Australian and New Zealand Gardening: Bromeliads for Novices and Addicts - September 2014, 4 by splinter1804

splinter1804 wrote:
Hi everyone – Well we ended up having a reasonable show after all as everyone seemed to try that little bit harder and in the end the exhibition tables were full to almost overflowing in some sections. The quality probably wasn’t quite as good as it has been in previous years as most plants showed some evidence of wind damaged when looked at closely, however the general public don’t look that close, and in my experience, all they want is to see variation and colour and we certainly gave them that.

We even had one of our forum members (Brian) pay us a visit also, and it was great to be able to finally put a face to a name. Unfortunately with everything going on I wasn’t able to spend as much time with him as I would have liked, but maybe next year when I’m able to pass off some of my responsibilities to others to give me more time for “gas bagging” about brom’s to fellow brom addicts.

Teresa – As the man on the T.V. advert. said, “but that’s not all folk”; in this case I took a lot of pic’s of the show but as yet I haven’t put them on the computer, but I will start to share them with you all over the next few days.

Trish – You asked a question, “why is it that some of the loveliest of brom’s tend to be slow growers?” - I have often asked myself this same question, and the only reason I can think of is that possibly the gene structure within these plants which makes them superior than others, has somehow also interfered with the gene which controls growth in some way. The difference is very obvious in the particular ‘Blue Cone’ which started this discussion. The nice clone I posted initially is very slow growing I’m told, and yet the clone I have (not as nice) grows almost rampant and will take over if not controlled. I guess it gets back to the old rule that for every “plus” there is a balancing “minus”.

I still haven’t heard back from my friend about the mosquitoes so maybe he still isn’t well enough to face the computer; but I’ll pass on any info. as soon as I get it.

I had another thought about your dogs and the possibility of them eating frogs; why don’t you cook the frogs first and then let them eat them? Thousands of French people do it daily and it doesn’t seem to do them any harm……Just a thought.

I’ll just disregard the first two pic’s you posted, as with my waist line, cheese and chocolate are the last two things I should be thinking about. You had me drooling just with your description of what’s available there.

Where is the Tea Farm, is it owned by Nerada? I remember when we went to Cairns years ago we went on a tour to a tropical fruit farm and then on to a tea farm (Nerada) and I’ve been drinking their tea ever since. I was recently told by a friend that they’ are now a very large concern and I thought that maybe they are spreading their wings a bit and have moved to your area.

I think the plant in your pic.4 is Ae. ‘Shelldancer’. It is a hybrid made by Howard Yamamoto back in the early 1960’s from a crossing of two Aechmea species, Ae. fendleri x Ae. dichlamydea. See: http://registry.bsi.org/?genus=AECHMEA&id=535#535

I saw a few plants of Neo. ‘Rosy Morn’ at our show but none have colour to match yours; we just don’t seem to be able to get that much colour in them here as you can with your Queensland sunshine.

Before I go, I just want to share a web address with you which I stumbled on to a few days ago. It contains several short videos of various bromeliad genera. Although I haven’t had time to look at it myself, it does look like it could be interesting, so one to add to your list of things to do when the weather’s too crook to get out among the brom’s.
See: http://www.youtube.com/channel/UCsfR7qcxz2oZxJs38pJE8Cw

That’s all for today and I’ll finish with a few random pic’s of show plants during the “setting up” period. Pic.1 is Mini Neo. ‘Pepper x 'Royal Flush'‘, Pic.2 is Neo.’Small World’, Pic.3 is Neo. ‘Bea Hanson’ x ‘Rosea Striata’, Pic.4 Neo.’Dunmore Ruby’ and Pic.5 Neo. ‘Jaws’ (Unfortunately not yet coloured up but still nice as an albo-marginated green plant)

All the best, Nev.