Australian and New Zealand Gardening: bromeliads for novices and addicts, sep, 2012, 1 by works4me

works4me wrote:
Hi everyone, it was quite a bit cooler here today, something like 10 degrees below average … not the best start to Spring.

Trish, great pics, great colours.

Sue, thanks for the new thread. I’ll have to figure out how it’s done one of these days.

Nev, I envy you living so close to the water. We would love to live close to the ocean one day, maybe a bit further north than Shellharbour … bit too cold I think. At the moment we live in a rural area on a 5 acre property close to North Pine Dam, about 30k north of Brisbane CBD. Love being away from suburbia but we are getting too old and decrepit to keep the place looking good. We have lots of large eucalypts that throw quite a bit of shade and attract lots of native birds and animals. Our shadehouse is at the back of the house, facing north east, great for the early morning sunshine especially in the winter months. And as everyone knows, our Brissie climate is great!!!

Ian, love the orchid. I switched from growing tropical plants to collecting succulents after a few years of prolonged drought and a severe shortage of water and I became rather addicted to them. I started collecting broms about a year ago and I am now totally obsessed with them, especially vrieseas, though I still have hundreds of potted succulents, mainly agaves, aloes and echeverias.

Colleen, so good to see you back here again and hope your back continues to improve. Now that you are able to get around you must make sure you don’t go overdoing it. Love your vrieseas.

I bought another vriesea labelled only ‘patterned leaf hybrid’ from Bunnings today … just couldn’t resist … love the colour, I’ll attach a couple of pics. Also saw some beauties at Masters, might have to go back there tomorrow.

Well, it’s getting late so I’ll say bye for now, Shirley