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

bromishy wrote:
Hi Everyone!

Hi Brian, just you and me by the looks of things; pleased to see you posting again; feeling much better thanks each day that passes so hopefully come same time next week I will be back to my normal self.

Sounds like you are getting heaps of rain down your way, we have not had a good drop of rain here in a while but I am sure we will get our fair share over summer and for now we are keeping the lawns looking green so I am not too concerned.

I am sure once you move your broms out into more light it will not be long before you notice a remarkable difference; I am constantly looking at my broms and seeing if they would do better elsewhere if I am not satisfied with their growth or colour progress but once I find a good position for them that’s where they stay, so it’s a bit of fun shuffling them around and by doing so you garden is like a forever changing canvas of colour and that’s another reason why I like growing bromeliads so much.

I like the idea you have come up with the fence panels at least that will keep your bromeliads off the ground making sure the water does not touch the bottom of your pots as bromeliads detest getting wet feet and its one sure way of killing them by losing them the rot as the growing medium needs to be able to drain properly and not be water logged all the time; so the main thing is that your pots are not sitting in water then they will be fine and the other important thing is that there is enough air flow happening around them in that area. How high you want them off the ground is totally up to you as I do not know how high the water pools in that area or does it have a place to escape and dry up? If you have room to make some shelving for them you could still use the fence panels as I have seen people use these for shelving before but you would have to support the fence panels with large besser blocks but possible cut the panel down inside to make individual a few shelves so if it decides to collapse the whole thing does not topple over on you meaning less damage to your broms. You could also position some staggered shelving on the block retaining wall to display some lighter pots possibly?

Or another great option you have suggested in your Pic 2 is to build a shade house / garden up the back yard as this looks to be a fantastic spot that would appear to get a lot of good light throughout the day and by the sounds of things you are really getting into bromeliads so before you know it like a lot of us here on this forum you will be looking for more places to put them like you are now and a good shade house to house them all in, especially say some of your more favourites as we all have our favourites we want to protect?

Oh my goodness Brian Aechmea Pineliana is definitely going BERSERK as you say in that 4” pot ha ha. I have similar happening with my Ae. 'J.C. Superstar' and plan to hopefully tackle and re-pot it on the weekend if all goes well as I have been putting it off for so long. I also really liked your Tillandsia Caulescen which looks like a very happy and healthy plant. Not too sure what your Pic 5 is though, to me possibly looks like some sort of Guzmania in flower, there are so many of these mass produced through tissue culture similar to what you would see at Bunnings’ or Masters stores, I am not saying that is what your one is and hopefully others more experienced in growing Guzmania's may be able to identify this one for you as it is always nice to put a name to the plant, I only have a couple that I grow and the flowers look different to your pic.

Take Care & Happy Gardening!

Trish

Pic 1 - Neo. 'Jaws'
Pic 2 - Vr. 'Rafael'
Pic 3 - Neo. 'Purple Star' maturing pups
Pic 4 - Neo. 'Darkest Hour'