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

splinter1804 wrote:
Hi everyone – Well we've had 24 hours of rain and strong wind and every thing's had a really good watering; now it looks like the sun's going to come out so now I can just sit and watch everything grow.

Breeindy – Sorry I missed out answering you yesterday but we must have been typing at the same time because when I went to check what I had posted there was a message to say there was someone who had posted before me and to read it.

Anyway, your first four plants are looking well, however Neo. 'Break of Day' will give much better colour when grown in brighter light, but having said that, I guess colour is a matter of personal taste.

Speaking of personal taste, you seem to like the spotted types; do you have Neo 'Gold Fever', Neo 'Gold Fever Select', Neo 'Gold Fever Too' or Neo.'Gold Fantasy'? They are four of my favourite spotted types and I'll post pictures below.

Trish – You say you are going to plant some new vegetable seedlings out this weekend; have you ever tried (the original) Seasol on them? I always used it when I had a vegetable garden and always soaked new punnets of plants in it before planting, and watered them in with it after planting. I never had any transplant wilt and never lost a seedling, it's fantastic stuff and great for brom's as well.

I notice the gravel on the top of your pots of nice looking pups and just have to ask is this just a decorative topping, or do you use it as a growing medium as a lot of the growers I know up in far north Queensland do? As for Ae. Correia Araujoi, yes you did get the spelling right, but let's hear you pronounce it!

I see you live in Townsville and have to ask if you know Rob Smythe. He lives there also and is a very good brom grower who has hybridised many beautiful plants. I understand he has a wonderful collection which he likes to show to people. Although I correspond with him occasionally I've never had the chance to meet him in person or see his collection, but if you get a chance to do so, please say hello to him from me.

Wendy – That last pic of the variegated seedling is one I bred from the variegated Neo. 'Painted Lady' sport I have mentioned previously. I'm hopeful that as a plant showing all that fine lineage it may turn out to be a good transmitter of variegation; so when it flowers, out cones the fertilising equipment and we'll find out for sure.

What you say about the lady next door seems to have a lot of similarities with an old mate (94) of mine who always calls me instead of his son when he's crook. Although his son only lives a shorter distance away than me, he always has an excuse why he can't come. One time when my old mate had been crook all week and I had been ringing him daily to check on him, this particular evening there was no answer, so I left it for ten minutes and tried again still no answer so after another ten minutes I tried again with the same result, so I rang his son and told him I was concerned that the old fellow had had another fall. I was told in no uncertain terms that he was having his dinner and his wife was watching her favourite TV show, and it wasn't until after I “bored it up him” a bit and explained that we were talking about his father here and to get off his arse and go and check on him he agreed to go around and see if everything was alright. When he got there he found him on the bathroom floor where he had been for several hours after having a fall. The thing is that this old bloke now always rings me in preference to his son as he doesn't like to disturb him! Much the same as your situation wouldn't you say?

I know variegated plants are your favourites and I'll see if I can dig up a few more pic's to post tomorrow. Looking at the pic's you have posted today, my favourite would have to be Neo 'Lilac Prince, I think the subtle colours are fantastic and I would also suspect that it could be a variegation transmitter as well. Although the Neo 'Freeman's Joy' is a nice plant I don't think it would be a very good transmitter as it seems to be more albo-marginated than a straight variegated plant. It's a well know fact that albo-marginated plants usually just produce useless albino seedlings and not variegated ones, but as it seems to be a bit of a mixture of both albo-marginated and variegated markings, it might be interesting to try it just to see what it does produce, remember, nothing ventured, nothing gained.

Well that's it from me today and now for a few pic's; Pic.1 is Neo. Break of Day showing the colouring when grown in strong light. In this case hanging right up just below the roof of 75% beige shade cloth. Pic.2 is Neo. 'Gold Fever', Pic.3 is Neo 'Golden Fantasy', Pic.4 is Neo.'Gold Fever Too' and Pic.5 is 'Gold Fever Select'.

All the best, Nev