Australian and New Zealand Gardening: Bromeliads for Novices and Addicts - August 2013, 3 by splinter1804

splinter1804 wrote:
Hi everyone – Hopefully it will be a nice day today as I have to get a lot of plants ready for the plant sales table at the monthly Brom Meeting on Saturday. I was a bit surprised to see Ian's comment about how he's still waiting for the cold weather as he likes temps in single figures. We've had quite a few days of single figure temps this winter and I can say that I certainly don't like them, I'm a shorts and singlet bloke myself and it's been too uncomfortable to work in these low temperatures without being dressed in long pants and a tee shirt, so bring on the warmer weather sooner rather than later.

Jen – Thanks for starting the new thread and adding the pic's of your lovely Guzzies, they're beautiful. How's Ray going? Still improving each day I hope. I was pleased to see you had started a new post and was looking forward to reading a nice long post about what's been happening in your part of the world and bit disappointed that you didn't stay around too long after you had started the new post. We miss your interesting posts and pic's and I hope you will be back posting regularly real soon.

Ian – That's a good idea about leaving your plants in pots in the garden until you find exactly the right place for them. A friend of mine always plants an “empty” pot of the same size as the one with the plant he's going to put in that spot. That way it's easy to just slip one pot inside the other and swap plants around whenever you want so that you can take full advantage of the different degrees of light throughout the year.

That's a good idea for the Gabion Baskets and I can just visualise the brom's growing there with their roots getting in between the bits of rock as they search for food and water just like they do in their natural habitat growing as epiphytes., and as you say, a good home for lizards and spiders.

I'm a bit surprised to hear you are having an extremely mild winter there this year as I think ours has been one of the coldest we have had so far. According to statistics though, they are saying it's the warmest one for so many years etc. and this is probably true on the average. But we've had some horribly cold days with freezing winds coming from the snow fields. I think these days seem even colder because we have had a few warmer patches in between them which make the cold seem even colder. We've had ice on the water in the bird bath twice this year and that's unusual considering we live just one street back from the sea, and personally I thinks over the last few years the weather has gone completely mad down here and not at all like it used to be or maybe it's because I'm getting older and not adjusting to the changes as well as I once did.

I see with interest one of your pic's is Ae. Gigantea. I've never seen this before, but as the name implies, it should be a very large plant. Can you tell us a bit about it and just how large it gets as the FCBS doesn't give any sizes.

Shirley – Yes indeed, where has everyone gone? As I said before I think they've all gone into hibernation for the winter.

Like you Shirley, there's no way I would like to go back to school again either, but I was very interested to see how much it had changed from the days when I was a kid.

Bill. 'Fascinator' is a beautiful brom but alas it certainly isn't one of my hybrids and I apologise if I gave that impression in what I wrote. It was bred way back in 1930 which makes it eighty three years old (a bit before my time). It's one Bill that certainly does react remarkably to the different light levels and I have seen it a greenish brown colour when grown in low light right through to the other end of the scale when I have grown it in bright light where it seems almost white (See pic 1.) and yes I can put you down for a pup.

The pic's on the BCR also show the variation in colour possible and to see them go to:
http://botu07.bio.uu.nl/bcg/bcr/index.php?genus=BILLBERGIA&i...

They're a great lot of new plants you've just got and with the exception of the Ae. 'Fasciata Variegata', are all ones I can't grow down here as it isn't warm enough. Ae. Samuari and Ae Facini both have Ae. Chantinii in the parentage and I can't grow anything with Chantinii in it, it's just not warm enough down here, but they are beautiful plants and I'm pleased to see you've got hold of them for your collection.

Ae, 'Samuari' is a beautiful plant and like its relative Ae. 'Shogun', is a cultivated variety from Chantinii, although in both cases the pollen parent isn't listed. Both plants are of Japanese origin and have been tissue cultured in Japan also. I think that Ae Samurai is the pick of the two but you can look at the BCR to make up your own mind.
See: http://botu07.bio.uu.nl/bcg/bcr/index.php?genus=AECHMEA&id=5...
http://botu07.bio.uu.nl/bcg/bcr/index.php?genus=AECHMEA&id=5...

I managed to easily grow Ae. 'Mariae Reginae' (not the variegated form) from seed a few years back, however as the seedlings got a bit of size they soon succumbed to the cold winter weather and I now just have one scrawny miserable looking plant left which I should probably bin, but I live in hope that it could survive. These are also a bit different from other brom's as they come in male and female forms. You can see the differences in the fantastic array of pic's in the FCBS Photo Index.

Cody – Good morning from here to good night over there.
Just to add to what Shirley said about her Guzmania NOID (lasted for a full twelve months … and still looked good.) That's not all that uncommon with Guzmanias as that's the main reason why there are so many of them grown in Europe for the flower trade.

I have a friend who had a Guz. (or Guzvriesea) NOID which lasted in excess of 12 months and was still looking good when I saw it with a 14 month old inflorescence on it. This same friend also has a Guzmania called Guz. 'Firecracker' which has the most beautifully coloured foliage which is a “picture” whether it's flowering or not. (See Pic 5)

Sue - I was just about to post and the message came up to say you had posted so it's good to see you back posting again.

When you previously mentioned the brom's with the “soggy bottoms” I thought at the time they would have been the ones you bought in the collection. The same thing happened to me years ago when I bought a collection (although much smaller) of Cymbidium orchids. When I got around to cleaning them up it was obvious from the weight that something wasn't right and sure enough the bottom third of the pots were just mud. The other unexpected hazard I found was that the previous grower had stupidly used broken bits of glass bottles in the bottom of the pots for drainage. Now I'm a great advocate for re-cycling, but that was just plain bloody stupid!

Gee I wish I could meet someone in Bunnings with a collection like your friend has; how great would be to be able to walk through a large collection especially when they are in a park and rainforest area. As you say you did very well out of the visit except you now have more re-potting to do, you sure are a glutton for punishment.

I'm certainly looking forward to when I get this bug out of my computer as I can't wait to enlarge your pic's to see what the area you visited was like.

That's it for today and seeing that Jen started out on a Guzmania theme I'll finish with a couple also.

Pic's 1 and 2 show a couple of possible colour variations in Bill.'Fascinator'. Pic.1 shows a plant which was grown on a bench beneath a 75% beige shade cloth roof but open to the north where it got all the uninterrupted winter sun. Pic 2 is also a Bill 'Fascinator' (the plant on the right) growing in a shade house covered in 75% beige shade cloth. Pic.3 is Guz.'Cherry Ripe', Pic.4 is Guz. 'Sanguinea' and Pic. five shows a section of the beautifully coloured foliage of (unfortunately not mine) Guz. 'Firecracker'.

All the best, Nev.