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

splinter1804 wrote:
Hi everyone – Well it looks like another nice day for some work in the garden. I spent all of yesterday at the Light Rail Museum doing office work and writing bloody S.O.P's; but then I suppose someone has to do it and at least it frees up some of the others for the more physical work I can't do any more. Anyway I'm back to the garden today to continue my “work in progress”.

Shirley – Your experience sounds exactly like one we had with Telstra Big Pond. The initial phone call took five hours (not me) I haven't the patience of a Saint like my wife, but it resulted in her being told the problem was the modem and a new one would be sent within five working days. When it eventually arrived and was hooked up, still the same problem so another call to Telstra only to be told again the modem needed replacing and one would be sent within five working days. In the end my wife demanded to speak to a supervisor and an American woman came on and introduced herself as the Supervisor and sorted out the problem in about ten minutes. I don't blame the people at the call centres, I blame Telstra for trying to do it “on the cheap” and not properly training its people

I love your pic's especially Neo. De Rolf (one of my favourites) and can just visualise a nice big “Bromeliad Botanical Garden” where the bulldozer is now working so we expect a lot of progress pic's in the future. (pretty please)

Sue – It must be good when you can almost see some light at the end of the tunnel or is that (light at the end of the falling down shade house)? Anyway, you've almost got there and will soon be hopefully making a bit of money at your upcoming sale which will make all of the work worthwhile.

To answer your question about whether there is such a thing as a cross between a Neo and a Billbergia, the answer is yes; but there is only a couple of crosses registered and only one pic. The pic is of a plant called xNeobergia 'Noddy' and made by W. Morris in the 1960's and is a cross between Billbergia Nutans (Seed parent) and Neo. Carolinae (Pollen parent) see: http://botu07.bio.uu.nl/bcg/bcr/index.php?genus=xNEOBERGIA&i...
Judging by the shape of the inflorescence, you could be right on the money so it will be interesting to see what eventuates. I'll keep taking progressive pic's so I have a record to help later identification attempts and in the meantime I'll get back to the lady I swapped with to see what she knows about the plant. Stay tuned for future developments.

I love the new shade house, really neat and tidy and when everything gets back to normal after your sale you must give us some instructions about how it was constructed. It looks a very simple yet functional construction and the finished product certainly looks so neat and tidy and very professional, congratulations on a job well done! By the way, how much overlap do you give the weed mat to be effective?

Ian – I suspected it may have been 'Aztec Gold' you were speaking of, in any case the resulting seedlings could be interesting whatever way they go, but if Aztec Gold was the seed parent, it's highly unlikely you will get any variegated plants as it's generally accepted that albo-marginated plants will usually just throw albinos with the occasional plain green plant. Apparently the cross will work if the albo-marginated plant is used as the pollen parent though.

As for seed storage, I have read many different ways of doing this and I usually just put the seed in small paper envelopes and put them inside a plastic take-away container and store in the fridge with a little Silica Gel and I have used seed over twelve months old with good results when stored in this manner. I have also trialled freezer storage for longer term and found seed still viable after 4 years. I do this in a similar way except instead of a take-away container, I put them in a screw top jar. I did read where it will keep for up to 20 years using this method. I don't know how the seed banks store their seed but it would be interesting to find out, so if anyone knows, please pass it on to the rest of us.

Trish – I'm just as interested as you as I wait to see how the flowers on the NOID ?Neo and NOID Vriesea develop. It's just like flowering a seedling for the first time, it's the anticipation of possiby getting something special.

To answer you question to Bree about 'Gympies', there are still another 40 or so 'Gympies' registered and you can see pic's of them all on: http://botu07.bio.uu.nl/bcg/bcr/index.php?genus=NEOREGELIA#G

You've posted some great pic's again as usual but I think the real “stand out” has to be Neo 'Shamrock' is it a mini also?

Wendy – Well I guess you've answered my question and saved me a bit of investigative work about the xNeomea 'Kel'. What else do you know about it? It's not registered so it helps to know as much as possible about it and who did the cross and where and when etc., so anything you can tell us helps. It is an attractive looking flower but your plant seems bigger than mine, maybe that's because mine is only a pup and possibly flowering prematurely, so can you tell as what size your plant is?

I like your variegated Ae. Caudata too; are the flowers similar colour to Ae Eipperi? My Ae. Caudata 'Eipperi' are all in flower at the moment but nothing showing on the albo-marginated Caudata. Maybe it's time I moved it to another spot and gave it a bit of a “shake up”!

Bugger! It looks like Dave's Garden has eaten your pic of xNeomea 'scorpio', do you think you could post it again please?

Time to go, so a few pic's of Neo's to finish with, Pic1 Neo. 'Bold Streak' x Neo. Mc Williamsii grown in good light Pic 2 Neo. 'Bold Streak' x Neo. Mc Williamsii grown in low light to show the important difference light makes to the plant colours. Pic's 3, 4 and 5 are just some mixed plants showing all the nice colours at this time of the year.

All the best, Nev.