Australian and New Zealand Gardening: SPRING AMONG OUR BROMELIADS..., 5 by splinter1804

splinter1804 wrote:
Good morning everyone – I don't know what rules Australia Post have in your area regarding the delivery of parcels, but here if you're not home to take delivery, a card was left in your mail box informing you that the parcel can be picked up at the local Post Office after 12 noon.. As you may have read, Wendy had sent me some pups which were expected to arrive yesterday (which they did, thanks Wendy). Now up until yesterday the lady who was the Australia Post courier would always knock loudly on the door and wait until I answered it as I had previously told her that if my ute was in the yard I was at home, but because of my limited mobility it took me a bit longer to the door. We had arranged that if the ute was there could she leave the parcel/s at the front door without waiting for me to answer it as I was often right down the yard anyway. We agreed on a spot out of the sun where she could leave parcels and that's what's been happening over the last four or so years with no problems. (Obviously this didn't apply to parcels that had to be signed for).

Yesterday I heard a knock and I just got to the door to see (a different courier) running out of the yard with a parcel in one hand and a card in the other – he then put a card in the letter box and jumped in his van and left. Now for me to have got to the door before he left I would have needed to be a sprint champion as he wouldn't have been there any more then five seconds. I went out and got the card and I noticed it was different to the red and white cards we usually get as it was blue and white, and on it it said that the parcel could be picked up at the Oak Flats Post Office but not before 4.00pm.

Now Oak Flats is a small town fifteen minutes away by car and not just up the road like our local P.O. Anyway my wife drove over there at 4.00 and was informed that any future parcels would be sent back there because the local P.O. didn't have enough room to hold them any more. My wife was then asked for ID and quizzed why her I.D. differed to that on the parcel and she explained she was my wife (and a woman not a man) and why she was doing it on my behalf. She was told it was a “new procedure” and the name on the parcel had to match the name on the ID and after a rather heated discussion she was reluctantly given the parcel........ Obviously Australia Post doesn't realise that we do have people in our communities with disabilities. So I guess I'll just have to sit on the front porch with a book in future while I wait for the new courier so I can train him! The other question I would also ask is, what if we don't have a car? Do we take a bus and a cut lunch and make an outing out of it? Sorry there I go again, now back to Brom. business.

Jean – I agree with everything you say about not being aware of the continuing subtle colour changes in plants. About five years ago I selected three different Neo's, a plain coloured one, a spotted one and a variegated one. I then took pic's of them each month for the next year to use in a talk I gave at our Bromeliad Society called “Don't ID a plant from a picture”. Unless you actually saw these pic's you wouldn't believe the possible colour changes. Unfortunately I lost the disc these pic's were on; but it is certainly a worthwhile exercise any of us can do and I'm sure you'll be surprised at the results.

Jean why don't you take pic's of the same plants in the same locations each month for the next twelve months as I'm sure you won't recognise some of them. I don't know Neo.'Takemura Sun' but certainly all of the other I do, and you'll particularly find the colour changes in “Perfect Red', 'Bob's Baby' and 'Lambert's Pride' unimaginable. The 'Nobel Descent' I have seen almost yellow, but that was grown in the open with no overhead protection at all and was used as an “accent plant” in a garden of dark foliage plants.

Theresa – Wow! After those drink recipes you wouldn't be feeling any cold symptoms at all; in fact I wouldn't be feeling anything, as I'd be on the floor. I reckon after a few of those, your Bill. Nutans would begin to look more like a big clump of Bill. 'Hallelujah'.

Cody – It's great to hear that you and Alex are spending some special “one on one” time together and enjoying yourselves.

Wendy – Good to hear the tests aren't too bad and can be improved by cutting out all the good things like sweets, ice cream, chocolate etc but then you don't eat these anyway do you???????

Great news about the test for asbestosis on Johnny was negative, that's a very nasty one ruled out and pretty well all the other possibilities are treatable anyway.

As for aspartame – I wouldn't touch it with a forty foot pole. They tell us that too much sugar isn't any good for us, well neither is too much of anything – remember the old saying our parents told us “everything in moderation”. This is what we should all be doing and we'd have less medical issues (myself included) but aspartame will cause you much more harm than sugar (even in excess). Sorry I'm back on the box again, so I'll just say read what's on the site below and it will open your eyes.
http://www.thelibertybeacon.com/2013/05/09/aspartame-poison-...

Nice pic's Wendy especially your 'Bob's Baby'. Tell me how do you put the names on the pic's? I did it once on my old computer but don't remember how I did it.

As you probably read above, the pups you sent arrived yesterday thanks, and I'll get something together to send back but I'll let you know when I send them.

As for you hybridising the Till., it is possible to cross Till's with Vrieseas as they are both in the same family and you finish up with a bi-generic hybrid called a xVrieslandsia . As for marking the flowers I can't speak from experience as I haven't done any myself but I have read where with smaller flowers you can mark them with fine bits of fishing line pushed into the flower to indicate which ones you pollinated. Because you can't individually tag the flowers I would either use different coloured fishing line or easier still, use the same pollen on all flowers of that particular plant, and if you want to use different pollen, use it on another plant of the same name.

I'll finish now and the first pic.is Neo.'Catlan's Leopard' the remaining ones are all earlier hybrids of mine. Pic.2 is Neo. concentrica x ('Charm' x 'Cracker Jack') and just to show the variations possible with hybrids the Plant in Pic.3 is from the same batch of seed. Pic.4 is Neo.'Painted Lady' (sport) x concentrica (showing a little cold damage) and Pic.5 is Neo. concentrica x 'Painted Lady' (sport) which is a reverse cross of the plant in Pic.4.

All the best, Nev.