Australian and New Zealand Gardening: Bromeliads for novices & addicts, October 2012, 5 by splinter1804

splinter1804 wrote:
Hi everyone – Looks like another nice day today with everything nice and fresh after the overnight rain again. I don't know what's in the rain that “peps” everything up, but I wish I could capture it along with the water and store it for future garden use.

Wendy – It looks like I misunderstood Sue when I thought she had scored a plant of Bill. 'Alan Ladd'. I must admit I had wondered why she hadn't told us she had a big win on the Lotto which allowed her to pay for it, but there I go assuming once again, and we all know what happens when you assume!

Wendy what do you do to get the pictures to come up sideways and why do you do it? It's a bit hard on us “oldies” with arthritic necks to try and view them.

As for caterpillars, I've never had a problem with them since I occasionally started using “Clensel” as an insecticide and I think the smell of the citronella in it must act as a deterrent.

Do you have a picture (an upright one) of 'Golden Chalice' when grown in the sun? I have a smallish plant called Neo. 'Candelabra' which is a good basket specimen and is usually a pale lime colour but colours more yellow when given very good light.

You asked for feedback about the Neo.'Painted Delight' seedlings and like you say, PD27 could be a “keeper” (if it gets a bit more colour) but I think PD 47 has missed the boat as now that it's flowering, it's as good as it's going to get and doesn't have the shape to make it something special; although if you grow it on, who knows what the next generation of pups could produce..

Ian – In your quest for identifying features of various plants, you may also add those of Ae 'Mirlo' which as well as having a natural shine to the leaves also has small random raised areas of the leaf tissue as well.

Thanks for the info on the vinegar and salt mixture it seems to work on the same principle as a weedicide that's marketed by “Richgrow” and is basically a mixture of salt and phosphoric acid and in your mix the vinegar has been substituted for the phosphoric acid.

As for the Ae Nudicaulis, I have quite a few (I've never counted how many) different ones also. There is one in particular which I'm eagerly waiting to see flower and that's Ae. Nudicaulis 'Giant' which is a plant which can grow to three feet tall. Unfortunately this makes it top heavy and steps must be taken to prevent it from continually falling over..

Shirley - I don't know what it is with you, but you seem to have the "happy knack" of picking up the best looking NOIDS I have ever seen. I'm sorry, but I can't help you with the names but I would definitely say that plant 2 has one of the marbled varieties in it's heritage, perhaps Marble Snow, Marble Pink or Marble Throat and if you do a search of the hybrids from these as parents using the BCR you may find a name. Those two Neo's in your pic's are beautiful, keep up the good work.

Time to finish with a few more pic's, firstly Ae Mirlo showing the high shine on the leaf in Pic 1 and Pic 2 (which should have had the dust washed off before I took the pic but didn't) but shows the random raised areas on the leaves. Pic.3 One of my Ae Recurvata hybrids, Pic. 4 Ae. Nudicaulis Aequalis and Pic 5 another of the Bill 'Hallelujah' seedlings.

All the best, Nev.