Australian and New Zealand Gardening: Bromeliads For Novices and Addicts - October 2014, 4 by SBMLM

SBMLM wrote:
Hi everybody,

Geez its gone back to winter here today. Supposed to go and work up in the Blue Mountains but the main hwy was closed from too much snow on the road. Overnight it bucketed down and a fair bit of wind as well.

Nev, a couple of stupid questions.

1. You were saying it was hard to grow a 'Desert Rose' because of the colder climate you lived in, I was wondering what the benefit would be in growing Bromeliads on a heated bench of say 25deg instead of being out in an air temp of say 5-10deg in winter.I have always worked at large nurseries/flower growers that heated their glass houses and benches in many different ways for the different varieties of plants but have never seen bromeliads grown in large numbers.

2 Why are you re- potting your plants. Is it an age thing or stability / size?

I like the colour in the 5th pic you put up.

Teresa, the Bill Nutans you are after looks like a ripper.

Jean, maybe in having a smaller garden all the plants you have will be your favourites and have more meaning to you (if that makes sense).

Shirley, great to hear you are on the mend, hope it continues.

Trish, good luck with the meeting you are going to on the weekend, I bet you will enjoy yourself. I have never really collected any plants before just your usual garden fillers ferns, a few Proteas and I planted a Zycad (?) in our front yard over the top of a sullage tank in the ground and it grew to about 8' high x about 10' in diameter.
I can see these Bromeliads becoming a real addiction, the 'Novices and Addicts' heading is not an exaggeration.

Diane, good to see you back again.

Anyhow i will finish with a couple of pics of the Botanical Gardens.

Brian