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

perke_patch wrote:
HI everyone.
Another good day with Max today although he did have some blood discharge from both sides whenever he sneezed. I have to remember not to use hairspray, deoderant or perfume near Max as well as Johnny now. Doesn't matter as much with Johnny but certainly with Max it does as it causes sneezing which causes blood discharge. Sick of washing walls and floors and furniture whenever he sneezes .... oh and his face.

We had the little ones here today and they had a swim in Max's bath shell. He kept an eye on them but didn't try to hop in with them. he did follow Rylee around though for her food. she shared chocolate muffin and cheese stick with him. When the birds came in for their food she also fed Max their mince as well as some for our baby magpies we've christened heckle and jeckle. can't tell which is which but they make us laugh at their antic. today they were on the shadecloth roof down the back collecting sticks, running to the edge and dropping them down for Johnny. He was raking out the side aisle after having a clean up in there yesterday. Wonder if they actually know what they are doing and therefore helping us. We can go down the park and watch them attacking other people but they never attack us so maybe they really are smart. Yesterday Johnny was talking to someone on the phone sitting on the front verandah. He pointed to tell me heckle and jeckle were on the powerlines over the road and would be in for tea soon. I went and got their bag of mince and came back onto the verandah and called out to them. The immediately flew over to the railing. I think they are clever.

Ian, maybe if you have spare blood lily or pom pom lily you might have one to share with Nev. Not sure when Johnny will split up out pot of them. Nev I think we grew ours for a few years before we got a flower but ever since it flowers every year and we are getting more and more flowers each year as the bulbs multiply and mature. this one has the flowers first then the leaves come later but we also have an evergreen one where the leaves are there all the time and the pompom appears later. This one flowers November/December and evergreen flowers December/January or even February. We've never had an evergreen one flower yet. With this one in the pic we stick the pot down the back on the mothers shelf and ignore it till we see the little shoots coming up. About 2 weeks ago when I saw that I carried the pot out the front and put it under the front stairs for everyone to admire. The evergreen one has stayed in the display area around the side all over winter with one single leaf growing bigger and bigger. Hopefully it is growing new bulbs under the soil though and another leaf will appear soon. I'll have to check it out tomorrow and take a pic to compare.

Nev if you have a spare pup of billbergia rosea we have a few trees we could mount a small pup on and watch it grow. I don't think we have that one. We do have a pendular one called epperie which has a lovely pink pendulous flower. we have it in a windowbox type planter nailed to the side fence so we were able to admire the flower against the white background of the fence and planter box. it is cold sensitive though so we had to keep it high where it could get some sunlight through the shadecloth over winter. it still came through with some spots though but looks nice now. I also like the look of your nudicaulis plants grown from seed. Which reminds me I did take updated pics of those ae calichroma x blanchetiana seedlings you sent me. They are growing in morning sunshine and the colour coming out in them is so dark so I've moved some of the others to where they can get some sunshine as they were more green than these. unfortunately the camera has not captured the darkness on the trunk of the plant. I even took them under the house and took pics in front of the wall to reflect the colour which brought it up darker than any other shots. wish you could see them in the flesh Nev. Truly stunning colour. not sure if you got this type of colour in them down your way. Shirley did I give you one of them???? I think I have about 6 or 7 left here and my brother and Johnny's sister have one each.

We have seed going everywhere at the moment from tillandsia scheidiana so instead of wasting it I used 4 of these small coconut husk balls which were hanging around here not being used and wet them and collected some of the seeds and spread it on the wet ball. they are hanging close to the largest clump of till on the tree stump and any that are popping still are blowing onto the damp ball as well. I keep the balls damp by spraying twice a day till good germination then drop back to once daily. we should get some impressive balls of tillandsia in a couple years. I also have quite a bit of seed growing in a number of mediums. For example I've tried a tray of soft fall which is very small pieces of bark. another is soft fall mixed with seed raising mix 1/1 ratio and another with more seed mix than soft fall maybe 1/3. I should have schiediana everywhere soon as I expect them all to grow prolifically. That's why I can't understand why commercial growers still charge double figures for a small clump of it. I know how easy it is to grow a large colony. how is your seed going Shirley?

I've decided to start a spreadsheet of what everyone wants pups of and I'll mark this sheet as I send it. That way I can keep print outs and write on them then transfer the info every now and then and reprint as required. best way to keep accurate records. So if anyone remembers something they've asked for let me know and I'll put it on the sheet. Like the pd50 that I posted a pic of and a couple of you asked for. Might be a while before I get some from that though. I am getting quite a collection of pups from the few that I think are quite nice. So maybe some to share soon. I'm just taking 3 generation pups from one lot now and 2nd gen flowering still looks nice.

Time for bed for me as we are having the girls for a sleepover tomorrow night so dad can do overtime and mum's working a function at dreamworld again. Sorry about the large post.

Night all
wendy