Australian and New Zealand Gardening: bromeliads for novices and addicts, sep, 2012, 5 by splinter1804

splinter1804 wrote:
Hi everyone,

I don’t know what happened to my version of Dave’s Garden yesterday but when I got down to Wendy’s few lines saying she couldn’t talk as she had two little girls staying over, that was it; there were no more posts, so I finished adding a few pic’s and checked everything (still no posts) and so I posted my reply. After I posted it and opened it to check, I found three other posts before it, 1 from Sue, one from Breeindy and one from Tash, all posted a couple of hours before mine. Where were they hiding?????????????????

Sue – You say that Big W in Coffs Harbour used to get plants from the Olive Branch but doesn’t any more. A friend of mine who was at the Till Nuts’ conference in Vic. Said he was talking to Olive and they will be sending Vrieseas to all Big W stores from Brisbane to Coffs Harbour in the very near future (which should be about now).

Your tip about cleaning out leaves from brom’s is a good one Sue and we have found that for the junk right down where something thinner is needed, we get 10” forceps available through the brom society which are also very handy, they are stainless steel and only about $8 a pair.

I don’t have a pic of a mature Neo ‘Leopard’, but I do have a pic of a mature Neo. ‘Catlan’s Leopard’ I don’t know if they’re the same plants or not but I have posted a pic. below and now you can see why I was breaking my neck trying to get one.

Tash – Glad that “Blooming Brom’s” turned out to be a good show and that you enjoyed the speakers. One thing we should never lose sight of though is that when attending these conferences, occasionally some of the speakers are from other countries and the cultural methods they speak of are what are used in their country and won’t necessarily work here in Australia, I guess it’s a bit like reading brom books, one has to be aware of what country they came from.

No Tash I’m not on Face Book anymore and I wish you weren’t either, then maybe we would see a bit more of you here. The shirt looks fantastic do they come in 4xxxx with “Nifty Nev” on them? Maybe we could do a deal ….. Ha! Ha!

The colour in your Neo’s is just amazing and that plant of Neo Kautskyi is just great; and to think it’s a species which a lot of people look down on, but as far as I’m concerned, this one can hold its own against any of the hybrids.

Karen - Your test picture came out OK

Ian – Your NOID in pic 1 looks a bit like Ae. Mirlo; It has naturally very glossy leaves and slight “bumps” on the leaves in some places just like the plant I have. I have found the best dark colour will be obtained when grown in low light areas.

As for the Crypt NOID we are trying to ID. I have another answer back; this time from America:

""Hi Nev
This one could be several crypts. Black mystic comes to mind first or one its offspring hybrids like 'Absolute Zero', ‘Ice age’, ‘Sweet Tooth’. Growing conditions can change these plants as you know.""

As for the colour of your plant, you say, “but it seems more brown and in places there are tinges of green”. Light can play a very important part in the colour of plants and if you look at the pic’s in the FCBS Photo Index you will see most of the plants are more brown than black, although the pic’s on the BCR are more black then brown.

I think taking into consideration the two answers we got back (one from Australia and one from America) plus the information gained from the pictures on those two sites, we can safely say that your plant is Crypt. ‘Black Mystic’.

Regarding the treatment for fungus/rot, there are as many different cures as there are growers. I even know of a couple of growers who used a highly recommended fungicide from a respected company that’s been around for years, only to find that their problems increased and they lost even more plants. (Sorry I can’t name the company or I’ll finish up in goal)

That’s a very good tip about the coloured drinking straws, we were only discussing various ways of identifying flowers which we had pollinated in a recent post and I don’t think this method came up.

Shirley – They’re a nice couple of plants you scored. I think hieroglyphica is a great plant and one that everyone should have, and once again we have a species that can hold its own against any hybrid in my opinion. Vr. Nova is a C.V. (Cultivated variety) from Vr. Gigantea which is yet another species, so you see we shouldn’t dismiss plants just because they are species and not hybrids as there are many beautiful species and some which look much better than good hybrids.

I’ll finish with a few pic’s, firstly the beautiful Neo. ‘Catlan’s Leopard’, 2nd and 3rd some Neo seedlings freshly re-potted and 4th and 5th more of the same awaiting their turn to be re-potted.

All the best, Nev.