Australian and New Zealand Gardening: Bromeliads - Autumn 2015, 1 by splinter1804

splinter1804 wrote:
Hi Teresa and Jean – Looks just like the two of us once again so I’ll just have to keep hoping that some of our other friends will drop in sooner or later. At least we are going a little better than the Bromeliad Forum (which I mentioned yesterday) as no one has posted on there since March 22, which is very sad as it was a wonderful forum with mountains of knowledge, and although all of the past posts are still accessible, I fear that if it doesn’t pick up soon it may be closed down; which is a terrible thought, a bit like burning a library of bromeliad books.

Teresa – I totally agree with everything you say about Face Book. I remember I was once looking through a great thread about a particular Neo when somehow two women got into an argument about a stolen plant at a show. Accusations were flying back and forth and it just went on and on and the original thread just disintegrated.

That was enough to turn me off Face Book in general; but in all fairness there are some good brom sites such as Tash’s “Buy, Swap, Sell Group Australia” of which Tash is the administrator and anyone who deviates from the brom topic or starts any trouble is given a warning and if they persist they are removed and banned from the site.

Jean – That’s a great plan you have to continue keeping all of your larger brom’s after all, and I think selling the surplus at the Hospital Fete or using them as a raffle prize will certainly make many other people realise just what wonderful plants they are; who knows, we may even score a few new members on here from some of the people who finish up with your surplus plants.

I have to agree with you when you say that Lovely Lady is a beautiful plant. However because of the way the names of new hybrids are now treated, very few people realise that this plant is one of the (now famous) Aussie Dream grex made by Bob Larnach of Wyee. Under the old system it would have been called Neo. Aussie Dream variety ‘Lovely Lady’ and everyone would know at a glance where it originated, but now with just registering the ‘Lovely Lady’ part of the name you have to surf the BCR to find these things out.

This plant is even nicer when grown in a tropical environment such as Thailand and to a lesser extent Far North Queensland. Because of the climate there, it’s possible to get a beautiful plant with perfect circular shape and many, many leaves. Neoregelia plants there seem to continually produce more leaves instead of pups and as all of the nourishment from the Mother goes into leaf production, the end result is a far superior looking plant.

Jean you also mention Neo. Meyendorffii which is a bit of a “can of worms” as you will see if you read the story at http://registry.bsi.org/?genus=NEOREGELIA&id=5792#5792
It is thought to be a cv. of carolinae, but even that has a “?” on the BCR so I guess no one really knows. In part of the story Derek Butcher (The Brom Name “Detective”) has this to say about it:

“Neoregelia ‘Meyendorffii’ by Butcher Aug 2010.
This is a very common name in nursery circles and is used as a parent of hybrids BUT it has never been defined so nobody really knows what it should look like. With such a name like this we must refer to the writings of the past regarding identity as the taxonomists see it.
The name ‘Meyendorffii’ ( note spelling) started off as Billbergia meyendorffii by Regel in 1857.

After all this I think I know what to expect for the species N. carolinae but what about the names ‘Meyendorffii’ and ‘Marechalii’ that persist. It certainly has me confused in a day and age where only NEW names are considered the in-thing irrespective of quality.”

To confuse things even further, there are two distinctively different pictures of Neo. Meyendorffii on the FBCS site as well as one of Meyendorffii Minor (A smal growing form), and the BCR only shows a painting of the supposed plant in question. To confuse the issue even further, I also have three or four supposedly Meyendorffii plants which are all different again, so I’ll just continue to follow my rule and leave them with the name that was on them when I bought them until it’s proved to be incorrect by someone more knowledgeable than I.

After reading this and looking at the pictures, I think that people like me who are less knowledgeable about taxonomy, can only really sure of one thing; and that is, if it’s a hybrid, anything is possible.

Finally, I think the plant in your picture still has some growing to do yet Jean so maybe it will colour up more when it reaches adulthood.

I’ll finish today with five pictures of bromeliads grown in Thailand to support what I said about “leaf stacking” on bromeliads when grown under tropical conditions. The pictures were taken by Chanin Thurot who is a Thai “Brom Forum Friend” of mine; unfortunately I have long since misplaced the list of names that came with the pictures.

All the best, Nev

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