Australian and New Zealand Gardening: Bromeliads for novices and addicts September 2013, 2 by splinter1804

splinter1804 wrote:
Hi All – Well another new day and closer to our show and the mountain of work I haven't yet finished just seems to be getting higher. The lady who does our display came yesterday morning and selected some plants for her display. Fortunately all I have to do is tidy them up a bit and put them in boxes ready for her to pick up and that will be my little contribution.

Today I hope to get all of the sales plants boxed up and ready for transport and then see if I can find a couple of plants worth exhibiting. Every time I see one I think might be worth putting in, when I look closer I find a bit of cold damage on a leaf and it’s always in a place where you can't remove it without it being obvious.

Cody – Pleased to hear you've been to the doctor and got some antibiotics; at least that should hold things until you can get to the dentist. I don't think there's anything worse than a toothache or an earache, they just make you feel so miserable, and that’s why it's important to do something about them straight away.

Breeindy – Whenever we cut off flower spikes we used “Flowers of Sulphur” on the cut and that seemed to dry it up pretty quick and hold off any fungus problems. It a great product made from natural ingredients and has many uses. See some of the uses for it at the following site:
http://www.prlog.org/11821582-what-is-flowers-of-sulphur-sul...

It’s a long time since I grew orchids and no doubt things have changed a lot and probably so have the fungus treatments, but I know for a fact that this one worked for us.

I like your pic of Neo.'Fairy Tale’; it's a very popular Neo. down here, as it’s easy to grow and very easy on the eyes.

Ian – Gee Ian it sounds like you’ve almost cooked your Ae. ‘Chianti’; I’ve always grown mine in the shade even though I was once told by a bloke (who fancies himself as an expert) that they would never flower without plenty of light. Mine flower every year without fail so I guess I must have done something wrong Ha! Ha!

I like what you said about your teeth Ian, fortunately I still have all my own teeth (except four) which is a bit surprising because as a kid I hated the dentist as he had one of those old drills that was operated on a system similar to the old treadle sewing machines which he operated with his foot. The school dentist who came around annually had the same set-up and this convinced me that was how it was done. To get around the pain of the drill (no local anaesthetic in those days) which often got jammed due to the low speed, on four occasions when I needed a filling in a back tooth I told the dentist that Dad said not to fill it but pull it out. (This wasn’t uncommon in those times when money was very tight as extractions were ¼ the price of fillings). I got away with this on four different occasions until Mum “smelt a rat” and asked the dentist why my teeth couldn’t be filled and that was the end of the section for me and from then on it was fillings. (There are still four gaps between my back molars to support what I’m saying). Incidentally I heard on the news the other night that the incidence of tooth decay in children has risen dramatically over the past ten years and the culprit is, that kids are now drinking bottled water and not the fluoride treated water in our drinking water supplies

There’s still heaps of seed there on your Til. juncea Ian – I tried growing Tillie seed once but it’s far too slow for me and I don’t think I’d be around to see the results.

Tropicbreeze - I don’t seem to remember seeing you here before, so a big welcome to our little friendly forum and I hope you keep visiting and taking part in our discussions. The name “Tropicbreeze” seems to ring a bell with me and I get the feeling our paths have crossed before. Did you ever post on the old Garden Web Bromeliad Forums or the Bromeliad and Air Plant Forum? The name somehow seems familiar.

Anyway to answer your question, from what I’ve learned from various posts on different brom forums, Wallabies, Kangaroos, Deer, Cows, Goats, Sheep, Possums, Bush Rats and even dogs have all been known to eat brom’s. It is thought that the smell of the decaying matter in the centre of the plant attracts some of these animals and the others are just attracted by the green leaves. All I can suggest is that you keep your plants somewhere (wallaby proof). As for the one they ate; put it somewhere safe and if not too far gone it will possible throw a few pups as Bill. Nutans is one of the more resilient brom’s and a great survivor. I’ve even seen a large clump near a disused farmhouse where the cows have eaten and trampled them, and the following year they were all growing again from new pups, so don’t write it off just yet.

Wendy – I felt sure you’d deserted us for Face Book as you haven’t posted for so long, I hope you and Johnny are both well and everything is growing well for you.

Unfortunately, unlike you I can’t lock the front gates as we don’t have any. When I first moved here, a group of us decided to do away with our front fences as it made the yards look less closed in and gave the impression of space. It’s just during the last few years that we seem to be getting more and more “riff raff” since all of the new subdivisions opened up. Unfortunately I’ve got to the age where I’m not going to put up a fence after forty years without one, so the plants just have to take their chances.

I’m pleased to hear you got a nice one out of the Thunderbird crosses, they have been a bit variable but mostly in those red shades with the glistening centres.

Was the Neo.’Watsonia’ crossed with another plant or itself? That’s not a registered name by the way, it’s just a name a friend called it when we thought we might register it somewhere down the track, (still might in fact). Watsonia was from a crossing I made using my Neo.’Painted Lady’ (variegated sport) as the pollen parent and it’s interesting to see it’s passed on the variegation to a couple of its babies. You will possibly find though that they are painfully slow growing as a lot of the others were.

Trish – Work, work, work; I’ll bet the thought of early retirement has often crossed your mind.

With your treatment using the Cinnamon on the Vriesea pup you’ll never know now whether it was the Cinnamon or the Mancazeb fungicide that cured (or dare I say killed) your pup. Often when you mix two different forms of fungicides or insecticides together you finish up with a product that’s toxic to plants; just like some medications must never be taken with others. All I can say is “good luck” I hope it works for you. On the “upside”, you may have just discovered a successful new treatment formula for rot in brom’s.

To finish with today are just a few plants now coming into colour in the garden -Pic.1 is Ae.Recurvata var. Recurvata, Pic.2 is Ae.'Recurvata Benrathii 'Inky', Pic.3 is Orthophytum Saxicola, Pic.4 is x Neophytum 'Ralph Davis' just starting to colour and Pic.5 is Ae. Recurvata Benrathii (dark form)

All the best, Nev.