Australian and New Zealand Gardening: Bromeliads - Autumn 2015, 5 by splinter1804

splinter1804 wrote:
Hi everyone – The weather seems to be picking up this morning; no rain since about 2.00am and the cloud seems to have lifted so maybe a fine day for our family BBQ after all.

The meeting yesterday was down on numbers as expected due to it being a long weekend plus the fact that it was pouring rain for most of the day, so loud at times you couldn’t hear anyone talking; fortunately we have just purchased a new amplifying system which helps overcome this sort of problem so it was OK in the end.

The topic for the meeting yesterday was “Different types of Brom’s”, and members were asked to bring in a plant for a show and tell with any plant they had that was different to the normal commonly grown ones. We saw Catopsis, Orthophytums, xNeophytums, , Canistrum Acanthostachys, Canastropsis, Cryptanthus, Androlepis , Ronnbergia, Bromelia, Edmundoa, Hohenbergia, Ursulaea, Portea and a Deuterocohnia.

It was certainly a very unusual and interesting way to spend a couple of hours in out of the rain with the plants ranging from beautiful to just plain ugly. I still don’t think I’ll change from my favourite Neoregelias though as I think that overall when you consider the range of colours and ease of growing, they are hard to go past.

Trish – I’m pleased you had good weather and were able to get out in the garden for some nice relaxing work and I’m looking forward to seeing your garden makeover )complete with new statues) sometime in the near future; like I always tell visitors about my yard, it’s a work in progress as something’s always being changed.

I didn’t realise that it was so dry in your area there’s a possibility of water restrictions if you don’t get some good rain soon, seems they are something I’ve forgotten about with all of the showers we have been having this year. Although the weather report says that we are getting less rain this year than in previous years, we seem to be getting overnight showers more regularly than I can remember for a long time.

Just another mention about stupid driving; in the 1970’s we had a judge down here who made it a point that any young bloke booked for drunk driving or other serious offence who came before him, as well as the fine, he had to go to the police station and sit through and watch a video of a post mortem of a road accident victim.

After twelve months of this, dangerous driving infringement statistics dropped dramatically but it wasn’t long before the “do gooders” made so much noise to the” powers that be”, that the judge was asked to refrain from using the video as part of the punishment. A shame really as it had been an effective tool to make these young blokes stop and think.

It was some years later (around 1999-2000) when in the ambulance station at work one night I was talking to a man who was once one of these “young blokes” and he said that watching that video was the thing that shocked him the most and made him more aware of the consequences of dangerous driving than anything else, and even then (many years later) every time he got in a car he remembered that video and as he said, “switched into safe mode”.

As you say, the clump of Neo. Sheba I have is huge; and in my opinion it’s one of the most underrated Neo’s around. You wouldn’t know by looking at it and feeling how thin the leaves are, just how well it stands up to extremes of weather. My plant is out in the open with no protection whatsoever, it gets full midday sun and has been through two heat waves without suffering any damage. As an added bonus, it’s also spineless and takes on a beautiful pink hue and a darker red centre when grown in the sun. But if you wish to grow it in a lower light position, it’s still a nice albo-marginated plant which still clumps up well. As well as all this it’s a very fast and easy plant to grow and quickly fills up a gap.

It’s a c.v. (cultivated variety) of Neo. macwilliamsii and surprisingly doesn’t appear on the BCR as having ever been registered as a parent.

I thought that plant I asked about was Neo. ‘Royal Burgundy’, it makes a great contrast plant in the garden and will grow to quite a large plant when planted directly into the garden without a pot. The Hohenbergia in your picture looks like the Hoh. correia-araujoi that was brought in to the meeting yesterday. The grower said the same thing as you, “had it for years without flowering or pupping” and down here they are very sensitive to cold weather.

Great pic’s you’ve posted again, I love the Neo’s. 'Lorena' and ‘Prinsler’, what a contrast f colours.

Jean – My Neo. ‘Gunpowder’ NOVAR didn’t even have a single variegation on any of the leaves and as I’m so short of space I convinced myself the best place for it was in the bin as I do have another with a nice pup as well as the other nice pup from the mother that produced the NOVAR. (Sorry Trish, too late to show you a picture as it’s on the bottom of the bin and you wouldn’t even recognise it as a brom now).

There are dishonest sellers who sell these NOVAR plants and tell the unsuspecting buyers that the variegations will appear as the pup matures and I’ve never seen one do that yet. However I have read where occasionally some NOVAR plants can again produce a variegated pup like its mother but I’ve never had one do it.

Neo. ‘Perfection’ is oner that commonly reverts back to a NOVAR, but it’s been documented in several papers where it is known for the NOVAR to again produce a variegated pup, although I have a few ‘Perfection’ NOVARS which are still producing NOVARS but no variegated offspring.

All I know about Brugmansias is that they are poisonous and listed in the top 10 deadliest plants in the world. I’ve only ever seen the creamy white colour and another which is a pale apricot colour growing in this area and both were small trees about four metres in height. I never knew they came in other colours, could be grown in pots or were highly perfumed so you see, I’m still learning new things every day.

That’s a good idea with the pups from Neo. Black Brazil, by growing them in different light levels you’ll soon work out which area gives you the best colour and hopefully a very dark one.

Your Billbergia amoena stolonifera variegate sounds like an interesting plant. I had a Bill. amoena stolonifera (registered in 1976 as Bill.‘Stolonifera’) a while ago but it was just a plain green plant. The interesting feature of it was that it did make extremely long stolons (up to six feet long). It was a nuisance though because when growing in a pot, on a bench, these stolons got tangled up with other plants and made life difficult.

I also have a friend in the Brom Society who has the red form as well, but the stolon on that one was only about 12”-18” long, but a nice coloured plant just the same. It was registered in 1978 by Don Beadle and called Bill 'Stoloniferous Red'. Is this the plant you have? See it on the BCR at: http://registry.bsi.org/?genus=BILLBERGIA&id=1137#1137

They’re nice pic’s of the Brugmansias, I’m looking forward to seeing the new colours you have.

It’s now afternoon and the family have all just gone home so it’s time I finished this long winded post. Some time ago I mentioned how different light levels could change the foliage colour of Vr. ‘Evita’ and today I’m posting a couple of pic’s of Vr. ‘Orange Sundae’ another plant that changes foliage colour depending on the amount of available light. Pic.1 shows the normal foliage when bench grown in the Vriesea house beneath 75% green shade cloth and Pic. 2 shows a division from the same plant grown hanging high up beneath 75% beige shade cloth in the Neo. shade house. Pic’s 3, 4 and 5 show different coloured Vr. Ospinae var.gruberi plants.

All the best, Nev

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