Australian and New Zealand Gardening: OUR BROMELIADS INTO 2015.. , 4 by splinter1804

splinter1804 wrote:
Hi everyone – The rain has arrived again; it’s rained all night and still good steady rain this morning, Although it’s mucked up my plans for more dead leafing, it will at least save me needing to water where required.

We have two grandsons here after a “sleep over|” last night and we had planned to take them and the third grandson to the Light Rail Museum for a train ride this morning. I guess this will be a first for them, as I don’t think they’ve ever had a ride in open sided carriages in the rain before.

Jean – What you say is very true; the weather changes every day. Three days ago here we were all sweating in 38C. heat and almost 95% humidity and this morning its probably in the mid twenties and raining. Like you say, the weather these days is a day to day thing and certainly full of surprises. Let’s just hope the bushfire areas are getting some of this cooler weather and rain as well.

I have no experience with roses Jean, but would it be possible to take cuttings from the roses at your previous house and grow them at the new place? That way you could have the best of both houses. I was once told that cuttings don’t always grow well or come true to form and you are better off grafting them onto some wild rootstock to be successful, as I never followed this up I don’t know if it’s true, but probably worth trying in your spare time, (What spare time you say Ha! Ha!).

In the past as my wife and I travelled to various states, I took pictures of old farm houses some occupied and some derelict and deserted as well as old farm sheds in various states of disrepair. My idea was that in my old age when I wasn’t as active as I once was, I could do some pen and ink drawings with a watercolour wash.

We saw some drawings/paintings done in this style in an art exhibition in the main park at Ballarat years ago and I was very impressed with them. They were only about A4 size and the artist had about fifteen on display and priced for sale after the exhibition. As I looked them over with the idea of perhaps buying one as a memento of our holiday, everyone had a “sold” sticker on the reverse, so I wasn’t the only one who liked the style. You’ve stirred me up now with your talk of painting and I might just dig out these old pic’s, it will give me something to do when I’m not playing with my brom’s.

You mention very small burn marks on a leaf or two on your brugs. I could never understand why extremes of hot or cold usually damaged mature plants and not the pups, until I had it explained to me that as the mature plants were already stressed from supporting the pups, they were the weakest, and besides, the pups were usually sheltered by the leaves of the adult plant.

That’s a nice mixture of plants in your pictures Jean. What can I say about Bill. Hallelujah? It’s a winner in any company and probably the most popular Bill. grown today.

I’m not familiar with the nice looking plant of Neo.‘Victoria’ x ‘Lamberts Pride’ and when I looked up the BCR I find there are 17 registered crosses using Neo.‘Victoria’ and only 5 using Neo.‘Lambert’s Pride’, but no registration of hybrids from a crossing of these two in particular. I know there’s been some nice hybrids bred in N.Z. using Lambert’s Pride but as yet none from there registered. What catches my eye though is the plant to the right and behind Neoregelia ‘Victoria’ x ‘Lamberts Pride’, is it Neo.’Birdrock”? It’s great colour whatever it is.

They’re nice looking pups on Neo.’Bill Morris’ also. I’ve found that if you take these off too soon they will just sulk for months and months before starting to grow roots so better to wait until they have their own roots before taking them off. As for Neo. ‘Lambert’s Pride’, my previous next door neighbour often said it was so easy, it would grow on a “bald man’s head” although it hasn’t done so on mine yet.

Finally, Neo. ‘Enchantment’; in my opinion, the pick of them all. Did you know there’s a “non” albo-marginated form as well? They are both nice looking plants and should be in all collections.

That’s it for today, finished already and it’s only 6.20am. Today's pic's are firstly, a beautiful new Neo. Marble Throat hybrid which unfortunately had no name supplied. Pic.2 is an "oldie" but a good one for those shady areas, Nidularium fulgens 'Cerise', Pic.3, 4 and 5 are all Peter Coyle hybrids, firstly Neo. 'Totara Rhubarb', the next two are from the same crossing Neo. 'Wild Tiger' x ('Avalon' x 'Fireball')

All the best, Nev.