Australian and New Zealand Gardening: BROMELIADS FOR NOVICES AND ADDICTS - JULY 2014, 5 by splinter1804

splinter1804 wrote:
Hi everyone – Still very cold down here, however the wind has stopped and the sun has been out; typical winter days.

Teresa – Look after yourself; you don't want to start your first week with a “sickie”, I don't think it would go down too well with the management.

You're quite right, I have posted that Pic. of Neo.'Gold Fever' before, on a couple of occasions as it's my favourite of the “spotties”. I don't think I've posted Neo.'Wine and Gold' before though. It's also a nice looking plant and when grown beside Gold Fever, they compliment each other.

Trish – It looks like you and Joe are getting stuck into you winter veg and herb garden maintenance. Fortunately there isn't a lot to do with the brom's at this time of the year except removing any dead leaves from around the base to prevent a breeding ground for fungus and insects like mealy bug and some of the soft scales.

I'm a bit like you and am surprised when I ask friends what their hobbies are and they say they don't have any. How on earth do the pass the time away, I mean you can only watch so much TV or chat on Face Book for so long before it becomes boring; I just don't know how they pass the time during the day.

When I was a kid, my older brother was thirteen years older than me and was working so I didn't see a lot of him, but I was fortunate to live in a small village where there were several kids my own age to play with; however I had various hobbies even at that early age. I was mainly raring stray or injured animals and birds as we lived near various pockets of bushland and it wasn't unusual for a group of us to be wandering through the bush and come across an injured possum or bird which went home to join the menagerie.

As for the Neo.'Rosella', I did get one from Wendy and also another from someone else on this forum who I can't remember (maybe Jen) but both of those plants were the same although a different clone to the original. As Jen and Wendy live near each other it's possible they both got their plant from the same grower.

Colleen – I too used to like going through those restored villages and reliving the past. There was a good one at Timber Town in Wauchope NSW and another at Coal Creek in Victoria as well as several others which I can't bring to mind, but they are very educational for the young ones so they can see how us “oldies” lived when we were kids and hopefully makes them appreciate what they have today.

Please to hear your brom pups did well in the lawn clippings. I tried that once with disastrous results, the lawn clipping went all wet and slimy and the pups started to rot and I've never tried it again, but it's good to see your perseverance has paid off.

Regarding your Neo.'Gold Fever'; did it come from me and was it actually Neo.'Gold Fever' as I have several similar plants?; there's also 'Gold Fever Too' and 'Gold Fever Select', however the plain 'Gold Fever' definitely has the best colour. It needs strong light to bring out the best colour in it (as do the others) and if grown in low light will show green where it should be golden yellow.

Great looking Red Chestnut in you second post, you've done it proud.

I'm in and out a lot over the next few days and don't know what side's up, but after that I'll drop you a D-Mail re. a suitable time for a chat.

Ian – Nice to hear from you again, but a bit of bad news on the low temperatures in the area you intend moving to.

They're nice pic's of some nice plants and your last pic looks a bit like mine where where the magpies roost over them of a night.

Shirley – No it hasn't got any warmer here either, I can't remember it ever being so cold or maybe it's because I'm getting old and feeling it more. I always wore shorts and Tee shirt all through the year once but this year I'm living in “trackies”.

Great pic's once again, I've always been a big fan of Neo. Barbarian, in fact I've done a few crosses with it and it will be interesting to see what it produces.

I think of your five pic's today, Neo.'Romantic Rendezvous' gets my vote; what unusual colour and as I guessed, another from that master breeder of Neo's, Allan Freeman.

Anyway I have to go and I'll finish with some pics including some other gold fever types.

Pic.1 is Neo.'Gold Fever Too', Pic.2 Neo. 'Gold Fever Select', Pic.3 Neo. 'Guinea hybrid', Pic.4 Neo.'Meyendorffii variegata' (Red Form) Pic.5 Bill. Estrella