Australian and New Zealand Gardening: Bromeliads for Novices and Addicts - February 2013, 2 by splinter1804

splinter1804 wrote:
Good morning once again – here we are at the start of another weekend and a chance for more time out in the garden among the brom's.

Jean – When you said yesterday, “I found the pots drying out too quickly in the hot weather and any fertiliser in the water was wasted as the water would all just run straight through” - This will happen when any inert substance is used as a potting medium. I found the same when I grew orchids in Blue Metal, Slag or Pumice and the same when I've grown brom's in gravel, Skoria, Perlite, Polystyrene or straight Charcoal; none of these mediums contain any natural food value and food has to be provided as an “extra”.

As you say, fertiliser and water run straight through; so the best way to fertilise is to foliar feed, i.e. spray a liquid fertiliser on the foliage (preferably in the late afternoon) and let the plant slowly absorb it in this way. (Two good reliable fertilisers that come to mind are “Phostrogen” and “Manutec Bloom Booster”)

As for watering, when I use any of these substances as a growing medium I always stand the pots within a cut-down polystyrene box on a 25mm bed of (fine grade) Coco Peat in the bottom of the box. I put just a couple of drainage holes in the box covered with an off-cut of shade cloth to prevent the fine Coco-Peat from being washed out; this allows slow drainage after watering and time for the the coco-peat to absorbed a lot of of the water. Because it’s continually damp, the roots will quickly find their way though the medium in search of this moisture.

In your Pic 3 you say, “Shirley, I am sure I have the first name wrong as it was hard to read on the label”. However it's very likely what you have written is what was on the label, but it should be just Vr. 'Tiger Tim' as this is what ‘Tiger Tim’ is registered as.

Vr. 'Tiger Tim” is a select cultivar from a crossing using Vr Ospinae var. Gruberi as the seed parent and crossed with an unknown pollen parent.
See: http://botu07.bio.uu.nl/bcg/bcr/index.php?genus=VRIESEA&id=9...

The plant in your Pic.4 could well be Vr 'Lucille' with a badly written double “l” looking like a “u”
It is a variegated plant registered in 1970 and you can read all about it and see the pic's at:
http://botu07.bio.uu.nl/bcg/bcr/index.php?genus=VRIESEA&id=8...

As for your plant in Pic. 5, I think it could be Billbergia 'Perriams Pride' which was first registered in 1986. When it's grown into a bigger plant and given good light it can be quite attractive (See my plant in Pic.1).

Breeindy – What a great collection of variegated plants you’ve posted today and such great colour too. You mention about the plant in Pic.3 having a ? after the name of Neo ‘Tricolour’, this is exactly what I wrote about yesterday in my answer to Shirley where I said, “For some time this plant was called Neo. Carolinae 'Tricolor' and it got to the stage where almost every variegated NOID was carrying that name” which could possibly be what’s happened with your plant; the grower wasn’t sure of the name and it just became recorded as Neo. Tricolor?

You say you’re not sure what Aussie Dream is meant to look like; Aussie Dream was a grex name given to a famous cross made by Bob Larnach and which there were a lot of arguments about. It was proposed to register all of the special plants in the grex as Neo Aussie Dream followed by a different varietal name (in the same way that orchid names are registered). The registrar at that time decided that they would just be given the varietal name and hence the name Aussie Dream name was dropped altogether.
To read the full story, go to: http://botu07.bio.uu.nl/bcg/bcr/index.php?genus=NEOREGELIA&i...

From this grex there are twenty seven (mostly variegated) registered plants as well as probably just as many which aren’t registered. Your plant looks very similar to an immature Neo ‘Glorious’ sometimes incorrectly called. Neo Aussie Dream ‘Glorious’.

Kristi – I don’t know about Skoria, but I know that Seasol is exported to some countries but whether yours is one of them I don’t know. You can read all about it at: http://www.seasol.com.au/ and could check on availability in your country by contacting the suppliers at export@seasol.com.au

Alternatively you may be able to get a similar “liquid seaweed product” in your country as I know there are different types apart from Seasol made here in Australia and overseas as well.

I have to agree with you, your plant of Cryptanthus cavaulis looks more like an Orthophytum than a Cryptanthus to me also. Just for the record, is that snow on the ground outside the window in the background?... Brrrrrrrrrr.

Ian – Was you double decker plant the result of putting a mini in the cup of Neo. ‘Nobel Descent’ to promote quicker root growth or is it an experiment of yours to accommodate more plants within the same space?

The plant in your second picture (Neo ‘Birdrock’) is an interesting plant and for the members here who don’t know of it, it is a plant which has unusual silvery like lines on the underside of the leaves when grown in good light (See Pic.2). The exact parentage isn’t known and the information on the BCR was updated in Sept. 2012 by the registrar Geoff Lawn and now tells us the following:

“Hybrid of 'Rosea Striata' ? . Available from Bird Rock Tropicals in 2000. Named and acquired by Pamela Koide Hyatt in the late 1980s from her landscaper friend Doug Laglan who found it in a Los Angeles garden, unidentified. Breeder, exact parentage and origin unknown. This entry updated 9/2012 by G. Lawn .Country of origin: California USA”

I just mention this as another example of where a plant which was previously a NOID is now registered and much sought after because of its unusual foliage and for more pictures, go to http://botu07.bio.uu.nl/bcg/bcr/index.php?genus=NEOREGELIA&i...

Shirley – When I use the Skoria I use it straight from the bag and once potted up I give the pot a good deep watering until the red coloured water runs clear from the bottom of the pot. This colour will continue to leach out for the next couple of waterings and then it eventually runs clear all the time.

As for placing the pots on a bed of Coco Peat, yes the roots will get down into the Coco Peat, but that’s not a problem. I just lift the pot out, cut them off where they protrude from the bottom of the pot, and take the plant from the pot and then pot up in my usual mix. (I only used the Skoria to get quicker root growth on the pups initially and don’t use it as the growing medium all the time; but there’s no reason why you couldn’t as long it’s fertilised as I explained above in my response to Jean). Perhaps Ian has more experience with it and has comments that he’d like to add.

Regarding some variegated plants looking a bit similar to each other, I usually just put a spotted plant in between to break up the monotony of the variegations and they seem to look altogether different. As for removing your Vr. ‘Tiger Tim’ pup, I’d be inclined to leave it on the plant unless you want to swap or sell it to someone. These plants look quite spectacular when allowed to clump up a bit.

I’ve always marvelled at the colours in Neo ‘Lila’ especially where the red meets the green, it looks like someone has painted it on and the brush has run out of paint halfway through the job.

Well that will do me for today. The pic’s today are Pic.1 is Billbergia 'Perriams Pride' for Jean to compare with her NOID, Pic. 2 shows the underside of a leaf from Neo. Birdrock, Pic .3 show my burnt Vr Phillipo Cobergii after I had trimmed off the damaged parts of the leaves. The damage isn’t as obvious when you trim the leaf ends the same shape as the undamaged ones. Pic’s.4 and 5 show a few Billbergia seedlings just starting to colour up nicely.

All the best, Nev