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

splinter1804 wrote:
Hi everyone – It's a strange overcast sort of day today with a forecast of 34 decrees. Because of the forecast, I thought I'd go and give everything a good damping down and just as I started, it started to “spit” rain. However it soon stopped and now it's decidedly humid.

Shirley – I can't give you any advice about Ques. Tim Ploughman as I've only just acquired my first pup of this plant six months ago so I'm still learning about this one as well. I have read and been told by people who grow it though that it should be left to clump up before taking any pups which agrees with what Wendy says. As for fertilising, I just don't know, but as it looks a bit similar in habit to Billbergias, I'm going to treat mine in the same way as Bill's and see what happens. Is there anyone else on here growing it that can give a bit more cultural advice?

What Wendy says that Olive told Johnny about not taking pups off 'Galactic Warrior' until they get some size is very true and can also be applied to any other brom's, especially Neoregelias. I have noticed during the last five years, that plants of Neo 'Lovely Lady' grown down here and belonging to a fellow grower seem to be getting smaller and smaller when compared to the size of my plants of the same name. Mine are as tall as the mother and with a good root system of their own before I take them off the mother plant, but the other grower says that he takes his pups off when they are just a quarter the size of the mother so he can get a larger quantity of plants, so I guess that has to support what Olive says about the size of pups before removal. Just for the record I was told the very same thing that Olive suggests, a few years ago by a very knowledgeable lady who is a well known and very respected grower in brom circles as well as being an internationally accredited judge. So it looks like to “top growers” are well aware of the benefits of leaving pups on a bit longer.

Trish – It's interesting you commented on Neo 'Running River'; all I can tell you about this plant is that Running River was the name on the tag when I bought it two years ago. I have since found that it is unregistered, (which I should have put after the name when I posted the pic) but there is a “Red River' which looks very similar and which is registered and was bred by Shane Zaghini. I have also since seen a Neo. 'Running Red River' (again unregistered) and which is very similar in both size and colour. All I can think is that they were all seedlings from the same batch of seed and the others were unregistered and just given”pet names” by their owners. Once again I must agree with Derek Butcher when he says, “never trust the info on a name tag”.

Although it's a nice plant, I have to decline your kind offer of the pup from Bill. 'Kyoto' as I have tried to grow it down here before and it just doesn't like the cold winters and marks terribly.

Trish – Swaps are a great way to get a good brom collection without breaking the bank. I know of many growers like myself who have built up extensive collections primarily from just swapping. I've been swapping for years now and still continue to do so, the only thing you have to be careful of is that you don't swap your last plant with someone. I find it a good policy to always keep one plant plus a “backup”; anything above this is available for swapping without the risk of over doing it and swapping your only plant.

It seems that removing dead leaves (de-leafing) from brom's is a never ending job done by all growers. Surprisingly not all growers are aware of the correct “no risk” way to de-leaf plants thus avoiding causing any damage to any “eyes” (new pups forming) behind the dead leaves. The safest way to do it is to cut across the leaf you want to remove and just leave the remaining couple of inches at the bottom. Next step is to cut down the centre of the remaining leaf stub and then tear away each half of the leaf in a direction away from the centre cut. This greatly minimises the chance of any damage to the “eyes” or any emerging new pups.

Trish they're nice plants in your pictures as usual but the plant pictured in pic 4 and named Neo Concentrica Johannis is probably Concentrica x Johannis, what ever it is it really caught my eye; it's a beautiful plant and please put my name on your list for a pup when you have one available.

Wendy -Unfortunately as I said, that pic of Neo Phyllis I posted isn't my plant; it's the one I wanted to get but finished up with the other one (Phyllis OT) instead.

It seems that the story you are telling about the lady next door and her son is identical to what's happening with me and an old friend and his son. Have these people's sons not got any conscience about the way they treat their parents? It seems to me they just want to pretend the “oldies” are not even there, but I'll bet when they eventually pass away these same son's who seem so unwilling to help now will first in line to see what they can get, as I've seen it all before.

As for a pic of Ae. Tocantina, go to the FCBS Photo Index at http://fcbs.org/pictures.htm and look under Aechmea species and there are several pic's there showing flowers as well, so Ian will have something to compare with when his plant flowers, but looking at the pic's I think you're pretty well on the money with your ID Wendy.

Wendy, I think you must have been really tired like you said, because the pic you posted isn't of Ae 'Red Ribbon' it looks more like Sue's plant as Red Ribbon has striping running lengthways on the leaves, just like the plant you sent me.

Sue – When you say you like yellow as an orchid colour I think you're on the right track with the Indian Dendrobiums. A few that come to mind are Fimbriatum, Gibsonii, Chrysotoxum, Densiflorum, Aggregatum, Sulcatum, Flaviflorum and although it's not all yellow, the ever popular Thrysiflorum. I probably shouldn't have said that as this is a brom forum but I just couldn't resist as I got a lot of pleasure from growing these in the past.

Breeindy – That's a good idea of starting a Forum for Australian orchid growers as long as it's not at the expense of our Brom Forum.

That's it for today and although it's tempting, I'm not putting up any orchid pic's, just a few brom pic's off some old files. 1 is Guzmania Lingulata, 2 is Guz. 'Cherry Ripe', 3 is Guz. 'Fire Cracker' (unfortunately not my plant) 4 is Guz. Sanguinea and 5 is Guz 'Scarlet Wonder'

All the best, Nev.