Australian and New Zealand Gardening: Bromeliads For Novices and Addicts - October 2014, 4 by splinter1804

splinter1804 wrote:
Hi Brian and Shirley – I looked in yesterday morning and there was no one to talk to so as posted twice the day before I didn’t bother posting again..

Tascott is a nice looking area Brian, and very relaxing looking out over the water. I can just imagine sitting back with a “tinny” watching the BBQ whilst I take in the scenery. It’s interesting on the map how the rail line is parallel to the road for quite some distance, what a train ride that would be for an old bloke like me.

I think with the Bill. Curly Top, it’s the contrast of the red bracts with the spotted green curly top foliage that makes it so popular more so than the flowers which unfortunately like most Bill's are short lived.

The first thing I thought when I saw those pic’s of the Brisbane show was how much more room than Burwood they have for their show and what a great venue for their society as it grows.

Bill. ‘Myee’ is a registered hybrid between Bill. amoena v. viridis (Seed parent) crossed with Bill.’Gem’(Pollen parent)
See: http://registry.bsi.org/?genus=BILLBERGIA&id=1000#1000

I think the pups on your 'Gary Hendrix' could be exactly what you say, "wamer weather or the benefits of fertilising" or possibly a combination of both; all brom's love this warm weather and a bit of food is the “icing on the cake”.

As for Neo. 'Midnight', the first question is which one do you have, as I was told there are two ? There is a Neo Midnight (Goode) and a Neo. Midnight (Wurthmann)... Butb let me start at the beginning, I once bought a very dark foliaged plant called Neo.’Voodoo’, and after a couple of years I was told the name had been changed to Neo.‘Midnight’. A few years later I was told it had been changed back to Neo.‘Voodoo’, so I decided to do some of my own investigating.

I found there were 3 different plants with Voodoo in the name (None of which was just Voodoo). There were also 8 plants with ‘Midnight’ in the name but no stand alone ‘Midnight’. It wasn’t until I decided to look further to see if the name may have been alphabetically out of order that I found a Wurthmann’s Voodoo and a Wurthmann’s Midnight; two more to add to the list.
When I followed up Wurthmann’s Voodoo I didn’t find any pic’s but I did find a detailed explanation from Derek Butcher the then BCR registrar.
See: http://registry.bsi.org/index.php?fields=&id=7717&search=voo...

When I checked out the Wurthmann’s Midnight, I found the pictures which clearly identifies my plant as not ‘Voodoo’ but ‘Wurthmann’s Midnight’
See: http://registry.bsi.org/index.php?fields=&id=5806&search=mid...

My experience with my plant is that it gets its best darkest colour when grown in about 50% light. Other brom. friends I know say it needs to be grown in higher light, but when I do this it gets much more green instead of the occasional green flecks. I hope this helps you with your cultivation of this plant.

Shirley – Our weather is changing every day, we’re getting rain, wind, cold and hot so take your pick. This morning when I went out to get the paper, I couldn’t even see the other end of the street for a sea fog, where it will all end I don’t know.

As for the plants with “teeth” , I’ve heard them called prickles, spines, spikes and ??1$#%. There is a correct botanical name for them but I’ll have to do a bit of detective work to find out. Whatever the name, they still draw blood.

With your pic’s today, you’ve almost hit the jackpot as I have 1,2,3 and 5 but not the Vr Gigantea Nova.

Now I can hopefully see what they will all look like as the only one I’ve grown to maturity so far is xNeomea Strawberry but mine looks more of a red to yours but that could be due to the different degrees of light.

It's now afternoon and I’ve just ducked outside to take a few new pic’s and unfortunately it’s the wrong time of the day but here goes anyway. Pic.1 is my Neo.’Wurthmanns Midnight’ for comparison with Brian’s plant, Pic. 2 is the species Vr. Elata; it’s a most unusual plant inasmuch as when the inflorescence has almost died off, the new one is already halfway to maturity and you more or less have it in flower all the year around. I also have some of my other pic’s of it in a garden setting shown on the FCBS site as well at No50 in the Vriesea species section. Pic.3 is Neo. 'Vos Cos' which I got from Trish; Pic.4 is one of my own hybrids, which is a gangly looking thing about 30” across, but because it’s a bit unusual, it will go into the garden instead of the bin and Pic.5 is a mix of plants just potted or waiting to be potted.

All the best, Nev.