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

bromishy wrote:
Hi Everyone!

I am way behind in the posts so lets hope I have not missed anyone while trying to play catch-up and if I have I apologies in advance my beautiful brom buddies.

We had a jam packed long weekend catching up with my Niece, her partner and my Great-Niece (who is 4) that were here for the weekend as well as friends over for dinner Saturday and today a friend visited bringing over lots of lovely pots to house some of my broms as she knows I am constantly on the lookout for them at garage sales etc. It was lovely catching up with everyone but not at all how we had expected our long weekend to roll out as we were secretly hoping for a bit of a quieter one but knew that this was the best time to catch up with everyone especially the ones we had not seen for awhile. My Great-Niece has grown so much and it was lovely to see how much she was interested in nature and how gentle she was with everything she touched and all the questions she had about what this and that was; she also spent a lot of time with the girls and did not want to leave them when it was time to go, even Lucy cried when she hoped in the car to head back home and sulked for a good hour afterwards so I took her for a swim to pick her spirits up.

I did get to spend about an hour in the garden today so did a bit of watering which was nice and Sunday I weeded some of the front garden bed that I had let go and am getting it ready for some sun hardy broms.

Hi Teresa your hubby’s job sounds very interesting indeed, I take it CNC means Computer Numerical Control as I did a lot of this (a long time ago) when I did my Mechanical Engineering and I thoroughly enjoyed the different processes involved along with hydraulics and pneumatics and what could be achieved.

I really liked the pics you shared of the Auster J5, how fun would it be to go up in that, does your hubby fly the one he has. We have friends (a married couple) the husband is a pilot and is away a lot flying all over Australia and his wife decided she would learn to fly also so she could accompany him on trips as well as fly to different places together for holiday’s, they have a hanger built under one of there houses on an island that they park their plane which I always find such a blow out as well as a hanger on the mainland also; they are just both so passionate about flying and it’s lovely to hear the lovely places they get to visit along the way.

Hi Nev your two little workers sound like they have been of great help around the place as well as it sounds like they are really enjoying the experience and the time you are all getting to spend together; I pictured them crawling under brom benches and hard to get to places and had a bit of a chuckle as I am sure they would have looked pretty cute doing so to impress you.

Great to hear your weather is back to normal, not too cold, not to hot but just right. Mum too suffers from a lot of arthritic pain and her doc’ always tells her to move to the warmer weather to help ease the pain which makes perfect sense. I know my Asthma plays up more over winter than summer and various doctors advised me to move to a warmer climate to ease the severity and I now suffer far less attacks then I used to since moving to QLD.

Great pics you posted of xNiduregelia ‘Something Special’ for comparison of poor quality hybrids versus good quality parent. I will have to try to find pics’ of mine as I find them more on the red side and the one’s in the last 3 x pics you posted appear more orange to me but it could just be my eye’s playing tricks on me? I grown mine outside uncovered over winter and covered with 70% beige shade-cloth over summer.

Great pics you posted these past couple of days, I just noticed today that my Ae. nudicaulis 'Aqualis’ has flowered for the first time this year so I have to remember to take a picture before the flower dies.

I still have to jump on the BCR and check out what those pups we were discussing grow up to be like, I was hoping to do so this long weekend as well as other things I have been meaning to look up on the BCR and Internet but I have just ran out of time to do so this time around.

That’s great Nev that you registered Bill. ‘Stephen Stone’ it’s a stunner of a Bill. and I look forward to checking it out also on the BCR.

Although this forum gets super quiet at times we have to remember that other times it is jam packed full of life and it's hard to keep up with all the posts, I think it's natural for it to come in waves given we all live different lives and live in different parts of the world, the main thing is that we get on when we can and not to give up on this forum altogether as that would be very sad to see. I know for me personally that this is the only forum I can manage time for and I don't do Face Book; I just wish I was not so time poor all the time and could get on more often because I really do enjoy the friendships I have made here over the years as well as it is always great to see new people joining our forum like Brian has recently, so thanks to everyone for making the effort and keeping this forum going as I know personally that I would be lost without it as I really enjoy the friendships I have made here.

Hi Jean would luv to see a picture of your Till. When it flowers as I am slowly but surly collecting them during my travels when I am lucky enough to come across them at markets or in private collections that I visit. I like the sound of the divider area you are thinking of hanging some Tills’, sounds like a perfect place for them where they would do well. I reckon Ae. recurvata look fantastic when in flower; aside from it’s beautiful colour/flowers I most adore it’s shape in general because it’s just that little bit different and when it’s all clumped together in a pot it really looks lovely.

Hi Shirley lovely pics you posted these past couple of days, like Nev many of these broms I have not heard of before apart from Neo. 'Allure' and Neo. 'Gee Whiz'. How are you going anyway with you back, hope you are back to your normal self and finding time to catch-up with things in the garden; I am starting to fall miserably behind doing things with my broms but am trying to not get annoyed about it because it is what it is and some weekends are better than others and at least its something to look forward to when I can find some spare time.

Pleased to hear you had a great time catching-up with Jen and Wendy. Wouldn't it be great if we all lived closer so we could all get together, imagine all the mischief we would get up to he he.

Hi Brian Happy Belated Birthday, hope you had a lovely relaxing day. Lovely pics you posted these past couple of days of all your lovely broms, I especially liked your Neo. 'Rosy Morn' and will have to take a pic of mine that is fully grown and flowering in the garden at the moment, I have mine growing in a position that receives a lot of light but not full sun.

I have to look at holding another stall sometime in the not too distant future to sell off some of my excess broms that are accumulating, it’s just finding the time to do so that is the problem; but I will take a look at what I have put aside over the weekend and try to book a date in somewhere before summer gets here as at least it will be a far more pleasant experience than trying to hold a stall in the middle of summer.

Take Care & Happy Gardening!

Trish

Pic 1 - Neo. 'Cane Fire' and Neo. 'Hot Gossip'
Pic 2 - Neo. 'Dominos' (mini)
Pic 3 - Neo. 'Blushing Tiger'
Pic 4 - Vrieseas basking in the light
Pic 5 - Neo. 'Sam Smith'