Australian and New Zealand Gardening: BROMELIADS FOR NOVICES & ADDICTS JULY & AUGUST 2012, 1 by weed_woman

weed_woman wrote:
Good morning. Sorry you are not well Wends, You don't need to pop in at all if you are feeling that bad. Hope its not the flu and you recover shortly.
Mike, what a pity there's not hair pups! I'll be satisfied with a seedling if you have success with pollination. Heh heh. Cheeky eh? Thanks for the info on pH. I was advised to always put a handful of dolomite in the mix, when making up a barrow full (about 80 litres of media) I don't have a resting (composting) period, but I rarely use all the mix at once, so guess it has a bit of time to use the nitrogen. I was using the choir orchid mix, which has fert added, but began using the pine bark chips last summer. I usually add a bit of fert to the mix on potting as well, either at the root zone (vrieseas and green leaved broms) or to the surface, (newly potted neos) I haven't taken notes, but most seem to do OK. I will pay a bit more attention to it this spring, and might get my ingredients on the go now, to give them a resting period before I go about potting any new pups, and up sizing others. The timing on your post is very good. The photos of the vrieseas are stunning. I haven't heard of V. 'Elifi Nathasa' before. Those mulberries? Jack fruit?
supposed to be another picture postcard day here, although the predicted 12 degrees this morning is off by -7 degrees! Darn it! I couldn't understand why they thought we would get 12 degrees anyway, and figured it had to be a misprint. Mind you, 5 degrees is the temps taken in town, and its probably more like 7 here I'd reckon.
Coffee time
Photo one is a small Vriesea labelled 'Golden Thread' from Leisas collection
Photo two is Vreisea carinata grown in high light.