Bromeliads for Novices and Addicts - September 2014

Hi everyone – Well we ended up having a reasonable show after all as everyone seemed to try that little bit harder and in the end the exhibition tables were full to almost overflowing in some sections. The quality probably wasn’t quite as good as it has been in previous years as most plants showed some evidence of wind damaged when looked at closely, however the general public don’t look that close, and in my experience, all they want is to see variation and colour and we certainly gave them that.

We even had one of our forum members (Brian) pay us a visit also, and it was great to be able to finally put a face to a name. Unfortunately with everything going on I wasn’t able to spend as much time with him as I would have liked, but maybe next year when I’m able to pass off some of my responsibilities to others to give me more time for “gas bagging” about brom’s to fellow brom addicts.

Teresa – As the man on the T.V. advert. said, “but that’s not all folk”; in this case I took a lot of pic’s of the show but as yet I haven’t put them on the computer, but I will start to share them with you all over the next few days.

Trish – You asked a question, “why is it that some of the loveliest of brom’s tend to be slow growers?” - I have often asked myself this same question, and the only reason I can think of is that possibly the gene structure within these plants which makes them superior than others, has somehow also interfered with the gene which controls growth in some way. The difference is very obvious in the particular ‘Blue Cone’ which started this discussion. The nice clone I posted initially is very slow growing I’m told, and yet the clone I have (not as nice) grows almost rampant and will take over if not controlled. I guess it gets back to the old rule that for every “plus” there is a balancing “minus”.

I still haven’t heard back from my friend about the mosquitoes so maybe he still isn’t well enough to face the computer; but I’ll pass on any info. as soon as I get it.

I had another thought about your dogs and the possibility of them eating frogs; why don’t you cook the frogs first and then let them eat them? Thousands of French people do it daily and it doesn’t seem to do them any harm……Just a thought.

I’ll just disregard the first two pic’s you posted, as with my waist line, cheese and chocolate are the last two things I should be thinking about. You had me drooling just with your description of what’s available there.

Where is the Tea Farm, is it owned by Nerada? I remember when we went to Cairns years ago we went on a tour to a tropical fruit farm and then on to a tea farm (Nerada) and I’ve been drinking their tea ever since. I was recently told by a friend that they’ are now a very large concern and I thought that maybe they are spreading their wings a bit and have moved to your area.

I think the plant in your pic.4 is Ae. ‘Shelldancer’. It is a hybrid made by Howard Yamamoto back in the early 1960’s from a crossing of two Aechmea species, Ae. fendleri x Ae. dichlamydea. See: http://registry.bsi.org/?genus=AECHMEA&id=535#535

I saw a few plants of Neo. ‘Rosy Morn’ at our show but none have colour to match yours; we just don’t seem to be able to get that much colour in them here as you can with your Queensland sunshine.

Before I go, I just want to share a web address with you which I stumbled on to a few days ago. It contains several short videos of various bromeliad genera. Although I haven’t had time to look at it myself, it does look like it could be interesting, so one to add to your list of things to do when the weather’s too crook to get out among the brom’s.
See: http://www.youtube.com/channel/UCsfR7qcxz2oZxJs38pJE8Cw

That’s all for today and I’ll finish with a few random pic’s of show plants during the “setting up” period. Pic.1 is Mini Neo. ‘Pepper x 'Royal Flush'‘, Pic.2 is Neo.’Small World’, Pic.3 is Neo. ‘Bea Hanson’ x ‘Rosea Striata’, Pic.4 Neo.’Dunmore Ruby’ and Pic.5 Neo. ‘Jaws’ (Unfortunately not yet coloured up but still nice as an albo-marginated green plant)

All the best, Nev.

nice to hear the show went well.
Love the pictured plants, such shiny leaved, is there a special polish you use to get that sheen ;)

(Sorry couldn't resist a little joke )

Hi everyone,

Hope to be back posting in a day or two. Getting a little better day by day, lots of physio and lots of rest … just not the way I like to spend my days.

Catch up soon, Shirley

Hi all,

Went down to Wollongong on the weekend and had some fun looking at all the competition plants on display at Neville's society show day. Geez there was some nice looking plants there.
Nev and his friends were all very friendly and was a relaxed atmosphere.

Plenty of plants for sale so I bought a couple and took some pics of them while they still have the colour in them.

Going to move a few plants up the back yard. Anybody know whether scrub turkeys like to attack bromeliads? They like to pinch the mulch.

Pic 1 - Neo Oh! No!
Pic 2 - Neo Tigrina
Pic 3 - Neo Birdrock
Pic 4 - Aech Recurvata var Benrathii
Pic 5 - Neo Compacta

Ok cya

Brian

Hi Everyone!

Well I got a little achieved in the garden over the weekend, mainly cutting back all the shrubs in our swimming pool area, cleaning-up any weeds in the paving and sweeping the area clean and I raked up all the gum leaves in the garden which was good exercise. That pretty much was all the energy I could spare other than getting on top of a little housework; the rest of the weekend was spent resting and sleeping as both Joe and I now have colds and both went through about 2 x boxes of tissues over the weekend and our night time sleeps have been pretty rough because of the coughing that wakes us up along with runny nose, itchy throat and sneezing. Anyway hopefully by the end of the week we will be back to our normal selves and fighting fit again.

Hi Nev pleased to hear the show went well and that it was a good turnout, as well as you got to meet Brian from this forum, how great was that and such a wonderful opportunity for the both of you to be able to meet one another and put a face to a name. I often think how nice it would be to meet everyone on this forum and wished we all lived closer so we could all get together every now and talk about broms and visit each others gardens.

Thanks for you feedback on the question I asked “why is it that some of the loveliest of brom’s tend to be slow growers?”; it makes perfect sense the way you explain the reasons why you think this could be the case and at least we still get to admire a beautiful brom whether it be fast or slow growing, they are all just as special to us and worthwhile growing.

HA HA cooked frog legs for the “girls” you reckon, now why did I not think of that - tastes like chicken I suppose ha ha? I could never bring myself to trying them as a child when we lived in France; tried snails once and spat them out into my hand as aside from the butter and parsley taste that I enjoyed sucking out of the cooked shell, I just could not stomach the taste of the actual snail which tasted very horrible to me and still to this day I do not eat them when we go to fancy restaurants etc; I remember how horrified my grandma was that I did not like snails being French and all LOL.

In answer to your question about where is the Tea Farm in my Pic 3 from the other day, it’s actually near Cairns (approx. 90km south west of Cairns) at a place called Malanda and the tea they farm is Nerada Tea and we too drink this tea all the time as it’s lovely and sounds to me like the place you visited years ago when you went on a tour?

Thanks for the identification of my Pic 4 that you think might be Ae. ‘Shelldancer’, I just thought it was such a pretty flower so had to take a pic on our trip, but probably not something I would grow at home as the foliage does not do a whole lot for me and I tend to like the one’s with interesting leaves and colours more so then having to wait for the flower to appear to go WOW, but each to their own I suppose. Maybe though if we lived on a large property these would be nice to grow in groups as am sure a garden would look lovely when they all come into flower with those long lilac and pink stems popping up everywhere.

My Neo. ‘Rosy Morn’ is just starting to really colour up so I will have to post a progress pic when it has fully coloured for everyone to see. I just can’t believe how big and tall these broms get, they are such a fantastic landscape plant.

Hopefully over the weekend I will take a look at the web address you kindly provided of the link that contains several short videos of various bromeliad genera, sounds very interesting indeed and something I will look forward to looking at with a cup of tea in hand.

Luved all the pics you posted during the “setting up” period for the show, all very pretty broms but the one’s that really stood out for me were Neo. ‘Small World’, Neo. ‘Dunmore Ruby’ which is my absolute favourite as it’s colours are very beautiful and I am pleased that you registered this one for all the world to see and Neo. ‘Jaws’ is lovely too.

Hi Shirley pleased to see you popping in and great to hear you are on the mend and getting all the physio and rest you need; you will be back at it amongst your broms before you know it but the important thing is you are getting better.

Take Care & Happy Gardening!

Trish

Sorry no pics today as got to head into work as was supposed to post this last night.

Hi Brian just saw you posted last night so will catch-up with you hopefully this arvo for a chat.

Brian - we had a member who lived in Brisbane & she found the scrub turkeys to be a complete menace to broms in the ground.
They would scratch up the mulch digging out the broms in the process.
I think the only thing she found to work was putting wire mesh down in the garden under the mulch & mesh on top of the plants in pots.
Good luck :)

I wonder what ever happened with Kat - she had the most detestable neighbour who would cut down plants in her garden if he felt they interfered with his view - or if he just didn't like them.


Cheers - Teresa

Thanks Teresa,

Yeh that's an idea I'll put a couple of dodgy plants up there on some mesh and see what they do.

Better go and move some things as there is supposed to be some hail here this arvo.

Brian

Hi everyone – Well it’s all over for another year and now all the cleaning up begins. Plants all over the place and it doesn’t seem like there’s anywhere to put them. I sold about $700 worth and still can’t see where they came from, nor can I find anywhere to put the ones I didn’t sell, anyway I’ll look on it as a challenge, they came out of somewhere so there must be somewhere for them to go back to; all I have to do is find the spots.

Teresa – I know you were just having a bit of a "stir", but you would be surprised how many times I was asked that question on the weekend, especially about the Neo. ‘Dunmore Ruby’ as it has a natural gloss. When you tell people this they just give you that look which says, “You’re a lying so and so”. It is interesting though, I even have three plants out of the same grex that look very similar to each other in size and colour, yet one has a natural gloss and the other two don’t; weird, but that’s nature.

Shirley – Sorry to hear you’re still not better. Was it a new back injury or an aggravation of an old one? They do have a habit of coming back to bite you every so often I’ve found, more so in the cold weather. Anyone (even the experts) who say the cold weather hasn’t anything to do with the return of pain is talking rubbish because I know it does.

Brian – It was good to catch up with you on the weekend, sorry we couldn’t have spent more time chatting but that’s the way it always seems at meetings and shows, there’s always someone wanting you for something.

That’s a nice lot of plants in your pic’s. The first one Neo.’Oh! No!’ has been around for a long time and was registered in the late 1960’s. It was bred by a man called Hummel who very rarely (if ever) gave the names of any of the parents of the plants he bred. It’s still widely grown for its colour which can be like the plant in picture No.1 on the BCR if it’s given adequate light. Interestingly there is another one getting around called Neo.’Hummel’s Oh! No!; it isn’t registered as such, looks the same as Neo. Oh! No! and is probably the same plant.

Neo. ‘tigrina is a species from Brazil which is also widely grown mainly for its fast growing spreading habit.

Neo. ‘Bird Rock’ is another interesting plant and its main feature is the silvery striping which can be viewed better from below. Your next one Neo. compacta is also a popular species and if planted near the base of a tree will eventually climb the tree. I recently posted a picture of one growing near the entrance to Paronella Park in Far North Queensland and it completely encircled the tree which was about 12 feet across and 30-40 feet high. I’ll see if I can find the pic and post it again.

Finally the little Ae. recurvata v. benrathii is one of the plants I would term as “bullet proof” just like most of the other recurvata forms, and will take full sun if acclimatised gradually and you can get some amazing colours into it.

Trish – You probably already know this but I’ll say it anyway. When you have a cold and are continually blowing your runny nose, after a while it gets a bit sore as the tissues dry out the skin around it. There is a tissue now that’s impregnated with Aloe Vera and it’s very gentle on the nose if you have a cold, a word of warning though, don’t try and clean your glasses with them as they get this greasy smearing all over them.

You say that you like Neo.‘Small World’, it’s one of my favourites also and like a lot of these great little midi’s, it was bred by the "Brom Guru" herself, Queensland’s First Lady of bromeliads, Grace Goode.

I too like Neo.‘Dunmore Ruby’; probably something to do with breeding it myself. Anyway it seems the judges liked it also as I won best Neoregelia with it. Neo. ‘Jaws’ is a beautiful brom also, it was just unfortunate I couldn’t get mine coloured up in time for our show.

Teresa – I remembered someone was having trouble with the scrub turkeys now that you mention it, what was his/her name? I remember the discussion and all the suggestions but not the name of the person. I think they said the turkeys were stealing the mulch and heaping it up to make their nesting mound.

That will have to do today and I’ll finish with a couple of pic’s of two different forms of Ae. recurvata var, benrathi (a dark form and a light form) for Brian and then three pic’s of Tillandsias from the show. Pic.3 Till. kautskyi, Pic.4 Till. tectorum and finally Till. cacticola.

All the best, Nev.

It looks like everyone's still in bed so I'll just post a few more show pic's.

The first three plants are all different "Tigers" just for comparison, Pic.1 Neo.'Paper Tiger' (Unreg.), Pic.2 Neo.'Blushing Tiger', Pic.3 'Bountiful Tiger' (Unreg.), The next two are also for comparison and the interest here is in the colour; they are both seedlings from the same seed pod of a crossing of Neo. 'Bea Hanson' x 'Rosea Striata'

All the best, Nev.

Nev - it was Kat having trouble with scrub turkeys - and her neighbour, dubbed "fenceman"
I think she found the turkeys nicer to deal with.


Her garden was above the Brisbane river & looked like a jungle in the best possible way...

HiTeresa - Thanks for the reminder, it seems my old memory is getting worse, I remember bits of the discussion but the name still doesn't ring a bell. Was Kat a regular visitor or did she just visit occasionally?

All the best, Nev.

Looks like everyone's disappeared again; oh well, I'll try again tomorrow.

Now I'm off to the other Brom. Forums where I know there's someone to talk to.

This plant was in our show named as Cryptanthus 'Kame Kameko' but it isn't registered on the BCR. Does anyone know anything about it?

All the best, Nev.

hi Nev...

I'm up & dressed early this morning as we have men coming to cut down some trees but I don't know when they are coming.

2 Trees have borer - one is half dead & the other is going to become hazard s it is on our street boundary.

Ha - they must heard me - have arrived

Hi Teresa - Just you and I again, the forum's getting pretty empty isn't?

Anyway, I hope your trees were cut down without any dramas and now you don't have to worry about them falling.

Looks like no brom discussing again today so I'll just leave you with a picture from our show of Neo.'Kiko'.

All the best, Nev.

Neo. Kiko is nice!

The trees are gone, no drama.
We have a pile of firewood from the silver birch & robinia.

One of the blokes said it would burn well - I know the silver birch does.

We are offering the wood to family, two households still have log burners.
Who ever wants it can come & get it.

Hi guys,

I'm still about ... unable to sit for more than a few minutes to type a reasonable post. Change of medication yesterday, physio this arvo and hopefully some relief soon from this awful pain.

House is looking like a dump site, washing piling up ... two of us laid up with back problems. NOT HAPPY. Back soon.

Shirley


Oh Nev, please hold off sending your parcel for a little longer, thanks.

Hello Nev and Teresa, oops, Shirley too.
I am having a rest from moving plants to the new place.
I think I am just about ready to say, thats it, cant fit any more in the space....lol

the plants I have moved, seem to be loving it. They mostly get the morning sun, but the broms and hippies and brugs are out the back with afternoon sun. They are under the wide eave/ veranda at the moment, but before summer, I will have some shadecloth up as a shelter.

I am sure the broms are showing more color in the short time they have been there. I do have a couple at the front in the morning sun. I had to take my neo Exotica Velvet as it has beautiful color which hardly faded all winter.
I have tried to get a mix of color and spots with a couple of stripes in there too.
I decided that the vrieseas would not like the cold winters so hopefuly they will sell in the garage sale.
Because Coleraine is down in a valley, it gets a lot colder with more frost than here.
Seeing as they have lived all the time in the greenhouse, I just couldnt put them out in the open .

I may still sneak just one or two that will fit at the front where there is a little more shelter from the cold.
I have done something I could never do here as there was no place for them. I have a couple of phalaenopsis orchids which are doing beautifully on the top of the book shelves in the unit. They seem to love the diffused light and regular temps.
I always wanted some but sadly they always died here so I gave up. Now I have 3 in bud.

My broms have pups all over the place and one of the vrieseas has its flower spike about 9"high . It has grown through winter. Little odd darling.

Anyway, back to the moving.
I hope all those that are not well soon reappear on here. I will try to get on more often as I slowly get settled.

pic is my lovely neo Exotica Velvet.
Enjoy your day.
Jean.

Hi all,

It's been a busy week at work and after all the rain we've had the weeds are starting to take over at home. The days have been sensational and getting longer. Soon we will be able to do a bit in the garden of an afternoon.

Strange thing happened a couple of days ago, young bloke that works with us (also nephew) was out riding his skateboard in Sydney and crashed, breaking him arm badly. The strange thing is that not one person stopped to help him and he had to walk home with his obviously snapped arm (it is about 45deg the wrong way). Seems like a pretty sad reflection on the way people go about their days in Sydney.

Anyway enough of the whingeing, Jean your neo IS lovely and what a name!

Nev, that large Till tectorum that was at your show was a beauty, almost alien like.

A couple of pics to finish if someone could tell me what they think they are so I can start labelling them.

Hope everybody gets better if unwell.

Have a good weekend.

Brian

Jean - the orchids sound like a bit of a consolation for having to give up so many broms.

Brian - no idea on names but I love the last two plants...

I'm saddened that not one person stopped to ask if the young bloke was ok.
It's not like they had to pick him up, they could have offered to phone an ambulance or his home to get him help & then gone on their way.
Or perhaps in the age of the ubiquitous cell phone they assumed he had one & didn't need help.

Hi everyone – Sorry to hear you and hubby are still battling back problems Shirley, I know exactly where you’re coming from and it’s so frustrating and debilitating not being able to do the things you know need doing, even the little things; Hopefully the change of medication will do the trick and we see you both back in business again soon.

Hi also to anyone else on the sick list, we look forward to you getting well and soon revisiting us again.

Teresa – Yes, Neo.’Kiko’ is nice but it looks even nicer when grown in more light than the one in my picture was grown in. A friend of mine hangs his right up just beneath the roof shade cloth so it gets maximum light and it’s almost yellow in colour.

Shirley - I’m glad you told me to hold off sending your pups for a little longer as you saved me a D-mail. I was going to ask if I could send them on Monday, anyway they are ready when you’re up to planting them so just let me know when you want them.

Jean – Good to start hearing from you on a regular basis once again and from what you say, things seem to be coming together for you.

Your new positions for your plants sound good but it’s still probably a case of moving them around a bit until you find out their likes and dislikes in their new home.

You say, “I am sure the brom’s are showing more color in the short time they have been there”, and that sounds about right, as an increase in light will change the colour pretty quick; likewise, a decrease in light will do the reverse just as quickly.

As far as Vrieseas go, true they won’t like frost, but I have found they tolerate extremes of temperature better than Neo’s, so if you could perhaps mix a couple of your favourites in with the Neo’s you might be surprised. Also the small flowering type will grow quite well inside with just a couple of weeks outside occasionally. When they are in flower, I take them inside for the duration of the flowers, and then just put them out in the garden beneath some shrubs or other protection from the cold and/or heat once they have finished flowering.

Like me, you too have discovered that the “Modern Day Phalaenopsis” like growing indoors. Years ago when I grew orchids, Phalaenopsis were very much classed as an orchid for the rich, and required a heated glasshouse to survive in our area. With hybridizing and in-breeding over the years they are now much more tolerant to our temperatures and do well in most homes. Three years ago our daughter bought my wife one for Mother’s Day. After being in flower for many weeks the flowers finally started to drop. Without removing the old flower spike, I moved the plant out to the shade house and before long a secondary flower spike was growing out of the side of the primary spike. (I knew this was possible and that’s why I didn’t remove the old spike).

This happened on three separate occasions; as soon as one lot of flowers finished and after a short rest in the shade house, another spike started to grow from the original one. When the last one finally died, the whole spike stared to yellow so I removed it and put the plant back out in the shade house. Since then we have had three more in different colours, but they have only ever put up one secondary spike. It seems the white ones were the most vigorous and the flowers were larger also. Now after just coming through one of our coldest ever winters, I noticed that the original white one in the shade house (although it has one or two minor cold blemishes on the leaves), is surprisingly, putting up another flower spike, so that’s what I call value for money. By the way, while they are in flower I feed them with Manutec Bloom Booster every two weeks, at half the strength of the manufactures recommendations.

That’s a nice plant of Neo.’Exotica Velvet’ you posted. Did you know it was bred from unknown parents by Andrew Steens who is the author of those three magnificent bromeliad books, “Bromeliads for the Contemporary Garden”, “Bromeliads - The Connoisseur’s Guide” and “Bromeliads for the Contemporary Garden” (Fully Revised Edition).

Brian – It’s a strange thing but I’ve also generally found city people to be far less friendly than country people. I went to the city years ago and I was walking down from the station and this lady was looking in my direction so I just said “good day”; you would have thought I farted in church from the response I got; she glared at me and quickly walked away. From my experience, Sydney is a cold unfriendly place, give me Shellharbour any day.

As for offering assistance to your injured nephew, I’m afraid we’re becoming too “Americanised”, and I think everyone is frightened to help anyone these days in case they do the wrong thing and get sued.

People don’t realize just how much the simple act of just offering a bit of reassurance will do to help anyone who is injured. It helps to allay fear, which in turn will lessen anxiety, but more importantly the reassurance will help to slow down the heart rate which in turn can help if the person is having a heart attack or is bleeding either externally or internally, however even a simple act of kindness like that seems to be forgotten about in this modern day and age.

I worked in the first aid field for over 30 years and my training tells me to always assist anyone who is injured, but now I’m even very cautious, and always first ask if they would like my assistance. I’m afraid it’s now a very different world we live in, things have changed and it’s not the good old days where we all helped each other anymore.

As for identifying your plants, the plant in Pic 1 could be Neo.‘Ice White River’ but we need to see it more coloured up to make sure. See pic’s of fully coloured plants at: http://registry.bsi.org/?genus=NEOREGELIA&id=4975#4975

Plant in Pic.2 could be any of the many purple centered Neo. hybrids.

Pic.3 is Aechmea orlandiana (I think) or even one of its hybrids called Ae.’Bert’. Given good light they get wonderful varied foliage markings which is mainly what they are grown for. They will grow equally well in a pot with coarse open potting mix, or mounted on a tree.

As for the pup in Pic.4, it’s difficult to say, as it’s only a pup and pups will change considerably as they mature. However it does show signs of promise as far as colour goes, and I’d like to see another picture when it’s mature.

That’s it from me today and hopefully, I might have a few pictures to post tomorrow.

All the best, Nev.

Well, well, well - It looks like everyone's deserted me today, so rather than just talk to myself I'll just pass on some information I said I would get for Trish.

Trish - My brom friend (Rob Smythe) finally got back to me about the articles he wrote about mosquitoes and their relationship to bromeliads.and referred me to this article in particular which should answer your questions; more so because I think he lives in the same area of Queensland as you. To read all about it, go to: http://fcbs.org/articles/mosquito.htm

All the best, Nev.

I'm back again - I forgot to post some pic's you may find interesting.

Pic.1 and Pic.2 are of Peter Coyle's new Neoregelia hybrid Neo. 'Break of Day' x 'Blushing Tiger', Pic.3 is another of his new babies, Neo. 'Break of Day' x 'Gold Lotto', Pic.4 is group of some of Pete's new hybrids bred by Chester Skotak and Pic.5 is a pic of Neo. compacta, just to illustrate it's climbing abilities.

All the best, Nev.

Good morning all,

Looks like another great day outside. Feeling a little sore from all the walking and lawn mowing yesterday. All that seems to grow well in the grass up here I are the weeds.

Nev, the picture you have of the Neo Compacta is amazing. Looks like it would climb those trees in no time, and so thick.

Anyhow the dog is crying at the door , better get up and do something.

Brian

Hi all,

Feeling much better today, had a walk around the garden this morning and took some photos, much happier now.

Jean, glad to hear you are getting settled and taking a few of your lovely broms with you. I wonder sometimes which ones I would take if I could only take a few … would be very hard to choose.

Brian, it’s hard to believe that no-one offered to help your nephew when he broke his arm, that’s very sad, hope he is recovering well.

Nev, I reckon by next week I will be back in business so if it suits you, next Monday (29th) would be good for posting, otherwise whenever you are ready after that.

Trish, hope you had a nice weekend and didn’t overdo it with the gardening. Our big Spring garden clean up, cut back, dig out and replant was what wrecked my back. Worst thing is, we didn’t quite finish but it will be staying the way it is for quite a while.

Hi to Teresa and anyone else looking in.

I’ll download the pics I took this morning to my computer and attach some.


Pic 1 – Neo Rosy Morn pup
Pic 2 – Neo Augustus
Pic 3 – Neo Blackout – huge grower
Pic 4 – Neo Majestic
Pic 5 – Sarracenia bloom – something different

horrible weather here...
furious winds in the wee small hours.
Blasts of hail & gusty winds, interspersed with driving rain.
Hopefully it will improve by this afternoon, have family arriving from Sydney.

Told them to bring the merino thermals I sent them.
Going to need them!

Neo Blackout & Neo Magestic are certainly striking broms.

That Sarracenia is pretty.

Take care all
Teresa

Hello everyone..
Just popped in to show a couple of pics of my new place.

Teresa, I hope that awful weather doesnt decide to come here. I need sunshine for my garage sale on Sunday.
It has been lovely so far this week.
I hope all are well or improving ..
My broms. are all looking great and there are pups everywhere.
I have finished taking plants to the new place. I had to stop or I would have taken them all....lol
The ones over there now all seem to like it.
I will probably add a few more as time goes by.
There are always those we simply must have...

pic 1...my broms along the back of the unit..
pic 2.. some of my clivias, hippies, orchids and hydrangeas along the front.
pic 3.. the other part of the front with daphnes, azaleas, cyclamens etc and of course , more broms.
pic 4.. inside in the lounge, my phalaenopsis orchids are loving their space.
pic 5.. outside view.

Jean.

Hi everyone – Here we are again, school holidays and the time of “sleep overs” and “have you got any work for us Poppy”? Well this time I have, I have a nice list of thing that need doing, shade house floors to be raked, weeds to be pulled out, hedge to be trimmed (I do that but they fight over who rakes it up) I can’t wait until they’re teenagers and then I won’t have to do anything. They get their first lesson in re-potting brom’s tomorrow as I think that at 5 and 7 years old they’re old enough to join the “brom club”. Also they’ll get their first lesson in spraying fertiliser on the small seedlings (something I’ve been meaning to do for the last three weeks).

Brian – Fortunately or unfortunately whatever way you look at it, I’ve now got to the stage where I can’t cut the grass any more so I have to pay a young bloke to do it; but it’s good to watch someone do a good job in twenty minutes that would take me half a day to do.

I have another picture of another Neo. compacta that’s twice the size of that one I posted and if I can find it I’ll post it. It’s at the entrance to “Paronella Park” which is inland from Cairns and well worth a visit if you ever get the chance.

Shirley – Good to hear you’ve just about got yourself “mended”; now don’t overdo it and finish up back at square one again.

I’ll try and get those pups in the mail on Monday 29th, however I forgot about the school holidays and my daughter has her three nieces down for a week which I expect will involve us taking them somewhere during that time. So if I don’t get them away on the 29th I’ll make sure of the following Monday.

Your Neo.’Rosy Morn’ is showing nice colour; it’s a good bit ahead of mine which is still green and won’t colour for another month yet.

Neo. ‘Augustus’ is an unusual colour; I haven’t seen it around before and it’s not on the BCR so no idea what it’s parentage is but it does resemble one of my seedlings a bit which is Neo.’Blackout’ x ‘Mister Odean’ (Pic.1).

I don’t have Neo.‘Blackout’ myself and I used pollen which a Queensland friend supplied. I notice it hasn’t been registered either which is surprising as it’s been around in Queensland for quite a while and I always find it strange that people will give a plant a name but don’t follow through and make it official when it’s such an easy process. My old brain is tying itself in a knot trying to work out who the parents could be, but judging by those distinctive concentric rings on the leaves, I’d bet my last dollar that Neo. concentrica was involved, in fact it could even be a selfing.

Neo. ‘Majestic’ is another I’ve never seen before and when I compare yours with the pic on the BCR, they look like totally different plants. I much prefer your pale coloured plant to the largely green one on the BCR. What did you bleach your plant with? Have a look and see what you think at : http://registry.bsi.org/?genus=NEOREGELIA&id=5628#5628

That’s a nice Sarracenia flower as well; they’re fascinating plants and the flower is always a bonus as it looks so regal.

Teresa – With weather like that there’s only one place for you and your canine friend and that’s curled up on the lounge minding the fire.

The weather’s been pretty good here this last week so I suppose your family will think they’ve landed at the South Pole; Brrrrrr!

Jean – That’s a nice cosy looking little dwelling you’ve got yourself there and still a bit more room for some more plants as well.

Judging by the pic’s you seem to have everything sorted our well in the plant department; although Mr. Frog in Pic 2 has a startled look on his face or is it that he’s just spotted the Cane Toad on the window in Pic.3.

I’m sure your brom’s will appreciate the reflected warmth from the brick wall behind them and reward you with some nice growth.

Good luck with your garage sale on Sunday and I hope you sell a lot of plants.

Well that’s it for today and I’ll finish with firstly a picture of Neo.’Blackout’ x ‘Mister Odean’ and then four pic’s of random plants in our recent show.

All the best, Nev.

Looks like DG won't let me load any pic's so I'll try again tomorrow

Hi Everyone!

Apologies for being AWOL but we have been caring for a good friend of ours who has been unwell and in need of some company around them during the hard time they are going through right now so they spent a week with us and just this morning they headed back home so I hope their time with us was a relaxing one for them and it was good to see signs of improvement in them and to have them with us as their friendship and health means a great deal to the both of us.

With things being so busy the most I got up to in the garden was take some fresh pics of some of the broms in the back garden beds really starting to colour up and one evening I stayed up relatively late (while everyone was sound asleep) as I needed some time to unwind and potted up some Neo. seedling’s (about 30) into their own little pots and they are all doing well; but that’s about all there has been time to do given all that has been happening; oh except I forgot that we did take our friend to the orchid show because they like orchids and we thought this would help cheer them up and it did the trick with all that amazing colour around them so although we did not stay for that long it was good that we all went. I did happen to find amongst all the orchids a lovely Tillandsia while we were there that I brought for $10, some sort of Till. NOID with 3 x large plants growing on a cork board that caught my attention in the way the plant spiralled up and out beautifully so I will have to take a pic on the weekend, it looks like it recently flowered a big red flower but hard to tell because the flower has pretty much nearly dried up now but hopefully one of the other plants is still to flower not that I know anything about Till’s at all.

This weekend hopefully I will find some time to do some stuff around the garden as I have many seedlings to re-pot next size up as well as I need to put some shade-cloth back up in some areas of the garden as it’s getting hotter out there and I fear soon they will burn if I am not careful.

This Sundays my 45th B’Day so we are catching up with friends over the weekend to celebrate as well as my friends B’Day is today so I thought it would be nice to get together and celebrate as normally one of us is away or we are both away during our birthdays. Anyway I will try to be good and not over indulge as the last time I celebrated too hard I ended up with a splitting headache that lasted for days and I have already had one these past couple of days that I have just gotten rid of finally so I am a bit shy in self inflicting another one upon me unnecessarily as it takes me far longer to recover now days LOL.

Hi Nev thanks for the advice on the Aloe Vera tissues; I have used these before and swear by them, they are so much gentler on the nose than normal tissues.

Great to hear you won Best Neoregelia with your Neo. ‘Dunmore Ruby’ which is totally understandable as it is a beautiful bromeliad that just Wow’s you with it’s wonderful bright and cheerful colour and I really like the flecks it gets throughout it’s leaves. I also enjoyed looking at all the pics you attached from your recent brom show, all beautifully grown plants well loved by the looks of things and I so look forward each year when your brom show is on because of the pics you share with us and it’s great to hear your feedback on how the event went.

Nev thanks ever so much for obtaining that article from Rob Smythe, we have not caught up with Rob and Gwen in awhile so I will have to get in touch with them and say a big thanks to them for forwarding you the article which I have not had a chance to read yet but will do so as soon as I can.

Nev great pics from Peter Coyle’s new Neoregelia hybrids, they are truly beautiful

Hi Shirley hope you are on the mend and feeling much better as well as your hubby, I can appreciate how frustrating it must be for you not being able to sit for long and the housework to catch-up on but pleased you are taking things easy best you can otherwise it will take longer for you to heal and the housework is always there whether a little or a lot, it just never goes away. Joe and I are feeling much better thanks and taking things easy at the moment with all that has happened this past week but hopefully I get a little time in the garden this weekend because I am really missing it and need a brom fix.

Luved the pics you recently posted, I drooled over Neo.’Augustus’ and Neo. ‘Majestic’, I think I have heard of Neo. ‘Majestic’ before but not Neo. ‘Augustus’, anyway they are both gorgeous looking broms with great shape and fantastic colour; I especially liked the cream colour of ‘Majestic’.

Hi Teresa hope the furious winds improved before your family arrived from Sydney as the way you explained what was happening with the weather sounded horrible and dangerous as well; was Sugar scared, probably not with mum there to protect her.

Hi Jean pleased to hear the move is going well and that your plants love their new home. Pleased to hear also that you took your Neo. ‘Exotica Velvet’ with you (lovely pic you attached). It’s a brom that took me forever to track down and one that I cherish in my collection because of its amazing colour and shape. I really like the pics of your new place and how lovely you have set out all your plants beautifully displayed and happy in their new home by the looks of things and lots of pups coming on which is fantastic and I am sure you are thrilled to bits.

Vrieseas are pretty tough and mum has had great success growing them in V.I.C, she has them both in her green house and a couple in the garden and they all appear to be doing well.

Great also to hear you have 3 x Phalaenopsis orchids in bud, they will all put on a great show for you and the flowers last such a long time and make for a great showpiece in the house and do not mind at all being inside given the right light and care.

Hi Brian sounds like you have been busy at work and in the garden, great to hear you got some good rain; we have had a little over here but there is too much wind blowing it all away from us but if the wind stops maybe we will get a little over the next couple of days.

That’s horrible what happened to your nephew with no one coming to help; I often think that of society now days, everyone is just caught up in their own little world and can’t be bothered helping people now days and would prefer getting it on video and putting it on the internet than reaching out a hand and helping somebody who is hit by a car, bus for example or being attacked etc like you see on the news sometimes; there are definitely some sick and inconsiderate people out there that’s for sure.

Unable to attach pics for some reason, is anyone else having issues, I will try again tomorrow night hopefully?

Take Care & Happy Gardening!

Trish

Hi everyone - Only a quick visit this morning as my "two helpers" arrive in 15 minutes time and then I'll have to "down tools" and spend some time with them.

I went to take an up to date picture of my Neo.’Blackout’ x ‘Mister Odean’ yesterday and the camera wouldn't turn on. I thought it had died and as I'm not familiar with electronic stuff I never thought it could be the battery as the warning usually comes on when I'm taking pic's. However before I took it to the Camera Doctor I thought I'd charge the battery just to see if that was the problem and guess what? Problem solved, and it's now working again. Somehow the switch must have been bumped and turned on and left on and the battery went flat, so that's a load off my mind.

Trish - I understand just how much time it takes out of your brom work when you have visitors as even when our family is here from Bali for a couple of weeks each year I never seem to get anything done.

Anyway it’s good to hear you found time for a bit of therapy and were able to pot-on some of your seedlings. It’s amazing how much quicker they grow when you continually pot them on as they grow. I go the other way and don’t pot them on when they need it as I have to buy some time to catch up with my other re-potting.

Many happy returns for Sunday, 45th hey? You only have thirty more to got to catch me. Gee how I wish I’d started growing these wonderful plants when I was your age, who knows what I would have in my collection now.

I was quite pleased with my win with ‘Dunmore Ruby’ as it’s so much better when it’s a plant you’ve bred yourself. I’ve shown it twice now; different judges and different opposition and two 1st prizes both times so it seems to have proved itself. I think it must be the colour and the natural shine that gets the judges in.

That article about mozzies was the one Rob wrote for the FCBS and he just told me where it was and I was able to down load it again, and would you believe the day after I down loaded it, I found the other copy I had previously saved.

Anyway, I finally took the picture I wanted to take of the Neo.’Blackout’ x ‘Mister Odean’ (Pic.1) and hopefully D.G. will let me post that and some others from the show to finish off with. Pic.2 is Ae 'Aztec Gold', Pic.3 is Neo. 'Manoa Beauty', Pic.4 Neo.'Jewellery Shop and I can't help finishing off with Jack Koning's latest new Vriesea, Vr. hieroglyphica x 'Simpson Desert'

All the best, Nev.

Hi Everyone!

We had a little bit of rain last night but as quick as it came it was gone as still a lot of wind around at the moment.

Hi Nev sounds like the grandkids are keeping you both amused and busy at the same time, they sound delightful and I am sure you will all have a lovely time together and possibly have already though of things for them to do to keep their growing minds occupied.

Good to hear your camera’s not broken and that it was only a battery issue. The battery on our camera is nearly caput as well as the spare one’s we brought as spares so I tend to just now use my mobile phone plus I find it takes better pics than my expensive digital camera does; mobile phones have definitely come a long way since the ‘brick phone’ LOL as well as I can take video’s on my phone for special occasions which means we also do not use our video camera anymore either now days.

Yes it’s hard to get anything done when we have visitors and the weekends come and go as quickly as they came. I tend to find of late that I am getting frustrated at how quickly the weekends fly by and no matter how hard I try during the week to get everything done housework or business wise it still seems to encroach on our weekends and I end up feeling tired and deflated all the time when instead I should be enjoying and relaxing during the weekend; anyway hopefully we will find a way to get back to some sort of normality in the not too distant future.

The potting of my seedlings that evening I spoke about really did me the world of good as I get great joy out of seeing things grow and the shapes and colours they take on, I know it is something I will never tire of doing aside from the great joy I get out of growing / collecting bromeliads and being surrounded constantly by these amazing plants and the beautiful shapes, markings and all the wonderful colours / contrasts they come in.

Thanks for the B’Day wishes for this Sunday, shame I have to work the next day but I plan to celebrate a little earlier this Saturday and be surrounded by bromeliads on Sunday, that’s my birthday wish for this year that I am sure will be granted, me in the garden playing with my broms will keep me very content all day long until the daylight has gone.

Nev and so you should have been pleased with your win with your Neo. ‘Dunmore Ruby’ it’s a stunning plant. I checked out the seedling you gave me that I have in my Igloo and it’s colouring up very nicely now and I will have to take a pic to show you to see how you think it is travelling. I think I also have another seedling somewhere but have forgotten to check how it is doing since it was recently re-potting but sure it will be growing well as it is now in a slightly larger pot with nice fresh mix.

Thanks Nev in the wee hours of this morning before I headed off to work (while eating breakfast) I sat and read the article that Rob Smythe wrote on ‘Bromeliads and Mosquitoes’ and found his findings/research very interesting indeed because it was very detailed and informative and I found myself looking up to see what a Mesocyclops looked like as well as the Spirogyra form of alga. I plan to have another read of it over the weekend just in case I missed anything, so thanks once again for going to the trouble and the next time we visit Rob I will be able to thank him personally.

Nev those are lovely pics you posted today and WOW how great does your Pic 1 of Neo. ‘Blackout x ‘Mister Odean’ look; I think you may have given me seedlings of this one which I think I recently re-potted so I will have to check and see how they are doing also? WOW also with Pic 5 of Jack Koning’s latest new Vr. Hieroglyphic x ‘Simpson Desert’, I am drooling all over the entire place and need a bib he he; what a great combination of both markings and colour and imagine what it will look like when it is fully grown.

Take Care & Happy Gardening!

Trish

I still have to download all the pics I took so until then I will attach some old ones.

Pic 1 - Neo. 'Prince of Darkness' - I noticed the other day it has produced a couple of nice pups
Pic 2 - Back garden, the very BIG Neo. at the back is 'Rosy Morn'
Pic 3 - Neo. 'Grace'
Pic 4 - Neo. 'Bakers Tiger'
Pic 5 - Neo. 'Morando'

I've been busy catching up with family...
the weather improved with Tuesday being lovely - walked Sugar to the park and she found a friend to play with.
Yesterday we went up to Hanmer Springs to make the most of the nice weather.
Took Sugar for her walk but no other dogs this time. Can't imagine why at 7am.

Hanmer was great - haven't been up there in at least 15 years.
Used to be 3 hot pools & a cold swimming pool.
Now there is a complex of pools at different temperatures, 3 therapy pools for grown ups & a swimming area for children.

I could have spent all my time in the therapy pools...

is it just me or is DG doing something funny with posts?

lots of instead of punctuation

Lovely to see your pics Jean...
your unit looks very tidy inside & out :)

http://hanmersprings.co.nz/

Hi all,

DG has gone feral again ... as Teresa mentioned, all the weird symbols, most annoying.

Jean, your new home looks very cosy. Have you had much interest in the property you are selling, hope all goes really well for you.

Nev, enjoy your grandson’s sleepovers over the school hols. Qld school hols started this week as well. Normally we would have our granddaughters over for a night but one has Ross River fever, poor kid.

No pressure with posting the brom parcel, Nev, any time after next Monday will be fine. As for neo Majestic bleaching, well I’ll have to blame the Qld sun. I think we are going to have a very hot summer this year, in fact, some things with burn marks already.

Trish, happy birthday for Sunday. I’m feeling lots better now thanks and taking things very carefully, I don’t want to wind up like that ever again. We have also had a bit of much need rain here Trish.

Nev, love neo Blackout x Mister Odean, much more colour than my neo Augustus.

Anyway, I’ll have to retype this post rather than cut and paste so I keep it short.

Bye for now, Shirley

No option to load photos tonight.

Hi again, there is no edit function either but this time I can load photos so ....

1 - neo Red Earth
2 - neo Burgundy Moss
3 - neo Old Love Letters
4 - neo Golden Goddess

Bye for now, Shirley

Hi everyone – Well it’s been a frustrating few days for me as I can only read parts of your posts and it’s impossible to understand what they say.

The reason is, there are adverts. popping up on the left side of my screen and obscuring about one quarter of the posts on the left side of the page.

It started on 25th and is still there this morning as are those crazy symbols instead of punctuation marks which we previously had problems with.

I have reported it this yesterday but who knows how long it will take to fix.

I don't think the problem is with my computer as all of the other forums I visit are unaffected.

I think my D-Mail is still working but not sure of that either.

Anyway, I’m going to try to attach and send this in the normal way and see what happens.

All the best, Nev.

Hello all,

Excellent day today, went to the Central Coast Plant Lovers Fair
.
The place was packed with a large variety of plant types and people
.
We spent way too much money on bromeliads, ferns and about 50 succulent cuttings.

I tried to upload some pictures but failed for some reason.

Anyhow I will try again in the morning.

Brian

Hi everyone - Yes I'm still here but getting very "Pi..ed Off" with D.G and the constant problems, it just seems to be one thing after the other and now Brian's having difficulty posting pic's. I'm not very happy having to type around an advert on half of the page and I must say it's very frustrating, what's more I had a message from Shirley and she's having the same problem.

This site has become so bad in fact, that I don't recommend it to my friends anymore and chose to recommend a couple of brom Forums instead. Unfortunately they aren't just for Australians and New Zealanders, but they are a better alternative to DG and as for Face Book, well that largely consists of not needing to write but just pressing the "like" button".

That's it from this "cranky old man" this morning as I can't even attach any pic's either.

I just had a thought; as this is a U.S. site, are we just being edged out? Certainly food for thought.

All the best,Nev.

Hi all,

Had the 12mth old grandson stay overnight, found myself up at 5.00am waiting for him to get up and play.

Great day for outdoors here, supposed to be in the 30's tomorrow

I will try and download some pics of plants bought yesterday. I stupidly bought some without checking labels

1. Wee Willy
2. Aechmea Blush
3. Some sort of Tillandsia
4+5 Don't know.

Brian

Oh, picture order is all over the place

Brian

Hi everyone - It's a bit awkward trying to type a message while dodging adverts.

Brian - 1 Is some sort of Till. - I’ll try and get a friend to ID it for you.

2 Is Vr. fosteriana, possibly 'Red Chestnut'

3 I think is Neo. ‘Wee Willy’

4 I think is one of those succulent types of Brom’s like a Dyckia or Hechtia

5 I don’t know – It’s not an Aechmea as it appears to have thornless leaf edges, could
be one of the smooth leaved Neo’s like Medusa or one of its hybrids, but can’t be sure.
Are they just coloured leaves in the centre or are there flowers like a Nidularium starting?

All the best, Nev.

Hi all,

Nev, I agree that DG is becoming more and more frustrating to use. I applied back in early August to join the Bromeliad Forum which you recommended. I received an email stating that when they accepted me I would receive another email from them … so far, I have heard nothing back from them.

Brian, looking at your pic 5, I think it could be neo Medallion judging by the raised leaves in the centre. It looks very nice too.

Pic 1 – Neo Grace … a favourite
Pic 2 – xCanmea Galaxy
Pic 3 – Vr Bushranger
Pic 4 – unnamed hybrid vriesea … another favourite

Bye for now, Shirley