BROMELIADS FOR NOVICES AND ADDICTS - JULY 2014

Hi everyone. Yep been AWOL again. Just so much going on around here. Great to see you popping in Jean. Teresa I do hope that you're feeling better. It's not good when we're under the weather. I hope you find the job of your dreams soon. As Nev said, It's not good working where you're not happy. I loved my job cleaning at the hospital. All different jobs there, In the kitchen, on the wards, in the offices, the nursing home and the age care facilities as well. It was never boring and I loved it. I potted up all the broms that I had sitting in the lawn cuttings. Some didn't have roots but I wasn't taking any chances of them rotting. Nev I'll blame you for that. lol I will put some more in but I think I might wait for it to warm up a bit so they don't sit for so long in the cuttings. The first lot I did took only about 8 days If I remember correctly but these took 8 weeks and then some didn't root. Everything is still looking good despite the cold. It's overcast outside now so might get a bit of rain. Well, must go. Still things to do. boys are in bed. Take care everyone. Colleen

Hi everyone - It looks like the weather is on the change here; the freezing southerly breezes have stopped and the we now have a warm nor westerly breeze with a lot of dark cloud cover, who knows, maybe a bit of the rain they have promised us for the past two weeks is on the way.

Teresa - I don't know much about Tillandsias or "air plants" as they are commonly called. They probably got this name because they are so very low in care requirements and even I have a few that grow and flower every year and they are just hanging from a rafter on a bit of plastic coated wire, the only care they get is a bit of misting whenever I water the brom's beneath them.

I've seen pictures of them growing naturally on the overhead telephone and power lines in Mexico (See pic's 1 and 2). In fact they are so prolific in some areas they have to be poisoned by the electricity authorities.

Colleen - I didn't mean to put the "frighteners" into you about the pups in the lawn clippings; I was just relating what happened to me and I know that others can grow them this way successfully.

A few years back there was a thread on an international forum where growers from various countries explained different methods of dealing with Neo and Aechmea pups to get them to root more quickly (especially in the colder months).

Below are some of the methods described in that thread:

1. Stand the base of the pup in the neck of a glass milk bottle with an inch of water in the bottom.

2. Plant all pups together so they support each other in a bed of course propagating sand. Alternatively use Peat Moss or Coco Peat .

3. Grow in lawn clippings (as already described)

4. Use a polystyrene broccoli box (with a lid) and after making holes in the lid large enough to take the base of the pups, put three inches of damp Peat Moss or Coco Peat in the bottom, put the lid on and poke the pups into the holes you've made in the lid.

5. Using a polystyrene broccoli box with a lid (as above) only this time put three inches of water in the bottom instead of the peat.

6. Plant pups in fresh Sphagnum Moss in the normal type pots you use.

7. Plant pups in the same mixture as you plant the adult plant in.

8. Plant pups in the old mix taken from the pot in which the mother plant was growing.

9. Plant pups in a mix of 50/50 new potting mix and old mix from the pot of the mother plant.

10. Plant in a mix of 50/50 potting mix and Sphagnum Moss

11. Plant in a mix of 50/50 Perlite and Sphagnum Moss

12. Plant in a mix of 1/3 Potting Mix, 1/3 Sphagnum Moss and 1/3 Perlite

13. Plant in various mixes after first treating the cut end of the pup with Hormone Rooting Gel

14. Plant in various mixes after first treating the cut end of the pup with Hormone Rooting Powder

15. Plant in various mixes after first treating the cut end of the pup with Honey.

The list went on and on and was a much longer than what I've listed above, in all cases it was important to keep some water in the central cup of the pup..

I guess the bottom line is that there are as many different methods of growing pups as they are growers, and everyone claims to have the best method when in fact the best method is the one that works for you.

I tried many of the above methods as a trial and found they were no better than the method I currently use.

I just wrap some fresh Sphagnum Moss around the heel of the pups (That's the area where the new roots will emerge from) and pot them in my usual mix which is 50/50 Brunnings Orchid Potting Mix and Coco Peat chunks.......It works for me.

That's a nice looking plant of Ae. ‘Ensign' you've posted Colleen; I've always loved the contrast between the colours of the plant and the scarlet bracts of the inflorescence I don't know if you know this or not but it was named after Mr. E.W. Ensign of Orlando, Florida. A single variegated plant and three albino plants were first observed in a flat of Aechmea orlandiana seedlings in May, 1960. The albinos died as would be expected and the variegated plant went on to be registered as Ae. 'Ensign' and is the forefather of all of the Ae Ensign plants we know today.

Time to go, but first a couple of pic’s of Tillandsias growing on power and telephone lines in Mexico followed by three more pic’s of these unusual plants. Pic.3 Til. pohliana, Pic.4 Til. gardneri and Pic.5 Til. tenuifoia

All the best, Nev.

interesting to see plants growing on power lines...
can see how that would be a nuisance for the power company.

Hi everyone. Goodness Nev there are certainly lots of different ways to grow the pups. Before the lawn clippings I just put the pups into the normal mix that I use. One third mushroom compost and two thirds pine bark with some rapid raiser fert. They always grew okay in there but when I saw the tip about the lawn clippings from someone I just thought that I would try it. I went to a nursery today to get some seedlings to put out the front for some colour and while there I had a look around. They had some poor broms stuck on the Northern side of an open sided part. They didn't look good. One Ae burgundy was nearly green with three plants in the pot and also burnt leaves, the whole three of them and they wanted $40 for it. I just about dropped the pot when I saw the price. I finished up getting, Foxgloves, salvia, a red Margurita, Stocks, pansies, and larkspurs. I also got a packet of Hollyhocks. Should look good if they grow. I have some different coloured Geraniums to put in as well but I just struck cuttings from my own out the back. Hope everyone is well . I hope we get a bit of rain out of this. We also have a North-Westerly here. Quite balmy out the front but a bit nippy out the back. Nev have you any spare of the second Til from the 28th? Have a great night. Colleen has anyone a name for this please?

Hi guys,

It is very warm here during the day and very, very dry. There have been a couple of storms about but we didn’t get a drop of rain.

Jean, good to hear from you, hope things are not proving too difficult. As for selling your plants on eBay, I wouldn’t be concerned about the postage costs. If you show the size of the plant, buyers will know they are up for high postage, you can just show it as “freight”. Why not try a few on eBay … you have nothing to lose, just the time it takes to list and to package them if they sell. You might be pleasantly surprised and the extra money will help too.

Nev, your mini orb sounds like its working well and the price was right, hey. I don’t think I’d care to use corrugated asbestos sheeting. I have reshuffled the broms in the igloo and moved them closer together and have managed to get everything in. Trouble is, my bromeliaditis is getting worse and I fear I’ll be needing an igloo extension shortly.

Nev, I misnamed the brom in my pic 3 in my last post as Thelma’s Choice when in fact, it is Margaret. I’ll attach a pic of Thelma’s Choice tonight. The one I couldn’t remember is neo Glam. Those are nice tills in your pics.

Teresa, hope you are on the mend now. Good luck with finding that ‘perfect’ job.

Colleen, your brom looks like Ae Pectinata and colouring up nicely too.

Pic 1 – neo Thelma’s Choice
Pic 2 – neo Margaret
Pic 3 – neo Oli Blush
Pic 4 – neo Beau Jangle
Pic 5 – neo Reverence

Bye for now, Shirley

well I am still stuffed up & coughing but feel better than I did...

Neo Thelma's Choice & Neo. Margaret made me think of a girl I knew years ago who would comment that things were "exactly the same but different".

And if you had to describe those Neos verbally it would be hard not to make them sound the same, yet put them side by side & it is immediately visually apparent they are not identical twins :)

Hi everyone - Still no rain here but it's a very mild morning with just the slightest nor-westerly breeze blowing. Unfortunately they've forecast strong westerly winds for a few days, but then the positive side is that they haven't got the weather forecast right for the last two months, so I'm not getting my nickerscin a twist just yet.

Teresa - Those pic's of the Tillandsias on the wires were from an area close to a town where the majority of plants had already been poisoned. As I understand it, the problem is the extra weight on the wires when they are growing profusely in their thousands; unfortunately I can't find a pic.

Colleen - OK, I;m sure you've posted that plant before, but I can't for the life of me get this old brain thinking this morning....Is it Ae. pectinata?, tell us please.

What I wrote yesterday about the different methods of growing pups was really only the tip of the iceberg so to speak, and there were as many different methods as there were growers. However the one thing all the growers had in common was that they all thought their method was the best, Ha! Ha!

For a few years now I've been a member of a few international brom forums with http://forums.gardenweb.com/forums/bromeliad/ and http://www.bromeliadforum.za.net/forum/index.php being the two I visit the most frequently.

I find it very educational to read about all the different methods used in other countries for different aspects of bromeliad culture; in fact some of the ingredients used in their potting mixes are things I've never heard of before.

We should never forget though that when reading these various threads, the information contained within them may not work in our country as we have different climatic conditions and as we know growing methods change even from state to state within our own country.

I have found that's where a lot of newer growers get into trouble, they join a society and take books out of the library and start using the cultural methods outlined in these books, but find they aren't having any success. When we start to look at why, often we find the growing information given was for America, England, Germany, Holland or many other countries where the climatic conditions often are very different to ours, so be careful and interpret the information from these sources to suit your own needs.

Sorry, Colleen; I'm not a Till. grower and the few that I do have are only from bits and pieces brought to me by friends and I have no idea what they are.

Shirley - They don't seem to worry about using the corrugated asbestos on their benches in Thailand and when I once asked on a forum about the dangers of asbestos, I was answered by a grower and hybridiser who is also a doctor; he said there isn't a problem as due to the high humidity and the fact that water is in contact with the asbestos on a daily basis, it's always damp or wet and the dust can't become airborne because of this. Knowing what I know about asbestos, I still don't think I'll be using it either.

They're a fantastic lot of coloured plants you've posted today, the problem is where to start; probably the beginning is the best place. It's easy to see how you got Neo.'Margaret' and Neo. 'Thelma's Choice' mixed up as they look very similar. It's amazing how similar they look and yet Neo.'Thelma's Choice' is a Skotak hybrid created in 2000 and Neo.'Margaret' is from a hybrid created by Mulford Foster way back in 1956. As Teresa says, "if you had to describe those Neo's verbally it would be hard not to make them sound the same".

Neo. 'Oli Blush' as the name implies was bred by Olive Trevor, who with her husband Len are both Queenslanders well known by all for their knowledge of brom's.

I love the colour of Neo 'Beau Jangle', but unfortunately that's where it ends as it isn't listed on the BCR. Do you know anything of its history?

Finally, Neo. 'Reverence', another beautiful plant from the stable of another great Queensland hybridiser, Grace Goode OAM. Bred from Neo. Tangerine (Now called Groves's Tangerine) crossed with another of her beautiful hybrids Neo.'One and Only'.

Looks like I've run out of time this morning, so sorry; but there's no pic's today.

All the best, Nev.

Hi everyone just a quick msg to let you know I am a way at the moment due to family matters but will be home by weekend. I miss joe and the girls terribly who are manning the fort. Hopefully I get to play catch up with you all on the weekend. Take care and happy gardening. Trish :)

Hi everyone. Have been busy planting all the seedlings today. I hope that there's no frost in the morning else they may be in trouble. I should have put some hay around them but never thought about it til tonight when I went outside and the sky was full of stars. It's been overcast on and off all day so I thought that they would be okay. Nev I don't know the name of the brom I posted. I have two that look very similar but the one I posted is about 3 times bigger than the other one. The other has a name on it, Something lininerii???? will get the name tomorrow, I can't think of it now. Trish I do hope that everything is okay with you and your family. Teresa there seems to be quite a few people with the same bug as you. It all seems to start with the sinuses and then they get the cough. When I rang my son tonight he sounded terrible. He had two days off work but went back today and said that he doesn't really feel any better. You never stop worrying about the kids do you? Shirley another lovely line-up of pics from you. The second one is a real eyecatcher. It doesn't take very long for us to fill any new space that we create does it? Bromeliaditis a good disease to have I think. lol Must go have a great night. Colleen

Hi everyone - A busy day lined up today; first I have a couple of appointments, then to the museum for a while and then I have to sort out a brom order for a friend interstate....after that the time left is free time.

Trish - I had wondered why we hadn't heard from you. I hope everythings all right and I look forward to your next post.

Colleen - That name is Edmundoa lindenii see Pic's 1 and 2 of my Edmundoa lindenii rosea; I don't think that's the plant you posted on 29th though as the Edmundoa doesn't have the coloured leaves.

It looks like an Ae. pectinata just starting to colour. These vary in size from about 12" across right up to one like mine which is a large form and about 4' across (See Pic.3). Of course it might be something completely different; wouldn't be the first time I've got it wrong.

With your little seedlings, just make a light frame of some sort over them and lay news paper over it at night and this will protect them from the frost. By the way, your Bill pyramidalis x 'Windigig Special' pups will also need to be protected from frost as although usually hardy, they are a bit cold tender.

Well, that's about it for today; Pic's 1and 2 Edmundoa lindenii rosea, Pic.3 Ae. pectinata, Pic4 is one of Peter Coyles new hybrids Neo. 'Wild Tiger' x 'Screaming Tiger' and Pic 5 is another of his, and is a most unusual cross of Neo. lilliputiana (probably the tiniest Neo you can get) crossed with Neo. 'Skotak's Tiger' which is one of the biggest.

All the best, Nev.

For some reason this program is leaving those screwy symbols that it was leaving a year or so back and it has only let me post two of the five pic's Pic.1Edmundoa lindenii rosea and Pic2 Neo. lilliputiana x 'Skotak's Tiger'.

Lost all the pic's that time ...bugger. I'll try again.

Time waster....last try

Hi again - I even tried to notify DG via the "contact us" facility but it won't let me send the message. I hope it's DG and not my computer that's the problem.

All the best, Nev.

good luck with it Nev!

Hi everyone. Nev if I'd put old news papers over my seedlings you would have been able to read our Local Paper tonight. The wind has been going all afternoon. It's been a terrible day. I've put some old lawn clippings around them now as it's supposed to be -1C in the morning. Mind you if this wind keeps up it will blow Jack over to see you too. I had a go at using the electric hedger to clean up some pampas grasses this morning. What a stupid, heavy thing it is. I used it for about ten minutes til my back was aching and then swore under my breathe and put it away. I thought that I might have found and easier way to chop them back but it's back to the snips again. I do have a plant that looks like your Edmundoa lindenii so will have to check it out tomorrow and see if somehow the tags got changed. I do seem to remember the name Ae pectinata so it's quite possible. Will let you know tomorrow. I will take care of the Bil. pups as they will be all in the SH. About your pics not posting Nev. I don't think it's the computer. My has been throwing up pop-ups and all through the posts are high-lighted green capitalised words for you to click on. There's a pop-up here right now saying YOU HAVE [1] NEW REWARD Claim a reward when you complete a quick 30 second survey. CLICK HERE. no way sir. I just try to ignore them. Okay time to go. Have a great night. Colleen

Hi everyone - I'll try and see if I can post the other pic's this morning.

All the best, Nev.

Hi everyone - I don't even know if this is being posted as the one I posted yesterday and the day before have vanished.

The last post I'm seeing is mine on July 31st, has someone started a new thread which I'm not aware of?

I guess I'll just have to wait and see what happens before I post any more.

All the best, Nev.

I can see your post from the 1st & from the 2nd so all good there Nev.
It has been a cracker day here - warm & sunny :)
Took the opportunity to spray the roses with Conqueror oil, mow the lawns & finally cut back my hydrangeas.
Sugar had a great run at the dog park too.

Hi Everyone!

Finally home but exhausted so rested today as was sporting a yucky migrane that came on last night. It's great to be home as I missed Joe and the girls terribly and it will be great to get back to some sort of normality after being away.

We sat in the Igloo with our cups of tea today and just chatted and rested in there surounded by broms (naturally) which was nice; even Lucy and Lexi joined us and both fell asleep under the shelving we have put in which looks great. I took pictures on my phone and will download them sometime tomorrow so I can show you all how it looks in there now. I have a bit of shuffling to do in there with mature seedlings to go out and some of my favourite Neo's will come in and share some space with some of my Vrieseas. It looks full in the pictures I took but there is still a fair bit of room for a lot more plants. Tomorrow I will move my tray seedlings in as they have a shelf they can go on and the light will be good in there.

The new herb garden we put in is growing nicely and we are already picking from it which is nice. Each time I go to Bunnings' we come home with a couple of more new herbs like 'Mushroom Plant' and 'Choc Mint' (yummy).

I am looking forward to spending some time in the garden tomorrow to clear this head of mine.

I enjoyed playing catch-up by reading everyones threads here on DG and looking at all the great pics everyone posted. Thanks to those who asked how I was doing; all is fine I just had to go away to be with family that needed me who are going through stressful times at the moment.

Jean lovely to hear from you and pleased to hear you have such lovely friends helping out. I am sure you will create a lovely garden when you move to your new location, not matter where the spot it won't be long before we see you posting pics of some of your cherrished plants that you will want to take with you no matter what.

Anyway I must head off for now as Joe wants to check something on EBay LOL.

Look forward to chating with you all tomorrow.

Take Care & Happy Gardening!

Trish

Hi everyone,

I posted, attached pics ... it's all gone off into cyberspace somewhere ... I'll try again tomorrow.

Shirley

Good morning everyone - Well it looks like the D.G. Gremlin is back again; first me, (unable to load all pic's), then Colleen (with strange "pop ups" appearing) and now Shirley, (with post and pictures vanished).

Shirley would you see if you can contact the D.G. support team and tell them what's happening? I've done it a few times in the past and had very good service. You can get to them via the "Contact Us" facility at the bottom of the page; I would do it myself but I've tried it and D.G. (or should I say the Gremlin) is somehow blocking me from sending the message once it's typed.

We had the A.G.M. of our brom society yesterday, and we all were worrying that we wouldn't be able to fill all of the positions left by retiring members (at one stage it even looked like we may have to "close shop" due to lack of support), but in the end all positions were filled as a lot of the newer members have taken up the challenge. So a great end result with a good mix of long serving members along with new faces elected to the various positions which promises to be a good mix, with the old assisting the new to better understand what their positions entail.

Teresa - I can only see two posts as well but they are for the 31st and the 1st, but given the time difference they are probably the same as the ones you are seeing. The first one is just three pic's and the second one is text only. Anyway hopefully it will all work today.

You sound a lot more cheerful than you did a couple of days ago so I'm pleased that you seem to have shaken off the bug you had and you and Sugar are enjoying the "great outdoors" again.

Trish - Nice to see you back again even if you do have a migraine; stress and worry will do it every time, but hopefully it's now all behind you and things are looking brighter.

I also enjoy siting among my plants at times and just thinking about where it all started and what I have achieved since, and it makes me feel pretty proud that I now have a great hobby that doesn't involve me having to go anywhere and that can be enjoyed within the confines of my own back yard.

Your mention of Bunnings reminds me that I saw they have new mushroom kits now available. Where they previously just had the common ones in the "ready to use" boxes, they now have pieces of wood impregnated with the spore of some of the "special types" such as enoki, shitaki, oyster, and a few others I don't remember. I personally love all types of mushrooms so I might just have to give a couple of these a try.

I'll look forward to hearing from you again tomorrow, that's if Joe isn't still on eBay buying orchids, Ha! Ha!

Shirley - Isn't it a royal pain in the bum when that happens? All's going well and the post is almost complete and "poof"!!! It's gone, just like that. Very, very frustrating; here's hoping it gets fixed quickly.

I don't know whether it's worth a try or not but I'll attach five pic's and attempt to post anyway, just to see if it's working yet.

Pic.1 Ae.'Xavanthe' (Previously called nudicaulis rubra) Pic.2 Neo. concentrica x 'Gee Whiz', Pic.3 Nidularium 'Litmus', Pic.4 Quesnelia 'Avensis' flowers and Pic.5 Ae. nudicaulis albo-marginata.

All the best, Nev.

Hi again - Well I can see my post, even though those crazy symbols are still appearing on the draft before it's posted, but can anyone else see it, that's the question?

All the best, Nev.

I see it Nev :)

think I over did it yesterday, spent the night coughing & not sleeping well.

Today back to winter, cold & wet so I have been on the couch resting & keeping warm.

Hi everyone. Still freezing here with a frost both yesterday and today. Beautiful sunny days though but really cold. My little seedlings are okay. Don't know how many more frosts they will stand though. The boys were so excited when they climbed the pine tree yesterday. They found a bird's nest with 2 little babies in it. I told them to come down otherwise the Mother might get frightened. The guy next door said that they were sitting outside the other day and could hear the boys playing up the tree. He said that they sound high and looked up and saw them. He said to me that they were nearly up the top of this 50ft. Norfolk Island Pine. I said yes, that's their latest exciting thing to do. He just looked dumb-founded that I would let them climb up there. Goodness I used to climb trees when I was the same age and jump off the house roof. Teresa you may have to go to the doctor's to get over the last bit of this bug. I was speaking to my son who has been crook too and he's a lot better now. Nev the pic that you put up of your Ae. pectinata doesn't look like mine. Your's is a lot darker and the pink is real pink where mine is more red. The leaves seem to be thinner and pointy on yours whereas they're wider and more yellowy-green on mine. I was talking to friend over here who said that mine is Ae. pectinata so maybe it's just your pic of the plant that's confusing. I'm glad everything's okay Trish and that you're back home. Shirley, you're not the only one who get's cross with these silly gadgets every now and again. I've cleaned mine up at the moment by restoring it to an earlier date and therefore getting rid of whatever was causing the problem. I see that Tash has just spent all Saturday morning de-bugging her's as well. Maybe you will all have to restore them. Well, tea's over showers are being done and we'll settle down in the warm and the boys are going to watch Sinbad after. Not me I'll have a game of cards or something. Have a great night and keep warm. Colleen I think Ben the dog might be in this pic.Yep there he is.

This message was edited Aug 3, 2014 6:08 PM

Hi Everyone

Feeling much better today after a nice sleep in this morning and when I woke up Joe was walking back in the door with cappuccinos and toasted egg and bacon toasties in hand so we went and sat outside in the back garden and had breakfast together; I even cooked the girls their weekend treat which is an egg each which is also great for a shiny coat.

I then spent the rest of the day playing with my broms in the Igloo and took some pics to show everyone here. I can see that I will spend a lot of time in there because it’s just such a great spot to work, rest and play, especially this time of year when it’s not hot at all and the weather is so beautiful. Joe also enjoys sitting in there and we chat while I buzz around doing stuff. Next weekend I will move some Neo’s in there and as well as all my trays of vrieasea and neo. seedlings; I also have maturing Neo. pups ready to go out into the garden to color them up that were originally in Joe’s nursery.

In the next couple of weeks we are getting someone over to put new shade cloth on Joe’s orchid nursery so he is looking forward to that happening. I also want to do a bit of work in there cutting back shrubs and weeding the paving. I have moved most of my plant out of there now which has really freed up some more space for more shelving and orchids.

Sounds like nearly everyone on this forum have been experiencing issues of different sorts; let’s see how I go trying to attach pics etc.

Hi Shirley I hope you are well, how’s that beautiful Igloo of yours coming along, would luv to see some more pics when you get a spare minute.

Hi Nev great to be back and feeling much better thanks. That’s great to hear all the new members who signed up at the Brom Society; it would have been a crying shame to shut shop so glad things worked out in the end for everybody.

Nev those Mushroom Kits you saw at Bunnings’ sound fantastic so I will keep an eye out for them the next time we are there as we luv mushroom and use them in a lot of our recipes.

Nev HA HA yep Joe has been shopping for orchids on EBay as well as went and did a little surprise brom shopping for me while I was away so when I got home there was a box of beautiful broms waiting for me to open which I was naturally thrilled to bits about.

Nev how lovely is that Nidularium ‘Litmus’ in your Pic 3 with that stunning purple centre.

Hi Teresa hope you feel better real soon, sounds like you have been really run down so rest as much as you can when you can, easier said than done I know but try too whenever you can.

Hi Colleen thanks I am feeling much better now and it’s great to be back home with Joe and the girls. Sounds like the boys are having a fantastic time climbing trees, the bigger the better I totally agree, that’s just what we used to do as kids and it’s something you always remember as an adult that always puts a huge smile on my face because it was so much fun to do. Colleens, Bens cute as well as the boys.

Take Care & Happy Gardening!

Trish

Hi everyone - It's done it again - I just posted a nice long post and five pic's and they're gone; at least I can't see them, can anyone else?

All the worst from Nev.

Hi everyone – It seems like I’m able to post again because if Teresa can see it in Kiwi Land" so should everyone in Australia. I still don’t know what the problem was and I’m still getting the strange symbols on the draft everywhere I put a punctuation mark.

Teresa – Sorry to hear you’re crook still, I think you may have tried to do too much too soon. However, I’m sure that Sugar won’t mind having to keep you company minding the fire.

Colleen – With your little seedlings, you could always bring them inside the house until the cold weather and frosts have passed, it won’t do them any harm.

Gee it’s good to hear your boys are exploring and enjoying nature as opposed to being on the streets and wrecking things like many other kids do. I’ve often wondered if these kids that are responsible for vandalisation ever had the opportunity to explore nature and enjoy it like your boys and other country kids do; and if they did, would they still be wrecking things instead of respecting them?

As for your “dumb-founded” neighbour (who obviously never climbed trees as a kid), is he one of these people who thinks kids should be wrapped in cotton wool and not allowed to do anything in case they hurt themselves? Kids have to be given the chance to do practical things, make mistakes and learn from them, they can’t learn everything from books and computers. If they make a mistake which results in them being hurt, they’ll know not to do it again.

The difference in my Ae pectinata to yours is firstly they are obviously two different clones; secondly mine is growing in a shady area with low light which accounts for the deeper colour and darker leaves.

When I first got this plant I was told, “grow it in full sun”, and I did. The green colour of the foliage bleached to almost yellow and what is pink now was almost bleached white from the sun. In fact I nearly lost the plant and it was so sick I put it where it is now with a good drink of Seasol not expecting it to survive. However it put up a couple of pups one of which was the plant in the picture I posted, and I still have it growing in the same area which isn’t where the “experts” told me to grow it.

That’s a great shot of the boys and their dog, he looks very much like “Murray” one of my sons two dogs we recently minded.

Trish – There’s nothing like a good sleep to re-charge the batteries and gee you must have Joe well trained also; I hope you look after him as well. I was also once told that eggs are good for a dog’s coat and when the bloke next door saw me feeding them a boiled egg each, he said that they are supposed to be raw not cooked.

He had greyhounds and a raw egg a day was all part of his dog's daily diet along with grated carrot, broken up hard dog biscuits and shin beef (among other things). Anyway, respecting his better knowledge of dogs I started giving my dogs a raw egg every few days and sure enough, their coat seemed to glisten. There was a problem though and when our chooks stopped producing eggs (or so we thought) I found that the dogs liked the eggs so much they were getting into the chook run and helping themselves to the eggs, so we had to build a new fence all around the chook yard.

It seems like you’re both enjoying the benefits of the new tunnel house and although it seems like there’s heaps of space in there yet, it won’t be long before it’s full and then (like everyone else) more you’ll be telling us you’ve run out of room…. been there and done that.

They’re nice pic’s of Vrieseas you’ve posted today, but how about some names please. I love the nice wide leaves of the plant in Pic.4 but my favourite has to be the very dark one at the top left of Pic.5… beautiful colour.

Following yoiur comment on Nid.'Litmus', what fascinates me most is how it changes its colour as it matures much more than most other plants do.

Time to go again and today’s pictures are of Nidularium ‘Litmus’ just to show the changing colours in this plant. We start from Pic.1 when it was first colouring and through to the last picture when it was starting to decline.

All the best, Nev.

Hi Everyone!

Windy here today but never the less nice as the weather is lovely at the moment, not too hot, not too cold, just right he he.

Where is everyone??? Looks like just you and me Nev!

Nev I have my Ae. pectinata growing in semi-sun but it has never really gone that really nice hot pink you see in some pics. It now has a nice big pup on it which I need to remove soon, I will have to move it around as see if I can get it to color up like it's supposed to.

Nev thanks the rest over the weekend did me the world of good except I went to bed a little late last night so struggled all day at work today so heading off to bed a little earlier tonight. Yes my hubby Joe really does look after me and we always make it a point to always be there for one another whenever we can and take note of each others mood and how the weeks going for us at work. This week Joe's got a lot happening at work so I will look after him so he can rest up when he gets home as it's easy to burn yourself out if you are not careful and it's nice coming home and resting best you can so you can tackel the next big day ahead.

Nev I too have heard about giving dogs raw eggs for a shinny coat but I find that even the egg whites lightly cooked works well also as the coat on our girls is lovely, especially Lexi's given her darker coat.

Yeah Nev the Igloo will not take long to fill, probably in the next couple of weeks there will be no room left in there and that's when I will start doing the brom shuffle once again ha ha and a lot of them still have a lot of growing to do.

Nev great pics of Nidularium 'Litmus' during it's different stages of colouring, the last pic on the end is how I thought it looked in the beginning of flowering but when compared to the first pic how different do they look - amazing difference in color.

Joe and I are sharing this computer at the moment so I better get off.

I will try to post more pics tomorrow night.

Take Care & Happy Gardening!

Names of Vriesea's from yesterdays pictures:

Pic 2 - Vr. Fosteriana Seideliana Rubra (top of pic) and Vr. Elysian Kandy (bottom of pic) I think?
Pic 3 - Vr. Pink Princess flowering
Pic 5 - Vr. Aussie Beauty Juliana (bottom of pic) and Vr. Dads Favorite (top of pic), the one you liked Nev.

Hi everyone. Boy, was there a frost and a half this morning. minus2C, but a beautiful day. Got the housework and washing all done by 1pm and went and did a bit of shopping then vegged for the next hour til the boys came home. The little one is going on a school camp on Wednesday so will be a bit quieter here til Friday night. Lovely Vrieseas Trish and Nev I would never have expected N 'litmus' to start out like that. What a difference, but I do like the 5th pic the best. I do hope that the boys don't learn the hard way by falling out of that tree. It is really high, but I do have to let them try it out for themselves. The younger one isn't as game as the older one, but his friends are just as game. I wonder whether they've told their parents. lol probably not. I found a braciasaurus of the boys the other day so I put it in the aquarium with my Cryptanthus. He really does look like he belongs there. The Tils in the other one are looking good still. I took the back part of the lid off and only have the light piece still on and it doesn't get all fogged up so am hoping that they don't rot. Time will tell I suppose. I hope everyone is feeling better who's sick and everyone who's had a rough day at work or at home, GET TO BED!!!!! Good night. Colleen

Hi all,

Yep ... lost it again. I noticed when I went to 'preview' that the blurb wasn't in the box below where you could make alterations. I'll try again.

Shirley

and now all the funny symbols, I haven't had that before.

Hi again,

Nope, it doesn't work if I cut and paste ... only if I type directly into DG. Don't feel like retyping it all again so I'll just contact DG and try again tomorrow.

Hope everyone is well. Talk soon, Shirley

Sorry Nev, when I tried to contact DG to advise them of the problems we are experiencing, I got a message saying Database Error and the program closed down. Bummer. Shirley

Try not putting any punctuation marks Shirley. Have reported it to DG. Colleen

Hi everyone. Hope you all get your computers going properly soon. Freezing here. I don't envy the school kids going on their camp but being kids they will be too active to feel too much. I'll pop in in the morning and see if anyone's here. Goodnight. Colleen

-3C this morning but a calm sunny day followed.

Job interview went well, now I just have to wait to hear back.

They were impressed I looked up the company online & knew about their history.
Apparently I was the only interviewee who bothered to do that.

Take care all

Teresa

Hi everyone,

I tried the old cut and paste again as I find it much easier to read DG on one screen and type my reply on the other and ... it disappeared once again ... bugger.

Nev, great pics, I recently acquired a Nid Litmus but no flower as yet.

Trish, your igloo is looking good and I love your vrieseas, though I do think they might look even better in my igloo, LOL.

Colleen, hope it's warming up by now.

Teresa, way too cold in NZ as well. Good luck with the job.

Jean, thinking of you ... hope everything is going to plan.

No option to add photos tonight either.

Bye for now, Shirley

Hi everyone I think its stupid having to type something without any punctuation marks just so I can post a message and pictures

The problem is DGs and they should fix it and I wont be doing any more typing like this until they do

All the best

Nev

Hi Everyone!

Was really windy here today, enough to blow my hardhat right off my head today at work LOL.

Not that I want to jinx myself or anything but I don’t seem to be experiencing any issues with DG???

We went out for dinner last night which was nice hence why I did not post; we always find it hard going out on a week night but sometimes if you don’t you end up missing someone’s birthday or celebrations of some sort so we really had to go but we are glad that we did at least make an appearance and we were home just in time for our usual bedtime.

Hi Colleen brrrr minus 2 at your place but pleased to hear it was a beautiful day; how do your broms travel in the weather?

Colleen pleased to hear you liked my vriesea pics; I checked out all my little vriesea seedlings today to give them a feed and was blown away by how well they are all doing as well as all the trays of neo’s I have growing at the moment; I brought all the trays inside to do what I had to do because it was too dark to work outside by the time I got home from work; Joe laughed when he saw our table loaded up with them but like me was thrilled to see how well they are all doing; now where to put them all when they grow up he he. How are you’re seedling going with the weather?

Hi Teresa, hope your feeling much better and great to hear the interview when so well; good on you for researching the company before you’re interview, it’s important to do such research as it helps you naturally gain a better understanding of what the company is all about but it also is a great way in deciding if the shoe fits so to speak as sometime when I have researched companies on the odd occasion the company profile did not feel like a match or the type of company I would want to work for and it helped me in the long run to short list positions I really wanted to target and thoroughly complete those time consuming selection criteria’s to score myself a good job; I used to say secure job but nothing is secure in the job industry now days, times have changed sadly.

Hi Shirley HA HA, pleased to hear you liked the Igloo and the Vriesea that you want to adopt, I am so pleased with the whole set-up and am already noticing a big difference in health and color compared to where I had them and it’s nice to have them covered and not getting damage from debris, leaves etc.; a good majority used to live in our covered outdoor entertainment area but over the years I could see they were struggling in there so moved a lot outside to keep them alive, now in the igloo I will hopefully get to see them really shine and grow to their full potential.

Hi Nev sorry to see you not posting your usually big juicy thread, I do not blame you for spitting the dummy so to speak as I know how frustrating it can be when it’s not working properly. I will see how I go cutting & pasting from Word into DG but first I think I will add my pics.

Anyway time to head as sharing this laptop with Joe still as now his is playing up – issues with new battery he got.

Take Care & Happy Gardening!

Trish

Below Pic is of Vriesea 'White Zombie' - just a pup still.

Hi everyone. Well another morning with frost and a pea-souper of a fog as well. I do hope Cameren is not too cold on his camping trip by the river. I told him to put more clothes on if he gets cold. Nev have you done a restore on your computer? I can talk you through it if you want. We all really do miss your newsy posts. Trish, all my broms are in the SH, so should be okay. I'm keeping an eye on them though as the frost has been all out the back this time and I haven't seen that for a long time and not so extensive. We are having beautiful sunny days but still spencer, skivvy, jumper and coat weather. I get around looking like a tubby telly. I have the washing going so will have to go out sooner or later to hang it out. It's a bit difficult to hang it up with gloves on though. lol Have a great day everyone. Colleen

Lol - Colleen, I know just what you mean about wearing all those layers.
Strangely it was quite warm this morning so I took Miss Weasel for a walk.
Not as much fun for her as running free in the dog park but with the weather meant to be changing to southerly & heavy rain predicted we might not be able to get there this afternoon.
I actually didn't think we would anyway as hubby dislocated his kneecap at work yesterday.
He managed to knock it back in but he had to come home & rest as standing or walking was too painful.
Today he sent me a text to say his knee is fine & we should go to the dog park when he gets home...
looking at the sky I don't think he will beat the weather so it's a good thing I did go out with Sugar earlier.

in fact in the time it took to type the above paragraph the sky has darkened & the temperature plummeted so I have just turned the pellet fire on.