Australian and New Zealand Gardening: LOOKING FOR SPRING..... BROMELIADS 2015, 5 by splinter1804

splinter1804 wrote:
Hi everyone - It's not as cold here today and quite overcast with a forecast of rain for the next few days. After assessing the cold damage to my plants I've come to the conclusion that anything will be better than the cold, but then that's not including the possibility of heat waves which are a real possibility with the hot dry summer which the long range forecaster suggests.

Each winter I usually get the odd garden plant with a bit of cold spotting but this winter (which was the worst I can ever remember) the damage is much worse and I'm attaching a few pic's to show what I mean.

These plants were all under 75% beige shade cloth which I thought would have offered some protection. Even the plants in the garden came out of it better than the ones in the shade house, so I'll have to re-think my cultural methods and just what I'm doing wrong.

I did have one thought though and that is the changes I made to my benches; because a lot of the smaller pots kept toppling over on the mesh benches, I covered the mesh with "mini orb" which is galvanised iron sheeting with small corrugations. This solved the problem of them toppling over, but I'm now wondering if the reduced air circulation may be the cause of the cold damage.

The puzzling thing is though, that I did the same thing in another shade house and the plants there didn't get any cold damage and these shade houses are virtually side by side, so any suggestions are as usual, are gratefully received.

The only "upside" is (and we all know this) that most of these plants will survive by producing some pups, however that means I have longer to wait to get an adult plant.

After looking at my damaged plants I must say I’m feeling a bit “down” today and not really in the mood for a “brom chat” so I’ll just finish by saying thanks to Trish for the great pic’s as they do remind me there is probably still some light at the end of the tunnel.

All the best, Nev.