Australian and New Zealand Gardening: Bromeliads - Autumn 2015, 2 by splinter1804

splinter1804 wrote:
Brian – You’re lucky to have got that Alcantarea odorata, because if I’d seen it I would have grabbed it myself as I don’t have that particular species.

I went to Bob Larnach’s nursery many years ago and it was a big set up then. Bob’s son was installing an automatic watering system at that time as they were doing it all up. I expect it’s even bigger now.

Just for the record, Bob Larnach is the hybridiser who bred the famous Neo. 'Aussie Dream' grex, and he also has another 65 registered hybrids to his credit, mainly Neo’s and Vrieseas. As I look at your unnamed purchases, am I to understand they were purchased from Wyee? If so, the first one could well be one of the many forms from the 'Aussie Dream' grex and likewise the Vrieseas may well be a couple of his hybrids as well. As for the Dyckia, all I know about these is that they are too prickly for me.

Jean – I didn’t know there was a Guzmania ‘Joyce’; I have a Guzmania ‘Hilda’ which was bred by Deroose of Belgium and released in Australia after being tissue cultured. When I checked up on 'Joyce', I find that is also a Deroose plant and was possibly imported into Australia as tissue cultured material as well.

I have a Guz ‘Scarlet Lady’ also and the bright colour is always an “eye opener”. There isn’t one registered with that name although Deroose did tissue culture one called Guz. ‘Scarlet’ and I’m wondering now if someone in an Australian nursery added a bit to the name to make it more attractive sounding to catch the buyer’s attention and increase sales. It has been done before; I mean look at Ae. gamospeala which never really moved until it was marketed as the “Match Stick Brom”.

Jean you say, “I suppose most people buy simply for the pretty flowers or leaves” and this is very true. I had a friend who once sold his brom’s at markets and although he knew the names, he never bothered to put a name tag on any of them; when I asked him why, he simply said “people aren’t interested in names, they just buy because they like the colours”. Even at our brom sale just last week, a lady bought two brom’s and promptly took out the names and put them in the bin saying she thought they detracted from the look of the plant.

Selling unnamed plants is still very common all over the country in many of our markets, and even the large suppliers like Nurseries, Bunnings, K-Mart and Big-W etc. still sell their plants with only the generic name (Bromeliad) which suggests the name is of little importance and the plants are just meant to take the place of a bunch of flowers.

I suppose the same can be said for the brom’s mass produced for this purpose which applies mainly to Guzmanias, Vrieseas and Aechmea fasciata. These were all originally mass produced in Belgium, then Holland and sent all over Europe as competition for the cut flower market. Because the weather wasn't always suitable for growing these and other flowering plants, people simply bought a brom in flower as a substitute for a bunch of flowers, (and when you think about it, it was a much better financial solution to buy a brom which stayed in colour often for many months as opposed to a bunch of flowers which lasted only a week or so).When the colour eventually faded, the plant was tossed in the bin and another purchased.

Fortunately in Australia, although these plants are sold for this purpose, we are lucky enough in our climate to be able to grow them on after flowering and have them in our collections for many years. However this is the reason why there are so many unnamed green leaved type Vrieseas and Guzmanias in this country.

One of the earliest brom’s to be introduced into cultivation from the wilds of Brazil for decorative purposed was Ae. fasciata; this was introduced into Belgium in 1826. Apart from the botanists and collectors, it was grown mainly as a substitute for cut flowers (for the rich) and was commonly called the “Urn Plant” or “Silver Vase” (No mention of its real name). It became so popular it was eventually tissue cultured and it is still the biggest seller in the world today being mass produced by the millions and still exported mainly from Belgium to countries all over the world including Australia where you can regularly see them on sale at Bunnings.

Sorry, I've got off the track and started raving once again so I’ll finish again with a few more beauties from Thailand, including another with "bites" out of the leaf tips just for Teresa (Pic.5).

All the best, Nev.