Australian and New Zealand Gardening: Bromeliads for novices and Addicts - Dec 2012, 1 by perke_patch

perke_patch wrote:
Hi everyone. missed you all last night. I got caught up on a fb group with old school photos from Redlands schools. I found several with my oldest son Darren and even some with my husband in them but none with me. It was great to look through a try to id people I know. there were also lots of pics from around the redlands and I enjoyed trying to id those too. sddenly it was so late I turned computer off and went to bed. enjoyed the journey down memory lane though.

Ian I went looking for a quesnelia spent flower to pull apart today and discovered that hubby had cut off most already but did find 2 quesnelia quesnelia. I pulled them apart but I think they were too far gone.I'll have to try again next flower season. I'm hoping the billbergia I crossed with ques lieboniana will produce something different. at worst I'll have a billbergia seedling that will look nice. if anyone does get lucky and has lots of quesnelia seeds I'm happy to swap some seed to try growing some quesnelia seedlings.

Boy did we feel the heat today. by about 9am it was so hot and steamy downstairs that Johnny took Max for a swim and I stayed home to play with broms. I picked out a couple trays of plants to put out on tables then filled their spots with newly potted pups so I could clean out the potting area on back patio area by the pond. We have set up a couple tables there with foliage vriseas for sale. When Johnny came back he decided it was too hot to work so we went for a drive in the air conditioned car and ended up out at his sisters place. Johnny decided to start up the motorhome to see if the battery needed to come home to be charged up. Would you believe it actually started up after a short while. Anyway when we came home again it was so hot we just had to suck it up and work but there was a cooling breeze. However between 3 and 4pm the breeze got so hot it was more uncomfortable than refreshing. shirley we didn't get any of that storm yesterday either except for about 2ml of rain but Johnny's sister out back of Redland Bay said they had over an hour of really really heavy rain. so heavy they couldn't hear TV over the sound of rain on tin roof. we needed some of that.

We love our wildlife as the rest of you seem to do. we have our 2 baby magpies which we've christened heckle and jeckle. if I'm potting downstairs and I don't come when they call from upstairs one actually walks down the stairs to come to me now. the other one usually just hops in from the lawn area but they both now come to tell me they want to be fed. I still can't get them to take food from my hand yet but they are getting closer. Mum always takes food right out of our hands. the butcher birds also take food from our hands or they catch if if we throw it to them. I saw a butcher bird capture a small snake this morning down near the beach. he was sitting on a wire fence looking down to the footpath and as we drove past he flew down and grabbed the snake about 40cm long and thick as a finger. he belted it against the fence a couple times then went into the bush and we couldn't see where he went.

I'm off to bed now as we still have so much to do to get ready for this weekend. Shirley see you Friday morning. oh and I love that camelot plant of yours too so when you get lots of pups please put me on the list for one too. I think I have camelot but nothing like that pic of yours.

Pic 1 is neo burle marxii which looks lovely at this time of year when it gets the purple spotted flush.
Pic 2 is purple concentrica. I put about 2 or 3 of these out on tables today.
Pic 3 is neo fury. a couple of these on sales tables too.
Pic 4 is neo strawberry x little africa. finally got a really nice colour on a couple of these by putting them where they get strong morning sunlight with shelter from overhead trees. too much sun bleaches colour like in pic5 but just enough sunlight and I have a lovely specimen out for sale (pic 4) and one for me which nice chocolate colour. I just had to go downstairs to take a pic immediately to show you.

anyway night all.
Wendy.