Australian and New Zealand Gardening: BROMELIADS GOING INTO WINTER 2015, 2 by splinter1804

splinter1804 wrote:
Hi Teresa and Brian - Also anyone else looking in but not posting. Come on start typing we need your input to keep this forum going as it was intended.

Teresa – Good to hear there’s a possibility of more work. Scanning files is very time consuming but at least it’s work and what’s more it may well lead to other work, so good luck.

Brian – Yes hasn’t the weather got colder during the past few days, I think last night was the coldest night we’ve had so far this year; there was a bit of snow up on the highlands yesterday and this is where the freezing conditions and cold winds are coming from I think.

I think kid’s writing is just one of today’s problems; too much reliance is being put on technical aids and the manual aids are being left behind and often forgotten. I remember when I first started in ambulance work an old (ready to retire) I.D.A. station officer said to me, “never forget the basics son, as mechanical aids can always fail” and he was proved right; we were resuscitating a patient many years later and the resuscitator malfunctioned and stopped and we had to revert to manual Mouth–to-Mouth resuscitation, and I was extremely pleased that I had followed his advice, (and so was the patient).

Just imagine what would happen if all of the computers, iPads, calculators and other modern technology that everyone relies on so much were to suddenly stop just for a day, in many cases we would have to revert to handwriting and arithmetic and doing things manually and I wonder where some of the young ones would be in that situation.

I remember when the Medical Centre I go to had a computer malfunction one day last year and the Medicare documents couldn’t be processed electronically and had to be done manually, there was only four of the older doctors and one nurse who knew how to do it manually. All of the seventeen young doctors had never had to do it nor had the nine young nurses and clerical staff of seven. It threw the place into chaos and that was when I thought what a mess we’d be in if this happened country wide.

I know how wonderful technology is and how we depend it so much, but I still think all workers should still know the basics; but then I’m just an old dinosaur who doesn’t even have a mobile phone.

Your Pic.1, Neo. ‘Rien’s Pride’ has always been a very popular little brom’s in our area even though it’s been around for quite a while. It was bred from a crossing of two Neo.‘Fairy Paint’ plants with each other and registered in 1991.

I think the plant in Pic.2 could be the species Quesnelia marmorata; it is variable with some clones having the curly leaf ends like the famous Ques. ‘Tim Ploughman’ but the usual form looks like your plant (See my Pic.1). It has flowers similar to Billbergias and makes a magnificent show if allowed to grow into a clump. Like many of these “tube type” Quesnelias it doesn’t like being disturbed, in fact when a pup is removed it can take up to a year for it to put down roots and start growing. Like Ques. Liboniana it has the tendency to “grow out of pots”; this is just its way of telling you it would be happier if it were mounted on a suitable tree where it will grow happily if undisturbed.

In Pic.4 the plant is most likely one of the many Aechmea orlandianas which come in various patterns. There is also Ae. ‘Bert’, which looks similar but is a hybrid of Ae. orlandiana. They all like bright light to attain the best colour and patterning, and will grow well hanging high up beneath the shade cloth roof of a shade house. (See my Pic.2)

You need to file your Pic.3 as the “before” picture of your shade house construction site. It’s interesting to take progressive pictures and besides you can post them here so we can all enjoy them.

The garden in picture 5 seems to be in an ideal spot with some protection from shrubs and trees. It’s worth remembering that if you plant your plants “pot and all” in the garden, the roots can be up to four degrees warmer in the cold weather and four degrees cooler in the hot weather. With a new garden such as this, remember to keep a close watch on the plants because when the weather warms up and the sun changes direction,this is when plants can sometimes get sunburned.

To finish up today the pictures are Pic.1 Quesnelia marmorata (Unfortunately not my plant), Pic.2 My collection of Ae orlandianas hanging up beneath the shade cloth, Pic. 3 Neo. ‘Kiko’ just starting to colour up and Pic’s 4 and 5 showing some Neo’s hanging beneath the shade cloth cover between my two shade houses.

All the best, Nev.

P.S. I've just noticed Trish has posted also, so I'll post this and get back again later today as I have appointments this morning and I'm running late for breakfast as usual.