Australian and New Zealand Gardening: BROMELIADS FOR NOVICES & ADDICTS - NOVEMBER 2012, 1 by perke_patch

perke_patch wrote:
Hi everyone.
Shirley well done on starting the thread. I posted your seeds today. had to go to the post office to finalise mum-in-laws telstra bill. she only moved into high care in May and its taken this long to sort out the disconnection of her phone. In the end I insisted on being referred to someone senior IN AUSTRALIA to sort it out. only took half an hour and all done. Malaysian call centres need a lot more experience. turns out the 2 telstra systems weren't talking to each other in May hence when the technical side disconnected the phone the accounting side didn't know about it. so each month when I phoned they would tell me the phone was disconected and the bill would be wiped. next month another bill and another call. so now all finalised.

anyway when I got back home from the post office I discovered that a plastic dish of seed I had collected washed and dried from a neo granny takemura x concentrica which is a stunning plant, had blown over off the bench under the house. I discovered the container in Max's water bucket and seed floating and sitting on the bottom. I scooped a heap of it out and put it down in a container of seed mix. I then discovered a heap on the floor and in Johnny's storage container so I collected what I could. Pic 1 is the plant I collected the seed from. Shirley I included a packet of this seed for you to try. also have 2 pups I took off this mother plant.

Nev glad to see you posting again even if through Sue. I'll get your parcel off to you soon. still searching for the AFRN05 that you wanted. I keep thinking I've found one but it is AFRN802 which is a stunning plant also. see pic 2 AFRN802. I'm sure the ones down the backyard at present look nicer than this old pic. the AF part of the code is of course Alan Freeman. we do seem to have a lot of his NOID plants. Nev that vrisea Maroochy smooch that went for $925 on ebay was an Alan Pythian hybrid that he sent to Neal for free with a purchased plant(s). it actualy turned out to be a very niceplant which Neal named and registered in consultation with Alan. I still think our one from same grex is just as nice as Maroochy smooch so we might have to put first pup on ebay.

Bree nice haul of new plants you have there. love a new haul of babies. Jen and I are off the BSQ spring sale tomorrow but I'm only looking this time. although if there is a stunning plant at a good price I will have to get it but not going for anything specific. Certainly no vriseas. Johnny has enough to play with now. we potted up a few today so now they are taking up more room than they were.

Ian I purchased a bottle of Milton today and will try it on our seedlings to see if it will keep the little gnats at bay as well as the green growth. although we are not getting as much growth now that we have learned to sow the seed sparsely instead of too thick. we found that expecially with the vrisea and tillandsia seed the hairy bit does tend to grow a hard surface if too thick. better to make 2 dishes of thinly sown seed than 1 thick lot. I've tried spaghnum vs coir peat as well as holes in the lid, drainage holes low down on sides. I guess I've learned from making mistakes and am still learning from my friends on DG. I've just finished rearranging our seedling area again and had to resort all our trays of seeds. Now I'm a bit worried about where we are going to put them all so I have to be sure I really really want to grow these plants before I sow the seed. I now think I have too many pitcairnias growing from seed. Liking the flowers is one thing but do I really like the plants???? I have to say no to some of them. when I ordered the seed I was only looking at the flowers and thinking yes that one is nice. should have looked at the plant too. some of them look straggly and would better suit a sprawling garden than a pot. I've decided I like the smaller plants like pit. andreana in pic 3, but not the larger bladey grass ones. anyway if the landscaper wants them I'll consider selling them to her for a job but they will have to grow a bit and form a clump first and then they might look nicer to me.

Well I better be off to bed now if I'm having an early morning trip to the spring sale. Night all.
Wendy