Hi Ian and Wendy – seems we are getting fewer. If this continues I'll be writing to myself which is just one step up from talking to myself. The next thing I know, the little men in white coats will be coming to take me away for a holiday in a special home. Ha Ha.
Ian – I'm very interested in what you say about seedlings from Bill. Schemperiana seed. I have never seen a Bill with that name nor is it on the BCR or the FCBS species photo index. Could you possibly post a pic of the adult plant with or without a flower? Also a bit of history of where it came from etc. and if you have pic's it wouldn't hurt to send them to the FCBS to have them included on the photo index. The name sounds like it could be a species and the more info about species we have the better.
I too thought your Neo 'Medusa' looked like the Deroose clone. Just recently saw that Bunnings down here were selling heaps of tissue cultured Neo. 'Medusa' plants which although weren't flowering, were almost flowering size. On close inspection I noticed quite a few of them also had twisted leaves and I said to the horticulturist that I thought $22.95 was a bit steep for a plant with deformed leaves, and his answer was, “yes, well that's what sometimes happens with plants mass produced by tissue culture”.
I read somewhere once that in theory, you can produce millions of plants from the one original meristem and all should be identical to the parent plant. However the more you produce, the greater the risk of deformities occurring, and I think that's the problem with some of the plants we're getting now, some of the overseas lab's have just produced and produced all from the original meristem, all for the sake of the mighty dollar where all they had to do was start off a new batch from a new meristem after a few thousand were produced which would maintain a better quality of plant. I suppose we shouldn't forget that these plants are just produced for the most part to be sold in lieu of cut flowers, so possibly the consideration of leaf deformity doesn't come into the equation as long as it doesn't affect leaf colour or flower production.
I like your variegated Ae Blanchetiana, we don't see them down this way, and your Ae. Sphaeroglossa looks right at home in it's novel pot. Ae Caesia also looks good with its dark flowers, but it's Ae Filicaulis that catches my eye as I saw one of these in flower for the first time at our last meeting. It has the most unusual pendulous inflorescence with very fine, thin, fragile looking flowers all the way down the spike which hung down about two and a half times the height of the plant itself. I did notice that the leaves on that plant were a much darker colour than yours and probably as a result of it hanging high in the shade house to get good light. If that's the case, try moving yours to a brighter area higher up to allow for the flowers to hang down and it may prompt it to reward you with some flowers as it certainly appears to be large enough to flower.
Wendy – Yes Magpies are good value aren't they? We started feeding a pair here about five years ago and they would come in each day for their food and then fly back to the nest. When the young started to fly they would bring them in also and they would all line up on the clothes line. As soon as the young were large enough to feed and fend for themselves, the parents would chase them away every time they came into the yard, I suppose they didn't want the young to muck up a “good thing”. These same parents have been coming in twice a day every day and some years times they just have one batch of young but last year they had two, and at one stage we were feeding eight young magpies plus Mum and Dad. I've never been attacked by a magpie, so there's probably some truth in what the “oldies” told us as kids and that was that “magpies will never attack a person who feeds them”.
I don't have any pups of Billbergia 'Rosea' but I do have a spare plant (the one pictured yesterday). It has a couple of small pups coming but they're far too small to take off yet. I could send it to you, but the freight would probably cost you around the $30 mark as it's a pretty big plant at about 30” high. I think I have a seedling or two left from the same batch of seed (second sowing) and they are only about 4”-5” high and you're welcome to one of them but first I have to find them. If you're interested in the larger plant, let me know and I'll weigh it properly and give you a more accurate cost of postage.
The Ae calichroma x blanchetiana seedlings that I kept are also turning out to be dark coloured, although not quite as large as yours. They could turn out to be quite interesting feature plants in a large garden.
I forgot to mention earlier that I was given a lot of Puya Mirabilis seed if anyone wants any. I'm told it's very easy to grow and is one of the more common Puyas and has white flowers. If you would like some, just send me a stamped self addressed envelope and I'll get it in the mail to you.
That's about it for today; and I'll finish with a pic of a plant I was given as a small seedling quite a few years ago and one that I have used as a parent myself. Neo. 'Charm x 'Cracker Jack'
All the best, Nev.
