Australian and New Zealand Gardening: BROMELIADS FOR MARCH ....2014, 1 by tropicbreeze

tropicbreeze wrote:
A big g'day to everyone. Back home again, for a short weekend this time. Was late getting away from work so ended up getting home after dark. Usually I get an early mark when I'm going home.

Don't envy your move Ian, especially heading south. Dalby is a far cry from Kuranda. I live in 2 houses, work and home. Both are chockers, I dread the day I'll (eventually) have to move everything into the one house.

Although summer is now over, we've still got a couple of months of wet season left. Rainfall will ease and peter out over that time. With the extra sun we've been getting the weeds and grass have gone ballistic. At work I'm trying to get everyone focussed on weeds but the past week we've had flora and fauna surveys to do. Early starts checking traps and closing them (so nothing gets trapped inside during the day and gets cooked), late afternoon and into the night rebaiting and setting them again. And then during the day the ordinary work. Still, it's good exercise, climbing up and down rocky hills, pushing through tall grass and scrub. I needed it to work off the icecream I had last weekend, LOL.

Noticed an interesting thing with one of my broms (I might know nothing about broms but I can still find something to mention about them). I posted photos of my Tillandsia wagneriana in flower, it looked very unspectacular. Last night I was wandering around in the garden and noticed it had some dark blue flowers. Thought I'd get a photo in the daylight, but this morning the flowers were, let's say, very unspectacular. Took a photo but suspect that they flower at night and the flowers die once daylight comes. I'll have to check it in the dark again, and then daylight to confirm that.

Take care everyone.

So the photos, first 2 are the unspectacular (daytime) flowers of T. wagneriana.

Third, Tacca integrifolia, White Bat Plant.

Fourth, one of the "victims" of our trapping, Zyzomys maini, Arnhem Rock-rat. Under threatened species legislation they're listed as vulnerable. They're endemic to the Arnhem Land Plateau.

Fifth, some of the tall grass this time of year.