Australian and New Zealand Gardening: BROMELIADS IN SUMMER ..2014, 1 by bromishy

bromishy wrote:
Hi Everyone!

Well the weekend was a productive one mowing lawns, cutting back all the hedges, racking up all the fallen leaves from the Mango / Avocado trees, spraying weeds, putting in lighting around the back garden beds, potting broms and shuffling them around a bit to achieve best light. We now have a great water tractor which is doing a fantastic job at reaching all the hard to get spots in the garden which is now giving us more time on the weekend to do other things instead of watering area’s where the irrigation normally misses by hand.

Friday night we had friends over for dinner that we had not caught up with in a while so it was nice spending a bit of quality time with them and mellowing out for a bit.

The temps have really kicked up a notch around here and we have succumbed to putting the AC on at night just so we can get a bit of comfortable sleep as we are finding it just too hot without it at the moment. Normally I go for a swim just before bed to cool down but it’s not helping at the moment and with the bit of rain we go over the weekend both the days and evenings is really muggy and it’s only going to get worse as the weather warms up.

Hi Nev I hope your hands healing well and great to see you are managing to post those long beautiful posts we luv reading so much. Oh and a BIG Happy Belated Anniversary – WOW 51 Years is amazing and we send a BIG CONGRATULATION to both you and Ailsa.

Pleased to hear you liked the pics of Joe’s Paph’s and yes in answer to your question Joe can be a pretty classy gentleman when he really wants to and scrubs up well when the need arises he he. He does such a great job growing his Paph's and they are his absolute favourite one's he likes to grow the most of all because he find the flowers so very interesting and detailed.

Nev I think that Neo’ NOID (Pic 5) I posted on the 19 Nov’ is getting pretty close to being fully coloured all over and close to maturity so I will kept an eye out and take a picture of it when it’s in bloom to see if I can get a possible ID from anyone. I really like the natural glossy leaves it gets when it’s totally dry, very pretty indeed.

Lovely pic you posted back on the 19 Nov’ of that brom growing naturally in the tree, clearly happy and content and reproducing well as it climbs higher and higher up the tree trunk. I need to try growing more in our trees but have not really done so other than a few Till’s here and there and the odd tough mini that can handle a bit of neglect.

Awesome pics you posted from your memory stick on 21 Nov’, what’s the Neo’ in Pic 1 it’s stunning with the purple and cream colouring???

Hi Jean thanks heaps for starting the new thread for November, very kind of you to do so. Sounds like you are feeling the heat like a lot of us here on this forum and it’s only going to get worse for us here and I think we are going to be in for a scorching summer. Great your planting rose bushes for shade around the garden, they will work well for protecting all the other plants you enjoy growing.

Thanks I very much enjoyed selling some of my broms at our recent local market and the proceeds went towards buying new supplies for my broms as well as I got some additional cacti and succulents to display in the new garden bed Joe and I created together that takes us away from our usual collections for a bit over the weekends although this garden bed is so much easier to look after than our broms and orchids that are a bit more work given how big our collections are growing now. Yes it does take a bit of time to keep my broms looking good and cared for and the weekends are never long enough but I plan to take a couple of weeks off over Christmas so will hopefully be able to get back on top of things again like cutting pups off, giving my whole collection a good pest treatment that I only get around to doing twice a year and many other things I want to get done while I have the time available.

One of the things I really enjoyed doing during my recent brom sale at the market was to give away “Bonus Broms” as it pleased me to see the look on people’s faces when I did so; some people were that taken aback and pleased that when they paid me for the broms they purchased then tipped me extra for the “Bonus Broms” and would not take no for an answer with many saying that my prices were that great that was bonus enough. I gave a few broms to people that had never grown them before that were very curious and my contact details in case they forgot any of the growing tips I gave them and I hope to see them back at some stage as I am sure they will get hooked like when I brought one of my first broms at a local market in Victoria many years ago.

Lovely Neo’ pictures you shared with us; I too have my Vr. Phillipo Coburgii growing in full sun and it’s starting to get a lot of yellow pigmentation now that should hopefully cover the whole plant but all the others I have growing in the garden are green because they are not getting near enough sun.

Hi Teresa pleased to hear you liked the pics I posted of Vr. ‘Tiger Tim’ and Neo’ ‘Morando’, I have since split the pot of ‘Morando’ to give them a fighting chance to reach their full potentials and grow up all big and strong so will have to re-post pics as they mature and colour up.

Great to hear your doing some computer courses which always looks great to have on one’s resume as well as it’s good to keep up with all the upgrading of programs otherwise it can take a bit to get used to them if you have been using older programs for a while like we were at work but now everything's upgraded.

Hi Colleen pleased to hear you are getting a bit of rain, we too have been getting the odd bit but boy is it sticky muggy now. The humidity just poured off me on the weekend, I never knew my eyelids could sweat until the weekend and it was like I was crying tears of sweat I was that hot LOL.

Homemade gifts are the best I think Colleen especially the baked variety; I still remember when my adopted grand-dad Ivan used to make us tins of jam drop biscuits for Christmas with icing sugar sprinkled on top, they were so very yummy and I have never tasted any nicer than the one's he used to make.

Like Nev I don’t mind Bunnings Gift Vouchers for Christmas because I always need something from there and it’s my favourite shop out of all of them that I spend the most time in.

Hi Dianne I hope you are mending well and taking things steady and easy while you heal and are not over doing things.

Hi Brian I hope your well and have found room for all your beautiful new babies and have you decided in building a nursery of some kind to house some of your beauties?

Hi Shirley sorry to hear your garden is getting smashed by the hot weather and hope there is no damage sustained to your broms and that you got your shade toppers up just in time by the sounds of things. I think this summer is going to be a very harsh one for many of us and no amount of water is going to make a difference once the evenings get as hot as the days I think there will be no keeping up with all the dryness out there.

Anyway time to head as early wakeup per usual.

Trust I have not missed anyone and if I have sincere apologies and I look forward to chatting with you sometime during the week.

Take Care & Happy Gardening!

Trish

Oldish pics taken in the Igloo of some of my Vrieseas: