Xmas seems an age ago - well I guess it really is with time marching quickly towards winter. We hope you all had a restful & happy festive season. Our bromeliads have loved the cooler weather of early autumn & look refreshed after the summer heat. The nights are just beginning to get colder, so growth will slow down now till Spring.
WAVELL HEIGHTS SHOW: The Bromeliad Extravaganza was held on 27th & 28th February & was successful & enjoyable. It's a great place to chat to others who are interested in bromeliads. Our next show is Saturday 9th (8am - 3pm) & Sunday 10th (9am - 2pm) October 2010. Venue is Wavell Heights Community Hall, 175 Edinburgh Castle Road, Wavell Heights, Brisbane. The local girl guides provide refreshments & there is plenty of off-street parking. Phone Nigel for information 07 5485 3800.
BROMELIAD PUPS: Now is the time to consider leaving the removal of your pups till it warms up again in October. Some people do remove pups in the cooler months - but I support the opinion that these plants can struggle to grow well. This doesn't apply to areas in Australia that remain warm all year round.
FEATURED BROMELIAD:
We now have Robert Dilling's Alcantarea 'Silver Plum' for sale (25cm high) for $20 plus $7 postage. Picture of actual plants for sale - see below. This stunning specimen bromeliad, which develops a lovely silvery purple sheen, does well in full sun but can also be grown in the shade. The flower spike, which can take up to fifteen years to produce, can be as tall as 2.5 metres & the plant itself 1.5 meters wide. Silver Plums have been grown from seed & are a relatively rare collector's plant. As with most bromeliads frosty spots should be avoided & good drainage provided.

Alcantarea 'Silver Plum'
INSTABILITY & NITROGEN: This article has been reproduced with the kind permission of the author, John Catlan, from his booklet 'Bromeliads Under the Mango Tree'. John is a well known hybridist & collector who lives on the Gold Coast, QLD. This booklet (which has gems of information) can be purchased through the Gold Coast Succulent & Bromeliad Society (details on the net).
Over the years we have collected variegated neoregelias & grown some seed. Take Neoregelia 'Perfecta Tricolor' as an example. We have seven forms divided by size & colour. They have the basic characteristics of the original 'Perfecta Tricolor' but are all new plants from seed. At our peak frenzy with vatiegated neoregelias, we held a fraction over 240 different plants, at the present time about 180. Because of the cost of time to maintain these plants & the cost of room, the numbers will be reduced to 100. There were 18 sections with the number of variegated neoregelias approximately 9,000. These plants went through rapid propagation (potting up - new potting mix & fertilizer) & neglect (no new potting up - no new potting mix or fertilizer).
Lesson learned - Variegated neoregelias are more stable with neglect.
When fertilizing variegated neoregelias it is better to err on the side of caution - too little is far better than too much. When we create unstable plants from too much fertilizer, the pup may appear to be ok - but - if the section where the pups are initiated has had the variegation almost destroyed by the release of too much fertilizer when it was formed, it will produce unstable plants.
'To err is human; to blame the plant is even more human'
NEOREGELIAS - PART 1
Neoregelias are tank epiphytes & are the most popular bromeliads for hybridists & collectors. They are also used extensively for landscaping. They are often referred to as 'neos'.
The genus was named in honour of the German horticulturalist & botanist Eduard August von Regal (1815-1892) who was director of the Imperial Botanical Garden of St Petersburg (now Leningrad) in Russia. The first neoregelia was described in 1825, although incorrectly as a Tillandsia. When plants of this genus were originally brought to Europe in the early to mid 19th century, they were classified with the genera names Karatus & Agelia. The genus Regelia was established for these plants in 1890 by Lindman. Since that name had already been given to three species of myrtle, Dr Lyman B. Smith (American taxonomist who died in 1997 at the age of 93) reclassified them as Neoregelia in 1934, adding the Greek word 'neo:new' to distinguish it from the old genus.
Neoregelia belong to the subfamily Bromelioideae which all have berry-like fruit with seeds within the fruit's 'pulp' (Foster 1951). Nearly all have leaves edged with spines of varying sizes. A small number of neos are smooth edged.
SPECIES: Two subgenera of Neoregelia are currently recognised - Neoregelia & Hylaeaicum (high-lee-ai-cum). There are 110 known species (some references list 112. There are 94 listed on the FCBS register) of which 10 belong to the subgenus Hylaeaicum (N. eleutheropetala, leviana, margaretae, mooreana, myrmecophila, pendula, rosea, stolonifera, tarapotoensis, wurdackii).
HYBRIDS: Of all the bromeliad genera, neos are the most popular for hybridising - there are currently 3857 listed on the FCBS register (Florida Council of Bromeliad Societies) & there are many more unregistered. Confusion & debate are commonplace, even among the experts. Many of the hybrids grown today have beautifully marked & coloured foliage throughout their life with the colour intensifying at flowering & the central leaves becoming flushed with intense colours of red, pink, purple & more. The leaves may be green, silver, banded, blotched, variegated, marbled, spotted, albomarginated & many colours. While the actual flowers only last a day, the blushing foliage will stay in colour for months. With their high colour, neos attract as pollinators bees, butterflies etc in habitat. This evolutionary strategy was improved for many green leaved neos when they evolved the ability to turn the inner half of their leaves to bright red, purple, yellow etc as they began to flower.
FORM: Neos are compact & low growing with leaves arranged in a circular pattern (rosette) which ranges from open & flaring (eg N. carolinae) to narrow & tubular (eg N. ampullacea). The tubular neos are small & they clump by sending out new plants on stolons. Neos mostly have broad, relatively flat leaves.
SIZE: They vary from the tiny N. lilliputiana (7 cm high) to the large N. carcharodon & N. johannis which can reach 120cm across. Leaves can be few (5-10) or many. The average is 15-20. Neoregelias in the subgenus Hylaeaicum are mostly small & stoloniferous.
INFLORESCENCE: This does not rise above the leaves but nestles in the central water cup (tank) that is formed by the inner leaves. This is a nidular (meaning nest like) inflorescence. The tank collects water & decaying debris which satisfies the plant's nutritional needs when the leaves absorb the dissolved nutrients.
FLOWERS: These have three sharply pointed petals which are white, lavender, lavender edged, blue or blue edged. They are quite pretty. There are many of them, but only a few open at a time & last for a day. They all gradually open, blooming from the outside into the centre, over an extended period. In the subgenus Neoregelia, the petals are connected to each other in part or for most of their length (connate = joined). In Hylaeaicum, the petals are separate & there is a dense cluster of white petaled flowers in a deeply sunken inflorescence.
HABITAT: The subgenus Neoregelia is confined to coastal southern Brazil with two exceptions - N. cathcartii is found in Northern Venezuela & N. johnsoniae is found in Amazonian Peru. The subgenus Hylaeaicum is entirely Amazonian in parts of Columbia, Venezuela. Peru, Ecuador & Brazil. The climate zone is subtropical & they grow from sea level to 5000 feet. They are found in the lower levels of rainforests where they grow on logs, lower tree branches & even on rocks. Some do grow on coastal rocks & scrub near the ocean.
Next: Cultivation of neoregelias
Happy growing
Bob & True Grant