Australian and New Zealand Gardening: Bromeliads For Novices and Addicts - October 2014, 1 by splinter1804

splinter1804 wrote:
Hi everyone – Finally I made a start and gave some of my plants their Seasol yesterday. It’s a pretty big job and takes me a couple of days to complete as I have them in gardens at the front and back of the block as well as several shade shelters and shade houses. Yesterday morning I made up 200L and I did the front garden and the Vriesea/Guzmania shade house and had to stop due to several afternoon appointments. Hopefully I’ll get most of the remainder done today.

I have a 100L tank and this is what I mix up my Seasol or fertilisers in. It is pumped from here via an old swimming pool pump through the normal garden hose with a watering wand attached. The pressure isn’t as strong as the mains pressure but it does the job OK.

At last I’ve received an answer to my request for help to Dave’s Garden, see below:

“Hi Neville,

I'm so sorry - we are working to locate the source of this and a few
other ads that are taking up more than their allotted space on our
website screens. Please bear with us as we get this straightened out
with our ad sales team.

Happy Gardening,
Terry”

So I guess all that we can do now is wait and hope they can fix the problem.

Teresa – I’m not having any luck with the link you posted; I’ve tried a few times yesterday and today and just keep getting “This content is currently unavailable”. Any suggestions?

Trish – Just to return to our conversation about Neo. ‘Blushing Tiger’, let me say that although I managed to produce heaps of pups, the plant doesn’t look too good as they are now so over-crowded. If anyone would like to try out what I did, it’s no secret and was told to me some years back by a brom nurseryman.

When you have a plant that has just flowered, you get some Osmocote (just the general type for “pots and planters” will do) and you place a single “prill” (no more) in each of the lower leaf axils and then apply double the recommended dose to the surface of the potting mix and water well. It doesn’t work on all plants but I have successfully used it on Neo.’ Noble Descent’ (8 pups), Ae ‘Ramosa’ (7pups), Vr, ospinae (13 pups) and of course ‘Blushing Tiger’ (20 pups). The reason I don’t do it anymore is that I simply don’t have any space for more pups and am quite happy to let them just produce the one or two pups which I let grow to almost full size before I remove them.

I’ve emailed you a pic of my Auroa/Domino and maybe your friend can sort it out once and for all.

I love the overhead shots of the first two plants showing the contrast in the barring between the Vr, ‘Splendriet’ and the Ae Chantinii, they look great.

Next I’ll jump to Neo ‘Chiquita Linda’, this is a mini I’ve never had any luck with and as everyone else seems to grow it well I’m thinking now that I might have a “dud” clone or one of its lesser hybrids. Please when you get a spare pup could you give me a thought?

This just leaves the Bil. rosea and the Vr. 'Rubyae'; now both of these have a pendulous inflorescence which is easy to forget when they aren’t in flower, but if you don’t leave space for them to grow and hang down over the side of the pot, their beauty will be lost.

I have found the Vr. 'Rubyae' does best and looks best when grown with the pot suspended from an overhead suspension point. The Bill. rosea flowers, although only short lived are borne on a magnificent inflorescence which needs to be displayed with the plant in a slightly elevated position to maximise the impact.

If these plants are sitting on the ground the inflorescence can sometime be so long that they drag in the dirt and I have found the best way is to sit the pot on top of a slightly larger upturned terracotta pot and because they are so tall you also have to take precautions to make sure that it doesn’t topple over.

Shirley – About the advert’s on the computer, see note from D.G above.

As for the production of extra pups, I though after I’d posted that I should have explained, but then thought I had one so a while back but couldn’t be sure so see explanation in my answer to Trish above. Remember though that I said it doesn’t work on all plants, and if it’s a special plant you only have one of, I’d be careful as the extra fertiliser could burn it. It hasn’t happened to me so far but I’m sure it would be possible some times and as we all know, it’s usually the best plants that these things happen to.

Regarding back pain, I know everyone’s different and the treatment that works for me won’t necessarily work for you, but I’ve tried pretty well everything and the two (non-medical) things that helped the most up until it reached the stage of needing surgery, were chiropractic and acupuncture.

I had physio also but that didn’t help at all in my case, (only aggravated things) so I guess you just have to keep trying different things until you get relief. I would suggest acupuncture, but it’s not a “one off fix”, and a good acupuncturist will usually suggest ten sessions and it takes about four before you start to feel relief. I do know of six or more of my friends who have also had good results from this sort of treatment on their backs.

As for ‘Adblock Plus’, my antivirus flagged it as a “possible low security risk” and I was able to override the block and everything has worked OK ever since, so I guess you have to weigh up the benefit against the possible risk, if any.

That’s another nice batch of pictures you’ve posted today. Neo. ‘Burgundy Moss’ is the only one I have; I’ve heard of Chirripo but never seen it and when I look it up I see that it is another from that great breeder of variegated plants Chester Skotak and results from Neo. (carolinae x concentrica) x concentrica

I don’t know the other two either but I see that Neo.’Spatan Beauty’ is from ‘Moana Beauty’ x (unknown pollen parent). As for the Neo concentrica x Euro concentrica, I’ve never heard of one named ‘Euro concentrica’ so maybe it’s just something the breeder put on the name tag to signify that the second parent came from a European collection and it’s now unintentionally become part of the formula name.

It doesn’t matter greatly though as it’s still Neo. concentrica x concentrica and there’s so many concentrica forms and look-a-like hybrids around now that no one could tell the difference. The thing is though that your plant doesn’t look anything like concentrica which I would have expected it should as two species crossed together give plants that look similar. The only concentrica trait I can see are the very faint hints of semi concentric rings on the foliage, but other than that the colour is all wrong. Do you know anything else about its history? In the meantime I’ll have to do a bit more digging.

Jean – It’s really good to be hearing from you again on a regular basis, and before I forget, the Till. in your first picture is Tillandsia stricta, I know because I have it in flower at present also.

It’s also interesting to see your Vr.’Grafton Sunset’ is flowering and about at the same stage of maturity as mine. I thought that being in a cooler area yours would flower later, but then I’m often wrong.

You’ve managed to accumulate a reasonable looking collection there anyway so they’ll keep you occupied as you re-arrange them and try them in different locations. I think you’ll find the Vrieseas will tolerate the cold better than Guzmanias or Neo’s will, at least that’s what I’ve found up here anyway.

What’s the nice looking albo-marginated Neo at the back in Pic.2, is it Neo.’Bill Morris’?

Anyway, it’s time for me to go if I’m going to get some more Seasolling done so I’ll finish with a few pic’s.

Pic.1 is one of Peter Coyle's new Billbergia hybrids Bill. Hallelujah x (Domingos Martins x Golden Joy) Pis'c 2 and 3 are two which he named after his grand daughters Bill. 'Totara Piper' and Bill.'Totara Paisley', Pic.4 is a nice little clump of Neo. 'Lime and Lava' and just for something different, I'll finish with a picture of a rather large Cane Toad.

All the best, Nev

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