Australian and New Zealand Gardening: Bromeliads For Novices and Addicts - October 2014, 5 by splinter1804

splinter1804 wrote:
Hi everyone – Here we are again at the start of another new month, it will soon be Christmas, and then Easter and then Christmas again, where are the days going?

Not looking too promising here today weather wise as there’s a warm westerly breeze blowing, a sure sign of a “scorcher”, anyway I guess we’ll just have to live with it.

Teresa – Your Bill. nutans is looking good with a really good ratio of flower spikes to plant. To get a “spike to plant ratio” like that, it’s obviously growing in a position it likes so don’t change anything. You see so many pots of nutans which are all chock-a-block full of plant with perhaps just one or two flower spikes and to see this many on a plant that size is very unusual for around here anyway, I don’t think I’ll ever tire of looking at that unusual colour scheme of those flowers; there was once a saying of “blue and green should never be seen” as the colours didn’t complement each other, but Bill. nutans has to be the exception to the rule.

Brian – Don’t let yourself get caught up with learning all of the correct terminology at the expense of enjoying your plants. True, it’s handy to know the correct names for some plant parts but not a necessity. Remember there’s thousands of people growing brom’s who don’t know any of the correct names, and it doesn’t take away any of their enjoyment of growing these great plants.

There is a little book simply called “Growing Bromeliads” and put out by the Bromeliad Society of Australia. It’s a great inexpensive, informative little book written by Australians for Australians and Australian conditions. First printed in 1988, it’s now into its third edition and covers all of the main genera commonly grown by Australian enthusiasts and it also contains a handy four page glossary of the most commonly used terms which is handier than the in depth 44 page glossary I mentioned yesterday.

Shirley – It’s interesting what you say about some of Jack’s “Wild” series not yet registered. I know he registered a quite a few under this name and maybe the new names are pending registration while he waits for a larger group to register them altogether as a lot of the bigger growers do.

You’re fortunate to get Molly to the vet quick enough for the anti-venom to be administered as Brown Snakes are bad news. I guess when she comes home, she will reckon she needs some rehabilitation on your bed after such an ordeal.

Teresa – Isn’t it strange that with all of the tourism to NZ over the years, some idiot hasn’t tried to sneak in a couple of snakes just to take away your “snake free” reputation. I know we sometimes whinge about the difficulty getting plants and animals in through customs to N.Z. and Aus., but we should never lose sight of the fact that these regulations are in place for the good of everyone and to protect our countries from dangerous animals, plants and the associated diseases that inhabit other countries. It’s almost weekly here that we hear of some idiot trying to bring in some restricted plant or food; and some are repeat offenders, they just never learn.

Again, back to Bill. nutans, I know they have a reputation of being “bullet proof” but they don’t always flowers as well as yours, so you must be doing something right.

Time to go once again and today’s pic’s are Pic.1 Neo.’Grace’ x ‘Passion’, Pic.2 Neo. ‘Small World’, Pic.3 Neo. concentrica x carolinae variegata, Pic. 4 One of Peter Coyle’s new Bill. Hybrids, Bill.’Hallelujah’ x ‘Domingos Martins’. Finally this is what happens when you hang plants and don’t keep constant watch on them; this Ae. ‘Ruby Red’ outgrew its growing space and hit the shade house roof.

All the best, Nev.