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

splinter1804 wrote:
Hi everyone - Well after all my good intentions and the work I was going to do on the computer yesterday, it all turned out to be a bit of a “fizzer” and nothing got done. I’ve had this bit of pneumonia for a week or two now and yesterday I got these uncontrollable bouts of coughing. I have never coughed so much in my life and my ribs are still aching.

About lunch time I remembered a cough suppressant we used when I worked in the ambulance in the steelworks in the early seventies. It was simply called “Mist. Tussi” and was marvellous stuff; it would stop you coughing almost immediately but you could only have two doses in twenty four hours as it was supposed to be addictive. (We were never told why) Suddenly we stopped getting it and an alternative was provided in its place which was never as good. We were never really told why it was stopped and the blokes all reckoned it was because the steelworks had found a cheaper alternative.

Anyway my wife was going shopping yesterday and I asked her to ask our chemist who we know quite well, if he had any “Mist Tussi”. Apparently the story was that it was taken off the market some years ago as the junkies were abusing it because it contained a tiny amount of morphine. However he had a substitute called “Senega and Ammonia” which was almost as good. My wife got a bottle and I must say I haven’t coughed since I took the second dose. So if any of you have a coughing problem, give it a try, it does the job, but be warned it does taste like s...t) Sorry to get away from brom’s, but I thought as a few of us have been getting crook lately this info was worth passing on.

Karen – Those two men in the pic you are referring to are the judges, and I must say they don’t look too happy, I think they are having a hard time picking a winner.

You speaking about mice, reminded me of an incident that occurred when I grew orchids; at one time a lot of the professionals used “rice hulls” in the orchid mix as it was a free waste product and was good for drainage. The only problem was it attracted mice and worse still, sometimes rats. They would dig down into the pots looking for any grain that was still on the hulls and make a terrible mess. I don’t need to tell you that we quickly stopped using rice hulls in the mix. It was only recently that one of our members had come to a meeting about this great idea he was told about to improve drainage, you guessed it, “rice hulls”. Fortunately I was able to relate my experience with this product which quickly stopped anyone from trying it.

I hope Barry gets over his bug quickly, and why don’t you get a bottle of Senega & Ammonia just in case he gets the coughs.

Shirley – Yes I think it’s got to the stage where we all take electricity for granted, and it isn’t until something like this happens that reality hits, and we realise just how lucky were are to have such a reliable service compared to other countries. The other night we had a “black out” here for a couple of hours (a car crashed into a power pole) which sent us ferreting through drawers and cupboards looking for a torch, and it was while we were sitting in the dark we realised just how lucky we really are as I can’t remember the last time we had a blackout. Seems to me your only answer is a "back-up" diesel motor for your pump for times like this, but does the amount of blackouts you get really warrant the expense?.

Yes Shirley, buy all the brom’s you want; remember the saying of all brom growers, “there’s always room for one more”.

Wow! how big is your block Shirley? Plenty of room for more brom's in amongst the other plants. It looks fantastic, so neat and tidy, give yourself a big pat on the back, it’s beautiful. The crotons certainly make a great feature and they are a plant I’ve had a love affair with ever since I first saw them at Surfers Paradise in the early sixties when we were on our honey moon. I’d never seen them before and thought, “I’ve got to get some of those” but I could never find them anywhere. It wasn’t until many years later they started to appear in K Mart and Big W and those types of places. However I still had no luck with them as I found out they were all being brought down from the tropical areas and as soon as our winters struck they would die. I don’t know if they have bred any that are now more suitable to our climate as I have been too involved with my brom’s and they keep me busy enough, and besides I have nowhere to put them now anyway.

I’ll finish now with a few random pic’s that were taken on a brom society visit to member's gardens.

All the best, Nev.