Australian and New Zealand Gardening: BROMELIADS FOR NOVICES & ADDICTS MARCH 2012, 1 by splinter1804

splinter1804 wrote:
Hi everyone,

Not a very nice day here today, cloudy and overcast again and looks like the rain is on the way back again.

Jean – Thanks for filling in the bits about where you live and your climatic conditions. It’s very important especially when trying to give advice as I sometimes forget to differentiate between people living in Queensland in the warmth and those in the colder southern states. As I see it now we have you in Victoria, Colleen in South Australia, Sue and I in NSW and everybody else in Queensland so quite a varied spread or climatic conditions.

Karen – It looks like you’re about to be washed away soon if the wet doesn’t stop. But it doesn’t seem to have stopped the old “bluey”. I have a couple in our yard as well and dozens of skinks from a few inches long to three big fat ones about a foot long who live beneath the back steps. It’s good to see these native creatures in the yard and they say it’s a good sign of a healthy environment, which is a reason I choose not to spray toxic chemicals on and around my plants.

Colleen – See I did have you pegged correctly after all; I suspected you were one of the growers who talk and sing to their plants, you had to be doing something to make them look so good. We have a lady in our brom society who grows beautiful Tillies. When asked what her secret was she just said, “Oh I just go out each day and say good morning to them and tell them how nice they look, and I give then a drink of weak tea every Friday”. The weak tea is a brew she makes up from chook poop steeped in water for a couple of weeks and then diluted to look like very weak tea which she sprays all over them; as I said previously about fertilizing “little and often” I’ll attach a pic of one of her Tillies to show you the results.

Wendy – What can I say except to add my condolences on the loss of your Dad? You’re certainly having a bad time lately and it just seems to be one thing after the other. But just think, Dad’s pain free and in a far better place now. As for you and Johnny, well there’s always light at the end of the tunnel things can only get better from here so “chin up” we’re all here thinking of you both.

To help cheer you up a bit I have obtained permission from a good Thai “Brom Friend” of mine called Chanin Thorut to post some of his great pictures of the Noon Nook Tropical Gardens in Thailand. His reply to me asking for permission was ...... “With my very pleasure, Neville ()" ........So over the next few days expect some "mouth watering" pic’s of brom’s in a massive shade house.

But today I’ll first of all start with a pic of my friend Rena’s beautiful Tillandsia which she has been tending for thirty years and which I spoke of in my answer to Colleen. Pic No. 2. is a very large "heart shape" made from compressed coco-peat. Pic. No.3 shows the coco peat covered with a layer plastic netting through which Cryptanthus plants are painstakingly woven. Pic. No. 4. Shows the workers constructing these particular displays and Pic. No. 5. Shows the finished product. I thought Wendy and Johnny would especially like this as they have done similar things albeit on a slightly smaller scale.....enjoy!

All the best, Nev