it rained all day yesterday and all through the night. Today's forecast is for continuing showers with sunny periods, so lets hope the forecast is wrong as its my youngest grandson's birthday party today and I don't fancy being couped up inside the house with twenty little four year old boys.

Despite the rain yesterday we still had a very interesting brom meeting. We were entertained by “The Frog Man” who was our guest speaker for the day. The Frog Man is a chap who remembers the abundant and different types of frogs in the area when he was a boy and who now is concerned at their serious decline, especially the Green and Gold Bell Frog. He has re-designed his garden with various ponds to encourage these frogs back into his yard again and is on a crusade to educate all gardeners to do the same. There were many interesting facets to his talk but I found the most interesting was a common fallacy he disproved and that was that frogs will eat mosquito “wrigglers”. Apparently this isn't true; they will eat any small insects including mosquitoes but not the mosquito “wrigglers”. So after all of these years, I like many other growers who believed that frogs in our gardens will eat the mosquito wigglers in the cup water of our brom's need to think again as this just isn't true.

Jean – Thanks so much for once again coming to our rescue and starting a new thread for March, it's much appreciated.

As you point out, autumn is here and in my opinion, thankfully growth will start to slow down a bit and give me a bit of breathing space to catch up on all of the unfinished jobs around the place. Unfortunately the number of fine days when work can be carried out in the garden will be less also, so maybe I won't catch up on as much work as I would like.

However, starting tomorrow I'm pulling out all stops to finish off the current reno., although the talk by the Frog Man yesterday made me realise that my frog pond is in the wrong location and not getting enough sun and needs to be moved as well, so it looks like this will also have to be fitted into the equation while I am working in that area and it's presently free of plants.

Cody – Hi Cody, I hope you and Alex are both well.

Theresa – Sounds like your visit to the Ellerslie Garden Show was a bit of an “eye opener” and there are more brom's in your area than you first thought. I haven't heard any more about the variegated Bill. nutans and unfortunately for some reason I can't access my emails this morning which may be due to the blackout we had here last night, so back to the computer man and until I have that sorted out everything depending on emails is on hold.

Looking at the pic's you've posted, it seem like some of the most popularly grown ones here can be grown in your area as well. In the three pic's showing the “outside plants” there are Neo's (Pic.3), Vrieseas (Pic's 4 and 5) and Alcantareas (Pic 5). Although the Aechmea fasciata shown in Pic.2 will grow inside, it's more commonly grown outside here and I think should do OK in your area as well.

The little Tillandsia Cyanea in Pic.1 is probably an "each-way bet" as it can be a bit touchy and in some countries is just purchased when in colour to bring inside and when the colour drains away they are tossed in the bin and a new plant purchased like they do with Vrieseas, Guzmanias and of course Ae. fasciata which is still one of the most popular plants bought in Europe for this purpose.

The end result is that you seem to have more brom options than you first thought.

Ian – That's a nice looking plant of Androlepis skinneri and the first time I've ever seen it. The foliage has some similarities with Ae. pectinata in that it colours up (albeit not as brightly) on just the ends of the leaves. When I look it up I see that it has quite a large inflorescence which is basically very pale green/white in colour with small bright yellow flowers, so quite an interesting looking plant and certainly one you will need to take with you when you move.

The Cryptanthus in Pic.3 I think is a great looking plant with great colour and how I wish I could grow them like that, the one in Pic.4 is either a small Cryptanthus or a xCryptbergia I think, but I can't offer a name for either of them. The plant in Pic.5, I'm not to sure of either, it could be Ae. maculata or Ae.'Red Bands' which is a cross between Ae. maculata and Ae. triangularis.

Tropicbreeze – Good to see you back and able to post again. Your job sounds very interesting; are you working in a National Parks and Wildlife capacity? I'm always interested to hear of this type of work that the general public seldom hears anything about.

Not being very knowledgeable about Tillandsias, I decided to look up Tillandsia wagneriana and I find that it appears to be quite variable with bracts and flowers in several colour combinations. There is one with mid/pink bracts and pale blue flowers, one with pale/pink bracts and light/purple flowers, one which has almost white bracts with mid/purple flowers. One with almost white bracts and light/purple flowers and finally one which has deep/pink bracts with dark purple flowers in much the same colour combination as the common Tillandsia cyanea.

I couldn't find anywhere whether it's a night or day bloomer but judging by what you say about your plant, I would hazard a guess that it is a night bloomer and the reason why the flowers look different in the morning is that during the night they have been pollinated by insects and are now in decline and on the journey to start building a seed capsule. A lot of the patterned leaf vrieseas are also night bloomers and in these cases the hybridisers use head torches so they can have both hands free to pollinate the flowers. If possible could you get another pic of your flower at night before it's pollinated.?

I love the pic of the spectacular white bat plant, it's amazing. Does it last very long or is it like a lot of other spectacular flowers and die after just a couple of days?

The little Rock-rat is looking a bit worried, it's a pity you can't speak his language and reassure him you're not about to harm him.

As for your last picture, what sort of grass is that, is it a type of Kunai grass as experienced by our troops during the Second World War in New Guinea? Sorry about all of the questions, but I just find the subject matter so interesting.

Wendy – That's a good idea about Ian's pups except that Johnny would put them on your sales tables at one of your shows. Ha! Ha!

I knew it, I knew it........ SALE + women = money spent. How did you honestly expect us all to believe that you and Jen were going to a brom sale just to “window shop” ….impossible! At least I'm glad Johnny was able to go in the afternoon and even the score a bit with some Vrieseas.

As for the colour variations in your and Shirley's Neo.'Chocolate', it may easily just be a “light thing” remember the light can vary in all parts of your yard as well as Shirley's and the only real way to compare the colour in the two plants is to grow them side by side at the same location.

Aechmea ornata var nationalis is a beautiful plant with beautiful flowers but oh how vicious are those spikes on the ends of the leaves, I reckon they could almost go right through your arm if you fell on one; and the non-variegated Ae. ornata is just as vicious.

Time to go and get ready for the grandson's party. All the kids are going to dress up as super heroes and when I was asked what I was going as I said I'd just go as an old man with no hair!

Just to further demonstrate what I said about the effect of light on plant colours, Pic's1 and 2 are both my Neo.'Break of Day' plants and are from the same mother plant. They are growing in the same shade house with one on each end of the same bench. Pic's 3, 4 and 5 depict Neo. 'Burgundy Moss' grown by three different growers in three different locations; look at the different colours in those..

All the best, Nev.