Bromeliads For May 2014

Welcome to the new Bromeliad thread for May, as we cool down here in Aus heading towards Winter.

Our previous thread was here http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/1355166/#post_9820958

Well how is everyones broms going? We are finally starting to see the end to summer up here and it can't come soon enough. We all know how it seems to work in reverse for us up here, in summer our broms bleach and burn and we additional toppers up all over the place and it looks like some shade cloth camp around the place. Then winter comes and all that cloth come down, and lots of broms get full sun for winter and they just love it. We get the best colour in the coming months and no burn.
This year we took a lot of our cloth down earlier than normal and it was ok for the first few weeks, then we had that cyclone and had a couple of days of grey weather and then the sun came back out with its intensity and burnt quite a few broms that previously for the last month had been perfectly fine in full sun. So I had to spray them all with "Envy" to try and prevent more burn, which did help. I haven't noticed any new burn in the last week which is good, lots of bleaching still going on, but not burn and the bleaching should be pretty much over now too. Might leave that cloth up a bit longer next year to save the hassle.
We have expanded to three brom houses now, our main one which isn't huge anyway, 10m X about 3.5m and then two smaller ones that probably total the same size when combined as the bigger one. But it has made it easier to organise things, the main one is for our best broms, one of the smaller ones is just for seedlings and the other one is a bit of a combination, has old mums that are pupping, pups for sale and also has some of our 'not as special' broms that are still growing up.
We have brought a lot of new broms in, in the last 6 months, most are still quite young so will take a year or two to look great, and I can't wait. We are big into hybridizing now, or trying too, but are very selective what we work with now. There has been so much done already that it's hard to create something new. So often we go for intergeneric stuff now, or variegates.
Of course like any cross, it takes forever to know if it actually worked, and we are not at that stage with most things.
Sorry I haven't been around for a while, things get so hectic around here and once I get the chores done, I am usually out with the broms. Speaking of which.... I have to get to the pollen on a big brom right now, I have to go.
I hope everyone is well,
Cheers Tash
Ok that was lucky, went and did the pollen came back and post still sitting here.... didn't upload for some reason.... try again :) At least it didn't get eaten by cyber space, bonus!

Hi Tash, thanks for starting the new thread for May. I can see that things have been pretty busy for you too up there. I do hope that the people turn up for these plants tomorrow. It will be a great help with the bills that us gardens seem to get. It is so cold down here at the moment that I have had the A/C going most of the day today. Boy, it is certainly going to be cold camping. Nice big campfires will be nice though. Have just about got everything together now, picked up the worms for fishing today so hope we catch a few. Lovely pan=fried Callop with hot buttered toast for Mother's Day brekkie, that's what I've ordered. Have to catch the fish first though. lol. I did get a few that burnt in our 47C heat but overall not too bad. I haven't got anything planted into the ground they are all under 70% beige Shade cloth. I don't bother with seeds, It's too much work for me plus everything else so I would rather just concentrate on the pups. Well everyone else popping in Hi. You'll have to come over here now Teresa. Great to see you again Tash. Hope you come back soon. Colleen

Hi all,

Just a quick post tonight … it’s late, I’m freezing and my warm bed awaits.

Colleen, what a great result from your sale, hope all goes smoothly tomorrow.

Trish, hope you have your internet problems fixed now. Touch wood, ours has been working fairly well lately.

Tash, great to hear from you, thanks for starting the new May thread. You say you sprayed your broms with Envy … what is that. I know I look at your beautiful broms with envy.

Tash, is your first photo Neo Gigas which I think is also known as Great White. Whatever it is, I love it.

Hi to Teresa and anyone else looking in.

Nev … where the bloody hell are ya???

Pic 1 – Neo Captain Moxley
Pic 2 – Neo Spartan Beauty
Pic 3 – Nid Miranda
Pic 4 – Ae Chantinii Dark Form
Pic 5 – Alc Imperialis Silver Plum

Bye for now, Shirley

Hi everyone. Ohh a bit nippy this morning. 8C should be a lovely day though. We're off camping for a few days tomorrow so won't see you til about Monday or Tuesday. Hopefully will have a lot of nice pics of the river and some fish that we've caught. Today is the day to see if the people come for their broms. Oh I do hope so. Will be back tonight to let you all know. Shirley, I see that you have a Silver Plum. Lucky duck. They are really striking aren't they? Well I'll see you all when I get back. Nev get yourself out of that corner and get back in here. Colleen

Good morning everyone,
Colleen, good luck with the sale, it always seems to come in one hand and out the other. I made some good sales just recently but it's gone already! I do have a few broms coming in the mail to me now though, he he he. And some more pots and fertilizer in the shed so it definitely helped. Will be a super expensive month here, youngest's Birthday, Hubby's Birthday, and a trip south for a friends birthday and brom crawl while there :)
I'll be back to saving and hoping for pups to make sales after this month, that's for sure!
I hope it warms up for you all down south, it's not even winter yet, gee whiz.
Hi Shirley, ohhh sorry I didn't realise I didn't name the photos, silly me...it's been a while ;)
The one for the new thread is Neo Purple Star, and then the three in the next post are Neo silvomontana, Vr Super Nova and Canistrum triangulare. It would be silvomontana you were asking about, yes it's a stunning brom, but very big. The leaves look really nasty, with big teeth but I find them a soft tooth if that makes sense, you feel them when you walked past, but they don't scratch, kind of soft, not like Skotak's Tiger or one of them sort.
Envy is a product that isn't cheap, and you use quite a lot of it to make it up, but it's basically a sunscreen for the broms. Prevents dehydration from wind, sun, cold etc. Helps for frost as well. You spray it on as a fine mist and must cover the whole top surface or where the sun will hit, exactly like applying a sunscreen to yourself, what's not covered... if exposed can still burn, it's NOT systemic so you must pain attention while doing it. It's very easy, but you certainly don't watering can it on, you would just waste it and it's not cheap. But very worthwhile, I'll find a link.
http://www.agrobest.com.au/products/Envy-37.html
Have a read through, we find it great.
That Ae chantinii dark form is looking great Shirley, in fact they all look amazing as usual, you grow them all beautifully.
Hello to anyone looking in.
Todays two photos are Neomea Eruption flowering for the first time and an odd flower on our big Aechmea Whyanbeel.

They have been. yipee, plus they're going to come back and take all the cacti that I don't want, probably not for a couple of months though. Some of my cactus are 12' to 15' high so they will have a job and a half. Oh I feel so good. lol Colleen

Hi Everyone!

Nev where are you??? Normally it’s the other way around where Nev is asking “Where is Everyone”. Anyway Nev I hope you are ok and not experiencing internet issues like we have been?

Hi Tash great to hear from you and thanks for starting the May thread – great pic of Neo. ‘Purple Star’. I too adore this time of year and have pulled back all the shade screens off my broms and when I get a chance I will take them off completely and store them in the shed for the winter. I am really looking forward to my broms really coloring up as they normally do this time of year. We are currently building an 8M x 4M Igloo, we have it up but still have some work to do on the supports, the door way to put in and then the shade mesh to go up as well as work out shelving arrangement and hanging area for small pots for mini’s; so if you would not mind Tash please pretty please could you give us your expert advice on building Igloos maybe via D-Mail if you can spare the time and don’t mind; this would be greatly appreciated. The shelving we are looking at getting made is 3 x steps shelving either length side of the Igloo and then I want running benches in the center walkway area because we think there will be enough room for this.

Tash great pics you posted of your broms that always jump out to impress. I too have Canistrum triangulare which I have had for a couple of years now and it has finally produced its first pup which I am thrilled to bits about; so I am hoping now it will probably flower next as it has never flowered for me before and I find it to be a very slow grower; how have you gotten along with your one, it’s markings are fantastic?

Tash we too use “Envy” around the garden, especially with Joe’s precious orchids, I only recently started using it on my broms after the last time they got burnt and they seemed to handle the sun a lot better if I had them uncovered for a wee bit here and there in circumstances when I am quickly giving people a glance when I have unexpected visitors that wanted to look at my broms in the heat of the day. The original reason why we started using “Envy” was for misting Joe’s orchid seedlings after de-flasking, the seedlings really benefited from using the product and I highly recommend it. I too use it sparingly on my broms by use of the mist on my spritz bottle where I mist the entire top of the leaves being careful not to miss anywhere. Previous to using “Envy” I used “Seasole”.

Hi Colleen I hope you have a great time camping and hope you catch a good feed of fish to have a big cook-up on Mother’s Day.

Hi Shirley thanks yes the internet issues are good for now but now our printer has died, normally comes in three’s as they say so we are like waiting for the next thing to go wrong lol.

Shirley I too have been really feeling the cold, especially when I stop and sit for a bit or during the wee hours of the morning when my alarm goes off each morning before sparrow fart where I am finding it hard to get motivated to get up and ready for work because beds so warm and cozy he he.

Shirley what a great bunch of pics you posted on 06/05, that Pic 5 of Alc Imperialis Silver Plum is lovely and imagine how even more stunning it will look when it’s all grown up, it will make such a big statement in the garden.

Hi to Anyone looking in or on the Sick List!

Anyway time to head, more dreaded bookwork to do before bedtime.

No pics till the weekend sorry.

Take Care and Happy Gardening!

Trish

Hi

Where is Everyone!!! Just me talking to myself which is a bit sad, not that I don't mind my own company sometimes he he.

I am really looking forward to the weekend for some quality brom time as next weekend I will be going into work for some of the weekend because we have a shutdown on so works can be done during this time which means we are going to be pretty busy. Hopefully I get to take off and pot up some more pups as they have popped out everywhere, still about 150 to be taken off mums so I have my work cut out for me but I am thrilled about it naturally because you get to pot up fresh looking pups and in turn get to take a closer look at the condition of the mum and give it a bit of a makeover, a good feed and some fresh mix and then it can rest and rejuvenate for a good while.

Anyway might as well get started on some more bookwork (sad face) as not much happening here.

Take care and Happy Gardening!

Pic 1 & 2 - Back garden bed
Pic 3 - Neo. 'Sam Smith'
Pic 4 - Neo. 'Sam Smith' - different plant grown in less light
Pic 5 - More of the back garden

Hi Everyone, hi Trish, lol, I'm here :) LOL
Wow you have heaps of pups to cut off, gee whiz. I like to keep up to mine as that many to do at once would be far too hard for me to find places for them. Most of my extras I sell now, as we just don't have the space to keep them. We are always getting new ones so they need space, so it leave nearly no space for pups.
Actually we don't buy too many anymore, but when we go, gee they are expensive. That's the bad thing with these broms, your taste goes up as you go along. Well mine does anyway. A lot of things we wait until the prices drops, but some I just have to have mainly for hybridizing reasons and they cost me a packet. I love variegates that's my weakness. But we are working towards making our own, we have a nice stock of broms to use now, just have to wait for them to flower and hope they come in at the same time.
Good work with the tunnel house, we have got at doing them now. But the extra two we did are not to the quality of the first one. The first one is braced with uprights so that we could hang a fair bit of weight, but the smaller two aren't. They are more just to cover the broms from the sun. We would of just pulled cloth out with 4 posts, but.... the side of the yard they are on, cops all the afternoon sun, so we would of needed a vertical drape on that side anyway, so doing a couple more tunnels just made sense. They are weaker design but still work well. They all stood up very well to the cyclone. Amazing how they handled it. If you have any questions, feel free to ask :)
Our little canistrum triangular, we have had it a year and I noticed it is just starting to push a tiny pup, node swelling and definitely happening, but no leaves etc yet. The reason for the colour and markings, is how 'hard' we have grown it. I often find that if things are starved of water and nutrients, they have amazing colour. No so good for pup production though, usually makes them super slow and don't give anywhere near the number of pups compared to a nicely fed and watered one. We didn't intentionally not pot it, just left it there and it's been happy, so left it be. I should nail it to a tree!
I didn't think of Envy for deflasking, great idea. Mind you I didn't have Envy when I got my little tissue culture tills.... that all died on me. My fault, just neglected. The days before our irrigation set up. Lost a lot of seedlings back then too. Which reminds me I noticed the seedling in the new brom house were rather dry yesterday after the irrigation went off, must add a couple more sprinklers near them. Might go do that now before it comes on.
I absolutely love your broms and the great colours you have. Isn't funny how we always think everyone elses look far better than our own, lol.
Ok what photo can I add?
Ok Neo Harvey's Jewel and Neo Darkest Hour.
I hope you all have a wonderful weekend and Happy Mother's Day to all the mum's.
Cheers Tash

lovely colour in those two Neos Tash.

Tantalising glimpses of some other nice looking ones in the background too :)

Hi everyone.
haven't been on here for a week at least. I kept thinking must go on and start new thread for May. when I started reading tonight and it got to May 1, then 2 and 5 and still going I thought I'd still have to do it. thank heavens Tash came along. Wonder where Nev has gone now. must have got sick of talking to himself and is paying us back hahahaha.

wow some nice pics posted. Shirley I love your vr raspberry tea. and the neo mango ice is a lovely colour. when you get spares I'd love to do a swap. Johnny is starting to let lots of vriseas go now. they are just popping out everywhere. He sold about 50 of them last weekend for our sale. It's amazing last Thursday and Friday setting up it was so hot. you would never think it was almost winter the weather was so good. Then we got up on Saturday morning and with a click of the fingers winter had arrived. the cold westerly winds gave it a real chill. the wind blew in the front gate and straight through the carport and under the house. no escaping it. It kept a lot of people away and numbers were down especially in the mornings.

Colleen so glad your sale went well and your follow up sale as well. well done. the week before our sale I had been collecting up pots with large pups to come off. We usually do a tub of bare pups to sell. anyway we had a regular customer who gets $100 of bare pups at a time to create new brom gardens on his acreage house block. he has lots of space with trees and filtered sun. so great space for broms. anyway all the pups I had saved up for sale day then went to him. Then on sale day a guy asked if he could get a $100 worth of bare pups for his garden. he is coming in the morning to pick them up. We went down to the mothers area down the back this week and filled 3 foam boxes of pups for him. I know that is a lot for $100 but we need the space and these pups if potted would take more space than we have to put them. we did get carried away picking for him.

Therese I hope you find a great job soon and can tell your current boss to shove his job.

Trish your gardens are looking good in those yard pics.

My problems with uploading pics improved for a while but tonight I had HP doing updates again and you wouldn't believe it but I now cannot upload pics again. they come up as just black squares. at least internet explorer doesn't crash with trying to upload. but it does crash often again now. I wonder whether the updates are put through quality control before they are released cause sometimes they just cause a new problem instead of fixing the old one.

I'll try a pic now and se what happens. Nope no pics. it is back to causing internet explorer to crash again. Sorry.
Off to bed now. my feet are freezing.
Wendy

Hi Everyone!

We did our big walk on the beach with our pouches early this morning which was nice and they both decided to go for a bit of a swim much to my surprise as I thought it would have been too cold for them but they really enjoyed it and their tails just did not stop wagging the whole time we were out.

After we got home I headed over to the farmers market to pick-up some fresh produce and caught-up with some of my friends that have stalls there as I heard voices yelling out to me he he; before heading into the supermarket for a wee bit of shopping and then hurried back so I could get some stuff done around the garden.

I spent most of the day removing and potting up pups and got about 50 done which was good as well gave all the mums a good spruce-up and feed as they truly deserved a bit of the royal treatment after all the wonderful pups they have just produced; I could see the mums still had little pups coming up even after taking off 2 to 3 pups off per each mum. I took 5 pups off my Neo. ‘Grace Good Girl’ with still two more pups to come off down the track; which was pleasing as I have quite a few people’s names down for this one. There after I spend about 1hr watering all the lawns and feeding all the broms and pruned back a couple of shrubs; so a great day had and hopefully tomorrow I can do a bit more with my broms and feed all the seedlings.

Hi Tash I made a point of keeping some of my pups on the mums as long as I could to get them to a good size as well as to achieve better color in them. I am preparing to sell off a good majority of them at a few of our local markets so for now just have them sitting on a concrete slab beside our shed getting good light under our mango tree and good warmth and they are growing really well there and coloring up nicely; where I have about 80 there already but room for about another 80 which is good. Hopefully by the time I am ready to do the market I would have sold a few by then through connections I have and after that I just need to decide the best weekend to do the markets as at the moment we have a fair bit on and the timings not right for us just now; but the pressures on because everyone keeps asking me when I will be there next; but I am only a phone call away if they are chasing anything or just want to come over for a look.

Luckily for now we still have lots of room for broms in the back and front garden so for now I am not too worried and once the Igloo is finished then that will free up a huge amount of room in the back garden which will be great – can’t wait for the Igloo to be finished. Tash thanks for the feedback on your Igloos, I will have to D-Mail you pics of what our Igloo looks like so far and see what you think and maybe from there you may have some advice you could give us?

Tash yeah that ‘Envy’ is fantastic for when de-flasking orchids or for using on brom seedlings etc. we are very impressed with the product and it goes a long way if you use it right. Great pics you posted on 08/05 of your Neo. ‘Harvey’s Jewel’ and Neo. ‘Darkest Hour’; one’s that I have not seen or heard of before, they are gorgeous.

Hi Wendy great to hear from you and to hear how well your brom sales are doing as well as all your pups popping up everywhere. I always enjoy seeing them go off to good homes where people thoroughly enjoy growing them. I have sold also to many who have never grown them before and enjoy mentoring them on how to grow them properly and how to cut off their first pup etc. and often have people ring me with questions on the odd occasion that I am always happy to answer and naturally they keep coming back to buy more broms which is great.

Hi Theresa I hope you are well and keeping your chin up; hows everthing going?

Anyway time to head and start thinking what to cook for dinner?

Take Care and Happy Gardening!

Trish

Pic 1 - Neo. 'Lorena Lector'
Pic 2 - Vr. 'White Zombie'
Pic 3 - Vr. 'Graceful Charmer'
Pic 4 & 5 - Broms in back garden

Hi all,

Colleen, I hope your camping trip is going well and you’ve got plenty of fish for breakfast tomorrow morning. Hope it’s not too cold.

Yes, Alc Silver Plum is really nice. I have never had a grass pup from either of my Alc Imperialis, the Rubra or Silver Plum and I’ve been told they don’t produce regular pups so the only way to propagate them is by seed. I do know someone who has had many grass pups from his though.

Has anyone heard from Nev.

Tash, thanks for naming the plants I enquired about, love that neo Silvomontana.

Colleen, great to hear that your customers came back and the sale went through, good on you. Bet that bit of extra money will come in very handy … make sure you treat yourself to something nice with part of it.

Trish, gee 150 pups to remove from your neos, that’s a lot of potting to catch up on. What is the big pink-purple neo in the first photo on the end, please, next to the sprinkler.

Wendy, no problem with doing a swap when I have spares with any of my broms you’d like. I’d love a Vr Montezuma’s gem if ever you get a spare and one of these days I must get Vr Zapita from Jen.

Trish, wish I lived close enough to you to pop over for a look at your broms. Don’t suppose you have an updated list of what you have available for sale.

Your neo Lorena Lector is just beautiful … think I’ll be waiting a while for that one. Love all your pics.

Hi to Teresa, guess it’s getting pretty cool down your way.

Pic 1 – neo Razzberry Ripple
Pic 2 – neo Spanish Sunrise
Pic 3 – neo Predator
Pic 4 – ae Bitter Sweet
Pic 5 – vr Fosteriana hybrid ?

Shirley

lots more nice broms... I do like the Neo Spanish sunrise.

Tash - my pooch would love a run with your pooches...
we did take her to the dog park yesterday & she was run off her feet - a lovely young mix breed kept bowling her over, she just rolled with it & kept running with him.
We also met people with a 7 month old White Swiss Shepherd from the litter I was getting a dog from before things went to custard with my job.
Now I am really cross about missing out as she was a stunning dog & the sweetest nature, exactly what I had been wanting.
The breeder is still keen for me to have one of her dogs so once I have a steady job again we will see what happens.

take care everyone :)

cheers - Teresa

Hi Everyone!

Happy Mother’s Day to all the mums out there!

A good day spent again in the garden today with the removal of many more pups and their mums got to spend the day in the day spa where I gave them some special care and attention ha ha. I have that many little prickles in my hands from the times that I did take my gloves off to do the fiddlier stuff that needs doing when working with broms that now I can really feel them especially now that my hands have dried.

I am glad what I did get done last weekend and this weekend because this weekend coming is going to be a total write off as I have to work one day on the weekend so that’s a bit of a bummer and we have plans on the other day, so no brom time will be anywhere to be seen until the following weekend.

Hi Shirley in answer to your question I have not heard from Nev and have been worried and hope everything is ok? Maybe he is experiencing computer or internet issues like some of us have been these past couple of weeks; anyway hopefully we will hear from Nev soon as I really miss hearing from him on this forum and without trying to offend anyone here I am sure everyone would agree that this forum it’s just not the same without Nev.

Shirley I am slowly but surely catching up on the pup splitting and potting and where I have taken many off I am also leaving many on because I want them to get to a good size and color before I take them off; if the mother can handle it that is as where I can I try not to sacrifice the mother if it’s going to take too much out of her, depending on how many pups she has on her at the one time is when I decide what I am going to do.

Shirley the big Purple Neo. you asked about in Pic 1 of my post 08/05 is Neo. ‘Purple Star’. A couple of months ago I removed its first pup and it is really doing well and looks like it’s going to grow up big and strong like it’s mother as is already showing great color and is growing really well in size already.

Shirley yes wouldn’t it be great if we lived closer so we could visit each other’s brom collections; we would be like kids in a lollie shop aside from we are both great lovers of “Baily’s Irish Cream” ha ha. Lovely brom pics you posted on 10/05; I especially liked Pic 4 of Ae. ‘Bitter Sweet’.

Shirley I currently do not have a list of broms I have for sale but it would not take me long this week to type up a list of what I do have for sale and D-Mail this to you and if you want to see pics and prices we can go from there if you like? I will make a start typing something up tonight and email it through to you sometime during the week hopefully if all goes to plan.

Hi Teresa our pouches had another good run on the beach today and loved it and there were heaps of kids on the beach with Mother’s Day so they got heaps of pats which they really enjoyed.

Anyway time to head as there is dinner to get on with as well as a few other house chores left to the last minute as usual – blah.

Take Care and Happy Gardening!

Trish

Not the best looking pics attached as the light was all wrong and bounced off most of the broms.

Hi everyone. We're home from camping. Had a great time. Will come back in tomorrow and tell you all about it. Colleen

Hi everyone,

Teresa, neo Spanish Sunrise is a very large plant, it’s hard to tell its size from a photo but mine is already really big and still growing so it will end up huge. Hope you get your White Swiss Shepherd … I’m sure you will.

Trish, thanks for offering to type up a list of what you have for sale, that would be great but I know you’re busy so whenever you get the time OK, no rush. Your neo Purple Star looks a lot bigger than mine which is why I didn’t recognise it. Your garden looks so pretty.

Colleen, looking forward to hearing about your camping advertures. It does look cold though … ripper fire in pic 1.

Pic 1 – neo Dim Sim ??? (this is the name on the tag)
Pic 2 – neo Dyn-o-mite
Pic 3 – neo Red Undies
Pic 4 – neo Irazu

Bye for now, Shirley

Good morning everyone. Well the boys are back to school today after a very exciting camping trip. We got there about 3pm Thursday and set up camp. We didn't have a tent but a big "Coleman" which goes over the top of our beds and table area. We had another canvas shelter that went ove the top of the trailer and had tarps around two sides South and West to keep the cold out. I took heaps of bedding and I don't remember when I've had such a cosy comfortable camping trip. There were plenty of fish biting but nothing much were keepers. A Bream and the Catfish have to go back and all the small Callop. Plenty of Carp. The boys didn't really care what they caught as long as they were catching something between their bike riding. It rained on the Friday night, quite heavily and Bianca and I were going to get out on Saturday. Bianca was going back to Adelaide as she had other things to do and I was coming back to make sure the animals were okay and to pick up Ben [the dog] and take him for a couple of days camping now that Bianca was taking their dogs home. BUT there was noway for us to get out with all the clay wet. On the Sunday we decided to give it a go. OH BOY> I haven't driven like that for years. Hang on to the steering wheel for dear life and plant the foot and slip and slide from one side of the track to the other. We had about 2k's of this to get through, a little Hyundai and a smaller car, don't know what Bianca drives, Anyway we made it out and Now I had to get back in after picking up Ben. I got to the start of the clay and decided to leave the car there and John came and got me in his 4wheel drive. Thank heavens for mobile phones. The boys had great fun riding through the clay and spraying it up behind their bikes but they didn't like that they had to wash them all down when we got home. That's life. Mosdt of the camping gear has been put away now but I still have the washing to do. It won't run away I'm sure. The guy who is going to take the cactus came yesterday and wants to start picking them up next Wednesday. Yikes I have to get all the ones that I want to keep out and leave all the ones that are going and he will just take the lot. I'm going to be busy. Well time to get the boys up so must go. Hope everyone is well. Colleen

link to the breeders of the dogs I like

http://pandorakennels.co.nz/our-dogs/rising-stars/

hello everyone. gee Nev's been AWOL for a while hasn't he? hope he is well and it is only a computer problem.

Trish as long as you are typing up a list of plants you have available for Shirley could you also dmail it to me. I'd love to see what you have for sale. you have some stunning plants. I love your garden.

Colleen those boys look like they are having a great time on those bikes.

Shirley that plant of neo red undies looks and sounds interesting. what a name? I love it. and Irazu also looks interesting. and love Spanish sunrise too.

Trish I love that dark plant in the middle of pic 3 in those dark pics you posted.
Hi Teresa. how's the job hunting going. hope all settles down now and your life turns around for you.
Hi Nev. hope you are looking in again. you've been missed. I'm trying to decide if I want to post his first then try to send some pics or take the risk and do both together.
Pic 1 is a xneomea I was given. It is a discolour one with dark one side and green on other of leaves and lovely little purple flowers in the infloresence
Pic 2 is a xguzvrisea patricia. I entered this in the show at last BSQ and got first in that section. it is now starting to open up into multi bract infloresence. I'll keep taking pics till it is fully blooming.
Pic 3 is a great clone of neo ice white river we had out the front.
Pic 4 is 2 neo cheerio. the one on the right is one grown under our shadecloth even in the sunniest spot and on the left is one if full sun. I would never have believed it only I planted the one in the sun and put the label in front of it.
Pic 5 is a neo bob & grace sport.

Wendy

Hi Teresa and Wendy. Not much to report on the Brom front. I will collect another aquarium tomorrow so that I can transfer my Crypts out of the broken one. I have had them in there about 2 years i reckon and they love it. Just peat moss in the bottom and keep it wet. Wendy love the flower on the Xneomea. Must go and get another bag of Rapid Raiser so that I can get some more pups off. I filled a box with lawn clippings the other day and put about 8 pups into it. I saw where someone in Q. got their pups to root in a very short time doing this. I thought that it might be the way to go down here in the winter time. I'll check them tomorrow and see how they're going. Hope they don't rot. See you tomorrow. Colleen

Hi all,

Colleen, so good to hear you had such a cosy comfortable camping trip … it looked freezing. I can’t see myself camping out as my joints would really ache especially in the cold and rain. Did you enjoy your rally driving in the wet clay. Good luck with your cacti sale.

Wendy, I think Nev has deserted us. That neo Ice White River certainly has nice colour. Your other pics are very nice too.

Hi Teresa, Trish and anyone else looking in … Nev, are you still here?

Pics are of a couple of new vrieseas … very nice too, I think.

Bye for now, Shirley

ooohhh lovely Vrieseas Shirley. I haven't driven like that for years and it was a bit of giggle afterwards. I can tell you it was very serious at the time. My son now tells me that he didn't think it was that bad until his 4WD started to slide in places as well. Nice of him to tell me after. lol Have put all the Crypts in the aquarium. They look lovely. A friend of mine brought me around a few of one of his Crypts to put in there too, and he said that he had another couple of aquariums at his place that he doesn't need so will bring them around too. I haven't taken any new brom pics so will find something to put up. Have a great weekend. Colleen

hi everyone - back again for I don't know how long. It seems the problem with the nerves in my feet and lower legs has now progressed to all the fingers on both hands causing continual pins and needles and stinging when I touch something with he finger tips. So far it hasn't affected my thumbs but its very awkward and slow to type with thumbs only. Still having tests to find out the problem which I reckon is my spine, but we'll have to wait and see if they can fix me up.

I'm still reading the posts an enjoying all of the pic's so keep up the good work so this little forum doesn't die.

Pleased you and the boys had a good camping trip Colleen and it brings back a lot of happy memories from my past camping days as well.

Nice pic's everyone, I especially like the Vriesea in Shirley's pic 3, it's a beaut!

All the best, Nev.

that's not good Nev...
hope the tests show something that can be easily fixed.
We do miss your words of wisdom.

we'll have to all make an effort to give you something to read when you check in :)

I have a cunning plan for one of my friends.

She has some lovely indoor plants & thought I would make her a gift of one of my pots of Bil nutans.

Could be the start of something ;)

Hi Theresa - I've been waiting patiently to post this pic just for you.

All the best, Nev.

Hi Everyone!

Sorry worked all weekend and did not get a chance to drop in because I have been super tired and back at it again tomorrow for another big week at work.

Anyway just thought I would drop in to say a quick hello and hopefully I will be back chatting with you all this week.

I briefly glanced over everyone's post and promise to respond to any queries this week.

Nev it's so wonderful to hear from you but sorry to hear you are experiencing such discomfort and I hope that you are back on the mend really soon; just take care of yourself and take things easy as much as you can.

Shirley / Wendy I have nearly finished typing up my Brom Sale list and will D-Mail it out to you this week.

Anyway time to head off as I am going to have an early night tonight to catch-up on some much needed rest. Good-night All!

Take Care and Happy Gardening!

Trish

Hi everyone. Nev so sorry that everything's not going well. I do hope you can get some relief soon.We have really missed you, the rose among the thorns. Have you tried to root brom pups in anything. As I said further up I'm trying the lawn clippings. They have been in there for about two weeks now and look really healthy. Haven't checked for roots yet but as long as they don't rot I'll be happy. A friend of mine bought what he was told was Alcantrea Imperialis silver plum for $40, no name tag. I think he has been duped and I think it might be A. I. rubra, but I hope not. Time will tell. What price would you expect to pay for silver plum anyone? Catch you all tomorrow. Colleen

Hi everyone,

Colleen, that’s a lovely cactus in your pic, great colour.

Nev, great to see you back, we were all getting quite worried. Sorry to hear of your nerve problems, hope it improves soon. Could it be RSI from typing all those lovely long posts that we all miss. I can’t imagine typing with my thumbs though the young ones text with their thumbs. Hope we see you back in top form very soon.

Trish, you spend far too much time working … hope it slows down a bit soon.

Colleen, I purchased my Alc Silver Plum for $25.00 about 2 years back. It was a good size then, it is huge now.

Hi Teresa, Wendy, Jean ... has anyone heard from Jean, hope all is well.

I took some photos of the back garden this arvo, most of the plants in the forefront are succulents, there are lots of broms in the garden above the wall but not too many are visible from the patio. I was a succulent freak before I became addicted to broms and still have quite a few, mostly in pots.

Bye for now, Shirley

Nev - love that pic, dallie puppies are very cute,when my girl Chita had hers I took 6 weeks off work & couldn't believe how easy it was to lose an hour or so just watching them eat, sleep & grow.

Colleen - the monkeys in the jungle look very comfortable in the foliage.

Shirley - I love the way you display your plants, some very nice pots & the contents are pretty nice too :)

Hi Everyone!

Did not get to pop in and chat with you all last night as by the time I got dinner out the road and chores done it was getting a tad bit late for me.

Just thought I would pop in quickly before heading off to work and have a quick read of everyone's posts and check out the nice pics everyone has shared which are all very lovely.

Yeah you are too right Shirley I work way too much and need to find happy balance somehow??? I suppose though working a full-time job plus running a business on the side with my husband makes this a tad bit hard. But good news as we have the weekend all to ourselves this weekend so I plan to get out in the garden as much as I can and check out how my broms are doing.

Anyway I better head off as the clocks a ticking - tick, tick tick lol.

Take Care and Happy Gardening!

Trish

Hi Everyone!

Just playing catch-up and responding to any queries people had that I have not responded to as of yet.

Hi Nev hope you are on the mend real soon.

Hi Shirley / Wendy I will have my brom list to you by the weekend via D-Mail of the broms I have for sale; would have got it too you last week but my week was a total right-off including the weekend.

Wendy the dark brom you asked about in Pic 3 post from 11/05 was Neo. ‘Sam Smith’ grown in different light. Check out my post from 8/5 as I posted pics of ‘Sam Smith’ grown in different light to show everyone; I adore them both all the same; what do you think?

Shirley can I please ask the names of the stunning vrieseas pics you posted on 17/5, they are absolutely gorgeous. Shirley your succulent garden looks lovely.

Wendy great pics you posted on 14/5, I was really fascinated by your Pic 3 of xguzvrisea patricia, not one I have seen before and I think it is really lovely.

Hi Colleen lovely garden shot you posted with the hidden monkey statue I discovered when I was taking a closer look at your pic he he. Enjoyed also looking at all your camping pics and laughed out loud at your 4WD "experience" LOL.

Hi Teresa did you droul over the Dallie Pupies pic Nev posted like I did - too cute; I was blown away by how many pups she had for her size.

Now for some random pics of the back garden where I need to space them out more given they have all grow a tad bit since they were pups:

Take Care and Happy Gardening!

Trish

Hi all,

Thanks Teresa for your lovely compliments on my plant display. My biggest problem is that I just have too many but find it hard to part with them.

Hi Trish, thanks too on behalf of my succulents and broms. The two vrieseas you asked about are from the same grex would you believe. They are from Dillings Jungle Carpet grex. I have a few others as well and they are all so very different, one from the other ... hard to believe they have the same parentage.

I will attach photos of some others.

Hi to everyone else

Bye for now, Shirley

Hi everyone - Just a quick visit to say good day and post a pic. of Billbergia 'Stephen Stone'

All the best, Nev.

Nev - I love the colour of that Bil. 'Stephen Stone'.
Hope you are doing ok :)

Hi everyone,

Theresa - Some time back I told you I'd contact Peter Coyle to see if he knew where you could get a plant of Billbergia nutans variegata in N.Z. I just got an email back this morning to say he hasn't been able to find any.

Today, "Look at the flowers"; Pic.1 Aechmea caudata var. eipperi; Pic.2 Aechmea bromeliifolia albobracteata; Pic.3 Aechmea caudata; Pic.4 Aechmea (recurvata x bromeliifolia); Pic.5 Aechmea 'Red Bands'

All the best, Nev.

hi Nev,
I guess it's not available commercially but i am sure there are some home gardeners with it.
I'll just have to wait until someone advertises Bil nutans variegata on TradeMe.
I have seen it for sale there - just wasn't the right time for me to buy.

Hi Theresa - Still just you and me so here's a couple of pic's of Peter Coyle's plants; Chester Skotak hybrids I believe.

All the best, Nev.

lovely colours on those Nev.
Really like the bold stripes of number 1.

I've had a big weekend - aviation related yesterday, dog training today...
The wind is blowing a gale - no gardening for me even if I had the energy.

Take care of yourself
cheers - Teresa