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

splinter1804 wrote:
Hi all – Day 4 of the new year already; it’ll soon be Easter again what a terrible thought.

Not a lot achieved yesterday, just a bit more sorting and tidying up and getting the next lot of plants ready for re-potting. Both green bins are full of culls, so no more work in that department until Wednesday when the bins are emptied, and then into it again.

I am finding a lot of plants I forgot I even had; I guess the old memory isn’t near as good as I thought it was, but then they are all written down in a diary, if only I could remember where I put it for safe keeping.

Terrible fires in South Australia once again, gee those poor people are taking a pounding; I saw one bloke on TV last night who had lost everything and he said on the national news that it was all started by a neighbour who lit an incinerator to burn some rubbish. How stupid can some people be to do such a thing when there is a catastrophic fire danger warning in place?

I hope the fires are not anywhere near our Colleen and the boys; if they are though, don’t wait around too long Colleen get out with plenty of time to spare as soon as the evacuation warning is announced.

Shirley – It’s good to hear you’re getting a bit of rain at least, we had our share during December and still the occasional overnight light shower, not anything heavy but enough to wet everything, make the weeds grow like crazy and increase the humidity to a most uncomfortable level, but boy oh boy, don’t the brom’s love it?

Pleased to hear you are well except for the usual aches and pains that we all have to put up with. It’s interesting to hear Michael is doing his family tree. My wife works as a volunteer at the Kiama Family History Centre and has done so since she retired. That’s her hobby and the Light Railway is mine (apart from brom’s of course). This all started when she set out to do our family tree, she was already armed with a lot of info. done by an aunty of hers, so she thought it would be a breeze. When she joined up with the Centre she soon learned that things aren’t always as they seem and you must check, double check and in some cases triple check some info. It turned out that a lot of the info she had been given was very, very wrong; e.g one relative was shown as getting married before she was even born, Ha! Ha!

Another thing they are finding at the History Centre, with people who are coming in for help is that they are now getting more and more info. off various sites such as “Ancestry.com” (which incidentally has an enormous amount of great info. but as it can be put on by anyone, it’s not necessarily thoroughly checked first and is sometimes incorrect). So I guess it’s a lot like names on brom tags, don’t trust what you read until you have thoroughly checked it.

Good luck with the Dyckia; I have some Cacti growing friends who grow them, but personally I’ve never been a fan of these very prickly types. It does however show just how varied the world of bromeliads really is and some of these have magnificent brilliant orange coloured flowers, now if only an Aechmea had such coloured flowers. When my friend (who grows Dyckias) knew I was growing brom’s, he gave me what he said was a link to the largest photographic index of Dyckias in the world. You may like to brose though it one day when you have nothing to do Ha! Ha! It’s at: http://dyckiabrazil.blogspot.com.au/

I haven’t seen it before but I like your Neo. ‘Alcatraz’ in the first picture. This is another from Chester Skotak’s impressive range of hybrids and was bred from Neo. (carolinae variegated x Skotak's Tiger) x Skotak’s Tiger. It’s a nicely marked plant, however I would have thought that with a ”double dose” of Skotak’s Tiger in the parentage, the banding would have been more emphasised.

I can’t find Neo. ‘Bullis’ Margaret’ on the B.C.R. but I can find a ‘Margaret’, unfortunately, there’s no photo. When I looked on the F.C.B.S. site I found Margaret again and this time with an accompanying photo. This could be your plant, because if you disregard the banding (Which is often a temporary seasonal marking due to sudden temperature extremes) it looks very much like your plant.

I think the Bullis’ part of the name may have been on the original name tag to identify where it was purchased from (Bullis Bromeliads in Florida) as it is clearly shown in their online catalogue as just plain Neo.’Margaret’. (See just like tracking down family members with family research)
See: http://www.bullisbrom.com/categories.php?cid=14

Your next plant of Neo ‘Lou Wilson’ was made in 1992 by the interesting crossing of
Neo. (carolinae x concentrica) x ‘Big Blue’ as the seed parent and Neo.’Big Blue’ x concentrica’ as the pollen parent. Like so many other concentrica hybrids the concentrica influence is very obvious.

Again, Neo.‘Quiz Queen’ (Pic.4) is another I’m not familiar with but immediately suspected it was another Skotak hybrid. When I checked I see that its seed parent is Neo. (carolinae variegated x Hannibal Lector); this has been responsible for producing some wonderful colours such as ‘After Shock’, ‘Blushing Zebra’, ‘Groucho’ and ‘Wild Rabbit’ to mention just a few of the better known ones

Teresa – I’m sure Justine will know what you’re talking about when you mention these gardens as the word went out worldwide when it was first announced they were going to be built, and no expense was spared.

If you ever go to Singapore it’s definitely a “must see” as a few of my friends from the brom society have been there and rave about it. Personally, from what I’ve seen, I like the conventional gardens and the giant shade house but I’m not a fan of the futuristic sculptures which look too artificial for me and seem to detract from the overall theme of “Gardens by the Bay”. Because of its magnitude (Built on 101 hectares of reclaimed land), I guess there is something there to appeal to everyone.

A few pic’s to finish with firstly one of my NOIDS for a change, I’m pretty sure it’s a concentrica hybrid but can’t be certain. Pic.2 has been around for a long time and is Neo.’Fireball’ x ‘Granada’, a nice little plant that adapts well to basket culture. Pic.3 is Neo.’Rosatina’ x concentrica, nothing special looking at the picture, but it is a large plant up to 3’ across and the leaf tips really “glow” on a mature plant. Pic.4 is another “oldie” but still a favourite of mine, Neo ‘Pink Fantasia’; this unregistered hybrid has been around down here for years and its main appeal is that it clumps up very quickly. Finally one I’ve posted recently, Neo.’Midnight Moment’. This is very popular because of the many different colour changes it goes through before it reaches maturity.

All the best, Nev.