Australian and New Zealand Gardening: BROMELIADS FOR NOVICES & ADDICTS MARCH 2012, 5 by splinter1804

splinter1804 wrote:
Good morning everyone,

A nice day yesterday but once again, raining this morning so it doesn’t look like any outside work being done again today. Maybe if we get a break in the rain I’ll go and take a few pic’s as everything looks so good after the rain, I don’t know what it is about the rain, but there’s no doubt that all plants certainly perk up after it, and I wish I could capture the magic that’s in it and put it in a bottle, I’d be a very rich bloke.

Wendy – You sure know how to start a new thread with a bang don’t you? Is that an Ae Chantinii? Whatever it is, it’s a most attractive plant and certainly jumps up and says “look at me”!, “look at me”!


Kristi – That’s sure a brief visit from you today; just the same, you leave us with a nice little Cryptanthus to look at and drool over anyway.

Colleen – That’s the biggest Neo Thunderbird x seedling out of that bunch yet; there were a few different crosses but most of them so far have been quite smallish plants with a diameter of 5”- 7” and a similar height and all in various tones of red with a few spotted once in the mix also. It looks like yours is going to be red in colour as well.

Breeindy – Is that the same Vr. Ospinae gruberi you posted before? It’s a great looking plant and really growing well, so whatever you do; don’t change anything with its position or culture.

Sharon – It seems all the wet weather has caused everyone’s brom’s to start pushing out pups, and if we get a week of sunny weather now they will really take off. I was feeling pretty pleased with myself as I had potted up most of the Neo. pups that were big enough to do, but when I was walking around the shade house yesterday, I spotted a heap more that have to be done and it seems a bit like painting the Sydney Harbour Bridge, when you get to one end it's time to start all over again. .

Colleen – The Bill. in your pic isn’t Kip; if it’s one of the ones I sent, I’ve stuffed up and named it incorrectly. It looks to me to be either Hoelscheriana or De Nada, but definitely not Bill. Kip. Your Vrieseas are looking good too and you’ll soon have to extend again.

Shirley – With the pot hangers, we get ours through the brom society which buys them by the box (about 500 I think) but as soon as they arrive they don’t last too long between fifty members. The only thing I could suggest is that you get together with a group of others and split a box between you or join a bromeliad society, and purchase through them as most societies sell hangers, name tags and pots and they don’t put very much mark up on them (I know ours only adds a cent or two just to round out the cost) and certainly nothing like nurseries do. I think if a group of you got together and placed a mixed order from the catalogue which is on the www, (I think it has to be a min. Of $500) they would deliver freight free. This sounds like a lot, but if you have a reasonable sized collection and there are a few of you, you will save heaps in the long run.

With regard to hanging pots dripping into the ones below them causing major damage, the only reasons I can see for this is if the top pot was diseased or dripping something toxic such as copper or zinc residue from wire or overhead treated timber dripping into it and passing through, or the pot below wasn’t draining sufficiently and the lower plant was staying constantly wet.

When I first started hanging my plants and growing in this way, I was told by other growers the plants would all die because of being dripped on by other plants. Here it is now about four years down the track since I started growing this way and I’ve only lost about five plants to rot out of a couple of thousand, and what’s more the ones that rotted were on a bench with nothing hanging above them and I put the rot down to the fact that they were suffering from overcrowding and poor air circulation.

I’ll just ask the same question here that I asked those other growers who said my plants would all die; what happens to plants in their natural habitat with other plants growing above them at many different levels and dripping on them? They don’t seem to have this problem and they have been growing this way for centuries. The only precaution I do try to take is to have the larger pots at the top and the smaller ones at the bottom as it’s obvious the lower pots will get more water, but as they are smaller, they dry out quicker and I think one thing balances out the other.

When it comes down to deciding of what to do, it is a personal choice and one that only the individual can make. I decided to grow a lot of my plants this way to give me extra growing space and it works for me, but I did find you do have to adjust your watering accordingly.

I really don’t know what your plant is Shirley, but if I had to take a guess I would say it’s an Aechmea Orlandiana that’s been grown in too much shade and heavily fed; but as I said, that’s just a very rough guess.

Jean – The hangers in the Ebay link that you posted are similar to the ones I use except those ones have three droppers and the ones I use have four. I have used these for at least ten years and they’re still serviceable, but get the “black” ones as they are UV resistant where some of the coloured ones aren’t and become brittle with age.


Now to finish with a few pic’s of mixed genera today

No.1.Vriesea. Carinata an "oldie" but still a "goodie" , No. 2. Ae Gamosepala 'Wyee' , No. 3. Canistrum Fosterianum , No. 4. Aechmea Pectinata (Large plant), No. 5. Nidularium 'Nat De Leon'

All the best, Nev.