Australian and New Zealand Gardening: Bromeliads for novices and Addicts - Dec 2012, 4 by podster

podster wrote:
Well ~ I will bore everyone as the posts have gotten slow. For the most part, I've hung with everyone and enjoyed the photos and hearing about the different areas everyone lives in and most of all, learning a lot about these lovely bloomers. Thanks to all for their contributions.

I do miss Karen posting and hope she is doing all right.

Nev ~ on your burn, I am glad it is on the mend. I found (the hard way) that compresses of vinegar ease the pain when it is a fresh scald. Worth remembering as it is hard to run cold water on some locations.

We are in the shorter, cooler days of winter. I've moved what few plants I have in the greenhouse under shadecloth and am making some interesting observations.

It appears to me that these plants have a clearly defined growing season not related to the warmth or sun. I have an assortment of Aechmea, one Neo, dyckia, orthophytum, cryptbergia and billbergias as well as a selection of cryptanthus.

They have visibly perked up, colored up and begin to grow. I am also seeing a couple of blooms and pups. I had wrongly assumed that they would grow as a normal plant during our normal growing season. As I've been following these posts, I have the notion that is incorrect and the plants are growing according to their own rhythms. Any thoughts? Kristi

A few Cryptanthus photos... Pink Zebra, Pixie, Pink Starlite, Volcano and Hawaiian Sunset