Australian and New Zealand Gardening: Bromeliads for Novices and Addicts - September 2014, 1 by splinter1804

splinter1804 wrote:
Hi everyone – The sun’s out again and the birds are singing and I just hope this is a sign of what the weather will be like for our show on the weekend.

Teresa - Neo ‘Heart Music’ x concentrica is from a cross I made about six years ago and I’m pleased you like it as it doesn’t usually seem to be very popular with most people although I like it myself and have even thought about registering it. I guess we all have our likes and dislikes and it would be a pretty boring world if we all liked the same thing.

I have to agree with what you say, judges do seem to have a pretty high “burn out” rate which isn’t surprising as they are in the same unenviable position of a football referee where they can never please everyone.

Trish – It would be remiss of me if I let you all think that all clones of Ae.’ Blue Cone’ look like the one in the picture I posted yesterday. That plant belongs to a friend of mine and is a particularly good clone, although the clones of lesser quality can also look nice when grown in a clump. The other up side of this plant is that it’s a very easy to grow plant and multiplies easily. See picture 1 of an example of the more common clone Ae. Cylindrata which ‘Blue Cone’ came from originally.

I’ll also post some pictures of Neo. olens just to show the variations possible.

As for mosquitoes, I can’t say I know much about their breeding habits in bromeliads as we don’t have a problem with them down here. I imagine however that with nearby wetlands in your area, they would be a far greater risk of a breeding ground than the brom’s, but then they have their predators as well such as small frogs which also live and breed in their habitat; so Mother Nature does control them to a certain extent.

I do have a brom growing friend of many years’ experience who has studied the association of mosquitoes in bromeliads and I’ve emailed him to see if I can get some factual information about this specific topic, which I’ll post if and when I can get it.

The Bill NOID in your first pic has making very similar to one I have called Bill.‘Kip’ however the flowers are different. I do have another similar marked one with the same sort of flower and I’ll try and get its name for you.

That’s a great picture of the fungus; I even find some occasionally in the section of my yard where the brom’s are on the ground, and some of it is beautifully coloured; in fact there’s one that’s a brilliant orange and when it’s about it’s very easy to spot. Some of the tougher grey coloured ones that grow on wood can sometimes remain for years, however the orange coloured ones seem to go just as fast as they come.

I also have Neo’s 'Grace', 'Exotica Velvet' and Neo. 'Royal Burgundy' which have been favourites of mine for years. Although it’s a nice looking brom, I’m sorry but I can’t identify your NOID. Having recently been watered and the water still on the leaves does tend to change the appearance and I’m not sure whether it’s the water or my failing eyesight which give the appearance of fine white flecking on some of the leaves. Do you have another pic of it with dry leaves, and also how large is it? This info also helps when trying to ID a plant.

Time to get back to packing stuff for the show and I’ll just finish with a few Pic’s 1 and 2 are the more commonly seen clones of Ae. Cylindrata and 3, 4 and 5 show various plants of Neo. olens and just how much the light can influence the foliage colour.

All the best, Nev.