Australian and New Zealand Gardening: BROMELIADS FOR MARCH ....2014, 1 by splinter1804

splinter1804 wrote:
Hi everyone – A bit of change in plans today as I'm going to the museum today instead of Thursday. My youngest son will be in Australia on business and he's making a “flying detour” via home for one day while he's in the country. Only brief, but still very pleased to be able to see him.

Yesterday was spent doing the "same all same all" with more tidying up and re-potting and at last the garden is starting to look somewhere near decent.

If anyone has a bit off spare time today, get onto the BCR and look at the “What's New” section, there's some nice new Neoregelias from New Zealand and some beautiful new Vrieseas from Jack Koning.

Theresa – Pleased to hear you didn't suffer any major damage from the cyclone. I was a bit concerned that there may have been a repeat of the recent flooding, however, thankfully that wasn't the case.

Wendy – I hope Johnny got a good report from the doctor; I think a bit of a break and a bit of fishing in the Queensland sunshine will be just about the best medicine Johnny could get. I can just see you both; him relaxing with a fishing line and you relaxing with a good book and both dozing off as you recharge your batteries. All you need to hope for now is there's none of those nasty Queensland cyclones around to spoil your plans.

As for the Bill. I've just registered, There is another I have from this same cross and it's also a nice looking Bill., but much paler in colour and more in the pink colour range.

It will be interesting to see what you get from your 'Fred Red' crosses. Bill. 'Fred Red' isn't grown around here and I hadn't even heard of it until I got these seedlings from Rick. As for 'Hallelujah', well, what a great parent that's turning out to be and thankfully not passing on the trait of stolons like its Bill. Ed. Mc Williams “pollen parent”. Fortunately the other parent, Bill. 'Domingos Martins' (A cultivated variety of the species Bill. vittata) must be a stronger plant which cancelled out the stolons.

That “Blanchie” in your pictures is a "beaut"; great compact foliage and a most unusual colour for a “Blanchie”. Unfortunately, the “someone” who gave your plant a good dose of fertiliser needs to understand that there's been a lot of nice shaped brom's buggered up by too much fertiliser. That sudden boost of nitrogen gives some of the leaves a growth spurt and spoils the whole conformity of the plant and you're back to square one and have to wait for another year to grow on a pup to rectify things.

I know from a lot of the Neo seedlings I grew I have a similar problem; not from over-fertilising but from lack of good light. My neighbour's tree on the northern side is robbing all the northern light and the plants are all reaching out as they search for more and it makes them look terribly long and spindly and difficult to tell what to keep and what to toss.

Fortunately I've grown on a small sample of each in a well lit area so I know which crosses are performing and which aren't, and like you I've had to trim the excess leaves as I wait for next years pups. The only good thing about the whole situation is that what ever cross it is, I know if it's grown in good light next year, the colour and shape will both be an improvement from what the present conditions have produced and at present I'm seeing these plants at their worst.

I'm beginning to think that once a seedling is established, I would be better off by not giving any fertiliser at all and growing them really hard. I know this would keep the shape compact and definitely improve the colour; what's more, a smaller compact plant equals less required growing space required which equals less overcrowding......Certainly food for thought.

Cody – I have to agree with you, the weekends seem to go so quickly which is a bit hard if you're still in the work force, however it's not so bad for retirees like me as one day is just like the next and I don't have to try and fit everything into the weekend.

Tell Alex to be careful riding that quad bike and make sure he's wearing his “crash hat” as they do tent to “buck” and there's been some nasty accidents with them here in Australia recently. In fact they are even considering bringing in a law to ban anyone under sixteen from riding them.

I remember when I was working, we had an area near the harbour where the only access to the wharf was through a narrow access way which was originally designed as a walkway and too tight to drive an ambulance through. The “powers that be” decided that the ambulance man could respond quicker to emergencies if they provided him with a motorised three wheel trike to carry him and his equipment.

Well what an initial joke that was when we were learning to ride it; press the throttle a bit too soft and it wouldn't move, press it a bit too hard and you would be bucked off backwards. It didn't last long though as they were automatic and on one occasion the automatic transmission wouldn't disengage and the rider decided to jump off and the trike kept going, right into the harbour. In the end they decided it would be better and cheaper in the long run to widen the access-way so we could drive down onto the wharf in the ambulance instead.

Here I go; side tracked yet again.

Time to go anyway, and today I'll show some more of Peter Coyle's new creations from New Zealand. Pic.1 is Neo ('Avalon' x 'Fireball') x 'Felix', Pic.2 is Neo.'Wild Tiger' x 'Jewellery Shop', Pic 3 is another new hybrid with name unknown, Pic.4 and 5 are two of his new Vriesea hybrids; again names unknown.

All the best, Nev.