Australian and New Zealand Gardening: BROMELIADS GOING INTO WINTER 2015, 5 by splinter1804

splinter1804 wrote:
Hi everyone – Well the weather is still fine here but getting cooler as forecast. The south west breeze feels like it’s coming off snow but OK when you can find a spot in the garden out of it.

I’m still tidying and re-arranging my garden plants and doing a bit of shade house maintenance as I go; it should look good if I ever get it finished.

Teresa – Yes I’ve decided I might just hang onto those Billbergia plants and see what other surprises they have in store for me, could be interesting, on the other hand I may just stabilise a yellow Billbergia, you never know.

I know what you can get hubby for his birthday……………………….. his own plane! (One that's already assembled and he doesn't have to put it together; alternatively a good model of a favourite one he can make on those cold NZ nights)

Trish – Here I sit in front of an old PC dinosaur doing my post and having no trouble at all, I don’t need a tablet, laptop, iPad, iPod, mobile phone or any of that modern stuff and what’s more I can still do “running writing” with a pen and paper which makes me more clever than some of the younger generation.

We had a young bloke come to the museum for some work experience and at that time our computer was down due to a blackout. So I wrote him out some simple instructions and after a glance at them he turned to me with a horrified look on his face and said, “I can’t read this, it’s running writing”. I was stunned; don’t they teach kids anything at school anymore?

Thanks for the happy birthday wishes, but it’s no big deal I like to forget about them at my age; it’s just another day.

As for storing pollen, if you can get onto the site below taken form an old Garden Web post (2007) http://forums.gardenweb.com/discussions/1758899/storing-poll... this is discussed by various growers including Lisa Vinzant who is an internationally recognised hybridiser from Hawaii. Speaking of pollen she says, “Don Beadle is the one who told me that it could go a couple of months in the fridge and a couple of years in the freezer”. So coming from an expert in the hybridising field that’s handy information.

I was going to take a few more pictures today but got so involved in what I was doing I forgot all about it, so it looks like old file pictures today.

Firstly, does anyone want a few Tillandsias? I know where there’s plenty but you’ll have to travel to Venezuela to pick them up see Pic.1, Pic.2 is Edmundoa lindenii rosea, Pic.3 Neo. ‘Sarmentosa’ x ‘Cracker Jack’, Pic 4 Neo. cruenta ‘Broad Leaf’, Pic.5 a nice coloured little plant I made from Neo. ‘Thunderbird’ x Self.

All the best, Nev.