Australian and New Zealand Gardening: Bromeliads for Novices and Addicts - September 2014, 5 by bromishy

bromishy wrote:
Hi Everyone!

Thanks for all the B’Day wishes; apologies for not popping in and chatting with you all on the weekend which was very busy but an enjoyable one catching up with friends for my birthday. As hard as I tried I still ended up with a cracker of a headache in the wee hours of Sunday morning and had to wake-up and take some pain killer because it felt like my head was about to rotate 360deg and my eyes felt like they were going to pop right out of my head onto the floor from the thumping pressure so I stayed up for an hour, put the kettle on and meditated on the couch for a bit till the pain subsided somewhat and then crawled back into bed and curled into the foetal position and had a bit of a sleep in; one would think I would get wiser with age but it appears I am doing the total opposite and rebelling (in denial) and like to inflict pain on myself LOL, anyway that will teach me for drinking white wine that never really agrees with me anyway.

On Saturday I went and met a new brom collector that I have been meaning to catch-up with for a while and spent a couple of hours chatting with them and they were kind enough to take me through there beautiful collection. I also came home with some nice new brom babies but they were mainly all mini’s (except for a couple) as I have always wanted to collect a few more of these to hang-up around the place. I have not taken pics yet but when I have I will upload and share with everyone.

I did get to spend a little time in the garden Sunday afternoon and mainly watered all my broms and dead-leafed a few and that was pretty much the day gone as in the morning Joe took me out for a late brunch and then to one of our local markets which was nice. This weekend is a long weekend so we are really looking forward to it coming around.

Hi Shirley great to hear you are feeling much better and taking things easy; also great to hear you finally got some much needed rain, hope it was enough to spruce everything up around the place. Lovely pics you posted over the past couple of days I have missed. Oh Shirley I just enlarged the pic of your unnamed hybrid vriesea, what a beauty that one is, I totally get why it’s one of your favourites as it’s gorgeous.

Hi Nev I appreciate your frustration with DG as I too am experiencing the pop-ups on my screen making it hard to read everyone’s posts so it’s not your computer; thanks for reporting the issue and hopefully DG will sort the problem out quickly as it is a real put off at the moment.

Nev / Shirley my Neo. ‘Grace’ plants look very different centre wise to Shirley’s Pic 1 as mine I think are more flatter in the centre than Shirley’s, I will try to find / attach some pics to compare a few plants I have.

Hi Teresa sounds like you are having a lovely time with your family and good that the weather was nice compared to the recent bad weather you experienced. Sugar also had a great time by the sounds of things making a new friend and socialising. Hammer Springs sounds beautiful with all the different swimming pools at different temperatures etc. sounds very therapeutic indeed and I can see why you did not want to leave.

Teresa those are lovely pics you took at the Auckland Zoo, aside from the broms I really liked the stick fence for growing them against and would like something similar in our garden on a smaller scale.

Hi Brian please to hear you had a fantastic time at the Central Coast Plant Lovers Fair, it sounded great from what you described; also sounds like you had a bit of a good spend up with all the plants you brought and now you get to enjoy finding a nice spot to admire / display them all. On another note did you end up doing anything with that area you wanted to house some of your broms or have you decided to build a bush house in the lovely spot you showed us of your garden?

Brian with regards to trying to identify your lovely recent brom purchases, the Vriesea Pic 2 looks like Vr. ‘Red Chestnut’ to me as I have one in my collection that looks identical only that mine is a more mature plant (I will try to find a pic to attach). I could not work out what your Pic 5 was but it kind of reminds me of Neo. ‘Medallion’ but I thought Medallion goes more orange than your pic so I can’t say for sure and I can’t recall if I have one in my collection (will have to check)? I also thought it might be Neo. ‘Something Special’ (being more dark red) and the way the leaves are forming in the centre, except this one has small thorns on the outer edges where you pic looks like it’s a thornless brom? But possibly the leaves on ‘Something Special’ are more pointed than round if my memory serves me correctly?

Brian sounds like you also had a lovely time with your grandson getting up so early to play with him, hope he did not make you wait too long or your other option would be to go in and wake him up to play with you he he.

Our temp was about 33 here on Saturday so I have one of the garden beds totally protected now with the shade curtain fully drawn over it to avoid any of my broms getting burnt. Back to using our swimming pool again although it's still a tad bit cold in the morning when I get up to do my laps but it's a great way to wake up in the morning as it really wakes you up.

Take Care & Happy Gardening!

Trish

Pic 1 - Vr. 'Red Chestnut' old pic will have to take a better pic to show Brian so he can compare with his Vriesea.
Pic 2 - Aechmea 'Orlandiana' in flower
Pic 3 - Neo. 'Adventuous'
Pic 4 - Neo. 'Koolau Dawn'
Pic 5 - Neo. 'Proud Beauty'