Bromeliads for Novices and Addicts - September 2014

Hi everyone – Well I’m still wrestling with D.G.; trying to work around the adverts and still unable to post any pictures. I haven’t had an answer to my complaint yet, but maybe they don’t work over the weekend and I’ll hear something this week.

Shirley I had a friend who said he had to wait quite a while before his membership to the Brom Forum was activated. If you like to email me your details, I’ll forward them on to the administrator on your behalf and ask what the holdup is.

It’s funny you should say Brian’s plant looks like Neo.’ Medallion’, I never thought of that; but as soon as I saw your Pic.1 today, I thought that could have been ‘Medallion’ by the way the centre is elevated. It’s certainly different to my Neo.’Grace’ which although it has the same beautiful colouring, the centre remains quite flat and nothing like yours. Maybe it’s due to the different growing conditions; does anyone else grow this plant who would like to compare theirs with Shirley’s?

That’s a great looking variegated xCanmea ‘Galaxy’ you’ve posted. I don’t know much about these ones, but looking at the BCR one could think your plant is incorrectly named, especially when the picture (not a very good quality one) of the registered plant clearly shows the influence of the Ae. Chantinii and the other parent (Canistrum fosterianum) with the horizontal faint banding.

To see your plant with no banding at all and variegations instead, made me start looking for a reason and my first thoughts (with emphasis on “first thoughts”) were that maybe it had initially been a variegated sport which has since been stabilised and registered under a different name.

As soon as I started to read the text everything fell into place, especially as soon as the words “tissue culture” were mentioned, because I have on many occasions seen evidence of many strange things occurring with tissue cultured plants. But when we read into the written text further, the whole story is revealed.

The registrar at the time wrote of this particular grex: “The name ‘Smokey’ or ‘Galaxy’ (both from the same grex) only applies to the non-variegated form whereas variegation is a legitimate sporting and should have cultivar name of its own. Alas this will never happen showing the disdain with which the larger nurseries treat cultivar registration.”

The remainder of the text makes interesting reading, and for anyone interested, go to:
http://registry.bsi.org/?genus=xCANMEA&id=9325#9325

As well as the previous plant, Vrieseas are not my forte either, but I do know what I like and of the two plants you show, the unnamed one in picture 5 wins hands down for me. In my opinion it is far superior to Vr. ‘Bushranger’ in picture 4 and I find it hard to believe it is an unnamed and unregistered plant.

It is possible though that the name has been lost and it now has become another of the first class NOIDS which you often post. The leaf tips clearly point to evidence of Vr. Platynema variegata in the parentage but as for the rest of the history, I guess we’ll never know.

Brian – I sent your Tilly pic to my friend who said he would like a pic with more clarity, perhaps against a plan background as well as a close-up of the inflorescence. He said he felt he could definitely identify it if you sent a picture of a flower if/when you have one.

Also I have a couple of requests regarding your mystery plant which Shirley suspects is Neo.’Medallion’. Firstly can you check whether the edges of the leaves are spineless, and secondly could you take another picture looking horizontally from the side and also one from the side but looking slightly downward at the same angle that Shirley has taken the pic of her Neo.’Grace’. I know I’m a nuisance but every little bit helps when trying to ID a plant and compare it with others which are similar.

Although I still have to juggle things back and forth which allows me to read the text, I still can’t post any pic’s; so once again sorry, no pic’s today.

All the best, Nev.

Thanks Shirley and Nev,

I will take some clearer pics this arvo

Brian

well DG is looking better now...
I have spent 4 days away up in Auckland with hubby at an aviation forum meeting.

We mostly did plane related activities but made a trip to Auckland Zoo which was great exercise as it is very hilly & covers a lot of ground.

I couldn't resist getting some photos when I spotted bromeliads growing on a wall. I noticed a few big broms in the landscaping just down from the alligators.

Hi Everyone!

Thanks for all the B’Day wishes; apologies for not popping in and chatting with you all on the weekend which was very busy but an enjoyable one catching up with friends for my birthday. As hard as I tried I still ended up with a cracker of a headache in the wee hours of Sunday morning and had to wake-up and take some pain killer because it felt like my head was about to rotate 360deg and my eyes felt like they were going to pop right out of my head onto the floor from the thumping pressure so I stayed up for an hour, put the kettle on and meditated on the couch for a bit till the pain subsided somewhat and then crawled back into bed and curled into the foetal position and had a bit of a sleep in; one would think I would get wiser with age but it appears I am doing the total opposite and rebelling (in denial) and like to inflict pain on myself LOL, anyway that will teach me for drinking white wine that never really agrees with me anyway.

On Saturday I went and met a new brom collector that I have been meaning to catch-up with for a while and spent a couple of hours chatting with them and they were kind enough to take me through there beautiful collection. I also came home with some nice new brom babies but they were mainly all mini’s (except for a couple) as I have always wanted to collect a few more of these to hang-up around the place. I have not taken pics yet but when I have I will upload and share with everyone.

I did get to spend a little time in the garden Sunday afternoon and mainly watered all my broms and dead-leafed a few and that was pretty much the day gone as in the morning Joe took me out for a late brunch and then to one of our local markets which was nice. This weekend is a long weekend so we are really looking forward to it coming around.

Hi Shirley great to hear you are feeling much better and taking things easy; also great to hear you finally got some much needed rain, hope it was enough to spruce everything up around the place. Lovely pics you posted over the past couple of days I have missed. Oh Shirley I just enlarged the pic of your unnamed hybrid vriesea, what a beauty that one is, I totally get why it’s one of your favourites as it’s gorgeous.

Hi Nev I appreciate your frustration with DG as I too am experiencing the pop-ups on my screen making it hard to read everyone’s posts so it’s not your computer; thanks for reporting the issue and hopefully DG will sort the problem out quickly as it is a real put off at the moment.

Nev / Shirley my Neo. ‘Grace’ plants look very different centre wise to Shirley’s Pic 1 as mine I think are more flatter in the centre than Shirley’s, I will try to find / attach some pics to compare a few plants I have.

Hi Teresa sounds like you are having a lovely time with your family and good that the weather was nice compared to the recent bad weather you experienced. Sugar also had a great time by the sounds of things making a new friend and socialising. Hammer Springs sounds beautiful with all the different swimming pools at different temperatures etc. sounds very therapeutic indeed and I can see why you did not want to leave.

Teresa those are lovely pics you took at the Auckland Zoo, aside from the broms I really liked the stick fence for growing them against and would like something similar in our garden on a smaller scale.

Hi Brian please to hear you had a fantastic time at the Central Coast Plant Lovers Fair, it sounded great from what you described; also sounds like you had a bit of a good spend up with all the plants you brought and now you get to enjoy finding a nice spot to admire / display them all. On another note did you end up doing anything with that area you wanted to house some of your broms or have you decided to build a bush house in the lovely spot you showed us of your garden?

Brian with regards to trying to identify your lovely recent brom purchases, the Vriesea Pic 2 looks like Vr. ‘Red Chestnut’ to me as I have one in my collection that looks identical only that mine is a more mature plant (I will try to find a pic to attach). I could not work out what your Pic 5 was but it kind of reminds me of Neo. ‘Medallion’ but I thought Medallion goes more orange than your pic so I can’t say for sure and I can’t recall if I have one in my collection (will have to check)? I also thought it might be Neo. ‘Something Special’ (being more dark red) and the way the leaves are forming in the centre, except this one has small thorns on the outer edges where you pic looks like it’s a thornless brom? But possibly the leaves on ‘Something Special’ are more pointed than round if my memory serves me correctly?

Brian sounds like you also had a lovely time with your grandson getting up so early to play with him, hope he did not make you wait too long or your other option would be to go in and wake him up to play with you he he.

Our temp was about 33 here on Saturday so I have one of the garden beds totally protected now with the shade curtain fully drawn over it to avoid any of my broms getting burnt. Back to using our swimming pool again although it's still a tad bit cold in the morning when I get up to do my laps but it's a great way to wake up in the morning as it really wakes you up.

Take Care & Happy Gardening!

Trish

Pic 1 - Vr. 'Red Chestnut' old pic will have to take a better pic to show Brian so he can compare with his Vriesea.
Pic 2 - Aechmea 'Orlandiana' in flower
Pic 3 - Neo. 'Adventuous'
Pic 4 - Neo. 'Koolau Dawn'
Pic 5 - Neo. 'Proud Beauty'

Hi all,

A real Summer's day here today.

Seems that i am able to upload photos from a Windows computer but not from Ipad /Iphone after a recent software update.

Shirley, your Vriesea in picture no.4 is amazing, actually all of them are.

Nev, never a nuisance I appreciate the info. I am the nuisance asking all these questions.
The leaves of the plant in the first 3 pics have smooth edges, shape reminds me of a 'Bird's Nest' fern for some reason.
The Tillandsia looks like it is about to flower I will send another pic when it does.

Teresa, when i get to visit New Zealand sometime the therapy pools has to be on the 'to do ' list, sounds great.

Trish, I put some mesh up and started to put some plants there, as in pic 4. Hopefully there will be enough light there, but I can see the backyard being taken up in a couple of years. Problem is the house faces SE with a couple of large trees and a mountain behind so i probably only get 6-7 hrs sunlight per day. I put a couple of plants up there to see how they go.

Anyhow, hopefully everything loads as it should.

Brian

Hi everyone typing this on my mobile phone so will keep it short and sweet. Hi Brian what a fantastic job you have done with your side garden and look at all that wonderful colour everywhere. I really like the hanging space for your mini's and tills that gives the area a 3d sort of look. Catch you all hopefully tomorrow. Take care & happy gardening. Trish.

Brian - that mesh wall looks good.
Nice collection of broms!

Hello everyone. Just a quick post as I am on my laptop and now permanently in my unit. As the town is down in a valley, the signal strength of the broadband seems to be all over the place, so sometimes i cannot get on the internet.
A surprise to find the screen covered in a Woolies survey at first. Got rid of that and then ended up with , as Nev said, ads up the side of the screen. Nev, if you look closely there is a small x to click one out and the other has a little arrow which takes it off the screen. Very annoying.
I hope it is all cleared up soon.
I will try to get on more often now I am not so rushed doing so many things.
Have to be over at the house this morning so will have to move.
My broms here are looking great so far. It will be an interesting time to see how they do here during the summer I still have some pieces of a nice till which are starting to flower. I will get some pics and the name later.
Hope you are all well and enjoying some nice weather. It is still cold here and rained all day yesterday. Thankfully Sunday was warm but very windy for my garage sale.
Sold a lot of the stuff in the house but still lots of plants left. They will just have to stay with the house. Better move myself. Catch up later.
Jean

Hi everyone – Well I’m still wrestling with these bloody advert’s on my monitor and have to move things around to read the posts and believe me it’s very frustrating.

I haven’t had an answer back from DG yet regarding my complaint and I’m now beginning to wonder if this latest “gremlin” prevented the message getting through. Any other occasion I’ve sent in a complaint about a problem I’ve had an answer the next day but not this time.

Quite an unpleasant day here yesterday with a sudden rise in temperature to 36c with a warm westerly wind blowing to make things more unpleasant. Today it’s only 26c with a cool southerly breeze blowing so now I have to get out of the shorts and back into the “trackies”.

It’s that time of the month again and time for a new thread, which I said I’d have a go at doing this time, but given the problems I’m currently having, plus the fact I seem to have misplaced the directions Shirley sent me, it may be better if someone else starts one. Who knows, a new thread might just fix the current problem some of us are experiencing.

Teresa – I’m pleased to hear DG is looking better for you as it certainly isn’t for me.

What’s with the aviation is this what hubby works at? I don’t expect there’s too many brom’s in that line of work, although you did post some great shots which you took during your break.

Although the flowering Alcantarea in the first pic looks great and the Neo’s which you obviously couldn’t resist (because they are spotted), I especially like the effect with the brom’s on that rustic looking fence, I think it’s fantastic and certainly an idea worth trying. Thanks for sharing them with us.

Trish – I’m pleased you had a nice birthday celebration (not the hangover afterwards). It’s true that a bit of wine helps make celebrations go off much better but unfortunately for every plus there’s a minus and that comes the next day with a thick head. The main thing is that you enjoyed your day.

It’s good that you have a new “Brom Friend” and hopefully it can turn into something good for all of you as it’s great to have a mate with similar interests. One of the great US brom growers (I just forget his name) once wrote that all brom growers should have a “Brom Buddy” as he called it. I have to agree as when my brom mate was alive we had some great times and brom discussions together and we learnt a lot for each other. It’s a good way to share knowledge and something from which you will all benefit.

Speaking of the Neo mini’s you scored reminded me that it was only two years ago that I decided I would have to start down-sizing and gradually get out of the large Neo’s and into the mini’s. Well I got into the mini’s but not out of the large ones. The good news is though, that in our show this year I won first, second and third in the mini class. I got first with Neo.’Auroa’, second with Neo. ‘Dinkum’, and third with Neo.‘Turmoil’. What’s more, all of these plants came from pups that I had previously swapped right here on D.G. with other members.

I presume when you mentioned Neo.‘Something Special’, you meant xNiduregelia ‘Something Special’ which after all isn’t a Neo. but a bi-generic. I agree with what you say about the leaves though; xNiduregelia ‘Something Special’ has soft spines on the leaf edges which are different to Brian’s plant now that he has confirmed the leaves are spineless.

This leaves us with the possibility that it could be a spineless Neoregelia, a Guzmania or a xGuzvrisea. There is still something about the centre that reminds me of a Nidularium though, is there such a thing as a smooth leaved Nidularium? The other thing I’ve noticed is that the leaf edges seem to be brittle and appear to be easily damaged which is a trait I’ve noticed in some Nidulariums as well, so maybe a “spineless” xNiduregelia may also be an option if there are such things, and as I’ve learned since my involvement with brom’s, anything is possible.

Nice pic’s you’ve posted again, and comparing your first pic with that of Brian’s unknown Vriesea, I don’t think there’s any doubt that his plant is Vr. ‘Red Chestnut’ and a very nice one at that. Your Ae. orlandiana is a “beaut” does it have a varietal name?

I don’t know any of the next three and I must say Neo. 'Adventuous' didn’t do anything for me until I looked it up on the BCR and see what a beautiful plant it is when finally mature.
See: http://registry.bsi.org/?genus=NEOREGELIA&id=2844#2844
Likewise with Neo. 'Koolau Dawn' which is only a pup and also has a lot more growing to do before it turns into the beautiful Hawaiian hybrid of Sharon Petersen’s shown on the BCR
See: http://registry.bsi.org/?genus=NEOREGELIA&id=5294#5294
Neo.’Proud Beauty’ also has some growing to do yet and as the picture on the BCR isn’t very good there’s nothing to really indicate what it will be like, but it was bred by Grace Goode and she never named plants that weren’t good anyway.

Brian – It’s interesting what you say about loading photo’s; some of our members have also found that when loading photos from other than P.C’s, they sometimes come out sideways on DG. It doesn’t worry me though as I’m way behind with that sort of technology and just have my old PC which I got from Noah when he cleaned out his Arc.

Thanks for the new pic’s of your unknown plants. I’ll post the pic of your Tillandsia to my friend but the actual flower will tell the story for sure. I’ve found that even though they look like they’re about to flower, sometimes they sit at that stage for months, so don’t be concerned when it takes longer than expected to flower. See comment about your ????Neo. above in Trish’s post.

That little area you have is now taking shape and starting to look great especially the mesh on the wall for hanging plants from. Before you know it, it will be full of plants so make sure it’s securely attached to the wall.

Jean – Nice to keep hearing things are going well for you and you’re settling in to your new home. As for these adverts, they’re driving me “nuts”. The ones on my screen don’t have a small x anywhere and there’s only a small triangle and when I click on that, it just brings up the entire add, so I’m not as lucky as you as I’m stuck with them until DG decides to do something.

Anyway, enough whinges, I’ll try an see if I can load some pic’s. Pic 1 is of my Red Chestnut to compare with Brian's plant and the next four are from our show. Pic.2 Ae. Ensign, Pic.3 Ae, fasciata variegata, Pic.4 a different clone of Ae, fasciata variegata and Pic.5 Bill.'Stephen Stone'

All the best, Nev.

Just a quick note as i am off to check on my plants. Nev, I just had help re those ads. Try downloading a thing called adblock plus.
Apparently the web is infested with ads popping up. This ad thingy blocks them . May take 24 hours to get them all but it seems to be working on my laptop.
I had no problem on the main computer but am now confined to only the laptop, so it may be something only affecting laptops etc.
Jean.

Hi Everyone!

Chomping at the bit for the long weekend coming up...

Hi Jean pleased to hear things are slowing up for you a bit and that you are in your unit and able to chat with us more often. Also great to hear how well all your broms are doing and that your Tills' are flowering, looking forward to seeing pics when you get a chance. I have a very small collection of Tills' and find myself buying them as I come across them if the price is write so will have to take and upload pics of my very small collection that I have growing on our Mango Tree, they appear happy there so I can see myself getting many more. Pleased also to hear the your garage sale went well.

Hi Nev I am only experiencing issues with the adverts when looking or sending emails from my mobile phone, experiencing no issues when on our laptop as such?

That's a big change in temperature you experienced the other day Nev, anyway hope things are back to normal for you know as the change in temps can really knock one around when it's that sudden.

My head has fully recovered from my B'Day celebrations thank goodness and hopefully I have learnt my lesson now in not drinking wines that don't agree with me but all in all had a very enjoyable day thank you.

Thanks Nev the biggest thing with finding Brom Buddies is finding the time to meet them face to face as they live all over Australia, that's why I enjoy this forum so much because at least I can jump on and chat with you all anytime and share in our interests and life in general together; but I do really enjoy the face to face chats I have with anyone that is into any type of gardening and if broms are part of the equation then even better. Normally on the weekends I am very time poor so have to make an extra effort to get out there and meet other brom collectors, but I am getting there slowly but surly and am really enjoying making new contacts.

That's funny about what you said in relation to collecting mini's to downsize your collection but that you did not end up downsizing your collection. I can appreciate how hard it would be to downsize so something I will have to come to grips with at some stage but for now I still have many areas of the front and side gardens not used so for not am not too concerned but I do try to not keep too many of the same brom or I will be totally out of room before I know it he he.

Nev oops I did mean Niduregelia 'Something Special' not Neo. 'Something Special so thanks for correcting me on that one so as not to confuse anyone unnecessarily. I really like the colour and shape of this brom and seems to tolerate a fair bit of sun in our garden. Brian's NOID really reminded me of the this one except for the spines so I am at a loss as to what it might be?

In answer to your question about my recent pic yesterday of Ae. orlandiana "does it have a varietal name" as such I have no further info on it from the seller other than the name that was on the label. I have had the plant a good couple of years now growing in an extra large squat pot and I have just let it take over the pot and occasionally cut off pups to give away or sell but I have just started a new squat pot in the garden in case this one gets damaged as I really do like it and grow it hard in the front garden where it grows in pretty much full sun and hardly gets watered because I have it displayed up high (just below waist height) on a terracotta tower I have it propped up on and I have to keep reminding myself every fortnight to give it some water and sometimes it goes without for longer.

I will have to go into the BCR and take another look at Neo. 'Adventuous', Neo. 'Koolau Dawn' and Neo. 'Proud Beauty' to remind me what they will grow up to be like so thanks for providing the links. I was very attracted to the colour in them as pups so sure they will impress me when fully grown and if not I can always try them out in different light to see where I prefer them best grown.

Lovely pics you posted yesterday Nev of your beautifully grown Vr. 'Red Chestnut' and all the lovely Aechmea's from the brom show. I do not have many variegated Aechmea's in my collection as such except for the most common one's, I seem to get side tracked by Vrieseas and Neo's when I am out shopping for broms as they always catch my eye the most out of everything. Oh and Bill. 'Steven Stone' is beautiful too, I have not seen this one before.

Anyway I better head off as I have to catch-up on a little bookwork tonight - blah.

Take Care & Happy Gardening!

Trish

Lets hope my pics don't get mixed:

Pic 1 - Vr. 'Rafael' - I noticed on the weekend it's pupping in the Igloo at present.
Pic 2 - Neo. 'Darkest Hour'
Pic 3 & 4 - Different pics of Neo. 'Grace' for comparison with Shirley's in relation to how the centre of the plant grows (raised or flat). Pic 3 is grown outside and appears raised, Pic 4 grown in the Igloo also appears to be raised even more so, so I think mine are growing sort of similar to Shirley's in the centre?
Pic 5 - Group of Neo's growing in the Igloo. I will have to take fresh pics as this one is an old pic from when I first moved them into the Igloo but they have all coloured up a lot more since.

Nev - a thought occurred to me - what web browser do you have?

I noticed quite a difference between Internet Explorer (rubbish) and Firefox (better).
Now I have Google Chrome & that is mostly good with only the odd incompatibility with some web pages - mostly unsupported video files.

I can't be bothered downloading the fix for these issues so if the video doesn't play I move on.

An anti pop up or ad blocker is useful as well - there are some good free ones out there.
I run a free anti virus called Avast.

Hubby spent the morning looking at an Auster - J5 like his, I took heaps of photos & some video of the engine run & so it was a bit late when we got to the Zoo.
Hubby doesn't get my interest in plants & so I hurried past the Alcantarea then decided to go back & snap that photo. Further back there were more big broms with a lovely red colour.

Hubby's job is in engineering, manufacture of hydraulic manifolds using CNC milling machines.

They also branched out & have made replacement hips, and now a line in cycle parts.

Hi everyone – Once again I have my two little workers her to help me; another “sleepover” during the school holidays. You wouldn’t think that a six and four years old would be of much help, but believe me their help is invaluable as they can get places I haven’t been able to reach for years.

Yesterday they got down and weeded under all the benches for me and they are able to get in amongst the plants on the ground and stand up any that have blown over. All the little jobs that require bending (which I can’t do any more) they do it while I’m thinking about it.

I trimmed the side hedge yesterday and they picked it all up, put it in the green bin and all they wanted in return was to get a hold of the hose and hose the path (and each other). A job well done and they both enjoyed themselves.

Jean – Thanks for that valuable bit of information about “Adblock Plus”; I’ve downloaded it already and I’ve never seen anything downloaded so quickly, it only took about 10 seconds. All I have to do now is see if it works against these ads on D.G.

It’s not just a problem affecting laptops Jean, as I don’t have a laptop, just an old P.C. that Noah gave me when he cleaned out his Ark. I’ve always had adverts. popping up from time to time but never obscuring part of the screen like these ones are doing. I still haven’t had any word back from the D.G. admin. so I can only assume they didn’t get my message.

Trish – Yes that sudden variation in temperature certainly played havoc with the aches and pains in the old bones. I’ve heard it said by experts that cold weather doesn’t increase the discomfort from arthritic pain; all I can say is there are a lot of “oldies” beside me who will disagree with them. Anyway things were back to normal again yesterday, not too hot and not too cold, but best of all that rotten wind had stopped.

Regarding xNiduregelia ‘Something Special’, a few years back I planted some seed from my plant which was a result of someone or something pollinating the flowers before I bought the plant. According to all of the experts, the seed would be sterile as it came from a bi-generic cross, however almost all of the seed germinated. I kept about twenty seedlings to grow on and some were just like very ordinary Neo’s but there were six that resembled the ‘Something Special’ in size and shape but with lighter colouring. There are still two more to colour up yet and I’m expecting them to be the best of the lot as I find that it’s always the best ones that take the longest to grow; anyway we’ll see.

I’m sure when you check out the pic’s of your plants on the BCR you will be pleasantly surprised. As for the variegated Ae. fasciatas I posted yesterday (not mine), I have found with the ones I have that they are slower growing than the plain ones and are more cold sensitive. So although the breeders can improve the colour, there are other less desirable traits that occur when the genes are changed around and it gets back to that old rule which says, “For every “plus”, there is a corresponding “minus”. As for Bill.‘Stephen Stone’, the reason you haven’t seen it around is that I only registered it last year and at this stage I haven’t released any.

It looks like the DG gremlin’s been playing with your pic’s and turned two upside down. Anyway it doesn’t detract from the beautiful Vr.‘Rafael’ nor any of the other plants you’ve posted. I think the first thing that attracted me to Neo.‘Grace’ is the colour which seems to have an iridescence about it which makes it seem to “glow” in certain lights.
Your plants in the igloo look very happy in their new home (even if they are upside down) and I think you will find (like I did) that the more you squeeze in the better they seem to like it.

I’ll finish now with some pic’s of the xNiduregelia hybrids, firstly two examples of the poor quality Neo “look-alikes” and the final three are ones that look like the xNiduregelia parent, only with promising colour.

All the best, Nev.

Hi everyone - Just letting you all know that the site Jean told us about works a treat. It took all of 10 seconds to load and now the adverts have gone from my screen and I can see everything again, so a great big thank you Jean, you're a "champion".

Teresa - I don't know how I missed your post, maybe because we posted almost at the same time, you at 2.06 and me 2.10 (maybe it took 4 minutes to cross the ditch).

As for my web browser; I started with Internet Explorer and I agree, it was rubbish for me also and I couldn't even open the FCBS site sometimes. I changed to Google Chrome which was much faster but I also still had problems opening some of the international forums. Most of the members on one of the forums I regularly visit use Firefox and that's what I changed to and haven't had any issues since.

I still can't get over how quickly "Adblock Plus" has fixed my problem with the advert's. It has other optional features as well such as: Malware blocking, Removal of social media buttons (What ever that means) and can Disable Tracking (What ever that means also).

As for your hubby; my hips aren't too bad, but I might need him to knock up a couple of new knees for me and fit some bicycle wheels on my feet to help with my mobility.

All the best, Nev.

Hi everyone where ever you are - Thanks to Jean, everything here is working again except I can't see any posts from any other members. The only recent one I have showing is the one I posted yesterday, and I do hope it's just because you haven't had time to post and not more problems with my computer receiving info. from D.G.

I eagerly await some posts from someone.....anyone.....................please.

All the best, Nev.

hi Nev...

there was a post on in the Tea Room about the ads...


"On the toolbar at the top of the page is a link for PREFERENCES. Click on that , look at the list on the left and near the bottom is a link to Ad preferences. When you click on that link, you can make sure that none of the boxes are checked. That should, once you submit the change remove the ads."

Hello all. I am just popping in before I am off to the house again.
I tried Diannes suggestion of adblock plus and also the suggestion from the Tea Room about the preferences settings.
Sad to say, I am still getting ads. They did stop for a while but are back. Not so many, but still so annoying.

I must take a pic of my little till as the flower comes out. There is a label somewhere but I have to find it. When I get more settled, I may hang a few tills out on the divider between my unit and the next door one. It gets morning sun but is sheltered.
All the other broms are looking great and there is a large bud on the aech. recurvata I bought over.

Must go. Love all the pics and I have to stop myself wanting more...lol
Jean.

Hello all,

Can't wait for a few days off on the long weekend, been driving all day and the holiday traffic heading up the coast was a killer.

Grandson turns one and having a bit of a birthday bash here, so probably spend tomorrow mowing, weeding and gardening. This gardening thing is very addictive

The NBN CO have currently got all of my footpath dug up to lay some cables, seems like a big task ( and expensive )

I need to fertilise my plants again and I'm following what Nev has found to be the best for his plants. Question is after you have bought a plant from a,reputable grower would you fertilise after a month or so?

Thanks Teresa, the preferences thing seems to have done the trick with the ads.

Ok then, I hope everybody has a nice weekend.

Brian.
P.S. Still can't upload pics from this ipad.

Hi everyone - It seems like the on-going problems with D.G. are slowly but surely killing this forum as we are having less and less posts every week, and I can understand how frustrating this can be.

This disappoints me as I've made some wonderful friends since I joined and I'd hate to lose contact because of something I have no control over.

Can someone with "computer know-how " suggest another way we can communicate as a group with each other and share pictures? Is there a way we could do it via email? Thinking caps on please, and collectively we may just be able to come up with a solution that suits us all.

Jean - Sorry to hear that you're still having add. problems (although not as bad as previously experienced). I haven't had a problem since I downloaded that "Adblock Plus" site.

Is your problem on your PC or a Laptop? It seems to me that a lot of these problems are more common on lap-tops, mobile phones, I pads and other modern equipment. Anyone wanting to try this programme see: http://downloadian.com/softwares/714128

Brian – Sorry to hear you still can’t load pic’s; I was having the same problem until I downloaded the above site and now everything’s working OK again, so probably worth a try.

Make the most of your grandson’s first birthday party, because when he gets to the 3-6 age group they will be very noisy functions, especially when you have three grandsons like I do and they invite all their little friends. You don’t know what noise is until you have experienced one of these, believe me.

As for your fertilising of plants; it doesn’t matter whether I buy, swap or am gifted plants from anyone at all (including professionals and other growers with much more experience than I). The first thing I do when I get home is to knock the plant out of the pot and inspect the root system as this is the bit you can’t inspect before you buy or swap any potted plant. (This is why I prefer to just buy or swap bare rooted pups)

The reason I always re-pot any new plants is that I then know what date it was re-potted, and that it was potted in the same mix as all of my other plants of the same type. This then means that the watering requirements will be the same and they have been fertilised the same as other plants as well.

Whenever I re-pot a plant, I give it a single dose of a suitable granulated, powdered, pelletised or prilled type fertiliser about an inch below the surface of the mix at the rate recommended by the manufacture. (I have found that this generally equates to 1gm per each inch of pot diameter)

This is then covered by the remaining mix and the plant thoroughly watered, left in a shady place for a couple of days and then moved to the preferred location. (Never put a freshly potted plant in full sun or strong light immediately after re-potting as this will increase the “transplant shock”)

When inspecting the roots, the worst things you may sometimes find are signs of the pretty common “Root Mealy Bug”. This is a little insect that can slowly but surely damage the roots of your plant to the extent that it can sometimes (after a long period) cause it to die.

It can easily be identified by a white looking sort of fine web usually just under the surface near the centre of the plant or around the edges where the roots meet the inside of the pot. These are the areas that dry out the quickest and it’s the dry environment that these insects like.

Control is easy, firstly remove all of the old potting mix and give a thorough hosing to clean as much mix away from the roots as possible. Next you need to give the plant a complete submersion in a bucketful of a reliable insecticide (I use either Confidor or Max Guard ) mixed up in a standard plastic bucket.

Leave submerged for about an hour and give an occasional up and down “swishing” to be sure all air pockets have been broken up, and the insecticide is reaching all parts of the plant. After an hour, remove from the bucket and allow to air dry before re-potting in fresh mix as described above.

I’ll finish today with a mixture of pic’s starting with pic.1 which is a plant infested with Root Mealy Bug, Pic.2 show the Root Mealy Bug web and eggs on the inside of the pot.

Pic.3 is a most unusual multi-flowered plant of Aechmea weilbachii f. pendula which was displayed at our meeting a couple of years back. Pic.4 is a picture of the Neo. compacta covered tree at the entrance to Paronella Park in North Queensland which I told Brian about but couldn't find. The tree is about sixty feet high and ten to twelve feet in diameter. It is the largest plant of Neo. compacta I have ever seen. I'll finish with a collection of colourful commercially grown Guzmanias just to brighten you day.

All the best, Nev.

Hello All,

Nev, thanks for the info on the fertilising and the mealy bug.

I am just sort of trying a few of the tips you gave in the last thread, but whenever I repot a Bromeliad I tend to just use some Orchid mix and pine bark. Whether this is right or wrong i don't know ( doesn't kill them at least ). The last one I put the indoor potted slow release granules.

Sounds like a good idea to inspect and repot them.

The Neo Compacta picture you have put on is unbelievable. We have a ficus type plant in a pot out the front of our place that the previous people tried to remove, but the roots had gone through into the ground and when they moved it it snapped off. I will wait for some pups off the plant i have and put them in with the ficus and by the look of it i would say it will cover fairly well.

My parents had a friend who was right into bromeliads apparently I don't know if you knew of him Nev as he was from Sydney, his name, I think, was Dick Jameison(?). I think he passed away a few years ago.

Anyhow 'the boss' is starting to pot some tomatoes she bought at the hardware, so i better go and rescue them, otherwise we will be buying them all summer.

I will upload a couple of pics of mixed plants. Pics 4 + 5 Neo Rosy Morn went from a nice salmon colour to Pic 5 in about 2 mths undercover

Brian

Brian - I'm just home from a brom meeting and saw your post. Yes I knew Dick Jameison pretty well, he was a member of our society for a few years before he passed away. That picture of Aechmea weilbachii f. pendula I posted in my previous post was Dick's plant and he bought it to our meeting and that's where it was photographed, and it was Dick who gave me permission to use his picture.

I think it was also taken to and photographed at the meetings of the Australian and the N.S.W. Brom Societies as well as being posted on a few forums. I never saw Dick's collection but he bought some nice plants to the meetings and he told us once where he had hung some of his bigger pots of vrieseas from beneath the eaves of his home.

Do you have a name for the Neo in your first picture? It has beautiful colour. As for you Rosy Morn losing its colour after being moved to a lower light area, this can happen very quickly. Unfortunately I have found if you return it to its original position, the reverse seldom happens and on the occasions it does, it takes a lot longer.

All the best, Nev.



This message was edited Oct 5, 2014 1:13 PM

Nev

No I don't know the name of the plant in 1st pic, I bought it recently from a plant fair and I'm sure the seller was Bromeliads Australia. There were too many people there to have a nag to the sellers. I will have a bit of a look in the registry.

The Neo Rosy Morn in the pic is starting to get more colour in the new growth and slight shading in the existing leaves. Hopefully this is as a result of being in a better position.

I put mesh over the top of these plants to hang some off and to cover with shade cloth but I reckon if I put 50% over it would cut the light too much. Might leave as is for a while.

The Aechmea you showed of Dick Jamieson's has a weird looking flower.

Nev you said that the 3 grandkids can be noisy but I had a son who was in punk rock bands forever and all his mates used to bring their amps and drums to our garage and play all day.
Now that's noise.

I think the word punk means that there is nobody in the band that can sing.

I now have a 16yr old who wanted drums for his birthday, sorry acoustic guitar is the limit.

Anyhow , have a good evening and sounds like it will be a good day tomorrow.

Brian

Hi everyone,

I’m still having issues with DG and the ads blocking the left side of the screen, so annoying. Unfortunately, I don’t have a small x to click or an arrow, not even a link for preferences on my toolbar. We are using Internet Explorer so maybe that’s part of the problem.

To add to my frustration, when I tried to download AdBlock Plus, the site was blocked by our security program ‘Trend’ as dangerous, so there appears to be no chance of me getting rid of them any time soon.

Nev, I agree that it would be good if we could manage to communicate in some other way other than DG. As for Bromeliad Forum, I sent them a second email a week or so ago enquiring about my membership so it might not be a good idea to hassle them again just yet. I’ll let you know if I don’t hear back soon.

Looks like I can still load photos so I’ll do that.

Pic 1 – neo Torch Dancer
Pic 2 – neo Red Earth
Pic 3 – neo Freddie
Pic 4 – neo Golden Goddess

A very slow process to add pics too … sorry about the whinging. Anyway, hopefully DG will sort this out soon or maybe someone will come up with an alternative.

Bye for now, Shirley

Oh, on the up side, I had a lovely visit today from Jen and Wendy, lovely to have them here. What a shame we can’t all get together, wouldn’t that be a blast :o)

Hi everyone - Sorry just a lightening visit this morning.

Good day Brian, my son hauled a massive amp all the way home from Sydney on a train once and I didn't even know what it was. I soon learnt though once he fired it up!. I reckon these younguns will all be deaf by thirty years of age.

Shirley - I had no end of problems when I was on Internet Explorer, I changed to Mozilla Firefox after advice from a friend who knows a bit about computers, and no more problems.

I'll try and get back later today, all the best

Nev.

if you are going to have issues it seems Internet Explorer is often the cause...
and it seems to be the pet target for hackers despite the best efforts of the makers to update security.

I have found Firefox & Chrome far superior...

Shirley - it took me a while to notice the Preferences tab... it is a small font - and way up the top of the page in the Dave's Garden banner.

I have ads on the left side of my page but they don't interfere with being able to see posts or pics so I just ignore them... in fact I barely even notice them these days.

Hi all, still can't find 'preferences' tab. My pics tonight are

Pic 1 - neo Sundays Sister
Pic 2 - neo Spanish Sunrise
Pic 3 - neo Allure
Pic 4 - neo Decora
Pic 5 - neo Gee Whiz

Bye for now, Shirley

hi Shirley, do you have a strip at the top of the DG banner that says "Hi works4me!"

mine has "Hi Dafyre!. DMail My Info Preferences Log Out"



Nev - I wish I had read your post about transplant shock before I did my tomato seedlings...
poor things have been put on the terrace copping full sun during the day & down 0C over night.
It's a wonder they aren't all dead but some are looking a tad worse for wear.
I guess the survivors are going to be tough plants.

Hi everyone – Quite a warm one down here yesterday but good weather for the Rugby League grand final which was played last night. Pleased to announce my team (South Sydney) won even though there’s not a brom grower among any of the players.

I just want to “back track” on a couple of comments and pic’s from recent posts, firstly Brian’s post on Oct 4th where he said, “The Aechmea you showed of Dick Jamieson's has a weird looking flower.” The flowers are pretty much the same as for all Ae. weilbachii pendula plants, however I presume you are referring to the multiple inflorescences, or “flower spikes as old orchid growers like me still tend to call them”.

Usually, Ae. weilbachii plants will just produce one inflorescence to each single plant; in this particular plant however it produced multiple inflorescences (5) which is very unusual, not only that, but some of these inflorescences were branched as well and that’s not something that usually happens. Dick said he had grown Ae. weilbachii for many years and only on a couple of previous occasions had he seen two inflorescences from a single plant and never multiple inflorescences and branched like these.

Also, I ran out of time before I could comment on Shirley’s pictures on the same day. Firstly let me say I don’t know any of these plants but when I first looked at Neo.’ Torch Dancer’, I immediately thought of Neo.‘Lambert’s Pride’ as it’s very similar only the colours are brighter.

It came as no surprise then when I looked it up on the BCR and saw that it was a Sharon Petersen crossing of Neo.'Hal Ellis' x 'Lambert's Pride'. It seems there are more and more crosses popping up with Lambert’s Pride as one of the parents. In fact I even made one or two crosses with it myself and a crossing with Neo.'Thunderbird' was one of them (See Pic 1) and although not as good as ‘Torch Dancer’, still quite attractive colours.

In my view there are mainly four different styles of standard size Neo’s; ones which are grown for colour, ones which are grown for superior shape, ones which have unusual colour patterns and marking and ones which have a combination of good shape and colour.

Your group of pic’s depicts all four of these types; Neo.‘Torch Dancer’ in my opinion wins the colour race, while Neo.’Red Earth’, although not as colourful as ‘Torch Dancer’ is an example of good shape with its nice wide leaves. Neo. ‘Golden Goddess’ comes under the banner of unusual markings, and Neo. ‘Freddie’ is an example of good shape and colour combined. All in all a good selection of quality plants.

Looking at your second lot of pic’s, again you show great examples of these various styles; Neo.‘Spanish Sunrise’ and Neo.’Allure’ fit into the unusual colour pattern department, Neo.’Decora’ wins it for colour, Neo.’Gee Whiz’ easily gets the shape prize and I’d give the shape and colour vote to Neo.’ Sundays Sister’. Another great collection of quality plants.

Teresa – Like you, I too always had adverts on the left side of my page and I just ignored them as well. But after down-loading the programme Jean told us about I don’t even have them anymore.

I had no trouble locating the “preferences tab” as it’s on the same line as;
Hello, splinter1804! - D-Mail - My Info - Preferences - Logout.

I opened it to see what it was all about but didn’t change anything in case I mucked it all up again, so I’ll just hold that one in reserve for possible future problems.

As for your Tomatoes; like any other plants when transplanted or plants suffering from any sort of stress, hit them with some Seasol, a couple of doses a week apart. Mix at the rate for stressed plants and watch the recovery. I had climbing beans with burnt black leaves and almost dead on the trellis after a heatwave a few years back. After two doses of Seasol, one month later they were flowering again and went on to produce more beans. Actually, between you and me I’ve often been tempted to try a dose or two on myself. Ha! Ha!

I’ll finish with a mixture of pic’s today Pic.1 is the Neo.’Thunderbird’ x ‘Lambert’s Pride’ mentioned above, Pic.2 is Neo. nivea, Pic.3 is Ae.nudicaulis ‘Aqualis’, Pic.4 is Edmundoa lindenii variety rosea and Pic. 5 is not what you want to find when you lift the toilet seat.

All the best, Nev.

Hi Brom Friends – I guess you could call this an S.O.S. which I’m sending on behalf of some local Brom Friends.

They are planning a visit to Thailand and would like to visit a Bromeliad Show if possible while they are there, but first they need to know dates, times and locations for these shows.

To get this information they obviously need details of a contact person/s and I would be most appreciative if anyone could help me with this search as so far I’ve come up against brick walls.

Thanks in advance, all the best, Nev.

Hello all,

A beauty of a day here, too bad I will be snowed under with work.

We had a nice day yesterday celebrating a birthday and watching the footy afterwards.

Nev, here's hoping that you would look in that toilet bowl.

A couple of pics with 1 + 2 being plants that I got from a bloke that has recently passed away.

1. Bill Curly Top
2. Bill Hallelujah X Golden Joy
3. Till. Caulescens, about to flower
4. Unsure

Brian

Whoops, should be

1. Bill Curly Top
2 Unsure
3 Bill Hallelujah X Golden Joy
4. Till Caulescens

Brian

Hi Brian - The first one isn't Bill 'Curly Top'; it looks to me like Quesnelia mamorata or Quesnelia 'Tim Ploughman'. Bill .'Curly Top' is a lighter green with white markings and doesn't curl as much as the Quesnelias

http://www.bing.com/images/search?q=quesnelia+marmorata+pictures&qs=n&form=QBIR&pq=quesnelia+marmorata+pictures&sc=0-0&sp=-1&sk=

http://www.bing.com/images/search?q=quesnelia+tim+ploughman+pictures&qs=n&form=QBIR&pq=quesnelia+tim+ploughman+pictures&sc=0-0&sp=-1&sk=

The plant in Pic.2 looks to me like Canistropsis 'Plum'
See: http://registry.bsi.org/?genus=CANISTROPSIS&id=1212#1212

With your Bill Hallelujah X Golden Joy, I can certainly see the influence of both parents.

All the best, Nev.

Hi Everyone!

I am way behind in the posts so lets hope I have not missed anyone while trying to play catch-up and if I have I apologies in advance my beautiful brom buddies.

We had a jam packed long weekend catching up with my Niece, her partner and my Great-Niece (who is 4) that were here for the weekend as well as friends over for dinner Saturday and today a friend visited bringing over lots of lovely pots to house some of my broms as she knows I am constantly on the lookout for them at garage sales etc. It was lovely catching up with everyone but not at all how we had expected our long weekend to roll out as we were secretly hoping for a bit of a quieter one but knew that this was the best time to catch up with everyone especially the ones we had not seen for awhile. My Great-Niece has grown so much and it was lovely to see how much she was interested in nature and how gentle she was with everything she touched and all the questions she had about what this and that was; she also spent a lot of time with the girls and did not want to leave them when it was time to go, even Lucy cried when she hoped in the car to head back home and sulked for a good hour afterwards so I took her for a swim to pick her spirits up.

I did get to spend about an hour in the garden today so did a bit of watering which was nice and Sunday I weeded some of the front garden bed that I had let go and am getting it ready for some sun hardy broms.

Hi Teresa your hubby’s job sounds very interesting indeed, I take it CNC means Computer Numerical Control as I did a lot of this (a long time ago) when I did my Mechanical Engineering and I thoroughly enjoyed the different processes involved along with hydraulics and pneumatics and what could be achieved.

I really liked the pics you shared of the Auster J5, how fun would it be to go up in that, does your hubby fly the one he has. We have friends (a married couple) the husband is a pilot and is away a lot flying all over Australia and his wife decided she would learn to fly also so she could accompany him on trips as well as fly to different places together for holiday’s, they have a hanger built under one of there houses on an island that they park their plane which I always find such a blow out as well as a hanger on the mainland also; they are just both so passionate about flying and it’s lovely to hear the lovely places they get to visit along the way.

Hi Nev your two little workers sound like they have been of great help around the place as well as it sounds like they are really enjoying the experience and the time you are all getting to spend together; I pictured them crawling under brom benches and hard to get to places and had a bit of a chuckle as I am sure they would have looked pretty cute doing so to impress you.

Great to hear your weather is back to normal, not too cold, not to hot but just right. Mum too suffers from a lot of arthritic pain and her doc’ always tells her to move to the warmer weather to help ease the pain which makes perfect sense. I know my Asthma plays up more over winter than summer and various doctors advised me to move to a warmer climate to ease the severity and I now suffer far less attacks then I used to since moving to QLD.

Great pics you posted of xNiduregelia ‘Something Special’ for comparison of poor quality hybrids versus good quality parent. I will have to try to find pics’ of mine as I find them more on the red side and the one’s in the last 3 x pics you posted appear more orange to me but it could just be my eye’s playing tricks on me? I grown mine outside uncovered over winter and covered with 70% beige shade-cloth over summer.

Great pics you posted these past couple of days, I just noticed today that my Ae. nudicaulis 'Aqualis’ has flowered for the first time this year so I have to remember to take a picture before the flower dies.

I still have to jump on the BCR and check out what those pups we were discussing grow up to be like, I was hoping to do so this long weekend as well as other things I have been meaning to look up on the BCR and Internet but I have just ran out of time to do so this time around.

That’s great Nev that you registered Bill. ‘Stephen Stone’ it’s a stunner of a Bill. and I look forward to checking it out also on the BCR.

Although this forum gets super quiet at times we have to remember that other times it is jam packed full of life and it's hard to keep up with all the posts, I think it's natural for it to come in waves given we all live different lives and live in different parts of the world, the main thing is that we get on when we can and not to give up on this forum altogether as that would be very sad to see. I know for me personally that this is the only forum I can manage time for and I don't do Face Book; I just wish I was not so time poor all the time and could get on more often because I really do enjoy the friendships I have made here over the years as well as it is always great to see new people joining our forum like Brian has recently, so thanks to everyone for making the effort and keeping this forum going as I know personally that I would be lost without it as I really enjoy the friendships I have made here.

Hi Jean would luv to see a picture of your Till. When it flowers as I am slowly but surly collecting them during my travels when I am lucky enough to come across them at markets or in private collections that I visit. I like the sound of the divider area you are thinking of hanging some Tills’, sounds like a perfect place for them where they would do well. I reckon Ae. recurvata look fantastic when in flower; aside from it’s beautiful colour/flowers I most adore it’s shape in general because it’s just that little bit different and when it’s all clumped together in a pot it really looks lovely.

Hi Shirley lovely pics you posted these past couple of days, like Nev many of these broms I have not heard of before apart from Neo. 'Allure' and Neo. 'Gee Whiz'. How are you going anyway with you back, hope you are back to your normal self and finding time to catch-up with things in the garden; I am starting to fall miserably behind doing things with my broms but am trying to not get annoyed about it because it is what it is and some weekends are better than others and at least its something to look forward to when I can find some spare time.

Pleased to hear you had a great time catching-up with Jen and Wendy. Wouldn't it be great if we all lived closer so we could all get together, imagine all the mischief we would get up to he he.

Hi Brian Happy Belated Birthday, hope you had a lovely relaxing day. Lovely pics you posted these past couple of days of all your lovely broms, I especially liked your Neo. 'Rosy Morn' and will have to take a pic of mine that is fully grown and flowering in the garden at the moment, I have mine growing in a position that receives a lot of light but not full sun.

I have to look at holding another stall sometime in the not too distant future to sell off some of my excess broms that are accumulating, it’s just finding the time to do so that is the problem; but I will take a look at what I have put aside over the weekend and try to book a date in somewhere before summer gets here as at least it will be a far more pleasant experience than trying to hold a stall in the middle of summer.

Take Care & Happy Gardening!

Trish

Pic 1 - Neo. 'Cane Fire' and Neo. 'Hot Gossip'
Pic 2 - Neo. 'Dominos' (mini)
Pic 3 - Neo. 'Blushing Tiger'
Pic 4 - Vrieseas basking in the light
Pic 5 - Neo. 'Sam Smith'

Hi all,

Teresa, I found ‘preferences’ … not sure how I could have missed it before. I removed all the ticks. The ads are still there but are not taking up as much space as they were before so I can see more of the forum screen. Thanks so much for your help, it’s at least bearable now.

Trish, still having problems with my back, physio helps but the pain returns soon after.

Nev, I don't think Seasol will make to grow but it might be worth a try :o)

Hi to Brian and Jean, hope I haven't missed anyone, hope everyone is keeping well.

I'll add pics of some of my favourite vrieseas, so many of them now in spike.

Pic 1 – Vr Aussie Beauty Kerry
Pic 2 – Vr Big Mal
Pic 3 – Vr Lollipop
Pic 4 – Vr Dillings Chieftan x Angela
Pic 5 – Vr Plantation Pride hybrid

Talk soon, Shirley

Hi all,

New thread started here http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/1378181/

Thought I would give it a go, sorry if I have done it at the wrong time or stepped on anyone's toes

Brian