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

bromishy wrote:
Hi Everyone!

Chomping at the bit for the long weekend coming up...

Hi Jean pleased to hear things are slowing up for you a bit and that you are in your unit and able to chat with us more often. Also great to hear how well all your broms are doing and that your Tills' are flowering, looking forward to seeing pics when you get a chance. I have a very small collection of Tills' and find myself buying them as I come across them if the price is write so will have to take and upload pics of my very small collection that I have growing on our Mango Tree, they appear happy there so I can see myself getting many more. Pleased also to hear the your garage sale went well.

Hi Nev I am only experiencing issues with the adverts when looking or sending emails from my mobile phone, experiencing no issues when on our laptop as such?

That's a big change in temperature you experienced the other day Nev, anyway hope things are back to normal for you know as the change in temps can really knock one around when it's that sudden.

My head has fully recovered from my B'Day celebrations thank goodness and hopefully I have learnt my lesson now in not drinking wines that don't agree with me but all in all had a very enjoyable day thank you.

Thanks Nev the biggest thing with finding Brom Buddies is finding the time to meet them face to face as they live all over Australia, that's why I enjoy this forum so much because at least I can jump on and chat with you all anytime and share in our interests and life in general together; but I do really enjoy the face to face chats I have with anyone that is into any type of gardening and if broms are part of the equation then even better. Normally on the weekends I am very time poor so have to make an extra effort to get out there and meet other brom collectors, but I am getting there slowly but surly and am really enjoying making new contacts.

That's funny about what you said in relation to collecting mini's to downsize your collection but that you did not end up downsizing your collection. I can appreciate how hard it would be to downsize so something I will have to come to grips with at some stage but for now I still have many areas of the front and side gardens not used so for not am not too concerned but I do try to not keep too many of the same brom or I will be totally out of room before I know it he he.

Nev oops I did mean Niduregelia 'Something Special' not Neo. 'Something Special so thanks for correcting me on that one so as not to confuse anyone unnecessarily. I really like the colour and shape of this brom and seems to tolerate a fair bit of sun in our garden. Brian's NOID really reminded me of the this one except for the spines so I am at a loss as to what it might be?

In answer to your question about my recent pic yesterday of Ae. orlandiana "does it have a varietal name" as such I have no further info on it from the seller other than the name that was on the label. I have had the plant a good couple of years now growing in an extra large squat pot and I have just let it take over the pot and occasionally cut off pups to give away or sell but I have just started a new squat pot in the garden in case this one gets damaged as I really do like it and grow it hard in the front garden where it grows in pretty much full sun and hardly gets watered because I have it displayed up high (just below waist height) on a terracotta tower I have it propped up on and I have to keep reminding myself every fortnight to give it some water and sometimes it goes without for longer.

I will have to go into the BCR and take another look at Neo. 'Adventuous', Neo. 'Koolau Dawn' and Neo. 'Proud Beauty' to remind me what they will grow up to be like so thanks for providing the links. I was very attracted to the colour in them as pups so sure they will impress me when fully grown and if not I can always try them out in different light to see where I prefer them best grown.

Lovely pics you posted yesterday Nev of your beautifully grown Vr. 'Red Chestnut' and all the lovely Aechmea's from the brom show. I do not have many variegated Aechmea's in my collection as such except for the most common one's, I seem to get side tracked by Vrieseas and Neo's when I am out shopping for broms as they always catch my eye the most out of everything. Oh and Bill. 'Steven Stone' is beautiful too, I have not seen this one before.

Anyway I better head off as I have to catch-up on a little bookwork tonight - blah.

Take Care & Happy Gardening!

Trish

Lets hope my pics don't get mixed:

Pic 1 - Vr. 'Rafael' - I noticed on the weekend it's pupping in the Igloo at present.
Pic 2 - Neo. 'Darkest Hour'
Pic 3 & 4 - Different pics of Neo. 'Grace' for comparison with Shirley's in relation to how the centre of the plant grows (raised or flat). Pic 3 is grown outside and appears raised, Pic 4 grown in the Igloo also appears to be raised even more so, so I think mine are growing sort of similar to Shirley's in the centre?
Pic 5 - Group of Neo's growing in the Igloo. I will have to take fresh pics as this one is an old pic from when I first moved them into the Igloo but they have all coloured up a lot more since.