Australian and New Zealand Gardening: BROMELIADS IN SUMMER ..2014, 1 by splinter1804

splinter1804 wrote:
Hi everyone – Well I’m freed from my bonds at last; the pins have been removed and the good news is that when I asked the surgeon how soon I could get back into the garden, he answered, “how long will it take you to get home?”. I just have to keep the pin sites covered with a bandaid if they are still bleeding a bit, and wear gloves. The bleeding had stopped before we got home from the surgeon yesterday and wasn’t it great to be able to have a shower without those pins getting in the way. You beaut!......free at last.

Looks like being a wet Christmas here this year instead of the usual stinking hot day we normally get, so a welcome change for all. It rained all night last night, not heavy, but just continuous light rain, the sort I like as it has a chance to gradually soak into everything. It’s still raining now and the sky is very overcast which make me suspect it will be like this for a good part of the day. I won’t interfere with my plans though as everything’s set up in the garage and ready for me to start potting.

Teresa – Gee you’re keen leaving your Christmas shopping this late; it’s just as well you don’t live here as you’d get trampled to death in the rush. “Stocklands” which is our local major shopping centre has this year doubled in size and it’s massive; people who have been there in the last couple of days say it’s bedlam and you can barely move, there’s just so many people. To make matters worse, yesterday the two main escalators between floors broke down due to just too many people I expect, and this created a backlog and long queues of people wanting to get from one floor to the next, glad I wasn’t there.

Yesterday's Pic. No.4, Neo ‘Enchantment’, seems to be a favourite of everyone who sees it, it’s so popular that I can sell every spare one I have without even trying as there’s always someone asking after it. There are two forms, the one in the picture as well as an albo-marginated form (See Pic.1). They are both nice plants of similar size and equally as popular with growers.

Trish – I must say I am a bit disappointed that Joe wasn’t able to get any pic’s of you wrestling the python but as I imagine what it would have looked like I can understand he was probably laughing so hard he wouldn’t have been able to hold the camera steady anyway. Just remember though, if the python comes home again, we all want some pictures of “The Lady Python Wrestler” in action.

I’m looking forward to seeing the pic’s of your water tractor, as the more I think about it the more I like the idea because if I could just do the general garden with that it would save more time for me to concentrate on watering individual brom’s.

That’s about it for today as I can’t wait to get out in the garage and start potting. Pic.1 is Neo. ‘Enchantment’ albo-marginata, Pic.2 is Neo.’Black Forest’, Pic.3 is Neo.’Break of Day’, Pic.4 is Neo.’Satsuma’ and Pic.5 is Neo.’Ashanti’.

All the best, Nev.