Australian and New Zealand Gardening: OUR BROMELIADS INTO 2015.. , 3 by splinter1804

splinter1804 wrote:
Hi everyone – I had a very productive day yesterday, and just for a change didn’t get side-tracked away from my planned work. I managed to get the sagging benches straightened up which was made easier with the use of my son’s trolley- jack which I found in the garage hiding behind his motor bike. It was a simple matter of clearing away some accumulated ferns and philodendron, jacking up the bench and slipping a couple of pavers under the legs and, “Hey Presto”, job done!

What’s more, as well as sorting out the benches, I managed to dead leaf another hundred or so brom’s. However the bad news was, because I got so carried away making so much progress, I forgot to take any more new pictures so I’ll try and remember today.

Teresa – I’m please to hear you say the Tea Room’s a bit quiet lately as I’ve noticed a couple of other brom forums I visit are quiet also, so it’s not just here; I guess everyone’s still busy with the holiday period, and we shouldn’t forget that the school kids are still on holidays so that’s less free time for the parents and grandparents.

With other forums, when you get off topic as we often do here, you are very quickly pulled back into line, and that’s why initially I was worried that my getting side tracked (as I often do) may have been the cause for the lack of posts, but when I hear from a couple of members that they enjoy the other discussions as well, I don’t worry anymore. Even though I try to keep on topic as much as I can, someone will sometimes mention something that seems to act as a “trigger” for me to go galloping off on a different tangent. I don’t mind being pulled into gear though if anyone is offended as it doesn’t hurt to be reminded occasionally that I’m out of order.

What you say about the free fertiliser is very true; in habitat, the only fertiliser brom’s get is the occasional bird or small animal droppings along with bits of dead leaves and other debris which all finish up in the plant’s central vase with the water. As this all breaks down it becomes a type of “soup” and acts as a continuous feeding of very dilute fertiliser. Remember the old nurseryman’s saying about fertiliser, “Little and often”? This is probably where that saying originated.

Well as there’s no one else to converse with today I’ll finish with a few more pic’s to keep us all thinking on the brom topic. Pic.1 is a Neo.’Guinea’ hybrid, Pic.2 is Neo.’Painted Lady’ (Sport) x ‘Grace’. Pic.3 is a nice compact form of Neo. marmorata,

I bought the plant in Pic.4 with the name of Neo.’Grace’ USA. On further investigation I found there was no Neo.’Grace’ USA registered, but there were two plants named Neo. ‘Grace’, both circa 1980, one bred by Bob Larnach in Australia (No parents recorded) and the other bred by Grant Groves in the USA. from (Neo.’Blushing Bride’ x ‘Meyendorffii’)

My thoughts are that the one I have, had the “USA” added to the name to avoid confusion with the other Australian bred Neo.’Grace’. Sometime later the names were amended on the BCR to Neo. ‘Groves Grace’ (The American one) and Neo. ‘Larnach’s Grace’ (The Australian one) to save confusion, therefore mine probably should be labelled Neo. ‘Groves Grace’.

Finally, Pic.5 is Neo.’Bobby Dazzler’ x ‘Gold Fever’. You could be forgiven for initially thinking (from the photo) that this plant is Neo. ‘Gold Fever’ judging by the colours, however it appears to have inherited the Bobby Dazzler size and is over two feet across; double the size of ‘Gold Fever’.

All the best, Nev.