Bromeliads For Novices and Addicts - October 2014

Hi all,

Welcome to this Bromeliad forum for October 2014.

The last thread was here:

http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/1374007/

New people are most welcome, as it is a forum for members that know very little about Bromeliads (like myself) and the more experienced growers.

The common thing i have found is that they are all very friendly, so don't hesitate to join in.

Brian.

well done Brian... it worked perfectly :)

there are still a few members on dial up so long threads do get a bit hard to view.

I think on average there is one new one a month...

hope everyone else is following straight on from the previous thread -

Trish - hubby is restoring his Auster to fly... it had a little accident in 1965 & hasn't been in one piece since.
Actually we bought a second Auster to strip for parts, she was flying till a couple of years ago & then had an oops moment lost power approaching the landing strip, pilot did a go around but didn't quite get over the trees & crunch the plane stopped & slid down the trunk of a tree & came to rest nose first on a big rock... only boulder in the forest otherwise she would have been an easy fix.


Shirley - I never noticed the preferences until someone else mentioned it - glad it helped.

and to both of you - some lovely broms pictured, you know I am a sucker for the spotty ones but I do like stripes as well.

Thanks Brian for the new thread, great job. Hopefully, I'll get back here later on tonight.

Till then, bye
Shirley

Hi everyone – Isn’t it great to see posts appearing on the site once more; I must say, I’d just about given up and was tossing up whether or not it was worth continuing. Anyway it seems the site has a reprieve and members are posting again.

Just one question though; are people still having problems with advert’s and difficulty posting pic’s? From what I read, most of the problems posting pic’s are coming from laptops, IPads and mobiles, and the old PC’s don’t seem to be having any troubles at all. I remember some time back when (I think it was Wendy) was posting pic’s and they always showed on DG sideways. I think now that she was using a laptop as well. Anyway as I only have an old PC, it’s up to those of you with all of these “mod-cons” to sort out.

Trish – Those pic’s I posted were of the xNiduregelia ‘Something Special’ seedlings, not the xNiduregelia ‘Something Special’ parent. I posted those just to show the vast differences between the seedlings with the first couple looking like poor quality Neo’s and the next three plants more resembling the xNiduregelia ‘Something Special’ parent except they tended more toward orange in colour whereas the parent is more toward red (See Pic.1).

Don’t get me wrong, the other forums get quiet also but because they are bigger, there is always someone to communicate with. Like Shirley said the other day, we are a tight nit little group and it’s a pity we don’t live in the same area, then we could really talk brom’s.

Has anyone heard from Ian? I saw he posted a couple of pic’s on a brom site on Face Book and I invited him to post them here as well but nothing, so it looks like he’s time poor as well. Colleen and Wendy are others we haven’t seen for a while and that member from up Darwin way. Maybe this type of forum just isn’t their thing, who knows?

Great colour and some similarity in ‘Cane fire’ and ‘Hot Gossip’. Your Hot Gossip looks quite different to mine so I’ll post a pic of mine for comparison.(Pic.3)

Also your Neo. ‘Domino’ looks very much like one I swapped once with the name Neo.’Auroa’. I’ve never been able to find it on the BCR and I think it is wrongly named and it is possibly Neo ‘Domino’.(Pic.4)

I have a Neo. ‘Blushing Tiger’ on which I trialled a method for producing extra pups. Last year it was a Mother and three pups, I removed the old dead mother and gave it the treatment and this year there are either 19 or 20 pups. Just for the record if you think I’m telling “porkies”, ask Brian because he would have seen it at the show. (Pic.2)

That’s a nice looking forest of Vrieseas you have around your pool and they all look very happy as does you Neo ‘Sam Smith’. The one you sent me is just starting to colour up in the centre so hopefully another month and it will look like yours.

Shirley – Sorry to hear the back is still giving you trouble, I know just what you’re going through, been there and still there. When it gets unbearable and the doc suggests an operation, get three more opinions and then only do it when you can’t get up off your hands and knees. I tried it and the problem is worse than it was when it started; but I guess it could be much worse as I’ve heard of people finishing up in wheelchairs after spinal surgery.

Have you tried that site that Jean told us about “Adblock Plus’? It worked well for me and I haven’t had a problem since. A computer wise friend of mine told me that this problem can sometimes happen when you have more than one program blocking the adverts as they then begin to work against each other and the advert’s aren’t blocked.

Nice Vrieseas in your pic’s, Aussie Beauty ‘Kerry’ reminds me when Jack named several of the Aussie Beauty grex after some of his brom growing lady friends. There was Debbie, Eden, Frances, Juliana, Kerry and Tamera.

Brian -You’ve done well, the new thread; works just like it should so thanks for doing it for us. Glad you didn’t mention the “Cranky Old Man”.

Teresa – I think hubby has a little way to go before he finally completes building a plane around that door; but then I guess you have to start somewhere.

That’s enough from me today and the pic’s are firstly xNiduregelia 'Something Special', Pic. 2 is a side view of my family of Neo. ‘Blushing Tiger’ pups. Pic.3 is my Neo.’Hot Gossip’ for comparison with Trish’s plant. Pic.4 is the Neo I bought as Neo ‘Auroa’ and which I now think is Neo ‘Domino, and finally Pic.5 which is Neo.’Jasper Pink’.

All the best, Nev.

Hi all,

Teresa, hubby has a few hours labour in front of him, good luck with that.

My brother has just started flying and he told me the aircraft he was in had a parachute built in for emergency landings, I thought he was joking until i saw in the news of one that landed in a tree with the chute on it.

He was also into the parasailing(?), running and jumping off the cliffs. His wife couldn't go and watch first off but he convinced her after a while it was ok. First time she went with him he couldn't get the thing to fly and all she saw was him disappearing over the edge. Ha Ha.

Shirley, hope you are feeling better very soon.

Nev, the only way I can upload any pics is on a normal computer, tried to put a pic on the thread listing, it uploaded but couldn't be seen in the preview, maybe someone could let me know if I need to do something different. All the pics on an Ipad / Iphone look flat as well. i would be sticking with the old computer.

You are correct with the Quesnelia 'Tim Ploughman' in the last thread, I have seen that name, must of lost the label.

Trish, that would be great to see a pic of your Neo 'Rosy Morn" in flower, to see the difference in colour.
We were celebrating our little grandsons first birthday, i can't believe how quick a full year has gone.

I think I am running out of plants to photograph, will have to get some more.

The neighbour's front door is right where I have my plants, I think they think I am some sort of nut taking pictures all the time.

Anyhow, hello to eveybody else.

Brian

Hi Everyone!

Well back at it again at work but at least it’s a short week and the weekend will be here before we know it.

Hi Shirley sorry to hear you are still experiencing back problems, sounds like it is not a quick fix but good that you are going to the physio as a little relief is better than nothing I suppose?

Lovely pics you posted of your beautiful vrieseas, you must be pleased to see so many with flower spikes and I hope they pup well for you also. How pretty is your Pic 4 of Vr. ‘Dillings Chieftan x Angela’ so full of bright and cheerful colour.

Hi Brian very kind of you to start the new thread for October (well done), makes a big difference to not have to scroll down all the time; great message you sent out to anyone looking in and hopefully we get some new members joining this friendly group of ours.

I will take a fresh pic of my Neo. 'Rosy Morn' and upload for you to compare with yours on the weekend. I can't believe how big my plant has grown and will have to take a measuring tape out to get it's measurements, it's a lot bigger than some I have seen and it takes up a fair wack of room in our garden but I don't care because I like it so much and it really makes a great landscaping plant given how well it stands out given it's large size and peachy colour.

Oh I thought you also had a birthday but it was your grandsons 1st birthday you were celebrating, I don't know where I got mixed up but sure you got a chuckle out of it he he. I can't believe how big my great-niece has grown, she turns 5 next year, where have the years gone, she starts school next year.

Sounds like you will be brom shopping again given as you said you are running out of broms to photograph he he; a good excuse as any to go on a brom hunting spree then you will just have to worry about where to put them all like we all do over and over again, just when we think we have made some spare room it is quickly absorbed before we know it with new purchases or swaps but it's great fun never the less and something I will never tire of.

Ha Ha I totally appreciate when you say your neighbours must think you crazy always taking pics of your broms, to those that do not have a brom obsession must think us crazy; our neighbours over the years have gotten used to me taking pics whether it be day or night, rain, hale or shine I am always out there taking pics of my broms and the wildlife that lives around the wetlands and in our garden as well as they catch me sometimes talking to them and on the odd occasion think I am talking to them when they hear me say things such as 'How beautiful are you' or 'Have a look at how big and strong you have grown, your absolutely gorgeous darling, gorgeous' click, click, click goes the camera like a photographer LOL.

Hi Teresa yep I am following straight on from the previous thread so I don’t loose the plot totally he he given I was so far behind the eight ball.

How great that your hubby is restoring his Auster to fly, how fantastic would it be to go up in something so beautiful that has so much history; do you fly also? The one you stripped for parts sounded like it hit the ground (rock) hard, hope the pilot survived to tell the story, sounds like he or she may have given the detail you have provided about the crash. Luv the pic of I take it possibly your hubby with all the writing on the plane door, what a great shot that is.

Pleased to hear you like the pics of my broms, they are starting to take over the place slowly but surly and I am having to explore other places to house them and am creating new garden beds for them but it all takes time and I just don’t have that much spare time on the weekends so things tend to drag on a bit in the project dept. area LOL.

Hi Nev I experience problems with the adverts when looking at the posts on my mobile phone only, experiencing no issues when using the laptop which is great, lets hope I don’t jinx myself bragging so. No issues with posting pics either.

Thanks for the feedback on the xNiduregelia ‘Something Special’ seedlings, makes perfects sense to me now.

Nev in answer to your question if any of us have heard from Ian, I have not heard from him, I wonder how he is doing and if we will hear from him again in the not too distant future as that would be great as he is definitely missed here on this forum so hope your looking in Ian and will be back chatting with us all sometime soon.

You’re Neo. ‘Hot Gossip’ does appear to look different to mine, I will have to see if I can find a better pic as it could also be a pic of Neo. 'Wild Gossip' that I posted but if my memory serves me correct its of 'Hot Gossip'?

That’s a massive amount of pups on your Neo. ‘Blushing Tiger’, very impressive indeed and I totally believe that if anyone could create miracles with broms then that person would be you because you live and breath growing these to perfection and your experiment with 'Blushing Tiger' well and truly looked like it paid off. My original ‘Blushing Tiger’ got self pollinated by nature and all the seeds have germinated but boy are they slow growing little buggers, I have about 2 x trays of them and they are not even the size of a grain of rice yet but never the less they are green and strong so I suppose that’s all that matters for now and at some stage they will get a growth spurt and I have a lot of patience so do not mind waiting for them to grow up. The original mum has produced a couple of nice pups that appear to be doing well since I separated and potted them up in their own pots.

Your Pic 4 of your brom labelled ‘Auroa’ does look similar to Neo. ‘Domino’ but I have my suspicions that it is not Neo. ‘Domino’ as it appears slightly different to me in colour and shape; so this made me look it’s name up generally on the internet and I clicked on Images and scrolled through the pics available, I found a pic on page 1 of Neo. ‘Aurora’ (A on the end) that to me looks like your ‘Auroa’? There were many other pics of ‘Aurora’ but they were of what looked like medium growing plants but the one that stuck out was one I a smaller growing brom that looked very similar to yours, have a look and let me know what you think, the site would not let me download the flick picture but jump on and see for yourself for comparison with yours and let me know what you think?

Take Care & Happy Gardening!

Trish

No picture attachment icon so I will send my thread off and try to send pics on there own; I think it's because I took to long sending my thread off possibly?

Hi Everyone!

Choose a File icon has now appeared so here are my pics:

Pic 1 - Ae. Nudicaulis 'Rubre'
Pic 2 - Neo. 'Princeps Select'
Pic 3 - Neo. 'Ink Spots' (mini)
Pic 4 - Neo. 'Festiva'
Pic 5 - Ae. Foster's 'Freckles'

Take Care & Happy Gardening!

Trish

Hi everyone (Even those who just read and won’t post) – We had a bit of a mixed up day yesterday (weather-wise), overcast in the morning, then a bit of rain, followed by westerly winds and fine and sunny in the afternoon. I ask you; how am I supposed to plan my day under those conditions?

Brian – I forgot to mention about the Ques. ‘Tim Ploughman’, it’s not a good idea to remove pups until it gets into a reasonable sized clump and even then, take a two or three plant division. Single pups or divisions seem to take a long time to re-establish themselves.

Trish – There seems to be a lot of confusion around ‘Hot Gossip’, ‘Predator’, ‘Predatress’, ‘Anna 39’, ‘Wild Gossip’, Milagro and Garnish. They were American bred and some came into Australia under formula name and were named and registered here while others were named and registered in US and then imported under the registered (American) name.

When you look them up on the BCR, you find ambiguous statements like; Predator has links with 'Hot Gossip' & 'Predatress’; Garnish has links with 'Wild Gossip' and possibly 'Milagro’; Hot Gossip has links with 'Predator' and 'Predatress'; Predatress is a variegated sport of 'Predator' and has links with 'Hot Gossip'. So is it any wonder that confusion exists over who’s who?

Producing all of those pups on ‘Blushing Tiger’ wasn’t (as you said) "creating a miracle". It was just matter of trying something new which I hadn’t done before and it paid off. In fact I’m sorry I did it now because when you think that each pup will have at least one pup of its own during the next year, I’ll be overrun with ‘Blushing Tigers’ and I don’t have any spare space as it is; so probably not the best experiment to try in the first place. This particular plant seems to also self-pollinate readily, as every plant I have that’s flowered is full of seed capsules none of which were pollinated by me.

As for Domino versus Auroa; the only thing on the BCR that sounds remotely like ‘Auroa’ is ‘Aurora’ which is a cross between Neo. sarmentosa x [Neo. olens x (compacta x 'Fireball')]. This obviously isn’t the same plant as the foliage is golden yellow in colour.

Looking at your pictures now and I can tell you that the Ae. nudicaulis was known as rubra for many years here in Australia, but it is registered as Aechmea 'Xavante', To see some nice pic’s go to: http://registry.bsi.org/?genus=AECHMEA&id=623#623

A lot of people don’t know that the plant in your second picture (princeps) is also a species and not a hybrid. There are several different forms of it and I have a different one called Neo. princeps ‘Rainbow’ (Pic.1)

I love your Neo mini ‘Ink Spots’, could you put my name on a list for a pup when you get a spare please? I also have both Neo. 'Festiva' and Ae. Foster's 'Freckles' but I’m afraid without your Queensland sunshine I can’t get much colour into either.

I’ll finish now with a few pic’s, firstly Neo. princeps ‘Rainbow’, and next a few spotted ones just for Teresa 2 Neo 'Midnight Moment', 3 Neo. 'Wine and Gold', 4 Neo.'Powder Puff' and 5 Neo.'Gold Fever' x 'Barbarian'.

All the best, Nev.

thanks Nev - all nice but Neo. Wine and Gold really does it for me...

Trish's Neo Ink Spots is another lovely one - and Ae Foster's Freckles is quite eye catching.

Th 2nd plane we bought managed to slide onto the rock slightly off centre so the pilot had some bumps & bruises but otherwise unharmed
He was glad he was wearing a 5 point harness!

The plane's rego was ZK-BRA... and Bendon sponsored it for a while so it was painted with "the Bendon Flyer" on the fuselage for a while & quite a well known plane.

When Baz picked her up the owners daughter came running out with an old bra to tie onto the plane.
the bra is still on BRA in our hangar :)

in case anyone is interested - link to engine run of the Auckland Auster we went to see...

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=10154742152680492

Hi Everyone!

We had a spot of rain last night which was nice, just enough to keep the frogs chirpy happy but not enough to really give our gardens a good soak.

Hi Nev sounds like your experiencing Victorian weather, four seasons in one day, I remember how annoying it was when we lived there because you could not plan our day around that sort of weather and it was easy to get sick all the time; anyway I hope the weather is all back to normal for you now and that you are back to some sort of normal routine.

That’s interesting what you have found when looking up on the BCR the ambiguous statements in relation to Predator has links with ‘Hot Gossip’ & ‘Predatress’ etc, etc as you described in detail, as you say no wonder that confusion exists over who’s who; I wonder why they make it so hard sometimes and make things so confusing for everyone?

I have always been very taken with the look of Neo. ‘Blushing Tiger’ and it’s taken a good couple of years for mine to finally produce pups so when I saw how many pups yours had produced to me that was a miracle and not something you see everyday and should be in the Guinness book of records. I liked this brom so much that when mine self-pollinated I thought it the perfect opportunity to tray some up and although I thought they would take a bit to grow I did not expect them to grow as slowly as they are but never the less I am enjoying watching them grow ever so slowly.

Like you say you’re Neo. ‘Auroa’ looks nothing like ‘Aurora’ on the BCR, so it must be Neo. ‘Domino’ then by the looks of things as I do not know of any other mini’s that look similar to ‘Domino’. I have a friend that is a HUGE collector of mini’s so if you want to email me through your picture of ‘Domino’ say to my personal email I can see if she can properly ID it for you if you like?

Thanks for letting me now that Ae. Nudicaulis ‘Rubre’ is now registered on the BCR as Ae. ‘Xavante’, I would not have known if you had not of told me so many thanks for that, I will change my labels on the weekend.

Nev by all means I will put your name down for a Neo. 'Ink Spots', it's a great mini and I have always luved the intense grape markings it gets. Lovely pics you posted by the way, each and everyone had something I liked about them.

Hi Teresa pleased to hear you liked the pics of some of my broms, the two you picked out are also favourites of mine also.

Ha ha that's too funny about ZK-BRA and that the bra is still strapped to the plane, for good luck I take it?

As such I don't do Facebook so miss out on visiting the engine run which I am pooped about as sure that would have been very interesting to see the photo's.

Take Care & Happy Gardening!

Trish

No pic attachment again???

Will try again later just want to watch the lunar eclipse.

Hi Everyone!

Back again, the lunar eclipse was lovely to watch, we both kicked back with our cups of tea and chatted while it happened, Joe even sat on my rocking chair and looked very relaxed rocking back and forth watching the eclipse LOL. I just wished my eye sight was better because I could not see the detail that Joe described rocking back and forth in the chair as hard as I tried, I even tried looking away for awhile a couple of times and then back to the eclipse but this made no difference, but was lovely to watch never the less and a relaxing way to spend the evening.

Here are the pics I promised:

Pic 1 - Vr. 'Splendrite'
Pic 2 - Ae. 'Chantinii'
Pic 3 - Bill 'Rosea'
Pic 4 - Neo. 'Chiquita Linda' (mini)
Pic 5 - Vr. 'Rubyae'

Take Care & Happy Gardening!

Trish

Hi all,

Yes Nev, still have the ads on my computer but they are not covering as much as the screen as they were previously, thanks to Teresa gave me directions to find ‘preferences’.

Nev, you mention you trialled a method for producing extra pups by removing the old mother and giving it ‘the treatment’ … please explain!!!

As for the back pain, I find physio gives me relief but it is short lived. Trouble is, none of us can lie around and do nothing for days on end, there’s always plenty to do and that’s the problem.

Nev, I tried to download ‘Adblock Plus’ but our security software blocked it and classified it as ‘dangerous’ so I couldn’t proceed with the download.

Trish, glad to read that you got to see the lunar eclipse, we had too much cloud here in Brissie, hopefully it will lead to some rain but I doubt it. Everything is so dry again now and it has been very hot as well. I will have to get out and do some watering tomorrow.

Brain, you are so right about how quickly the years go by … and the older you get the faster they go too. I thought it quite funny what you said about your neighbours thinking you are some sort of nutcase taking photos all the time. Fortunately, no-one sees me snapping away at my broms on an almost daily basis, not to mention talking to them just as Trish does.

Teresa, I’ll try to find a pic or two of some spotty broms to attach tonight.

Jean, hope you are settling in well in your new home and your broms also.

My pics are

1 – neo Burgundy Moss
2 – neo Spartan Beauty
3 – neo Chirripo
4 – neo concentrica x Euro concentrica
5 – a lovely flowering shrub in the garden, can’t think of the name right now

Bye for now, Shirley

Hello everyone. Its foggy here this morning after a warm day yesterday. I am just getting ready for shopping day today so will be quick.
I did watch the lunar eclipse. I thought .I may have missed it as there was some cloud rolling in late in the afternoon, but all was clear at night.

I brought a few roses back from the house to put out the front of the unit. I also brought 4 more broms over as well. I am going to have to be firm with myself as there is no enough room to keep doing this...lol

I hung the few tills I have on some wire and hope they survive the cold here in winter.
That goes for all the broms as it gets a lot colder down in this valley and there is not as much shelter as they had before.
I did get a few pics yesterday so will add them and then move myself.
Its a rush today because I have to get to the courthouse to pay yet another bill. This time its for probate of hubbys will. Its been an endless stream of bills for everything. Everyone wants to charge a fee for something that takes a few minutes to do.
Hope all are feeling better and I love all the brom pics.

I cannot find the name for the till thats flowering. I will have to check back at the house. The others are all looking good.

pic 1...the flower on the till. The plant is actually above the flower, not the one you see under it. Not a good shot, I know.

pic 2..the tills hanging behind a few vrieseas.

pic 3...till rodrigueziana , now sitting among the vrieseas.

pic 4..till uticulata giant, also sitting with the vrieseas.

pic 4 .. till capitata x flabellata.. sitting in the tree fern piece on the wire.

Jean.

A few more pics...
the first two are the broms at the back of the unit, They get lots of sun but not a lot of shelter from the cold.
next is vr. Angela with bud
fourth pic is vr. Grafton Sunset starting to open.
last pic are the vrieaseas out the front among my cyclamens. They have some shelter and lots of morning sun.

Jean.

Hi everyone – Finally I made a start and gave some of my plants their Seasol yesterday. It’s a pretty big job and takes me a couple of days to complete as I have them in gardens at the front and back of the block as well as several shade shelters and shade houses. Yesterday morning I made up 200L and I did the front garden and the Vriesea/Guzmania shade house and had to stop due to several afternoon appointments. Hopefully I’ll get most of the remainder done today.

I have a 100L tank and this is what I mix up my Seasol or fertilisers in. It is pumped from here via an old swimming pool pump through the normal garden hose with a watering wand attached. The pressure isn’t as strong as the mains pressure but it does the job OK.

At last I’ve received an answer to my request for help to Dave’s Garden, see below:

“Hi Neville,

I'm so sorry - we are working to locate the source of this and a few
other ads that are taking up more than their allotted space on our
website screens. Please bear with us as we get this straightened out
with our ad sales team.

Happy Gardening,
Terry”

So I guess all that we can do now is wait and hope they can fix the problem.

Teresa – I’m not having any luck with the link you posted; I’ve tried a few times yesterday and today and just keep getting “This content is currently unavailable”. Any suggestions?

Trish – Just to return to our conversation about Neo. ‘Blushing Tiger’, let me say that although I managed to produce heaps of pups, the plant doesn’t look too good as they are now so over-crowded. If anyone would like to try out what I did, it’s no secret and was told to me some years back by a brom nurseryman.

When you have a plant that has just flowered, you get some Osmocote (just the general type for “pots and planters” will do) and you place a single “prill” (no more) in each of the lower leaf axils and then apply double the recommended dose to the surface of the potting mix and water well. It doesn’t work on all plants but I have successfully used it on Neo.’ Noble Descent’ (8 pups), Ae ‘Ramosa’ (7pups), Vr, ospinae (13 pups) and of course ‘Blushing Tiger’ (20 pups). The reason I don’t do it anymore is that I simply don’t have any space for more pups and am quite happy to let them just produce the one or two pups which I let grow to almost full size before I remove them.

I’ve emailed you a pic of my Auroa/Domino and maybe your friend can sort it out once and for all.

I love the overhead shots of the first two plants showing the contrast in the barring between the Vr, ‘Splendriet’ and the Ae Chantinii, they look great.

Next I’ll jump to Neo ‘Chiquita Linda’, this is a mini I’ve never had any luck with and as everyone else seems to grow it well I’m thinking now that I might have a “dud” clone or one of its lesser hybrids. Please when you get a spare pup could you give me a thought?

This just leaves the Bil. rosea and the Vr. 'Rubyae'; now both of these have a pendulous inflorescence which is easy to forget when they aren’t in flower, but if you don’t leave space for them to grow and hang down over the side of the pot, their beauty will be lost.

I have found the Vr. 'Rubyae' does best and looks best when grown with the pot suspended from an overhead suspension point. The Bill. rosea flowers, although only short lived are borne on a magnificent inflorescence which needs to be displayed with the plant in a slightly elevated position to maximise the impact.

If these plants are sitting on the ground the inflorescence can sometime be so long that they drag in the dirt and I have found the best way is to sit the pot on top of a slightly larger upturned terracotta pot and because they are so tall you also have to take precautions to make sure that it doesn’t topple over.

Shirley – About the advert’s on the computer, see note from D.G above.

As for the production of extra pups, I though after I’d posted that I should have explained, but then thought I had one so a while back but couldn’t be sure so see explanation in my answer to Trish above. Remember though that I said it doesn’t work on all plants, and if it’s a special plant you only have one of, I’d be careful as the extra fertiliser could burn it. It hasn’t happened to me so far but I’m sure it would be possible some times and as we all know, it’s usually the best plants that these things happen to.

Regarding back pain, I know everyone’s different and the treatment that works for me won’t necessarily work for you, but I’ve tried pretty well everything and the two (non-medical) things that helped the most up until it reached the stage of needing surgery, were chiropractic and acupuncture.

I had physio also but that didn’t help at all in my case, (only aggravated things) so I guess you just have to keep trying different things until you get relief. I would suggest acupuncture, but it’s not a “one off fix”, and a good acupuncturist will usually suggest ten sessions and it takes about four before you start to feel relief. I do know of six or more of my friends who have also had good results from this sort of treatment on their backs.

As for ‘Adblock Plus’, my antivirus flagged it as a “possible low security risk” and I was able to override the block and everything has worked OK ever since, so I guess you have to weigh up the benefit against the possible risk, if any.

That’s another nice batch of pictures you’ve posted today. Neo. ‘Burgundy Moss’ is the only one I have; I’ve heard of Chirripo but never seen it and when I look it up I see that it is another from that great breeder of variegated plants Chester Skotak and results from Neo. (carolinae x concentrica) x concentrica

I don’t know the other two either but I see that Neo.’Spatan Beauty’ is from ‘Moana Beauty’ x (unknown pollen parent). As for the Neo concentrica x Euro concentrica, I’ve never heard of one named ‘Euro concentrica’ so maybe it’s just something the breeder put on the name tag to signify that the second parent came from a European collection and it’s now unintentionally become part of the formula name.

It doesn’t matter greatly though as it’s still Neo. concentrica x concentrica and there’s so many concentrica forms and look-a-like hybrids around now that no one could tell the difference. The thing is though that your plant doesn’t look anything like concentrica which I would have expected it should as two species crossed together give plants that look similar. The only concentrica trait I can see are the very faint hints of semi concentric rings on the foliage, but other than that the colour is all wrong. Do you know anything else about its history? In the meantime I’ll have to do a bit more digging.

Jean – It’s really good to be hearing from you again on a regular basis, and before I forget, the Till. in your first picture is Tillandsia stricta, I know because I have it in flower at present also.

It’s also interesting to see your Vr.’Grafton Sunset’ is flowering and about at the same stage of maturity as mine. I thought that being in a cooler area yours would flower later, but then I’m often wrong.

You’ve managed to accumulate a reasonable looking collection there anyway so they’ll keep you occupied as you re-arrange them and try them in different locations. I think you’ll find the Vrieseas will tolerate the cold better than Guzmanias or Neo’s will, at least that’s what I’ve found up here anyway.

What’s the nice looking albo-marginated Neo at the back in Pic.2, is it Neo.’Bill Morris’?

Anyway, it’s time for me to go if I’m going to get some more Seasolling done so I’ll finish with a few pic’s.

Pic.1 is one of Peter Coyle's new Billbergia hybrids Bill. Hallelujah x (Domingos Martins x Golden Joy) Pis'c 2 and 3 are two which he named after his grand daughters Bill. 'Totara Piper' and Bill.'Totara Paisley', Pic.4 is a nice little clump of Neo. 'Lime and Lava' and just for something different, I'll finish with a picture of a rather large Cane Toad.

All the best, Nev

.

Hello to all,

Nev, I like the look of the Neo. 'Lime and Lava' and the brilliant colours in your last post.

I will give your Osmocote tip a go in a couple of the Vrieseas I have once they flower, as haven't got a single pup off any of them, even though the plants themselves look healthy enough. Maybe i am being impatient.

Teresa, I too couldn't open the link but looked up the plane on the net. What a great project that would be.

Trish + Shirley, I'll know once start talking to the plants there is no going back. HAHA.

Hi Jean, nice shots of your Tillandsias, where is Merino? There is a fair spread of people all over the place.

A couple of mixed pictures.

Pic 2, Vr.Ospinae Ruberi ( hard to read writing)
Pic 4 Neo. 'Burnsie's Spiral

Brian

Hi Everyone!

Hi Shirley what a shame there was too much cloud in Brissie for you to watch the lunar eclipse; our skies were clear but today is slightly overcast and we may possibly get some rain but I highly doubt it as normally the wind picks up and push’s away all the clouds. Hope you get some rain to save you having to water as I am sure it is very time consuming for you.

Ha ha ah yes you’re my other brom buddy that talks to your broms other than Jean he he, ah it’s good for the sole so who cares the main thing it puts a smile on our face nothing else matters.

Lovely pics you shared with us, I really liked Pic 1 of Neo. ‘Burgundy Moss’ the way it gets the flecks only predominantly in its centre. Pic 3 of Neo. ‘Chirripo’ is also a favourite of mine although my plant has a lot more growing to do than yours. That’s also a lovely flowing shrub which must really attract the birds and the bees with all those beautiful flowers; I did not recognise the flower so would be great if you could provide a name when you get a chance.

Hi Jean pleased to hear you also watched the lunar eclipse, what a shame you had clouds that got in the way of you seeing it properly; I had trouble getting my eye’s to see it properly so did not get to see all the detail Joe described to me at the time when we were both watching it.

Roses always look great in front gardens so I don’t blame you bringing some over to your unit, my mum has them growing in a row both at her front fence and as well as right in front of her house (windows) and the amount of blooms they produce is breathtakingly beautiful, mum is always tending to them cutting off old buds and pruning / feeding them when they need and gets great joy out of growing them. I don’t blame you bringing over some more broms as it must be hard for you to decide which ones to keep and which ones to leave behind when they all means so much to you. What about talking to some other people in the units nearby to you to see if they would like to grow some of the one’s you will be leaving behind; then at least you know where to go if and when you want a pup and it would be a great way to make new friends?

Great pics you posted of your Tills’ looking very happy indeed in their new possie and what a pretty flower in Pic 1 of the one that has just flowered, purple and pink go so well together. All your broms are looking great and I like how you have them displayed as well as the pretty flowers on your Cyclamens. Do you also collect African Violets; I used too many years ago as well as Cyclamens when we lived in V.I.C but stopped growing them both when we moved to Q.L.D because I found they had a tendency to rot in our humid weather. When my Cyclamens plant had died back I used to lay the pot sort of on its side and just let it rest in the nursery until next flowering season, this used to work in V.I.C but when I tried same here they never grew back and the bulb still just rotted away so I gave up growing them.

Hi Nev great to hear you made a pretty big start on Seasoling your broms, I need to do the same with mine at some stage but keep getting side tracked.

Thanks for the feedback from Dave’s Garden, at least now we all know they are looking into the matter and hopefully things will be back to normal soon.

Thanks for sharing with us how you got your Neo. ‘Blushing Tiger’ to produce so many pups. With all my retirement bromeliads I place a single “prill” (no more) in each of the lower leaf axils but have never applied double the recommended dose to the surface of the potting mix, just a single does around the potting mix. I have experienced good success in getting up to 8 pups off one plant but that’s about it so far. I can see why you don’t do it anymore thought because of not having enough room to do so anymore. I will keep doing so for now as I give away or sell off any spare pups that I have which in turn helps me pay for all my brom supplies and including supplies for Joes orchids.

Thanks for emailing me the picture of your Neo. Auroa / Domino, I will get in contact with my friend and hopefully get an ID for you sometime soon.

Pleased to hear you like the overhead shots showing the contrast in the barring as you say of my Vr. ‘Splendriet’ and Ae. ‘Chantinii, they are both firm favourites of mine and it’s a shame they both can’t take the same amount of light as they would be great to grow side by side somewhere in our garden with their different markings.

Nev by all means I will keep a pup aside for you of Neo. ‘Chiquita Linda’, I nearly killed my plant about a year ago when it got knocked to its side (possibly by our pouches or a possum) and nearly died due to lack of water but luckily I found it and gave it some special treatment and it is slowly coming back to it’s former glory.

Thanks for your advise with Bil ‘Rosea’ and Vr. ‘Rubyae’, mine have not flowered yet so something to look forward to.

Lovely pics you shared with us of Peter Coyle’s new Billbergia hybrids, all beautiful looking plants. Great shot also of Neo. ‘Lime and Lava’, mine has pupped well and I have already potted up 2 x pups and 2 x more are still on the mother so I am pleased about that as it’s one I am very drawn to in my collection and I want to spread them throughout the garden beds as well as keep a couple in the Igloo to compare the different growing conditions and which I prefer to achieve the best result. That’s a HUGE Cane Toad and not something I would like to see in our garden even if it was stuffed LOL.

Hi Brian looking at how quickly your beautiful brom collection is growing it won't be long before you join us ladies and catch yourself talking to your broms and then it will just become something you do not even notice you are doing until you see the funny looks the neighbours give you like with the photo taking ha ha.

I think it's fantastic how quickly your brom collection is growing and I really like the pics I have seen so far on how you are displaying them in your garden which is so full of colour and I like how you have used the pebbles and pots to sit them in/on. What the one in the big pot as it's a pretty colour and I take it is possibly going to be a large grower which will look fantastic when it grows into the pot so to speak.

Take Care & Happy Gardening!

Time to put the kettle on so catch you all tomorrow hopefully.

Trish

Pic 1 - Vr. 'Gigantea Siedeliana'
Pic 2 - Vr. 'Fantasia x Illusion'
Pic 3 - Neo. NOID???? I luv this one to bits
Pic 4 - Neo.'Camelot'
Pic 5 - Neo. 'Sweet Dreams'

Good morning everyone. Its still quite dull here as the sun is coming up behind the clouds.
i will be out watering soon and I have planting to do as i bought a few new plants to go among the roses.
Very pretty little perennial argyranthemums in 4 colors along with some petunias for the other bed outside the next door unit.
I already added some bearded iris and hellebores. I was thinking of placing some broms among the plants but thought maybe a bit much hot sun in summer.
I will still try a few I think as the bright color would look great. Have to have a think about which like the most sun.

Nev , you are right about the large brom in that pic of mine. It is neo Bill Morris.It so big and beautiful, I couldnt leave it behind...lol
The other larger ones at the back are neo Burbank, neo Noble Descent and neo Enchantment albomarginated...all favorites.
Along the back wall in the other pic, I have neos Exotica Velvet, Lila, Lamberts Pride, Allure and eleuthropetala .
You can see a couple of the recurvatas in the front of that pic. One was bought ages ago and has turned out to be a mini . Is there such a thing as a mini recurvata ? This one has a couple of pups and has not grown any bigger. I am hoping it will flowe so I can see exactly what it looks like then.
I tried to get a good mix of broms to have here with those that turn beautiful colors and those with spots, stripes and the variegates.

Nev you mentioned pups on your plants. Sounds like a great way to get more pups but I wont be trying as I dont think I need any more...lol
I have pups on so many of my broms its a pity they will be left behind.

Brian, nice to see you with some lovely pics.
Merino is down in southwest Vic, but I am now in Coleraine, which is only 15 mins from Merino.
Entirely different climate as this is down in a valley, where in Merino, I was on top of a hill.
Now I have to watch for frost which didnt bother much on the hill before.

Trish, great pics too. I do like your noid. I had a few noids too and they seem to be so pretty, one wishes for a name..lol
Glad your Mum is enjoying her broms and the roses.
To me , a garden must have roses. I may start digging up the grass out the back and plant more roses...lol
I sure the maintainance men would love less lawn to mow..

Hello to everyone else. Better get out an start planting those new plants.
no pics today but when I decide which broms to add to the roses, I'll get more pics.
Stay safe and well
Jean.

Nev - not sure why the link didn't work...

I have my planes album set o public so anyone can view them.
FB does some weird things at times.

https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=10154742152680492&set=vb.872860491&type=3&theater

hopefully this will do the trick...

nope - not attaching as a link, maybe FB & DG have had a tiff?

Hi everyone – Finally everything has had their drink of Seasol, so that’s another job to cross off the list, and now back to more re-potting.

Brian – A lot of patterned foliage Vrieseas won’t pup until they have flowered and I’ve found that especially true with the Fosteriana types such as ‘Red Chestnuts’. I have two that are different; one pups before it flowers and then nothing after it has flowered, and the other doesn’t pup until after it has flowered and then it chucks them up four at a time and that’s without extra fertiliser.

I love the group shots of your plants, lots of colour and it will just get better as the weather warms up.

The plant in your second picture looks to me like Vr. Ospinae var. ospinae. (See Pic.1) There is also a Vr. ospinae var. gruberi but the pattern on the foliage isn’t as fine as your plant and the colour is also variable (See pic’s 2, and 3) It seems like someone stole the “g” from the second half of the name on your plant’s name tag, but I think it’s incorrect anyway.

Neo. ‘Burnsie’s Spiral’ is also an interesting plant, often slow to flower, but continues to grow up and up often producing top and bottom pups.

Trish – I never laugh at people who say they talk to their plants; one of our elderly members claims she talks to her plants every day and she grows the most beautiful plants and is usually the most successful exhibitor in our shows. I only did it once when I told some Guzmanias that if they didn’t flower they were going to the tip; I had the most magnificent showing of Guzzies that year that you could imagine, so maybe they do respond to us talking to them.

Did you know roses have a secondary function besides producing beautiful flowers? Have you ever noticed that all large wineries often have rose gardens adjacent to the vineyards? The reason is that if there is fungus disease in the area it will attack the roses first and that gives the staff a warning that it’s time to get out the fungicide. I was told this by the vineyard manager at Brown Brothers in Milawa Vic.

Just to add to your comment about Cyclamens, I have found they seem to like the cold better than the heat. I know they are sold as indoor plants but as soon as ours start to look a bit droopy I take them outside and plant them (pot and all) around the frog pond and there they stay. They die down when they finish but come back the next year with double the show.

Thanks for putting me on the list for Neo. ‘Chiquita Linda’, maybe I might have more luck with a plant coming from a different area.

It’s a bit of a “tug of war” trying to pick a winner from your pic’s today, but I finally got it down to the Vr. 'Gigantea Siedeliana' and the Neo. NOID; of course being a Neo. man I have to give the cigar to the Neo. NOID, it’s a beautiful looking plant and I’d really like to go on the list for a pup if and when you ever get a spare.

Jean – It sounds like I could do with someone like you living next door to me to suggest other plants to put among the brom’s for a bit of extra colour.

That’s a great collection of good quality plants you brought with you and if you’re looking for one that will stand the sun and a bit of heat, you can’t go past Neo.’Nobel Descent’ or Ae. recurvata, although with the ‘Nobel Descent’, it’s best to move it during the cooler months to the area that will be hot in summer and give it a chance to acclimatise. It’s usually not necessary with the Ae. recurvata unless It’s been previously growing in shade.

You asked was there a miniature Ae recurvata and the answer is yes and it’s called Ae recurvata var benrathii (See Pic 4 and 5). They are very good as a border as well and come in various foliage shades from pink through to dark purple almost black.

Teresa – I haven’t had any luck with that link either so I guess someone doesn’t like us.

Time to go and pic’s today are 1 Vr ospinae var ospinae, 2. Vr ospinae var gruberi, 3 Vr. Ospinae var. gruberi, 4 Ae recurvata benrathii (Pink form) and 5. Ae recurvata benrathii (Purple form).

All the best, Nev.

Hi Everyone!

Yeah the weekends here finally and we have no plans whatsoever so it Iook’s like I might get to spend a bit of time in the garden so I am over the moon about that.

Hi Jean sounds like you have been busy buying new plants to put between your roses, would luv to see some pics when your gardens all done as the plants you have chosen sound lovely with all that wonderful colour your gardens will look great.

Pleased to hear you liked my Neo. NOID, I too wish I had a name for it but have never been able to track one down for it over the years but never the less it’s my favourite pink brom in the garden and well up there on my top of the list of favourite Neo’s.

Yes mum definitely enjoys her gardening and is in it most days doing something and can spend the whole day in it where she always tells me time stands still when she is in the garden and nothing else matters and I know exactly what she means as that’s how I feel when I am in our garden. We talk once a week and I am always astounded with how much she gets done during the week at 74 years of age, she is most definitely a very active lady who still old time dances 3 days per week and goes on the odd fishing trip with the fishing group she joined some years back; mum also does all her own home renovations and knows how to maintain her own car given the mechanical history in our family. I get my luv for gardening from her and can’t thank her enough for that and when she comes over for holidays a good majority of our time is spent in the garden together drinking endless cups of tea and chatting like little birds contently as we garden he he.

I too really like roses (especially the smelly one’s) but only have a couple in our front garden that I really need to feed as I have neglected them for some time since the brom obsession hit me some years back now; they are alive and have leaves but have not flowered in a while so I need to feed them or I reckon I will lose them over summer otherwise.

Hi Nev pleased to hear you finished giving all you broms a good drink of Seasol, they will luv you for it I am sure and something I still have to cross off my list of things to do.

How great that you’re Guzzies put of a great flower show after you threatened to take them to the tip, sounds like they got the message loud and clear ha ha.

That’s very interesting information by the vineyard manager about growing roses adjacent the vineyards which makes perfect sense. Do you have any roses growing in your garden Nev?

I like what you do with all your Cyclamens after they have flowered where you plant the pot when the plant is dying down in the fish pond, I suppose the Cyclames would feed happily off the nutrients from the pond, what a great idea to help with an even better flower show the next year.

Nev no worries I am more than happy to have put your name down for a pup of both Neo. ‘Chiquita Linda and the Neo. NOID I brought from the seller who told me if my memory serves me correctly that she had originally brought it at their local market and the lady who sold it to her said it was a NOID that was nicknamed after a friend as ‘Pretty Pink Janice’. Is Chiquita Linda the smallest Mini out there, I thought it was but don’t really know for sure?

Great pics you posted Nev; none of my Vr. Ospinae’s have flowered yet but I am really looking forward to when they do as I really like the colour of the flower they produce. Lovely pics also of Ae. Recurvata benrathii pink and purple form, I think I only have pink form but I am not 100% sure.

Hi Shirley / Teresa what have you guys been up to?

Take Care & Happy Gardening!

Trish

Pic 1 - Vr.Hieorglyphica hybrid
Pic 2 - Neo. 'Stormy Forest' (mini)
Pic 3 - Neo. 'Sweetheart' (mini)
Pic 4 - Neo. 'Franke'
Pic 5 - Neo. NOIDS that my friends friend was going to throw to the tip that I saved some years back from that ever happening.

I went looking for Seasol but couldn't find any... am sure I saw it at the Warehouse months ago.
They do parallel imports so perhaps it was a one off.

I decided to try something else - put a couple of scoops of dynamic lifter in the watering can and used the hose on a high jet to fill it.

the resulting pale brown liquid went onto my tomato seedlings and Bil. nutans had a wee splash.

I also moved the weak seedlings to a shady spot ... probably too late now but it was better than leaving them to deteriorate where they were.

Discovered with my link that if you right click the menu that comes up asks 'go to...' and if you click that it opens the page.

Trish - Neo Franke is a pretty colour.

Nev - yours are all nice but I do like the colour of Ae recurvata benrathii purple form.

Hi everyone – Well Trish and Teresa anyway; come on the rest of you, get out of bed it’s the weekend and time to get out in the garden.

Trish – Your mention of your latest pictures of your NOID makes me wonder how it is that you and Shirley get such a marvelous collection of NOIDS, many of which are often better quality than a lot of the well known and high quality named plants. Down here most NOIDS are just mediocre plants which obviously haven’t been named because they just didn’t "cut the mustard".

I think I may have the answer though; Alan Freeman was a prolific Queensland hybridiser of high quality Neoregelias and was responsible for breeding thousands of high quality plants. Many of these finished up with Keith Golinski at his “Bromagic” bromeliad nursery. I don’t know whether Keith bought them; was given them; or was selling them on behalf of Alan, the thing is they were sold through “Bromagic”. Keith registered many of these brom’s on Alan’s behalf and the BCR lists 957 of them. However, there were just as many if not more which never got registered. Many of these plants as well as ones with registration pending were sold under a “number” and this is where my theory comes into play.

As we all know, many backyard brom growers will buy a plant simply because it appeals to them and they don’t care whether it has a name, number or any other form of identification. In fact I know of many hobbyists who simply discard the ID as they think the label detracts from the look of the plant. I would suggest that to the majority of these people a tag with a number on it would be meaningless and something and would be quickly discarded. Many of these nameless plants would also later find their way into the markets and this is where the bulk of these high quality NOIDS originated, of that I am convinced. Because you and Shirley are both Queenslanders you obviously have access to a greater number of these plants which originated in your state.

Trish, your Mum sounds like a wonderful lady and the things she can still do is “mind boggling”. I’m the same age and these days find it difficult to even walk out the front to get the paper off the lawn each morning. I hope she continues to have a healthy and active life for many more years to come. She sounds very much like the elderly lady in our brom society I mentioned yesterday who talks to her plants, she’s now 86 going on 21 and still going strong, so maybe it’s having plants to talk to every day keeps her young and healthy.

I too have always like the look of roses, however it now seems it’s only the older varieties which have the beautiful perfume, and although the hybridists have bred some magnificent plants in beautiful colours, it seems to be at the expense of the perfume.

You misunderstood what I said I do with my cyclamens when you said, “plant the pot when the plant is dying down in the fish pond”. What I do is plant the cyclamen (still in the pot) in the soil surrounding the frog pond.

Thanks for adding my name to your list of people wanting pups from Chiquita Linda and your NOID and to answer your question, “Is Chiquita Linda the smallest Mini out there”, the answer is no. Neo. lilliputiana which is a species, is much smaller and is also the seed parent of Chiquita Linda. (See Pic.1)

I’m looking at your pictures now and I find your Vr.Hieorglyphica hybrid very interesting with its unusual leaf markings and especially the inflorescence which reminds me of a xGuzvriesea. Please don’t forget to post pictures when the flowers eventually open.

It’s also interesting what we can learn on these forums; when I looked at your Neo.’Stormy Forest’ I thought, “that’s not right”, but when I checked the BCR I found it was right, and the large burgundy coloured Neo. that’s been commonly grown down here for many years under the name of ‘Stormy Forest’ is in fact incorrect, so now I’ll have some info to pass on at the next brom. society meeting. I like both your Neo.'Stormy Forest' and Neo. 'Sweetheart' ; they’re nice shaped little mini’s.

I also like the look of your Neo.'Franke' which I find is unregistered as so many of these names are these days. I just can’t understand why a person will give a plant a name but won’t go the extra step of registering it when it’s such a simple process. In my opinion, if a plant is worth giving a name to, it deserves to have that name registered….(Cranky old man again).

Teresa – What you’ve done is a new take on the old liquid “chook poo” (or what we used to call “fowlsh”) liquid manure. The elderly lady in our brom society who I often speak of and who grows the beautiful brom’s, makes her own liquid fertiliser out of Dynamic Lifter and has done so for years. She puts a bucket full in an old pillow case and soaks it in a large garbage can of water. After a couple of weeks she dilutes the resulting liquid with water to make it the colour of weak tea and this is applied to the whole plant and potting mix.

With your link, all I can get is “This content is currently unavailable” and nothing else.

That’s for today; Pic 1 is Neo. lilliputina, Pic.2 is Neo.‘Crimson Glow’ (Red Fleck) Not much in the shape department but unusual “glowing” red flecks when viewed from below with the light behind it, Pic.3 Neo ‘Apricot Nectar’ one of my favourite colours, Pic, 4 A nasty plant with vicious prickles but a beautiful inflorescence, Bromelia pinguin. Finally an “oldie but a goodie” with beautifully coloured foliage Vr. ‘Kent’s Sunset’.

All the best, Nev.

Nev - I had a funny feeling I'd heard of the dynamic lifter in water thing somewhere & my guess is that when you told us about your friends method my brain stored it away for later use.

the colour of the liquid was very much weak tea... don't think my hubby would thank me for serving him some of that brew ;)

Love the colour of Neo Apricot Nectar.
That would look wonderful next to a couple of the darker varieties...

Hi everybody,

Beautiful weather today on the Central Coast.

Dropped my son and his wife down to Sydney to board a ship for an island cruise (lucky bugger).
Geez the cruise ships are getting bigger.

While I was down there we spent a bit of time at the Botanical Gardens. Probably an under used part of the city but a brilliant spot. This time of year it is full of colour. The succulents section has some weird looking plants.They have a couple of little sections of Bromeliads but nothing like the colour you see from all your pictures.

There was a little section where you could buy a few plants at reasonable prices.

Trish, your Mum sounds like an active lady , no matter what her age.

Have a good weekend everybody else.

Some pics I took today.

Brian.

Hi again,

One of the plants I bought today ( in the pic) has dates marked on the label, is this when it would have been repotted?

Brian

Hi everyone,

Not much happening here this last week or so. Still attending Drs and physio appointments, takes up so much of the day ... getting organised to go out, commuting, waiting, waiting, waiting and then usually so tired by the time we get home, no energy left to do anything.

Still no rain here, I spent most of the afternoon watering, however, I did have a lovely morning visiting the Wavell Heights Brom Extravaganza and made a few purchases. I will add pics over the next week or so.

I moved a few of my larger potted succulents to a new spot along the north-east side of the igloo as we are going to cover the area where they came from with shade cloth to house more broms. Still have lots of succulents in big pots, thinking I might try to sell off a few.

Nice pics everyone. My pics are –

1 – neo Gigas
2 – neo After Dark
3 – neo Lady Love
4 – neo Out of Africa (one of today’s buys)
5 - neo Mad Max (another of today's buys)

Enjoy the rest of the weekend
Shirley

Hello again,

I meant to add a pic of the succulents in their new home ... like so many other things here at the moment, not quite finished yet

Shirley

Hi everyone – It’s a beautiful day here today and it’s that time of the month again (the second Sunday) when the I.L.R.M.S. is open and where we take our grandsons for steam train rides.
See: http://www.ilrms.com.au/

Teresa – It doesn’t matter where you read it, your brain hit the “save” button and you’ve been able to access a useful tip to use on your garden. I know it does look like weak tea but certainly not recommended for drinking.

The longer you leave the Dynamic Lifter in the bin to steep, the darker it becomes and that’s why it’s sometimes necessary to dilute it with water to that “weak tea” colour.

I’ve never thought about what you said with the placement of ‘Apricot Nectar’, and I can just imagine it between two nice dark burgundy coloured Neo’s; I’ll have to try it and take a pic to post.

Brian – I hope you had a nice day at the botanical gardens, as you say,” Probably an under used part of the city” and it seems to be the same here with the Wollongong Botanical Gardens as well; it’s a pity as there’s lots to see for anyone interested in gardening.

That’s a brilliant Ae. blanchetiana in your third picture and the Ae recurvata in Pic.4 looks very much like one I have called Ae. recurvata ‘Blushing Pineapple’.

The plant you bought is a nice Alcantarea and a good price as well. Yes the dates probably are the times it has been repotted although most growers usually write these details and any comments on the reverse of the label to save confusion with the name.

Shirley – Sorry to hear you’re still having problems with your back and I know just how time consuming all of the travelling to and from medical appointment can be.

Nice pictures once again; I’m afraid I’m not a fan of plants with big spiky leaves like Neo.‘Gigas’, I love the colour but not the prickles. I can’t find it as being registered so I don’t know the parentage but very possible that Neo carcharodon is involved somewhere.

Neo.’After Dark’ has beautiful glowing colour (and spiky leaves) and is from Sharon Petersen of Hawaii and Neo.’Lady Love’ which will colour up still more than it is at present, is from our own Australian champ., Grace Goode OAM.

As for your two new ones; Neo. ‘Out of Africa’ (a Margaret Patterson hybrid) is very appropriately named, as both parents were Neo. Africa.

Neo. ‘Mad Max’ is a Chester Skotak hybrid from unknown parents and previously given a name of Anna #1. It was registered by John Catlan as ‘Mad Max’ in 1998.

I’m not really into succulents, but I think yours really make a statement against the back drop of beige shade cloth.

That’s it for today; off to the trains now and just a few random shots from around the yard to finish with.

All the best, Nev.

Hi Everyone!

Great weekend spent in the garden cleaning broms, potting up pups, weeding, raking, pruning, watering, fertilising and putting aside some sale broms, about 30 in total so far with more to get ready. I feel like I have not stopped between gardening, housework, exercising (doing my laps in the morning and walking in the evenings and a swim again; anyway I feel great but just chomping at the bit for some more gardening time is it’s just never enough and I constantly crave for more he he.

Hi Teresa sounds like you have been busy in our garden also and I’m sure all your plants will take off with that feed of dynamic lifter. I have grape tomato’s growing and fruiting and have to remember to give them a feed next weekend as I totally forgot today.

Hi Nev that makes sense what you say about the Neo. NOID’s we seem to get here in Queensland; what a crying shame that so many are not registered, especially that Pink Neo’ NOID I posted the other day, I always look at it think it’s very worthy of a proper name and be registered but I know nothing about its history other than what the seller told me about what it got nicknamed.

Thanks Nev for your kind comments about my mum, she goes alright and even I have trouble keeping up with her when she is here and just talking to her on the phone an listening to all she gets up to tuckers me out LOL. The lady you always speak of at your brom society sounds really lovely and how great she grows her broms . One of my friends Aunty is 98 and still weeds her own garden, it takes her a week to do slowly but steady with tea and scone breaks in between but she gets all she wants done during the week and rests on the weekends.

I only grow perfumed roses in the garden as that’s what a rose means to me, it’s all about their beautiful smell and going up to the bush and having a good whiff of the delicious flower whenever I walk past it.

Ah that’s right (thanks for reminding me) Neo. Lilliputiana is the smallest mini and one that I do not have in my collection as of yet but would like to get at some stage. Thanks also for providing a picture of what it looks like, such a pretty one for a species.

Pleased to hear you like my pic of Vr. Hieoglyphica, unfortunately that’s a pic from last year and the only good pic I took of the flower and the pups although of a good size are still too young to flower.

That’s great what you learnt about Neo. ‘Stormy Forest’ and that you will be able to share your findings at your brom society.

Hope your grandsons had a fantastic time on the steam train ride; I will have to jump in and take a look at the link you kindly provided.

Yes it’s a shame Neo. ‘Franke’ is not registered, one I brought on EBay if my memory serves me correctly; it’s a cute compact little plant that kind of reminds me of Neo. ‘Beevie Bee’ in some ways.

Great pic you posted of Neo. ‘Apricot Nector’ as well as what a stunning flower on Bromelia penguin (what a shame the plant has prickles). Also luved the random shots you took around your garden, especially Pic 1 – WOW look at all that amazing colour everywhere you look.

Hi Brian thanks for sharing all the great pics you took at the Botanical Gardens, sounds like you had a lovely time there; and your too right about the succulents don’t some of them look weird but still nice to look at because they are so different.

Hi Shirley sorry to hear you are feeling so tired with all the appointments etc. and how sore your back is at present I am not surprised, look after yourself and try to take things easy when you can.

Great to hear you had a fantastic time at the Wavell Heights Brom Extravaganza, wish we had something like that here. Can’t wait to see pics of all the wonderful new broms you brought home with you; that’s the exciting part picking out what you really want to take home with you but its so hard to decide sometimes when there are so many beautiful ones to choose from.

Great pics you posted, my eyes were especially drawn to Neo. ‘Mad Max’ and Neo. ‘Out of Africa’ which are both beautiful looking broms. Great pics also of your succulents in their new home; we are going to do similar beside our igloo but with Desert Roses in terracotta pots either side of the Igloo; our friend grows these from all over the world so hopefully I will be able to get some nice one's to put out there for lots of colour.

Anyway time to head as have dinner to make and lunches to get ready for tomorrow.

Take Care & Happy Gardening!

Trish

No pics tonight but hopefully tomorrow I will get to attach some.

Hi all, first post on the brom thread. I hadn't realised there were so many cultivars all with names. I only have a few broms in my garden and don't have a clue what they are. Can anyone tell me what this one is please?

Hi all,

Nev, it appears neo Gigas has been renamed Great White and it does have carcharodon in its breeding. I love the really toothy ones even though they bite and I bear a few scars from them.

As for neo Out of Africa … I hadn’t checked the BCR and when you said both parents were Africa, I wondered where the variegation came from. When I did check I found it must obviously be misnamed, so it looks like another NOID. Any idea of its ID please.

And neo Mad Max is obviously quite unstable. I have purchased two pups from different sellers and both lost their variegation as they grew. At least buying a mature plant with reasonable variegation, I should get some nice pups … fingers crossed.

Trish, great to hear you managed to get so much done in the garden over the weekend. I used to have a few Desert Roses in different colours but I only have a couple left now. We saw some really fantastic ones, I think it was in Singapore, a couple of years ago, in smallish pots with very thick, tangled roots visible above the soil. I might be able to find a photo.

Found a couple of pics, it was in fact in Vietnam and it was more than four years ago but they really intrigued me, sort of bonsai but bigger.

A big welcome to Magpie63, hope you stay with us. I would say your photos are of a flowering vriesea but I have no idea of its name, Nev might be able to tell you more.

Anyway, that’s it for me, g’night
Shirley

Hi everyone – Had a great day yesterday, we spent the morning riding the old steam train with my grandson and his Mum and Dad, and the little bloke had a ball. Most of the staff know him by name now as he’s a regular visitor and there’s lots of “High Fives” each time he meets one of them. I spent the afternoon sorting plants and getting some ready to send to Shirley this morning.

Trish – As I said, often it’s not the case that these NOIDS aren’t registered, it’s just that the names were taken out by owners who didn’t understand the importance of accurate names as much as we do. I know it’s just not possible, but it would be very interesting if someone could sit down with pic’s of some of the many nice Queensland NOIDS and compare them to the pic’s on the “Bromagic” files of the Alan Freeman plants, both registered and unregistered and I'm sure we'd find some matches. Anyway, just in case anyone’s interested and has heaps of spare time, here’s the web address: http://www.bromeliads-of-australia.com.au/gallery/a/ Ha! Ha!

The interesting thing about Neo lilliputiana is that the flower seems much larger in proportion to the plant and this is emphasised by the fact that it grows much higher than normal Neoregelias.(See Pic1)

Regarding Bromelia pinguin, it is also very common in Jamaica, where it is planted as a fence around pasture lands, and its prickly leaves tend to keep the cattle enclosed. I have also read that it was used as a secondary perimeter fence around one of the Mexican Gaols.

Magpie63 – First of all, a very warm welcome to our friendly little forum, we are few in number but very big on friendship and pleased to have a new “brom friend” to share our love of these wonderful plants with.

To answer your question about the plant in your picture, it is a Vriesea; as for its varietal name, I’m sorry but I can’t help you. There are mainly two different sorts of Vrieseas, the patterned foliage type which are grown for their coloured foliage and the type shown in your picture which are grown for their beautiful flowers. There are thousands of these plants produced annually and sold with just a generic name label (if any label at all) as a substitute for cut flowers in the home. They are often just thrown out when they finish flowering when used in this way, but having said that, they are perfectly good to grow in a shade house or a protected part of the garden as well and will continue to flourish and produce flowers each year.

The part you see in your picture is not the flower as a lot of people think, but is part of the inflorescence and generally called a “paddle”. The flowers which are usually yellow will emerge from each side of the paddle (often just one at a time) starting at the bottom and working their way to the top. After a couple of days they will die off and turn brown before another one opens. Even after they have all flowered and died, the paddle will retain its colour for some months which makes them a useful alternative to a bunch of flowers in the home.

Shirley – That’s certainly an interesting bit of history and I must say the plant is very appropriately named. When I looked up Neo.’Great White’ on the BCR there is lots more information about it which makes quite a story for anyone interested.
See: http://registry.bsi.org/?genus=NEOREGELIA&id=10057#10057

As for Neo.’Out of Africa’, I wouldn’t be too hasty in calling it a NOID just yet as stranger things have happened with Neo’s. True, it may be wrongly named, but there is also a slim chance it happened to produce a variegated “sport” which in turn produced variegated pups of its own. The only real way to be sure is to see what sort of pups your plant produces; if it produces ones like the pic. on the BCR, then you have the plant correctly named. If it produces more like your variegated plant, I think you’re in front because I think that’s a superior plant albeit unnamed.

You mention the instability in Neo.‘Mad Max’; just let me say that this is a common complaint with many variegated plants (some more than others) and not just ‘Mad Max’. I spent quite a bit of money a few years back trying to get a stable Neo.’Royal Burgundy Supreme’. I got them from three different sources, but each one reverted and just produced plain pups without the pink marginated leaves. Ever since then I’ve lost interest in variegated plants; I still like them but I won’t go out of my way to chase them.

Incidently Neo. ’Royal Burgundy Supreme’ has an interesting history as well which you can read about at: http://registry.bsi.org/?genus=NEOREGELIA&id=6866#6866

There’s no doubt that the Desert Rose (Adenium) is an unusual and attractive plant. It’s flower reminds of a frangipani even though it’s a much smaller plant. They seem to favour the warmer climates as I’ve had no luck with them here. Tash sent me down a couple of plants as well as some seed. The seed all germinated and grew well but as soon as winter came they virtually died over night. The two larger plants struggled on for another couple of years until they too eventually succumbed to the cold winter. Anyway the plants in your pictures are a great examples of beautiful, sculptural perfection.

Time to go again so I’ll finish with firstly, a picture of Neo. lilliputiana for Trish plus four more random shots from around my backyard.

All the best, Nev.

Nev thank you so much for all the info re the Vriesea as I knew nothing about these so you've been a great help. I originally bought it in flower with no label or should I say with its paddle which I assumed was the flower.
There seems to be quite a few people on this thread and a heck of a lot of information to take in which is new to me but I am keen to learn. I have a couple more broms I have taken photos of hoping to have them identified too.
Shirley I love your adenium and will post a pic of mine as these are another plant I could get very fond of. I have some I've grown from seed that I'm hoping to get some other colours from eventually if I can keep them alive long enough.
1 & 2 same brom which is?
3 brom which is?
4 I have dozens of these, what are they?
5 My adenium (Desert Rose)
Diane

Hi all,

A bit of a wild storm been through tonight, plenty of rain with it. My son got caught in it so i thought i would go and pick him up. Borrowed the daughters new car as it was in the road, took me 15mins to work out how to start the thing. Sat there with what i thought was the key looking for the ignition to put it in. No ignition, just press the button and the seat moved into position, (my face into the windscreen) lights on and doors lock. All her setting automatically set themselves, amazing.

Anyway Nev, hope you had a good day with your grandson at the steam trains, I bet he has a great time on them. I can remember when my oldest son was about 5yr old he was Thomas The Tank Engine crazy, and we would take him up to the Zig Zag Railway in the Blue Mountains where they would paint up one of the trains like Thomas, ill never forget his face when he saw it.
Nev, do you plant your Broms in the garden or leave them in their pots?

Welcome to you Diane, I can't help you with your plants as I have only just started growing them, someone will have a better idea though.

Shirley, hope you're getting better, amazing plant in your last post.

Trish, Jean and Teresa, do you collect any other plants types?

Anyhow, can't upload any pics again tonight for some reason so goodnight.

Brian

Shirley I really feel for you having a constantly painful back as I can still remember how I felt the pain was just eroding my personality away day after day. Then there was all the trips to the pain clinic, the long days there and the disappointment of finding later that whatever treatment they tried I was no better off. I finally bit the bullet and decided to have a spinal fusion and laminectomy done against the advice of my general practitioner and the pain clinic as I had reached a stage where I felt I had nothing left to lose. It was the best decision I ever made once the rehabilitation period was over but I was very lucky to have access to a hydrotherapy pool which I believe played a huge part in my great recovery. That is my story but I know not everyone enjoys the same good result. I also had to work very hard after the surgery doing exercises 6 times a day religiously but it was worth it. Mine was L4 & L5 and with it fused I can't do too much bending but with a kneeling pad I manage quite well. That was over 8 years ago and I've since had a hip replacement done July 2013 and after a few months of exercises I was back up to speed with that too. I don't know your story but I wanted you to know there can be a positive outcome for some.

Hi Everyone!

We had a spot of rain this morning but nothing to write home about he he.

Hi Diane a BIG WARM WELCOME and thanks for joining us on this great forum, aside from the great friendships to be made here it is also a wonderful place to share in each others passions for brom collecting and communicating and helping one another with any questions / answers we may have at any given time. I personally have learnt so very much since joining this friendly forum nearly a couple of years ago now; but to me the most important thing are the friendships I have made along the way which keeps me coming back for more.

What lovely pictures you posted of your Vriesea in flower, what a pretty “paddle” (flower) it has made up of more than one colour; unfortunately I do not know what it’s actual name is as there are so many out there similar where the foliage is green all over and only the flower makes them different as these types of vrieseas are grown / sold for the flower and not the foliage and are mass produced and the tag usually has a generic name on it; but if it was a patterned leaf Vriesea the odds of me being able to identify it might have been higher as I grow many patterned leaf Vrieseas; but if not at least you know it is a Vriesea of some sort.

Diane looking at your second post / 1st Pic, this one’s an Aechmea of some sort, possibly ‘Bert’ but I am not 100% sure as I do not have many Aechmea’s in my collection. Pic 2 is a Neorgelia of some sort but again I am not 100% sure what it is but I really like the look of it? Pic 3 looks like Neorgelia ‘Compacta’ that pups readily and likes to climb trees / rocks etc; I have mine growing both in shrubs and in my garden beds. Luv your Desert Rose which has fantastic shape and I like all the shells you have placed around its base.

Hi Shirley thanks I am very pleased with how much I got done around the yard over the weekend just that I was craving more as the weekend came to a close.

As I mentioned yesterday I am hoping I can get a few different types of Desert Roses to place either sides of the Igloo and although I do not mind the flowers on some of the common ones I am hoping to get some double and possible triple flower type one’s from friends of ours who grow them and have large collections but it depends what they would be willing to part with in there collection I suppose that I would look at buying from them? Thanks for attaching those two beautiful pics with that amazing root structure, I think that’s what I admire the most about Desert Roses as well as the bonsai look they have about them.

Hi Nev pleased to hear all the fun you all had riding the old steam train. Too cute how your grandson “High Fives” as he meets the staff, what a social butterfly he is.

Ah if only I had the time to go through all of those “Bromagic” files to match possibly some of the many NOIDS I have. I think once I did have a look for one I brought off a seller who advised me it was a NOID but the person they got it from thought it may have been called Neo. ‘Bubblegum’ so I matched it to that of the one I think was in the “Bromagic” files and found that it was in fact called exactly that so have it now written on its label now. Mine was in full bloom when I went chasing a name but the one on the file had a less colour but it was definitely the same plant when I compared them side by side so I was tickled pink about that because I am very fond of this brom in my collection.

Thanks for providing Pic 1, that’s funny how Neo. Lilliputiana’s flower seems much larger in proportion to the plant, and how pretty do the flowers look as well.

That’s very interesting what Bromelia pinguin has been used for, how tall does it grow to be used like that, but I suppose if it’s grown in more than one row harder to get over I suppose?

Nev down your neck of the woods you would need to plant your Desert Roses in very course sand and possibly mix this up with courser stone so that it drains very quickly; can you remember what you had them growing in when you first potted them up? Even my friend in Q.L.D who tried growing some in finer sand lost a heap to rot so might be worthwhile giving them another try sometime? Another time he lost part of his collection forgetting to disinfect his pots and believes they died from disease?

More lovely “random shots” you took of your broms in the garden all so full of beautiful colour and I especially liked the full shaped ones in Pic 1 - what a stunner, could you give me a name please? Pic 3 also really caught my eye, could you also provide a name for this one also thanks.

Hi Brian that storm you had sounded pretty wild having to get out on the road to go pick up your son but it sounds like you did it in luxury driving your daughters car and you had me laughing big time the way you described the trying to start the car experience; I too would have had no idea and probably would have sat there even longer trying to work out how to start the thing. Anyway I hope the setting your daughter had the car set was comfortable for you as all I pictured was your face pressed up against the windscreen once you pressed that button HA HA HA.

Brian I do also collect succulents, cacti, heliconia's and gingers but my collection is on a far smaller scale then my brom collection because I just don't have the time otherwise to look after everything I have and it would annoy me if I could not care for what I had now properly. And my husband Joe grows lots of orchids. What about you do you like to grow other types of plants and would you say now that broms are at the top of the tree in what you now grow?

Anyway I better head off to work (sad face) LOL. Have a great day everyone!

Take Care & Happy Gardening!

Trish

Pic 1 - Vriesea (Vr.) 'Pink Cockatoo' for Diana to see the different types out there
Pic 2 - Neo. 'Jewellery Shop' old pic of the very first pup I brought
Pic 3 - Neo. 'Heck'
Pic 4 - Vr. 'Tiger Tim'
Pic 5 - Vr. 'Snows of Mauna Kea'

Hello all. I am just having a morning cuppa until the sun gets up a bit more. Have to be at the hairdressers early then over to the house to move more stuff.
It rained all yesterday which the plants love and was quite cold as well.
Today looks (so far ) like being a bit warmer. It seems to be the norm lately that the day starts out well then deteriorates...lol

I have a few more neos over here which I have placed among the new plants in the little front garden. Will get a pic when the sun decides to stay around.
I am watching the two vrieseas as the flower stems grow.
I found another clivia back at the house, which has a flower stem coming , so it is here now so I can see what color it is. I am always looking for a red one, but those I have bought as red usually are just orange.Its like all plants, you must make sure you get an offspring from a flowered plant so you know what you are getting..
Too many people out there selling something as what is isnt, knowing you will have to wait until it flowers to see you have the wrong plant.

Nev, sounds like you had a great day with your grandson. Even girls sometimes love engines. We used to run to the railway tracks every time a steam engine was coming through.
I remember riding on our Puffing Billy down here in Vic. My Mum would insist on putting a dress on me , but I still manged to sit in the window and enjoy the steam.
I think she realised a few years later that it was useless getting me to be girlie...lol
She bought me a pair of jeans when they became more common in Australia.
I dont own a dress, but did buy a long skirt to wear when Hubby and I married.

Brian, you have a lovely lot of broms.
Like the others, I did collect other plants... mainly epiphyllums and bearded iris, but if it was green and grew, I surely had it somewhere.
Sadly , no more big garden, but it sensible as one ages. I couldnt manage to keep up with the large garden even if I was still living at the old house.

Diane, good luck with trying the desert roses. I did try once, but like Nev said of his, mine died in the cold.

Shirley, take care of yourself. Backs are notorious for pain. Maybe Mother Nature made us a bit wrong. Should we have 4 legs...lol
Be easier on the back wouldnt it ?

Hello Trish, great pics. Looking at your Tiger Tim makes me want to bring one of mine over here. I will try to resist the temptation..

Looking out the window, the sun has gone and lots of ugly clouds are back. Today was going to be a moving stuff day, but it looks like that will be postponed unless the sun can manage to chase the clouds away.

Better get moving.
Take care everyone an stay safe.
No pics again as I am waiting for good weather and flowers to open.
Jean.