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

splinter1804 wrote:
Hi everyone, (those who are posting and those who are just looking in). It would be nice to see a few more people posting, as the more members participating the more information sharing can occur, and after all, that’s what forums are all about isn’t it?

Teresa – The array of combinations, new colours and patterns which are popping up daily with the new hybrids being created are “mind boggling” and makes me wonder where it will all end or what the next direction of hybridising will take. As well as the normal hybrids we also have bi-generic crosses and it seems these may eventually lead to tri-generic crosses and who knows where from there. Whatever happens, we should never forget the species, as this is where it all started and there are many beautiful species in their own right which can hold their own against many of the new hybrids. On another forum I visit, there is a chap from Brazil who posts some wonderful species and habitat pictures and this morning I sent him an Email seeking his permission to post some of his pictures here on our little forum. Hopefully he will agree and I can share some of the wonders of his species with you all.

It’s good to see Sugar working her way up the competition ladder, let’s hope she doesn’t get a swelled head and revert to her Weasel ways. Ha! Ha!

Diane – Sorry to hear about the death in your family and please accept my condolences. What’s more, as well as your family member, a friend has passed away as well so you’re going through a really sad and very busy time at present and we all understand why you’re not posting, and look forward to hearing from you again next week when you can continue to learn more about this wonderful hobby of growing brom’s.

Shirley – To answer your question about whether I’m hanging my plants now; I’ve always hung a lot of my plants simply because I just don’t have sufficient bench space, so when the benches are full, I just go up; consequently, in the shade houses I probably have one third on benches and two thirds hanging.

Don’t be deceived by the hangers on all the pots though, they don’t necessarily mean I’m going to hang them as for the most part they are just a convenient handle to carry them with, and stop me having to bend down to pick them up. It does help the old back a bit though, so when I pot a plant I always fit a hanger which allows me to carry them more easily to the Vriesea shade house where they are watered and left for a couple of days to settle down before they are moved again to their permanent location, either on a bench if there’s space or hanging.

Today I looked at your last picture first as I’ve always been interested in bi-generics and as xNeomea ‘Valli’ is one I hadn’t seen nor heard of before I went straight to the BCR to find out more about it. I see it is a cross between Aechmea zebrina and an unknown Neoregelia.
The interesting thing I did see though, there is also a picture showing a great example of a compound inflorescence. (Defined in the FCBS Glossary as; a compound inflorescence is a branching inflorescence)
See: http://registry.bsi.org/?genus=xNEOMEA&id=9450#9450

I don’t have Neo. ‘Anzac Spirit’, but I’ve seen it in a friend’s collection and yours will get more colour yet I’m sure. It is another which was bred by Allan Freeman with parentage of Neo. 'Gee Whiz' x (carolinae x 'Painted Lady').

Neo.’Wild Pepper’ is one I don’t know and can’t find anything about; it’s not shown on the BCR or the FCBS so obviously unregistered. This however doesn’t alter the fact that it’s still a nice plant though.

I think it’s pretty obvious to everyone though, that the Grace Goode bred Neo.’Mandela’ beats everything else “hands down”. The plant colour, shape and nice wide leaves just leaves the others for dead in my opinion…… a beautiful plant.

Colleen – Well I was half right with Canistrum; too hasty in my assessment, I should have noticed the dark colour around the base of the leaves which would have identified if for me if I’d looked and hadn’t been in so much of a hurry.

Your Neo. Mister Odean seedlings are powering on and much larger than last time you posted them and it won’t be long before you’ll be seeing an indication of what colour they’ll be, but don’t be impatient, as I’ve found with mine they were much slower to mature than other seedlings of the same age.

That will do me for today and the pic’s I’ll finish with are 1and 2. Some Neo’s just potted and waiting to be re-located, 3 is a friend’s Ae.’Aussie Ruby’, finally two more of Jack Koning’s new Vriesea hybrids, 4 is Vr. fosteriana ‘Megan’ x fosteriana ‘Reconciliation’ and pic.5 is Vr.’Double Pleasure Jack’s Gem’ F2 .

All the best, Nev