Australian and New Zealand Gardening: OUR BROMELIADS INTO 2015.. , 1 by splinter1804

splinter1804 wrote:
Hi everyone – What a wet dismal day it is here today; drizzling rain and so overcast you could almost reach up and touch the clouds. Anyway, the brom’s will love it and it will save me some more work as I won't need to water.

As I had planned, I didn’t do any work yesterday and I must say my aches and pains are much better for the bit of a spell, so maybe for a few more days, it will be to advance slowly in small steps, (and watch where I’m putting my feet).

Trish – Pleased to hear you achieved what would be almost impossible for me to emulate, i.e. “Find good spots for all the brom’s I’ve recently potted”. Sounds like you’ve had a relaxing, albeit productive weekend after all. Did Joe get a chance to re-charge his batteries also or was he called in to work all the time?

It looks like everyone else is still getting over the Australia Day holiday weekend, so as there’s not much to talk about (and before I have a chance to get side tracked yet again), I’ll finish up with some new pic’s with some explanatory notes to go with them.

Just for a change here’s five new pic’s, (only taken yesterday). The four Neo’s are all new hybrids of mine and are good examples of the saying “always expect the unexpected”. They have all been grown in less than ideal conditions (over crowded) but I have high hopes of better things when they’re grown with a bit of space and room to move.

Pic.1 is Neo.’Red Rocket’ x ‘George’s Prince’, and following, is a brief description of the parents:

Neo. ‘Red Rocket’ is a variegated plant with green leaf margins from Chester Skotak’s stable. See: http://registry.bsi.org/?genus=NEOREGELIA&id=6692#6692 while the popular Anderson hybrid of Neo. ‘George’s Prince’ is a medium sized plant with nice wide leaves and an appealing soft pale mauve/lilac centre. See: http://registry.bsi.org/?genus=NEOREGELIA&id=4541#4541

The next three hybrids are examples from a cross I did of Neo.’Orchid’ x ‘Black Onyx’. This is the same grex where Trish’s recent example with the unusual centre (which she posted on 19th) came from. Below are a brief descriptions of the parents of this cross:

Neo.’Orchid’ is a Grace Goode hybrid made from Neo. princeps x fosteriana (two species) and has a most unusual colour described on the BCR as “transparent appearance of a pale purple color”. I’ve found it’s one of those unusual colours that can’t be captured accurately with a camera, and this explains why the pic on the BCR is nothing like the descriptions. See: http://registry.bsi.org/?genus=NEOREGELIA&id=6136#6136

Neo. ‘Black Onyx’ is an entirely different plant altogether and is a John Catlan hybrid bred from Neo.’Silverado’ as the seed parent and an unknown pollen parent. The colour is an unusual darkish chocolate colour which changes to a light lime green toward the centre of the cup. No further information is given on the BCR but you can see a good likeness in the picture at: http://registry.bsi.org/?genus=NEOREGELIA&id=3199#3199

If you like to do a little exercise and compare each of the hybrids of the Neo.’Orchid x ‘Black Onyx’ grex with the parents, I doubt you’ll find any similarities, except they are all Neo’s, and this is what makes hybridising so interesting.

Pic 5 is the flower of the ginger plant given to me by Trish and is included here just so I can get an ID from Trish.

All the best, Nev

.