Bromelcairns - Bromeliads Down Under

Bromelcairns
Bimonthly Newsletter
of Cairns Bromeliad Society Inc. 2009 # 2
P.O. Box 28 Cairns Queensland 4870 Australia
President
Thomas Jones
V-President
Bob Hudson
Secretary
Lynn Hudson
Treasurer
Sharron Miller
Librarian
Elaine Asher
Editor
Lynn Hudson
Editor Assist. Sturt Gibbs
OIC Raffles
Karen Stevens
Member Concierge Barry Osborne
Popular Vote Steward Karen Cross
unlisted
0740533913
0740533913
0740322283
0740937510
0740533913
0421041236
0740361086
0740532047
0740545497
*Honorary Life Member - Grace Goode O.A.M.*
Life Member - Lynn Hudson
*******************************************
Aims of the Society
Promote and Develop Interest in Bromeliads through Friendship
To Co-operate with similar Clubs throughout the World
**********************************************************
Membership Fee: $15 single, $25 family,
$7.50 junior (if not in family membership). Country Member $25
Meetings start at 1.pm sharp first Saturday of the month.
Please bring a cup and a chair.
Library: All books & magazines borrowed are to be returned in good order to the
following meeting. If not on wait list, they may be rebooked.
Plant Display/Sales: To participate, a member must be financial and circumstances
permitting, have attended at least three meetings in the past six months.
Where the society is charged a stall fee - 20% of sales are deducted for club funds. No
charge venue & meetings - 10% of sales is deducted.
All plants to be clean, free of disease, named and price tagged.
Show Plants: Must be the property of and in the custody of the entrant for the past
three months. For Society Shows the entrant must be financial and have attended at
least three meetings during the past six months.
Pens, Plant Tags & Pots: available at each meeting.
If reprinting article, wholly or in part, please acknowledge Author & Newsletter.
Any article will be emailed on request to [email protected]
Club Activities & Around the Members
MARCH: You probably agree that most secretaries do not keep
changing their minds about where their next meeting will be and/or if
it will be! How boring, no members would be confused!
First there was a “it is on, bus leaves at” notice, then as the rain
poured down it was “if it is too wet to bus to Kuranda, we will meet at
Boden St”. Then cyclone ‘Hamish’ threatened to hit us full force, & on
Friday both the meeting & bus were cancelled. I even received
approval messages!Saturday dawned in beautiful sunshine, just for
my 65th. Birthday! The phone rang with members saying they would
come over anyway - so we had a meeting. It was pretty disjointed,
there were many laughs & Bob kept interrupting by playing my
Chicken Dance birthday card.
* The meeting was to be at Elaine & Bill’s garden at Kuranda. Elaine
attended but Bill had been called to Coast Watch to move the craft
upstream.
* Elaine told us how her bromeliad experience began, see pages 4 &
5.
* We were to have a billbergia mini show but we had just one entry
from Elaine. It was a very attractive, well grown plant but the name
does not appear anywhere.
Mini Show - Billbergia ‘Plectanthus’ Grower – Elaine Asher
Novice - Tillandsia fasciculata var. fasciculata Grower – Stuart Howe
Aechmea chantinii variegated Grower - Delmae Meehan
Open - Tillandsia flexuosa
Grower – Bob Hudson
Billbergia ‘Plecthanthus’ Grower – Elaine Asher
Cryptanthus: nil entries
****************************
Bloomin Broms June 6-8 2009
There has been good interest in our learning weekend and registrations are
steadily arriving. We look forward to having members Barbara & Brian Surman
and Sue & Goff Loughran with us, plus Olive & Len are bringing plants. “Have van
will travel”- I do not know who is the most amazing Olive & Len or the van, they
sure cover some ground! Shane & Richard attended the Mt. Coot-tha Bromeliad
Day and met John Catlan who is really excited about coming to Cairns. Let us
hope he rests up because we are going to ask him lots of questions.
Club Activities & Around the Members
How I became involved with Bromeliads by Elaine Asher
APRIL: We met at one of our favourite places - ‘Pondarossi’- the
magical garden of Jim Ross. It was lush after the rain, the grass
really green and the colours from the cordylines and crotons were
just brilliant. There are some new figurines, the large crocodile gave
a few members a heart flutter.
* Thomas our new President, did a good job of chairing his first
meeting.
I supposed it started one Saturday afternoon when I was contemplating
what I could possibly do with the southern side of our house. This side is
very shady most of the time so I had a problem trying to find something to put in pots that I
could just plant and forget. On a sunny side I had these plants around a pond we had made
several years earlier, that had multiplied and I thought it seemed a good idea to take some
of these neglected plants put them in a pot and stick them around the shady side and then
forget about them.
This lasted for a couple more years. Again I neglected these plants and the pots
filled up with leaves as does everything in our yard, the potting mix shrunk and the plants
multiplied. Once again I was fed up with this side so I then pulled out these plants saw I
could divide them and chopped the leaves straight across the top to get rid of any dead bits
and ended up with about 30 more plants.
I gave some of these to my daughters and in return received from son-in-law another
plant of the same species. I thought these are not too bad and maybe I should look at
growing some of these - as I had in the previous months been collecting and trying to grow
cactus and succulents but without much success especially with the humidity and the
monsoonal rains.
I found out these plants were called bromeliads and for some time I pronounced them
‘bromalaids’. When I find something I am interested in I usually go to my friend Google
and look for help. I then found eBay and began bidding like a madwoman on plants I knew
nothing about. I now realise I paid high prices for mediocre plants.
I also came across Riverside Bromeliads at Malanda and thought I may be able to
purchase from them. I emailed them and received and phone call from Steve Ward in
response. I told him that was new to bromeliads and would like to purchase a few more the sickness had already started by this time and there was no turning back! The following
weekend Bill and I drove to Malanda and I told Steve I was allowed to spend my first
$100.00 on bromeliads. Steve fed my addiction and I did get value for money.
I continued to buy on eBay and on one occasion purchased Cryptanthus ‘Black
Mystique’ for $102.50. I had tried to contact Steve to ask him the value of this plant before
bidding closed, but he was at work. The next time I saw him I told him of this and he
promptly gave me a ‘Black Mystique’ of the same size for nothing. This was an expensive
lesson for me but then I always learn things the hard way.
Steve then told me of the Cairns Bromeliad Society and their monthly meetings which
I pondered on for a while as I did not want to attend without knowing someone. Then a
friend of a friend gave me Sharron Miller’s name and I phoned her and she told me the next
meeting would be a Karen Cross’s place in Earlville and I plucked up the courage and
attended. I met Sharron and other members and won my first raffle plant Neoregelia ‘Gold
Fever’, which turned out to be a beautiful plant and has given me some nice pups. I relied
on my raffle prizes and Smithfield Markets to build up my collection of bromeliads and
was given a very nice Nidularium ‘Ruby Lee’ from by Lynn as a welcoming plant.
I have found there is so much to learn about bromeliads and so little time to learn in.
I have likened it to doing pottery. When I first started I liked hand building, then wheel
throwing of stoneware, then terracotta, then raku and porcelain till I finally settled on the >
* New Members Welcome to Fay & Bruce Copland & Rose Webber.
* Thomas thanked John Brook for repairing the urn. Apparently he
needed to refashion a tool to enable him to replace the element!
Clever Brooky!
* Members were very happy to hear Neville Ryan would be our Show
Judge and said they wanted a ‘meet the Judge’ BBQ.
* There were well grown plants in Popular Vote but not enough! It
was hard to select the best, proven by the bromeliad tied vote and
one vote between the cryptanthus and tillandsia entries.
* Gail’s Tillandsia ehlersiana was really plump and had finally made
roots into the container - probably because it had been left it in our
wonderful rain.
* Gloria’s Tillandsia ‘Eric Knobloch’ was perfectly formed and with
good colour, but had flowered while still small. This was probably
due to climate change as Gloria had purchased it at WBC18 and it
had originated from Ozmex, commonly known as Victoria.
MINI SHOW – Flowering Plant, any Genera.
Pitcairnia smithiorum
Grower - Gail Taifalos
Neoregelia ’Streaky Pete’ Grower - Karen Cross
Aechmea chantinii
Grower - Darryl Lister
POPULAR VOTE:
NOVICE: Aechmea chantinii ‘Squiggles’
OPEN:
Billbergia ‘Hallelujah’
Neoregelia ‘Fandango’
Cryptanthus zonatus
Tillandsia ehlersiana lge form
Grower - Delmae Meehan
Grower - Elaine Asher} tie
Grower - Darryl Lister}
Grower - Karen Stevens
Grower - Gail Taifalos
d
e f e h e i e k e l
earthy raku. In bromeliads I first preferred billbergia, then neoregelias then aechmeas
finally deciding a little bit of everything would be nice, including tillandsias.
Bill attached some shadecloth sails to both the sunny and shady sides of the
house. I soon found how the sun moves to different places during the seasons, so I was
continually moving pots, and the more I got the harder the job was. Then my dear Bill
made me a shadehouse and my bromeliads could settle in a permanent place. I have
burned a few but am learning and am always kept busy potting pups etc. I have a few
guzmania, vriesa, and nidularium under a shadecloth on a bench in the rainforest so I
must put up with leaves, nuts and bits of thread from the blossoms in the trees in the
shadehouse as well as the forest. These just blow in with the wind but I love where I live
so have to put up with these things, along with the spider webs under the shelves and
between the plants.
I have tried a few ways to make the job easier with all this cleaning. The first
was a 12v vacuum cleaner we had for our boat but that was too heavy to keep suspended
above the shelves and didn’t do what I wanted. Then I discovered the blower that Bill
had with the compressor and that does the job of blowing out the gumnuts, blossom
threads that are interwoven with the spider webs and the white deposits left by the
moths etc. The only thing is I must remember to empty the water out or end up with
water all over my glasses and can’t see a dam thing! I am glad this only lasts for a few
months but as this is the first year with the shade house anything can happen I suppose.
We had been given a load of bromeliads mainly aechmea with the odd neoregelia
Sizes
byServing
a workmate
who no longer loved them and wanted them moved. We went to his
place in the wet and pulled them out and loaded the ute right to the brim. Whilst we
were unloading them I noticed the black spots on quite a few and being the generous
soul that I am decided Bill could have them for his rainforest garden. I did not even
bother to help him unload anymore as I had lost interest. I do admit to going back later
and snitching a couple of neos that looked like they might have potential. I treated them
for scale, cleaned them up and in time they found their way into my collection.
Last year we went overseas to visit Bill’s daughter and son in the United States and
Mexico so naturally I took the opportunity to visit Michael Kiehl in Venice (Florida). I
strolled through his shadehouses and selected a few plants I liked and imported these
into Australia.
I am sure that some of these are available in Australia but I was
impatient to acquire them and it probably cost me more than I would have paid when I
eventually purchased them here. I am happy to have them now, rather than a few years
down the track. I am pleased to say that I had 100% success with them. I can probably
thank both Michael who selected larger plants so that they had a better chance of
survival after the methyl bromide treatment, and David Liddle who cared for them in the
quarantine house.
Since I have now retired and am supposed to have more time, I can devote some
of it to my bromeliads. I am now more controlled, not so impulsive in my plant
purchasing and have decided to be more selective in future - good intentions anyway.
I enjoy the monthly meetings, spending time with people who have a common
interest in these beautiful plants and understand perfectly how one can become
obsessed. There is so much to learn about bromeliads and they have made my life more
fulfilling and reward me with their pups.
d
e f e h e i e k e l
Pitcairnias.
In the Family Bromeliaceae, the subfamily of Tillandsioideae have the
greatest number of species and Pitcairnioideae have the second highest
number of species. Pitcairnias have soft grasslike leaves, and some
species have several leaf shapes in one plant, as in Pitcairnia var. heterophylla.
Mostly the leaves have tiny spines but many have short spikes with barbed
spines at the base of the plant as in Pitcairnia wendlandii. Pitcairnias grow in
most bromeliad locations and the only bromeliad species found outside the
Americas is Pitcairnia feliciana, found in West Africa.
Pitcairnias grow naturally as terrestrials as they propagate by
subterranean runners. While their roots need to be wet they also need to
drain well. When kept in domestic cultivation they are more easily grown
as terrestrials rather than potted. Pitcairnias flammea, wendlandii, smithiorum
and maidifolia are commonly seen in landscaping situations, valued for their
hardiness and bright inflorescences.
smithiorum
tabuliformis
andreana
flammea
undulata
At the April meeting Gail showed both smithiorum and maidifolia. The
pot of smithiorum had three inflorescenses, each with flowers still to open,
whereas maidifolia had almost finished flowering but was still a good
educational specimen. Thank you Gail.
Message from Neville Walker:
Thank You to each Person who sent me a
!
Happy 60th Birthday Emails.
They were a huge surprise and very welcome. Thanks, Nev.!
!
!
!
“Bromadelaide” the 15th ANZAC Bromeliad Conference
Comments from Bill & Marguerite Sexton:
!
!
!
!!
Bill’s thoughts: Having your hotel room full of plants certainly brightens
everything up. A brown room and then variegated neoregelias and vrieseas.
Marg likes stripes and patterns, that is why our kids are good! She tried to
get me to pick plants but I usually selected ones she already owned. I
must be beginning to like them - scary!
About 150 bromeliophiles travelled to Adelaide to enjoy their favourite plants
and the friendships these plants have inspired. The weather was fine but most
of us were saddened to see the countryside so dry and brown and many large
trees dying, especially those imported to Oz. If only we could have shared
our rain.
Come Monday morning and last sales, with Bob’s help I had a handful
of grass with a lot of names starting with T and others. Luckily we were
flying and were a bit space limited. Marg knows what they are. I know she
has looked them up in books and on the internet.
Cairns Society was well represented with 10 members and it was great to
share time & plants with Barbara & Brian, Sue & Goff plus other country
members of our society. Each state was represented, plus New Zealand.
I went to most of the lectures and stayed awake and learned a little.
I had to keep my fork in my Banquet steak so it wouldn’t run back to the
cattle yard! We didn’t get any veges. Well I guess the next bromeliad trip
will be to Darwin and we can bring back home some barra as well as broms!
Marguerite: We arrived at the hotel after a flight from Hobart and the
first voice I heard was Lynn saying Gooday. What a welcome.
This is only the 3rd bromeliad conference I have attended and they
have all been very different. I was disappointed there was no garden trip
or plant competition as I like to see ‘special plants’ even when they are not
for sale. The two hotel displays had many plants that I could arrange space
for in my greenhouse!
The Speakers were interesting, not too technical and showed lots of
pictures. I appreciate herbarium specimens more now after seeing that
comparisons can be made from over 100 years to today’s plants.
I got organized in the Sales Room. The first trip I selected a few
neoregelias, the second I took a carry bag, the third time I took Bill as he
is a good treasure carrier. I have shown him photos of what they will look
like when they grow and colour up. I also told him if I spend more time out
in the garden and not in the kitchen, they will reach utter perfection.
It will be easier to get to Darwin, and then there is the fishing!
Among the Delegates were many that had been to Cairns WBC as their
first conference. Welcome to what Bob Smythe disparagingly refers to as ‘The
Conference Clique’. You will have lots of new friends, get a chance to see and
buy good plants while you learn from experts about bromeliads.
Perth was well represented and it was great to see friends, some I had
not seen for years. I was surprised to see more New Zealanders there than
at the World Conference here in 2008, which for many was probably a once in
a lifetime chance to see, meet and hear so many overseas persons.
Queenslanders would have made up at least half the delegates and in the
sales room, two-thirds of the plants were from Queensland. What would they
do without us?? Magnificent colour was provided by The Olive Branch plants.
There were two foyer displays of beautiful well grown plants, a blast
of massed colour and textures. One from South Australia was set out by Adam
Bodzioch, the other from The Olive Branch. Many eyes turned green at the
display centrepiece of a flowering XVrieslandia ‘Marichelle’ and a variegated
Vriesea philippo-coburgii. They were exquisite.
Len Colgan had me draw the Raffle & first prize went to Harry Frakking of
Humpty Doo, my brother-in-law. Some said it was rigged! Sorry to all the
hopeful buyers - Harry was really happy!
The 2011 conference will be in Darwin & the 2013 in Auckland, New Zealand.
10
Billbergia (bill-ber-jea)
Did you find out about the Alcantareas?
"
We were all excited when we heard the expert on werauhia
and alcantarea, Jason Grant, was speaking at Bromadelaide and hoped it
was a chance to sort out the names of the alcantareas we are growing.
Between Jason and Mark Paul we saw many, many of pictures of these
magnificent plants both in habitat and cultivation, but nothing has been
formally written to describe the differences in the ones they declare are
renamed.
Here are notes I took at Brisbane B13 conference at Arno King’s
presentation. geniculata has a red stem, twisted leaf and yellow flower.
‘Corcovado’ has coloured tips and grey bandings.
‘Grace Goode’ has affinity with edmundoi.
glaziouana has white flowers.
heloisae has yellow flowers.
extensa has tessellated leaves.
The bad news is - this is is all I know. The good news is - they have no
spines and love all day sun & that is good
*************************
Wot is that perfume?
What is that teasing waft of perfume on the verandah? It is
Bob’s three Tillandsia duratii var saxitilis in flower - you know, the one that
looks like a giant preying mantis. The 55cm inflorescence has a mass
of lavender flowers with a delicate sweet perfume.
This plant has stiff leaves that roll at the end and coil
themselves around twigs or branches of the host. Overnight they can
coil their ends securely around the gavanised mesh, as I found at the
Show when I attempted to move one at judging. Seedlings will grow
roots but plants rely on their coiling for attachment. The offset comes
from the base of the inflorescence.
Habitat is Bolivia and Paraguay from 300-3000 metres.
*************************
"
Wot else is flowering?
XAndrolepsis ‘Dean’ a hybrid of Aechmea mariae-reginae and Androlepsis
skinneri by Dean Fairchild of Florida. This is the first offset to flower
from the offset I imported in 2002.
The inflorescence is triangular, 50cm tall with compound spikes
and a mass of cream flower bracts with pale lemon flowers.
The leaves on two of my plants are crenellated, the other is
smooth like Aechmea mariae-reginae. They have grown to 1.3 metre wide
and 1 metre tall. An excellent landscaping plant.
Billbergia were named after Gustov Billberg a Swedish botanist. They are usually
tall cylindrical tubes ranging from green to deep red. The foliage can be spotted,
mottled, cross banded or variegated. The inflorescence rises from the centre, then
cascades down the plant as the flowers open - they are short lived but the colours
are exquisite.
If you want to have many billbergias, fertilize them well. They will lose their
colours but if you withhold fertilizer from the next generation they should revert
to their normal beautiful colours.
The first billbergia to arrive in Australia was probably Billbergia nutans,
they came from Europe mixed with orchids that were sent at wartime to ensure
their survival. They were thought to be lillies and many grandmothers had them
planted under water tank stands & were commonly known as ‘Queen’s Tears‘
!
!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Alcantarea offsets – small adventitious pups.
* These are the small offshoots at the base of the plant, also known as hair pups.
* When they are as thick as your little finger they can be removed several ways.
* Firstly give the plant a good watering, including the plant base.
* Sometimes grasping the pup at it’s base and teasing it out will work – if not go
to the next step. Place the blade of a small knife between the offset and the parent.
Lever the pup out and better still if you get some of the mother’s basal tissue as
the pups roots originate from here. Practice will make perfect. If you sever the
offset and damage the base of the pup it probably will not survive. Place it just
above the water line in a leaf axis of the mother plant. This fluid is nutritious and
maybe the pup will put out roots to the fluid.
* Pot the offsets into a community pot – say 4 around a 140cm pot, they like to be
with their mates. The mix should be a good potting mix that is well draining. Add
some slow release fertilizer to the top of the mix - never in the centre of the plant.
Water in well and place them in well ventilated position.
* As the plants grow, remove and place them in their own pots, or ‘pot them on’.
* When you pot or repot a bromeliad it grows new roots – this force feeds the
plant as the new roots supply new food to the leaves.
* If you do not pot them on they will remain small and not grow.
* Removing offsets from any bromeliad is best done in warm months as roots
grow more easily.
There comes a point in your life when you realize
Who matters, Who never did, Who won’t anymore .. and Who always will.
******
So don’t worry about people from your past,
There is a reason why they did not make it into your future.
I Wonder Why?
from Dan Kinnard
Why do we press harder on a remote control
when we know the batteries are going dead?
Why does someone believe you when you say there are
four billion stars, but check when you say the paint is wet?
Why do they use sterilized needles for death by lethal injection?
Why does Superman stop bullets with his chest, but ducks when you
throw a revolver at him?
Why doesn't Tarzan have a beard?
Why did Kamikaze pilots wear helmets?
!
Whose idea was it to put an 'S' in the word 'lisp'?! Why is it that no matter what color bubble bath you use the bubbles are
always white?
Is there ever a day that mattresses are not on sale?
Why do people constantly return to the refrigerator with hopes that
something new to eat will have materialized?
Why do people keep running over a string a dozen times with their
vacuum cleaner, then reach down, pick it up, examine it, then put it down
to give the vacuum one more chance?
Why is it that whenever you attempt to catch something that's falling off
the table you always manage to knock something else over?
In winter why do we try to keep the house as warm as it was in summer
when we complained about the heat?
Why is it that no plastic bag will open from the end on your first try?
How do those dead bugs get into those enclosed light fixtures?
How come you never hear father-in-law jokes?
If people evolved from apes, why are there still apes?
!
****************************************************************************
From the documentary series “The Machines that Made Us” we saw a very interesting
history on Printing. It finished with the comment “I can imagine a world without cars, without the telephone, without
computers, but I cannot imagine one without the written word”.
****************************************************************
It is always good to see the smiling faces of Phyllis and Bruce Purdie of Wellington NZ
But Do not trust the Kiwis * At Adelaide my former friends, Mr & Mrs Purdie, told me they had kangaroo for lunch!!
They ate our national emblem & skited about it!
*Another day Bruce was talking with his hands and arms and suddenly Phyllis did not have
a knife or fork - he had secreted them into her handbag - and not quietly!
It took a while to find them as we were looking on the floor!
!
!
!
Megan & John Welch
FERtLIZERS * FUNGICIDES * WATERING SYSTEMS
POLYPIPES * POLY FILMS * SPRAYING EQUIPMENT
SHADECLOTH * PLANTER BAGS * PLASTIC POTS
Cnr. Brown & Little Spence Sts. Cairns
Phone: 07 4035 2670
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Hudson’s Bromeliads Down Under
Bromeliads & Tillandsias Bob & Lynn Hudson
Phone: (07) 40533 913
47 Boden St. Edge Hill Cairns
email: [email protected]
ABN 66 951 932 976
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
‘Bloomin Broms’
6th. & 7th June 2009
Serbian Centre, 73 Greenslopes Street, Edge Hill. Qld 4870
For details & Registration Advice
www.bromeliadsdownunder.com
Come to our learning weekend.
Learn from the experts.
New plants. Buy plants. Sell plants. Swap plants.
Make new friends. Buy special plants at auction.
Ask questions. Have fun.
Store lots of memories to brighten your quiet moments.