Australian and New Zealand Gardening: BROMELIADS GOING INTO WINTER 2015, 1 by splinter1804

splinter1804 wrote:
Hi everyone – Back again after my interrupted post yesterday morning where I omitted answering Trish.

Trish- I can’t make out this DG site; when I first looked yesterday morning there were only two posts; Teresa and Brian; then just as I went to post, yours appeared, and the times aren’t even close. Anyway, that’s my whinge for the day and now back to brom’s.

I have a spare Tillandsia plant or two but they are only common ones, I think one is called ‘Stricta’ and I don’t remember if the other one has a name on it, but you’re welcome to a couple if you want them.

I didn’t notice your spelling of ‘Grey Nurse’ until you mentioned it as I've become used to plants sometimes being registered with the American spelling which is Gray and not Grey like we spell it; it’s no big deal though until you are looking for a plant in a “search” and then the wrong spelling can make things difficult.

As for Ae. ‘Rodco’ inverta, it’s not just that one that doesn’t like the cold here the same applies to the other Ae. lueddemanniana c.v’s such as MEND, MEND inverta, 'Alvarez', 'Blanca Alvarez' & 'Pinkie'. I’ve tried most of them with the same poor result.

As for the garden pictures I posted, the only change is that the seedling culls I planted behind the mauve border have all grown very big (a few blanchetianas and large Neo’s) and the Ae. recurvatas in the other garden have gone and been replaced with some large Neo’s and a couple of different Ae bromeliifolias. I’ll try and remember to take a picture today.

That’s a great collection of Vrieseas you posted, real ”drool” material, but I think this Dad’s favourite is Pic.5 also.

Jean – Everything you say about Brugmansias applies to Brom’s as well. I’ve heard heated arguments between inexperienced growers about how hybrid brom. seed will definitely be the same as the seed parent which I know is a lot of rot as I’ve made my own crosses and know that no two hybrids are the same, but it’s no good trying to explain to these types of people as they don’t want to listen as they already have their mind made up. The difference with brom’s is that the only way to get plants the same as the seed parent from seed, is if that plant is a species and the flowers were selfed and not contaminated with other pollen. The only other certain ways are to use “offsets”; or also tissue culture which in most cases will produce a replica of the parent plant.

It’s interesting you’ve put up a picture of Vr. ‘Angela” as I saw a picture of one of Jack Koning’s crosses of Milky Way x Angela the other day and it was a very nice plant. Jack always had high hopes of it as a parent and this has all now been justified with the results as shown in Pic.1; (Jack's picture not mine.)

Here’s an interesting little bit of trivia for you; Did you know that Vr.‘Gulz’ was imported from the Hans Gulz Nursery in Germany in the late 1970’s by Olive Trevor, Brisbane, as V. platynema var. variegate?

When it first flowered it had a branched inflorescence so the species name seemed inappropriate and it was registered as a hybrid by Olive and named ‘Gulz’ after the German nursery. Also did you know that Vr. ‘Ginoti’ was bred way back some time prior to 1940 from a crossing of two species; Vr. fenestralis x Vr. platynema v. rosea?

Teresa – You seem to be displaying some of the symptoms of not enough vitamin “B”. A simple addition of this to your diet could have you jumping out of your skin again. There are eight different types of Vitamen “B” so always check with your doctor first so see which one you need to take and if there could be side effects.

Brian – Yes, looking at your pictures I would say your plant is definitely Ques. marmorata. As I haven’t flowered mine yet, a question now for you; just out of curiosity, how long did the flowers last, are they just short lived like Billbergia flowers?

My C.E.O. wasn’t into brom’s either, although she did like the orchids when I grew them and has a few succulents herself.

Since I have been less mobile though she does do a lot of the weeding which is much appreciated and I’ve noticed that whenever anyone comes to look at the brom’s she always speaks of them as “our brom’s” and likes to explain about them. So don’t be fooled, I think your wife (like mine) might (down deep) really like them but just not admitting to it.

You should call your Pic.4, “The building site through the eyes of a brom” and is that Neo. ‘DeRolf’ in your Pic.5? ……..It’s a nice looking plant.

You seem to have mastered uploading pictures from your iPad, do you mind telling us what you did to sort out the problem so that it may help others.

That will do me today and I’ll finish with a few more pictures. Firstly one (for Jean) of Jack Koning’s latest creations Vr. ‘Milky Way’ x ‘Angela’.

Pic.2 is one of the taller Ae nudicaulis species which came to me with the very appropriate name of Ae. nudicaulis ‘Giant’, it is a tall growing plant and although the one in the picture is only about two feet high, I do have another which is just on three feet but wasn’t in flower when the picture was taken.

Pic.3 Ae.‘Jean’; this is an easy to grow plant which does well in a shady location and maintains its nice burgundy foliage colour which is just as much a feature as are its flowers and berries (Pic.4). When I first got my plant it was tagged as Ae, Chianti var ‘Jean’, however when I checked up on the BCR I find it has been registered as Ae.‘Jean’.

It’s another plant which suffered an identity crisis for some years. This plant was imported to Australia from the USA in 1981 and was originally named xNidumea 'Jean'. Old documents show that Hummel was the hybridist and as is usual with this hybridist, the parents are for some reason never listed. So if you have this plant named as xNidumea ‘Jean’ or Ae. Chianti var. ‘Jean’ please change the name to Ae, ‘Jean’.

Pic.5 is another Billbergia and although still just in bud, will like most Billbergias, produce beautiful but unfortunately “short-lived” flowers. It is Bill. rosea, an easily grown species which likes strong light and is a very tough plant.

All the best, Nev.