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

splinter1804 wrote:
Hi everyone – Nothing much to report today except to say I was dragged off to another four year old's birthday party yesterday with my grandson. Spent most of the morning reminiscing with family members and friends and when I got home I finally finished mulching the front garden, so at east I finished another job and the day wasn't entirely unproductive.

Theresa – Yes understanding the meaning of the word grex isn't exactly rocket science and even I can understand the meaning of it too. It has me puzzled why the BSI wants to do away with it being used in conjunction with bromeliads, maybe it's a case of they just want to be different to the Royal Horticultural Society who was using it for orchids and bromeliads before the BCR even existed and they now just want to do their “own thing”. I'm still in favour of the old system (I guess you can't teach an old dog new tricks) and I'll keep banging my drum in its favour as I can't see any great advantage in having changed to the new system; however, “them's the rules” and if we want to register a plant now we have to play by those rules and that's the end of it.

Ian – I've found it's never a good idea to rely on technology completely; I always keep a paper copy, (I often misplace it) but I always keep one.

You say you have acquired more plants and not recorded them, well just let me say I'm always doing that and that's the reason I keep finding plants that I don't ever remember getting.

As for the Till. name ionantha, that does sound familiar, but because I don't grow Tillandsias I tend not to try and remember their names as there's only so much space in my brain and that's reserved for the names of the plants I do grow. Ha! Ha!

It seems like items used for writing on name tags has gone the full circle, it all started with pencils and went through a myriad of different types of permanent marking pens and now we're back to pencils again. I still use a fine OHP transparency marker not because I find them any better than pencils, but because I always seem to break the lead in pencils at the most inappropriate time and have to go looking for something to sharpen them with. It's been proved that names written with pencils don't fade as quickly as ones written with some markers and that's probably due to the fact that the graphite in pencils tolerates the sun's UV rays better.

I never thought about using Dyckias as a border plant, but they would certainly help keep stray dogs and cats off the garden, so it's certainly something worth thinking about.

As for the prefix names, well they are just a grex name applied in a different manner to get around the change in the system. There have been a few growers who have named groups of hybrids as a “Series” of plants (note the use of the word series and not “grex”) There was Jack Koning's Neo. “Wild “series and his Vriesea 'Aussie Beauty', 'Beaches', 'Bushranger', 'Candy Shop', 'Dream Time', 'Jack's Angel' and quite a few other series; Andrew Maloy did it with his famous Vriesea 'Kiwi' series, Peter Coyle with his 'Tasman' series and Lisa Vinzant with her “Blue Berry” series. There are many more, these are just some of the ones I remember.

What has always puzzled me was why Bob Larnach wasn't able to register the Neo. 'Aussie Dream' series as such, and had to just register each individual C.V. name. What's the different between e.g. Jack's “Aussie Beauty” series which was registered and Bob's “Aussie Dream” series which was disallowed? As you suggest is it just political? I know it's bloody unfair, if you make rules you must apply them the same way to everyone..........end of story!

That's interesting you mention that a grex mate of J C Superstar is called Gold Nugget. I never knew this and have never seen the plant, do you have it and if so how about a picture? All the BCR tells us apart from a written description is that it that it's a cross between the two Aechmea species of ramosa and chantinii and was made by Howard Yamamoto in 1980.

Now to your pic's, that's a nice looking 'Red Chestnut' in your first picture, as is the variegated ginger in the second one. I didn't know ginger came with variegations so I've learned my new thing for today already. What about the plants under the citrus tree, have you factored these into the list of plants you're taking with you or have you forgotten as it's easy done. I love the colours of your Hoh. Leopoldi-horstii; if that's just a pup, it must grow into a pretty decent sized plant; just how big does it get?

Finally the picture of the Giant Panda Snail; maybe there a new business venture here for you, breeding these for the restaurant trade. They're pretty big and it wouldn't take too many of them to make a dozen would it?

Finally as usual, a big “Get Well Soon” to anyone one the sick list and also an invitation to any of the folks that just read these posts but don't post themselves. Come on in and say hello and be an active part of the group; we need a few more members.

That's it for today and Pic.1 is Neo. 'Apricot Nectar' on the potting bench waiting for some new mix, Pic.2 is a close-up of Nid.'Leprosa' showing the buds just ready to “pop”. Pic.3 is Guz. wittmackii, and although the flowers have died the bracts are still holding their colour after three months. (I cut off the spike the next day as I found three new pups coming up and I wanted the plant to put its energy into the pups rather than a flower spike beginning to wane) Pic.4 is a “ball” of Vr. flammea previously grown in low light and now moved to its new location just beneath the shade cloth which will hopefully promote more flowers next season. Finally Pic.5 Ae nudicaulis variety 'aequalis' showing the striking contrast between the yellow flowers and the brilliant scarlet bracts.

All the best, Nev.