Happy New Year to all the Bromeliad enthusiasts out there!
I thought a new thread might be in order to start the New Year off, so here it is.
We came from http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/1232265/
Here's a group shot to start us off again :)
Cheers, Tash
This message was edited Jan 2, 2012 9:20 AM
Thanks Tash for the new thread. I've been following your new SH with great interest. It's 42C at the moment. It's bl---- hot. Thank heavens for Aircons. Colleen
Hi everyone,
Thanks for starting the new thread Tash; I don't know what we'd do without you and the others who understand this infernal electronic stuff. I like your group shot, especially the plants at top left and right and bottom centre. Do they have names or are they orphans?
The temp here's pretty comfortable Colleen so no need for air-conditioners, we just use the ceiling fans and open the windows and doors. I'll be in touch in a couple of weeks for a weather report over there; I'll wait until Australia Post settles down again after the "silly season" and I'll get those plants off to you as I promised. What about you Tash, will you be ready to take yours in a couple of weeks also?
Did some culling of some 5"pot size seedlings today, 1/2 filled the green waste bin and it really hurt as I hate throwing away plants, but then we can't keep them all as I must have about 5-6000 babies coming along and in another year they will have to go somewhere also.
I'm sorting out all the excess plants and I'm going to have my annual sale in Feb. while all the Neo's are still coloured up. I'm keeping it simple this year, just two prices $5 and $10. Prices for the bigger plants can be negotiated at a later date.
Well that's about it for today, see you all again tomorrow.
All the best, Nev.
I found this old pic from my orchid growing days of a group of Cattleya Amber Glow seedlings and thought I'd show it just for a change.
.. Also here's another pic that I was looking for a while back when Sue was talking about Aechmea Weilbachii.
It was a plant belonging to the late Dick Jamieson who was a good brom mate in our local Brom Society. Dick said this plant didn't have any special treatment; but look at the flowers, I've never seen anything like it before or since.
Aechmea weilbachii pendula
Good morning everyone! Busy morning already but now a chance to sit and relax for a while.
No worries about starting the new thread, wasn't sure if everyone wanted it or to keep the old one going, but I thought being a new year, may as well get a new one started :)
Well the brom house is officially finished! yipeeee! We have been doing lots of little extra things that weren't worth taking photos of, but just needed to be done to make it a bit better. Things like the weed mat finished up against the poly pip ribs meaning Jason would have to whipper snip around the poly pipe posts each mow and just under the edge of the cloth, he gave it a test try two days ago and was happy to do it each time, but I was not happy with how much grass it through all through the shade house. So..... I spent about 4 hours yesterday cutting folding and shaping a whole new section of weed mat to go perfectly around the poly pipe posts, and overlap the other one and to effectively stick about 4 inches outside the brom house wall. And then using wire and fencing pliers to make my own pins to stake it all down firmly and neatly. It took ages and I was cursing about why I even decided to do it by half way through, but gee it came up great and works perfectly! It was the worst job of all the jobs we did for the brom house, my hands are sore today, my back is so sun burnt, even using an umbrella most of the time to shade me, so I am sore, tired, probably a bit sun struck and still have the flu! LOL. But we did it!!!
So yesterday we re arranged all the broms inside, to where we wanted them, cleaned up all the yard and made it look more normal again. This morning we whipper snipped and mowed and it looks fantastic now.
Our sun birds have found the new brom house already and zoom in and out getting pollen and hanging off the grandad's beard I have hanging up. As we were pulling the old brom house apart for the fence panels to make the new shelves, I was finding my frogs everywhere, on the wire and fencing, so I was catching them all and putting them back into the new brom house and so it's nice to walk around and still see my frogs everywhere and the sun birds coming in and out too.
Nev those Neo's in that group shot, came from a friend who breeds broms, and the story is, that the back right and front middle two are both from the same grex, Neo Stars 'N Bars is the seed parent, but the pollen parent is unknown. We actually got to see the whole grex, which are all pretty mature and all very nice. I have been given permission to name them if I like. My favourite is the purple one, back right. Sadly.... it was one of the ones that got burnt recently and we had to shove it in full shade, which has helped it heaps and the burn really isn't that bad, but as a result of the shade, it's lost it's colour! But it's now in the brom house and I hope it colours back up nicely as it's not flowering yet so has a bit more growing to do. It's my profile pic on FB at the moment, such a lovely strong purple colour with black teeth. That particular one, they sold to me, and then once I put the pics up on FB they kicked themselves and said, DAM.... should of kept that one. He had culled half of the grex and really they are all stunning neos and all quite different from each other, but like he said, can't keep them all, but hard to work out which ones to cull. But he is pushing me to name that purple one as he's a bit annoyed he let it go, so would still like to see it get registered, I have told him he can still register it if he likes as I have no idea how to do it, lol.
Now the other three neos, are all seedlings they were given where both the seed and pollen parents are unknown and they have just grown them up. They are quite nice too and again, amazing to see the variation in the same grex.
So two are from one grex, (back right and front middle) and the other three are from another grex.
Ok I had better scoot off, Jason has just taken more photos so I'll have a look and add some :)
Tash
Here is a photo showing the old brom house compared to the new one, what a difference!!! The hill billies have upgraded, lol. It's kind of embarrassing looking at the old one now, ha ha ha. We had to start somewhere and it was better than nothing and did us well for the time we had it, but gee whiz, so happy to have the new one and it looks so much nicer from the street when you look in, and from the window when we look outside. It's luxury for us, weed matt floor, irrigation system, beige cloth, it's just wonderful!
Hi everyone,
Tash - Now that you've got the job finished all you have to do is sit inside with the sprays going, a nice cold beer in hand, and enjoy it. Looking at the pic's of the old and new is a bit like comparing chalk and cheese. Anyway it's finished now and congratulations to you both, it's a job well done.
As for the pic's of the plants you posted, I'm really not surprised to hear they are seedlings and as you say, with the seed and pollen parents NOIDS, you never know what you will get; that's why growing from seed is so interesting.
I really like the little pale green plant in the front, I think it would make a great contrasting plant in amongst the red and burgundy colours.
All the best, Nev.
wow Tash what a difference there.
your old shade house was very tidy - it all looked way neater than my gardens!
The new tunnel house looks really professional, I am so impressed that you guys did it all yourselves.
Tash, I second what Teresa says. The before and after pic says it all. Wow! A job well done!
excellent, a new thread! Hi all, its taken me about an hour to catch up and look at all the piccies! Like you, Tash, i have a crappy cold, shared around over the xmas break with a few others also!
We had a housefull, with mattresses on the floor and continuous cooking and eating! I eventually got the house back on new years eve, and spent new years day cleaning up and getting it back the way i like it. I really enjoyed having all the family come, and there was never a dull moment.
I did a mornings gardening out, today, so am back into it already. Tash's shade house has inspired me to make a new top for mine, so will have to sit down and nut it out.
Just a short note tonight as Hubby has cooked me a yummy dinner, and I have to go pat him on the back, give him a medal, eat it all and exclaim loudly how good it is, or he won't cook again! heh heh.
Sue
hi everyone. happy new year to you all.
I missed you all but we had a busy week last week with the move (with everyone to help) and clean up all by ourselves as usual. But the best new year present we could have got was the comment (I love it here. lots to do incuding a New Years Eve party. Wish I came here sooner) We were so releived to hear that comment so pressure really off now. Anyhow once all the cleaning was over at unit it was only 1 day to clean here and prepare rooms for our son and family to come down for long weekend over new year. Kids took over the computers each night so no chance to get onto fb or anything else. Last night I was all ready to catch up all the reading but internet wouldn't load up so I had an early night after my best shows were over on TV. Asleep by 11pm. I think fate meant it to be because after pushing all cords in today and turning everything on all worked perfectly. Not sure what went wrong last night.
Colleen I loved that stature of the tractor gnome. he was so cute. tell the boys we approve of their presents and well done on a good selection.
Nev I can't bear to bin seedlings as I am too scared the one I bin will be the one that will be the best. However I am quick to bin any that start to look wilted and stressing out. I figure I have enough lovely healthy one I don't need to struggle on with the weak ones. I know our concentrica hybrids need potting into bigger pots which will give them more room to spread out but I'm waiting for Johnny to pick up 1 more trolley which was promised to us by local fish and chip shop. It is a bread trolley which company is not picking up even though told to so they promised we could have it after suitable period of time. We plan to put shadecloth around it and use it for small seedlings.
Sue I know what you mean about having to praise the men to get them to keep doing things. I can do something eg mop the floor and it doesn't warrant a comment but if J does that same job and I don't acknowledge it it is a crime worth starting an argument over LOL. Anyway he made tea tonight while I tried to get the computer to work. When he called me to come to eat I just had to take a pic to share with you all. It looked so good.
Tea: Qld tiger prawn cocktail and half an Alaskan king crab. tasted as nice as it looked too. I was going to add a question someone asked today (where does that come from) but I didn't want to embarrass her (sorry Jen) Guess she's never seen "deadliest catch". Unfortunately with foxtel IQ I get to see it over and over and over again. Wonder why I watch TV in the office? now you know.
Wendy
This message was edited Jan 3, 2012 10:50 PM
Hi everyone,
Wendy – I can certainly understand how relieved you must have been to hear that “comment” as even though all the facts say you did the right thing, there’s always that little niggle in your own mind that questions your decision. To hear this comment must have been like getting a huge burden lifted off your shoulders.
Now as for culling, it is probably the most important part of hybridizing; at least that’s what the experts tell us, but it still doesn’t make it any less painful. As the old Willie Nelson song goes, “you’ve gotta know when to hold ‘em and know when to fold ‘em” and that’s the only way you can create space for the up and coming new ones. Like you I have trouble tossing out healthy seedlings, but it becomes a matter of necessity when you run out of space. I know from experience that I’m tossing out plants that could turn out to be something good because I learned a long time ago that you can’t properly evaluate a plant on their first flowering as a seedling (and I’m talking about Neo’s here). With the first batch of seedlings I ever had, any that were destined for the bin were planted in a garden at the front of the house just to “fill a gap”.
One year later when the pups had grown, almost without exception, they were better colour, wider leaves and generally all round better plants than the original seedlings they grew from. True they weren’t show winners, but they were equal to ones I had seen for sale in nurseries and for that matter equal to ones that had been registered with the BCR and in some cases even better. Whether it was because being in the garden they had more access to the things they liked or whether it takes a couple of years for them to show their best (or worst) as some that looked promising and were kept, didn’t perform as well with the next generation. I think it’s a personal thing and something that you have to feel comfortable with. On the other hand, a friend of mine who couldn’t bear to throw seedling out, kept the lot and grew them to maturity. They were so cramped; the leaves were thin and colourless as they tried to compete for light from their cramped spaces against each other on the benches. In the end he lost a lot from rot (due to overcrowding and poor air circulation) and he still wasn’t able to select what was good and what was bad as they hadn’t had the opportunity to truly show what they could do. Even now after about ten years of growing from seed, I still torture myself deciding what to keep and what should go, but unfortunately culling is a necessary part of the process. I know of other growers especially the bigger ones who put all of these culls through the “mulcher” and then return the mulch to the garden; they say that making use of the excess seedlings in this way makes the culling less painful
As for your comment about having to praise men to keep them doing things, well I’m not going near this one as I’m hopelessly outnumbered as I haven’t yet seen any comments on this site from men, maybe they are all “lurkers” and don’t want to be involved as this happens on so many of these forums, but being the only “voice in the wilderness”, my lips are sealed!
As for your seafood meal, well it doesn’t tempt me in the slightest, as I’m seriously allergic to lobster, prawns and crabs; I nearly died as a child from a swollen airway due to eating a prawn I was allergic to and didn’t know.
By the way, I’ve never heard of Alaskan King Crabs either so I looked it up on Google (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alaskan_king_crab_fishing) and was surprised at the statistics. One of the most shocking was, “Alaskan crab fishing is very dangerous, and the fatality rate among the fishermen is about 80 times the fatality rate of the average worker”, so I hope you enjoyed your crab, someone risked their life so you could eat it.
All the best, Nev
Neo concentrica x [Charm x Cracker Jack] This was one of my original "culls" growing in the garden - the original seedling was just plain green, but by moving it to the gatrden in a higher light area, this is what one of its pups looked like. Not much in the shape stakes, but unusual colour.
Wendy, so pleased things worked out, but it sounds like you didn't relax at all over the break.
Nev, that is quite pretty with the purple and the spots.
A quiet day here today, but tomorrow will be a busy one. Catching up on housework today.
Karen
the technique is called positive reinforcement...
I use it in training dogs but it works really well on humans too!
If you get rewarded for a behaviour then you are far more likely to repeat it.
And the best thing is that you enjoy the training because it is far more fun to praise someone than criticise :)
I agree with the positive reinforcement. I used my teaching degree to train adults in a large teaching hospital. We taught managers how to be better supervisors and praise was high on our training list.
Nev I love the purple colour of your seedling. I wonder if you could cross it with something to keep the colour but improve the shape. I know that we need to cull some of our concentrica seedlings as they are too squashed in the trolley. The few that we have potted up into bigger pots and placed on stands are looking much better especially the ones in full sun. And a couple of our painted delight seedlings are starting to get the coloured patches like the real painted delight. It is exciting watching them change and mature.
Nev Johnny watches the series called deadliest catch all the time on foxtel. That's how we knew about he alaskan king crabs so when we saw one in the supermarket we had to try them. I agree that it is very dangerous work. Even in a survival suit if they fall overboard they are dead within 2 minutes so no second chances there. But I guess the money they can make will always lure men to take on this deadliest fishing.
By the way Johnny went fishing this afternoon. He usually stays out until about 7 or 8pm after the turn of the tide but he came home about 4pm feeling unwell. He has been in bed for a couple hours now so I will have to keep an eye on him. He has been puffing on his nitro a bit lately. I think a trip to the doc is called for. Oh and we'll be having fresh fish and oysters for tea tomorrow night.
It is that time of night again when my bed is calling. Night all. I'll leave you all with a pic of our vrisea dad's favourite (aka John's favourite).
Wendy
Hi everyone-
Karen - That particular plant has now been crossed with four dark coloured Neo's which although the colour is not as dark, the shape is much better. The result I'm hoping for are plants with the good shape and darker colours; on the other hand as with all hybridizing, I will probably get more with poorer shape and weaker colours.
Wendy - I see where you and dalfyre are coming from about "positive re-enforcement". When I did my Teaching Techniques Course the instructor told us we should always treat the pupils as "little puppies" give them a "pat" when they did something well. If they did it wrong, don't scold them! Just demonstrate again what you wanted and you would always get the best from them; it works! It really does.
Tell Johnny to take it a bit easy for a couple of days and get out and play with his vrieseas and as soon as he feels better he needs to go fishing again to make up for having to stop early the last time. He should be on "Light Duties"; (for those who don't know, this was a well know term in the steelworks down here when they employed 23000 people and the joke was, that whenever someone asked how many work at the steelworks, the answer was "about half; all the rest are on Light Duties")
All the best, Nev
Another cull rom the garden - Neo. concentrica x [Charm x Cracker Jack]. Better shape than the previous one and when given high light, the whole plant turns a rich red/burgundy colour.
Good morning all. A bit cloudy, a nice cool breeze, I like it. Hope those southern heat waves are gone now and that they don't come up our way.
Wendy, I am sorry Johnny isn't well again. I do hope all goes well and that it is just something simple.
Neville, that would look great all burgundy. I have a neo. pheasant (a mini) that has gone quite reddish with maturity and doesn't display the markings as well as it did when younger, but the new pup will probably show off for me when it gets big enough. I love this one.
Karen
This is the same plant(s) when I first got them...
Neo Pheasant (mini)
Hi everyone. Lovely pics as usual everyone. Nev You sent me some of those Neo concentrica [ charmX cracker jack] too so I definitely have something to look forward to. Hope everything goes well for you today and you're on the mend very soon. Wendy I do like that Vr Dad's Favourite too. I hope Johnny is feeling better too. We had a feed of Yabbies the other day. Niece got them from a friend for me. They're still running down here, but the water is on the way up again so they will stop for a while until it starts to drop again I presume. The fish are biting too. Catfish have been on the protected list for a few years now and have finally bred up and there have been good reports on lots of small ones being caught and released again. It's great to see the river in good health again. Colleen
My baby Vriesea splendens now. Do i have to fertilize them or anything at this stage? All ive done is make sure there damp and with the peat moss i think ive only misted them once. They have had the lids on mostly. I thought i better give them a little air so they don't rot.
Does the plant i got them off pollenate itself or do bugs from another Brom.?
This message was edited Jan 6, 2012 12:05 AM
Hi everyone. Have been out admiring my pups and Mums. I have some really good colouring going on. I'm so glad that I'm an addict. lol Hi Nev if you're looking in. Hope everything's okay. Sue My "running Red River " is looking great and you can see that it's even grown. I saw one on E-bay for sale, but mine looks nothing like it. Did anyone see the Neo peimento? for sale on there. What a beauty. A pup of it went for $36 + $7 postage. I'm innocent. I didn't bid on it. I was just looking. Colleen
Colleen I only sometimes look on eBay just to see the pretty pics. Unless a price jumps out at me, I generally miss it.
Bree, its lovely to see the tiny seeds germinating. I'm not going in for the seeds due to lack of space and time, but I love seeing them grow.
These are looking good right now and seem to have survived the rough and ready conditions of the last year.
karen
Lovely Vrieseas Karen. I've just been out and taken some pics to show you all. Hope you like them. Colleen
another. Colleen
another recognise this one Nev? Colleen
another Colleen
Colleen I love the family of monkeys in your first pic.
Bree well done on the seedlings. Is this your first tray of seedlings? I couldn't resist the big black seed pods on Nev's recurvata hybrid called "peach parfait" so I harvested some and dried them out for a week or more then put them in coir peat on 12the December. We already have little green plants all over the tray. Boy aechmeas are quick. Almost as quick as the one and only billbergia seeds we put down. We have a quite rare billbergia which after flowering develops a good sized round seed pod. I decided to try to grow them. Apparently I put down 2 dishes of seed. Last week we potted up one tray as the plants were too tall to sit wtih the lid on the dish. We got 48 plants in those little 1 inch square seedling trays. Today when watering I found the 2nd tray just as big so will have to pot them up soon.
I started working through all the pups today. I had the grandson Hayden going round the yard and picking out pots with really big pups. He ended up with so many onthe ute I couldn't work properly so I had to tell him to stop. He then tried to cut pups off for me so I had to tell him to go upstairs to check on Pa for me. He got sidetracked on the computer. I managed to get a few potted and a lot removed and labelled waiting to be potted. That's a start. I like to just potter without Johnny around. Unfortunately his foot is up like a balloon today and very painful to walk on so he had a lazy day watching the cricket.
I posted a heap of pics of vriseas on fb the other night. Yesterday morning we went round taking new pics of all of them again showing how much they have grown and coloured up. I will download now and hopefully get them up on fb too.
Anyhow Jen is picking me up at 7am tomorrow to go to Olive branch sale so I better get some sleep. Ghost is almost finished so better log off and shutdown. Night all.
Pic is tillandsia capitata maron. It started out a completely red plant which then turned yellow in the middle before the yellow bit started rising up out of the middle until it was a capitata flower spike. It is yet to open any little flowers. But I love it so felt the need to share it with you all.
Wendy
Hi everyone,
Karen – I like you little mini Neo Pheasant. It’s a very popular mini and although I can’t speak from experience, I have heard it likes a lot of sun to bring out its magnificent colours. Judging from the colour of the plants when you first got them, it seems to me you have the correct lighting sorted out anyway.
Bree – Your little seedlings are looking good. It will be interesting to see if they finish up with the banding of their parent or whether they turn out be something completely different.
Colleen – Those Neo concentrica x [Charm x Cracker Jack] pups I sent you were from un-flowered plants that had been growing in a shady area so you won’t really see them at their best until you grow on any pups from them, but there are some nice colours and reasonable shaped plants coming from that cross.
You have a nice lot of plants in the pic’s you’ve posted and the second last one you asked if I recognised, looks like one of the seedling pups mentioned above. Also is that last pic Nidularium Ruby Lee? If so, it will take more light than you are giving it and when grown in strong light it will be much darker in colour.
Wendy – Pleased to hear the recurvata seed has germinated for you and it will be interesting to see if the babies are as nice as the mother. You speak of your “one and only” billbergia seedlings and from what you describe the mother plant was possibly one of the helicoid (watch spring) types of Billbergias. What is the name?
I have a couple of different ones and Bill. rosea is one that self sets seed quite readily and the seed pods are a quite large being bit bigger than a marble with bumps all over the surface and are light green in colour and covered by a silvery/white scurf. I have sown some of these and find they “grow as quick as grass” so when planting don’t plant them too close as you’ll finish up with what looks like a container of sprouted seed of the type you eat.
Even though I don’t grow many of them Tillies always fascinate me as there are so many different types and they are always full of surprises and colour changes just like your Til. capitata.
I hope you and Jen have a great day at “The Olive Grove” today and remember, don’t spend all the housekeeping money!
All the best, Nev.
Billbergia rosea – Notice the tightly rolled petals resembling a “watch spring” and the reason for the name helicoids being given to this group of Bill’s ........
........ the flowers are more obvious in this close-up shot. Also notice the immature seed capsules which are the silvery/grey colour I described above and of of a bumpy appearance (located immediately behind the petals) .
Good morning. Lovely to see all the pics and read all the news. Wendy, I hope Johnny's foot is better soon. Is one of his medications causing it? Apparently one of mine is causing my feet to swell and be quite sore to walk on. Hope to get to the sale later today, depends on Barry. Wish I still had wheels.
This is one of the very first plants I got as a pup from Wendy's either September or October 2010. So this is exciting to see this happening for the very first time......
Ae. Fasciata...........
Karen
Wendy, the name of that vriesea has worn off due to weather exposure, but it was something like Vr. Fosteriana Red Chestnut. Do you remember the correct name? Ta tanks.
Karen
Karen, Johnny said your vrisea is definately a red chestnut.
Nev, that seond picture showing the close up of the flower and the round 'marble' of seed definately looks similar to the berry we collected but it wasn't rosea. I can't believe we never took photos of it and now we don't even have a pup from it..... just the seedlings. Hopefully it will be a species and we will get a lot of them to share with friends LOL
We had a lovely morning at Olive's today. She was selling plants with pups so we did get some good bargains. When we brought them all home we performed surgery on several and shared pups with each other so we actually got more than we bought. Will post pics soon. have to upload them first.
Wendy
Hi everyone,
Karen - Ae fasciata is also the very first bromeliad I got many years ago when I was growing orchids. It is the plant in fact which helped make up my mind to start growing bromeliads as a hobby. When I went from growing orchids to breeding foreign finches in 1975, things we going pretty well until 1980 when different patterns of shift work intervened. I found on some occasions due to working double shifts I didn’t have sufficient time to “go bush” collecting termites for “live food” for the baby finches, and if I missed out feeding live food for just one day, the parents left the nest and the young subsequently died.
It was due to these circumstances I decided to change my hobby to growing ferns, and consequently I decided to renovate a section of the old original orchid shade house which had fallen into disrepair. During the renovation I spied something “pink “in a far corner. It was the original Ae fasciata I had started with when I grew orchids; neglected and forgotten for many years and still growing without any care since I had stopped growing orchids some years earlier. I decided at that point, that if these plants could survive all this time without any special attention the direction my new hobby would take would now be bromeliads and not ferns as first intended, and I have been growing brom’s ever since.
After a bit of research into Ae. Fasciata, I find that it was one of the first bromeliads to ever be introduced into European culture in the 1800’s. It is produced and grown in millions in Europe and is still one of the biggest sellers and is is marketed as the “Silver Vase Plant”. It is used as a substitute for cut flowers and used in homes only when in flower. When the flowers die they are usually just disposed of, until the following year when another one is purchased to provide flowers for the home once more. It is still my favourite brom after all these years because it is so versatile; I have them growing in pots, in the garden, on rocks and in a tree. All I can say is they’re probably the best choice of a plant for any “beginner”.
Wendy – I have another couple of Billbergia species which have seed pods similar to the one you speak of. One is Bill. brasiliensis and the other is Bill. macrocalynx. They are still around in collections and fairly easy to obtain, but they do grow quite large. I have a Bill. macrocalynx which is over three feet in height and as you can imagine, the pot was forever tipping over, so it’s now planted in the garden where it seems to be growing even taller!
I’m please you all had a good day at the “Olive Branch” and I look forward to seeing the pic’s of your purchases.
That’s about it for this morning and I’ll finish with a pic of my Ae fasciata growing in a Peppercorn Tree.
All the best, Nev.
Nev, I've never seen those growing in a tree. Live and learn, hey?
Wendy, I am so pleased you did well at Olives and look forward to seeing your ''haul".
Mine was small, just 3 new plants.
This one is an un-named bill.
Karen
Sorry, I put the wrong size photo in and it is huge! Pity we can't delete them and repost.
This one is neo. Little Ol'
That' better. Here is the last but not least from Olive Branch........
Neo. Apricot Nectar..........the pic is a little more pinkish in colour than it should be.
Good morning everyone,
Karen - I have no problem with your large photo as after previously using Photo Bucket to post pic's on the Garden Forums, mine were always large like that, and it was very good, as it showed more detail. I don't adjust the size of any of my pic's when I post them here and they all seem to come up a similar size so I'm a bit puzzled as to how you managed it (but then I'm always puzzled about all things to do with computers so what's new?)
Apricot Nectar is a beautifully coloured Neo which I find changes from green to a pale apricot tinge and progresses right through to a full apricot colour (after which it is named) to a more pinkish colour like yours as it matures. It's a good grower and pupper and I'm sure you'll be very pleased with it.
Just for comparison, I'll finish with a pic of one of my Apricot Nectar plants which is just starting to colour up and will get progressively more colour until as matures until it eventually is the same colour as yours
Neville, I am so excited at the colour range of Apricot Nectar. Even with the gold, it is so beautiful.
As for the accidental large picture, I simply forgot to resize it. I take my pics straight off my computer where they are each over 4 megabytes. I have a really simple resize tool which comes up when I right click on the photo. I would be hopelessly lost without it.
One I've had for about a year or more is this mini Neo. Alley Cat. Very small but well marked and consistent.
Karen
Hi everyone. It's great to see pics of what I will have when mine get older. Whoo hoo love the yellow, Nev. Have been and ordered the Reo to hang the broms on [in their pots] That will be delivered today and John will set it up when he brings the boys home from his place. In the meantime I have to move everything around so that he can get in there. It's lovely and cool so looks like the job might get done today. It's nice not having to stop and see to the boys so can please myself what I do and when. Colleen
this is my apricot nectar back in November. It is a lovely plant and I am always amazed at the colour changes.
I decided to take pups off all my hula girls today .... 3 of them with pups. One was still newly flowering and I realised once again why I do love this neo. It had a beautiful pink flush in the centre. We are experimenting with this plant and have put 2 into large 8inch pots with a fair bit of fertiliser to encourage growth. They are certainly much larger plants that others we normally plant in smaller pots. So we are going to put them in slightly larger pots from now on.
Not sure if everyone saw all the pics of our vriseas. We spent quite a while the other morning taking updated pics of the foliage vriseas to put up on fb. I didn't realise we had so many different ones but some are looking so nice at the moment.
Karen I also bought a few of those billbergias in the $5 special shed. I also found a potted bill sanderiana with the big dark teeth and another one not potted up in that shed. I just had to grab another one at that price. There was also a tub of pups of 'moon over fort dix' so grabbed one of those too.
It is so hot here in my office even with a fan going at the window trying to get fresh air in here but it is still way too hot to stay in here. Think I might have a shower and go to bed in the airconditioning. We are not getting much fresh air here though at the moment. With the fire on Moreton Island and a breeze coming from the NE we are coping all the smoke. This is not doing Johnny's breathing much good.
Night
wendy
