Australian and New Zealand Gardening: LOOKING FOR SPRING..... BROMELIADS 2015, 3 by splinter1804

splinter1804 wrote:
Hi everyone – It looks like another nice day here today. Yesterday started out nice also but a a cool southerly breeze came up and made it quite unpleasant out in the yard after a while and I didn’t get much done except a bit of dead leafing.

Jean – I’ve never seen Brolgas in the wild and it’s something I would have always loved to experience ever since I saw a video my friend took of them up north somewhere where two of them were doing a spectacular mating dance; it’s really amazing what us blokes will do to get the lady of their choice. I didn’t know they came that far south so with a bit of luck some might come to some of the swampy areas around here.

The main thing I like about Ae. recurvata and similar types is their toughness. They seem to be able to withstand extremes of temperature (either hot or cold) without sustaining any damage. Although some of them have some beautiful flowers, I still think Ae recurvata is my favourite as nothing beats the brilliant orange coloured foliage that announces the approach of flowering.

Teresa – I think if I had the time over and knew what I know now, I probably wouldn’t have gone to the Expo. Although there were some great exhibits, it was a bit of a nightmare for us as we took our young daughter and her friend and all they did was whinge all the time about waiting in the terrible long queues and as you know they were extremely long for the best of the exhibits.

I think we stood for almost an hour to get into the N.Z. exhibit but it was worth it and like you, I think it was possibly the best (from what we saw anyway) I only really remember three that really appealed to me and that was the N.Z. one, the Queensland one (because of all the tropical plants and which the girls found terribly boring) and the one from New Guinea which we all found very interesting.

I bought a wooden carving which I still admire to this day and which is of a Bird-of-Paradise and was the emblem of the Tambarnum Village (Which no longer exists). It cost a lot more than I could afford but the main reason I bought it was I could see the workmanship in it and being more naïve than I am now, I thought the purchase would help the people of that little village. Knowing what I know now,and how much these people have been exploited by people selling their arts and crafts, they probably only got couple of dollars from the whole sale price after all the other so called "administrative" costs from the “blood suckers” were deducted.

Anyway, that’s my whinge for the day and I'll finish with a few pic's. The first two pictures are of a couple of hybrids I made a few years back by crossing Ae. caudata pollen onto Ae. recurvata. The flowers are different but unfortunately only one of the plants had the orange coloured leaves of the recurvata. Pic.3 and 4 show some recurvata plants well and truly established in the Peppercorn Tree. They are more visible now since all the dead wood was cut out of the tree and I’m hopeful there’ll be a nice show of orange foliage this year. Pic.5 shows the Bird-of-Paradise wood carving I bought in 1988 at Expo.

All the best, Nev

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