Australian and New Zealand Gardening: bromeliads for novices and addicts, sep, 2012, 4 by ianperry

ianperry wrote:
Hi all, and what a day it has been. Fathers day in peace and quiet mostly doing something with the garden. I collected some more seeds for short term storage and planted some more Portea seeds germinated in the pods and some not germinated. I walked through my bush-house and removed dead leaves fom my neos mostly and found a Neo Madam Lash, well that is what I bought it as , now I know it to be xAnagelia Madam Lash. 1 that John Catlan bred fro crossing Ananas nanas and Ananas comosus marginata with a neo. The neo was the seed parent.
The flower on this plant is just about ready to fertilise and I am thinking that I could try to pollenate it with a Aechmea recurvata var recurvata. The flowers look similar in shape and readiness and what a mix that would be.
2 verigated plants, both with spines and good form and colour. What have I got to loose.
Nev it would be nice to have a positive ID on my NOID. Post away and this applies to any that may need further investigation.You have my permission. I noticed that when I water this plant , like tills the white stripes change colour and seem to blend in with the rest of the plant.
I was using Malathion to control white fly and as a preventative for fly speck scale. Sometimes this appears about a week after I get some plants home. I now use bleach ammonia and vinegar 50/50 leave it for about an hour and then wash it off. For some reason some of my neos get rot at the base of the leaves but not on the bottom 2 or 3 leaves up. We discussed this problem at our last monthly meeting and the probible cause was thought to be something sprayed on the plant and the residue did the damage.The general thinking was either a insecticide or a fertiliser. I am not using either at the moment and still have this problem on those same plants. Some will die without reproducing and others have pups at foot. I am wondering if like people, some plants are just more sensitive to some chemicals. Garnish, Kahala dawn, true love, blue nude chlorastricta margina alba were the most affected. I have a quarrantine programme set up to try to keep diseases at bay.
Sue I also have orlandiana picaninny and it is even darker, both of thes plants I have recently aquired and both are getting full sun for 4 hrs a day
Have a good one
Ian
Pic1 Anagelia Madam Lash
Pic2N McWilliamsii x Bold streak
Pic3N Garnish
Pic4N Kahala Dawn
Pic5N Coconut Ice pup