Great photo's! And your plants are looking fantastic! Most of mine are looking a bit sunburnt this time of year...no shadecloth! But I'll take some pic's of Broms featured in our annual show which is on this weekend.

Can you give me the names of a couple... pic#6, looks like a plant we have here called 'Royal Hawaiian'...& pic#13, has that Barbarian hybrid look about it.

Thanks, Andrew.

Hey Andrew...you are spot on regarding Barbarian, thats exactly what it is...LOL
#6 is actually called 'lavender lovely'

Im sorry i forgot to name them this time

I have no burning due to my double protection shadecloth, sometime soon i should take it down and just leave the one cover on them. But you just never know when the sun is going to be extreme these days i dont want to risk it...ive been burnt before...LOL

Hi,

May I ask what is the big pink neo in pic #2 and the one in pic #6?

All your neos are so beautiful!

Cecilia

Hi Cecilia,
ohhhh now number 2 is the fairest in the land...LOL...her name is 'Passion'...she is rather photogenic indeed...LOL
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Number 6 is "lavender Lovely"....nice form, i love its chunkiness....heheheee

thks!

Please post more pics, I'll never get tired looking at them.

I grow a few neos at home, nothing like yours.

Cecilia

ohhh here is a nice one called Blackout
one of my faves
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another fave called Blue Boy
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ahhhh another fave....LOL
Dusky Rose
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Excellent colour in your neo's bromaloonie

Love the blackout.

Cheers Richard

Bromaloonie, just love 'em all. Now I've just gotta get a couple more ....

Hi Gem,
My favourites (this month) are the pricklys. Bromelia Balansae because it is currently in flower on a plant 2 metres x 2 metres. Guess there's not much room for one of those among your neos.LOL.
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Bromaloonie, your plants are beautifully grown! Keep up the good work and keep on sharing them with us!

I have 2 questions for you. Your Neo Passion, did it get it's golour there in your shadehouse (under the cream net or green, what percentage?) or did it have that pink colour already when you put in there?

The other is regarding your Neo Lavender Lovely. How sure are you about that name? Your plant reminds me very much of my Neo Black Knight which I grow in the garden and not under shade net. So it gets and looses colour with the coming and going of the seasons. I also checked Lavender Lovely on FCBS and that plant seems to have longer and narrower leaves and much less pronounced spines.

Here are three pictures of my Neo Black Knight taken in the middle of Winter (no sun), then in Spring (vey little sun but much brighter light) and lastly in mid-summer (about 3 hours of direct sun and bright light).

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Japie

Wow! Bromaloonie, how do you do it?

I'm getting a bit depressed looking at all of your beautifully coloured Neo's as it makes me feel like dumping all of mine and heading north and starting all over again.

Keep up the good work, beautiful plants!

Avane, what a terrific shape your plant has. It looks like it's a pretty thick, textured and tough plant, is that so?

Good stuff folks! All the best, Nev.

Whatever you're doing, Bromaloonie, keep it up! The plants look happy, healthy, well-colored and well-formed.

Ohhhhh Gosh Jennie.......i gotta have me one of them now....*cry*....LOL...when you have one available could you possibly let me know and we could either do swapsies or you could list for me???either way im good and fine with it...and i dont mind waiting a year. Its gorgeous...thanks so much for sharing

Hey Avane, Ive had that passion for as long as ive been collecting broms. It was my first big spend up @ $50 bucks....lol, well it was a pup of the original that was $50
Its been everywhere man, its been in natural fair dinkum morning sunlight, its been in green shadecloth, its been hidden under a tree and now its in the cream. all of those times is always been pink. But never always pink to the depth of the throat until it got into the cream shadecloth, if you know what i mean?when its in green shadecloth and under trees, it was rather white in the throat and halfway up the young leaves

hmmmm regarding my Lavender Lovely...well i bought it from Ebay aussie from a well known seller called Russ, so i gathered it was its name as hes fairly good with his names. Yours does look very much like mine i can see easily.So you could very well be correct.... I have another one in my brom house thats nearly exactly the same, i cant remember its name off the top of my head at the moment but its dark out there now and the its far too far to walk with a torch...LOL...will get back to you tomorrow with a name okie dokie!!!!!

HaHa Nev...If I were you I would be moving north too...LOL...I love me tropics and broms too much to be living down south. May I ask where abouts you are ???Nsw???
Ohhh I know...you just send all them babies up to me and I will look after them for you...*wink wink*...lol

Oh My...So sorry Lisa, I wanted to say that it means SO much to me to hear you say what you say and that you think they look nice, thanks so much for the compliment....much appreciated :)

Hi Bromaloonie

I live at Shellharbour on the south coast of NSW, about 20 minutes south of Wollongong.

I would love to see what you and your climate could do with some of my Neo. seedlings, so if you're interested maybe we could work something out.

All the best, Nev.

Hi bromaloonie, just can't stop looking at your pics.

Love the Neos, but I'm a Vriesea nut as well. What is that one in pic no. 8 in the first lot - is it a straight Vr. fenestralis? - or is it a hybrid? - beautiful broad leaves and shape, much nicer than the narrow leaves on mine.

Cheers, Paul

Avane, Avane, Avane....oh my goodness guess what????
I went and had a looky this morning at my lavender lovely, then i looked at the other that was the same and similar,(bought from ebay small seller ages ago) its name was 'concentrica johannis' of all ruddy names and now that im a bit more 'in the know' on me broms i have a big hint that its named VERY wrong and it EXACTLY the same as my lavender lovely......ok....now for the rest of the news, I have yet another brom a bit further down the brom house and its just like yours called 'Black night', my tag is also Black night!BUT its a little different because it seem to be a slightly smaller shaped neo. When i get a pic i will show you. Maybe tonight i might get back on and do it!In the pic i will put them all together to show you comparison.
This was an early morning sighting so i could be way off the mark.....lol...lets just see what the picture tells us

ahhh Nev i know exactly where you are now. I was married in Tanja, north of Tarthra and Merimbula. I went to school in Eden and spent a few years in Bega. So yes i now know of your where abouts!There is a huge climate change between us isnt there?
I would LOVE to grow some of your babies up. that would be awesome wonderful fantastic.If you would like to email me somehow? and let me know what you have in mind then please do
(when i said babies i did not mean send me your seedlings...lol.I did not even know you had seedlings...lol, I meant your broms in general were your babies...LOL)

Hi Ya Paul, yep thats the Vr. fenestralis in the raw, no added hybrids...LOL.
There is also one in picture 5 and is rather slender in the leaves

Wow bromaloonie your plants are soooooo nice, I had to finally sign up to tell you. That Passion is amazing if you ever get sick of looking at it or if you have a spare pup you don't want please sent it my way :). I remember I bought a Grace x Passion from you last year, still one of the best plants I've ever bought on ebay.

Oh WOW Hummer...yes yes i remember you and your email. I only sold on ebay for 2 weeks running way back then to see how i would go and how they would sell. I was very happy with the outcome in sales but it was a big job and did not enjoy it that much. Very nerve racking indeed hoping the brom would arrive in mint condition and always wondering if the brom was what the buyer was hoping for.
Today i have spent ALL day going through by brom house and bringing to the front all the saleable broms...( i need to make a quick buck...lol) and im going to have a road sale with a sign out on the highway.....BUT i dont have a passion for sale im sorry. They dont seem to pup here???The original mum i bought with the pup on it already from down in Cairns.I have had it now for 2.5 years and she has never pupped again????sadly.It would have been over 2 years old when i bought it also.
Hey your up in the Atherton tablelands from memory arnt you?....if your ever in the neighbourhood please please do stop in(contact for my address details first of course)You are welcome to visit

Ummm????how did you know it was me who sold you the Grace x passion???LOL...how did you know I was *garden*gems*....heheheeeeeee

No I'm from Ipswich (near Brisbane for the overseas members) but I am coming up that way in May for a holiday. I've never been up north before so I'm looking forward to it. I believe we are going to the Atherton tablelands I'm tagging along with my parents on a three week road trip. Kind of weird I guess for a 25yo, but then again I guess not many 25yo's collect Brom either.

I read on another post that you were *garden*gems* and Blue heeler is foggybottom. I have been coming to this site for months so good to learn from other more experienced growers.

I almost forgot to ask what is the Neo in pic 9 is it Rainbow Warrior I have that one, not as nice as yours though:(.

bromaloonie Passion is very slow plant,,,most of the growers just punch the mom's so they produce pups..with all that beauty had to come a downside....slow slow slow

when you say punch the mums do you mean driving screwdriver down her gorgeous throat *cry* and killing her with one foul stab.....arrrggghhhhhhhhhhhhh say it isnt soooooooooo

somebody mentioned this technique to me a very long time ago and the horror......well i near fell over with disgust...LOL
BUT im leaning towards anything that can help the original mum to pup again....shes an extremely ugly sheila and needs to be shot anyhow....LOL

Can someone...anyone......tell me their experiences in "punching the mum"...lol

I took a pic of the original mum this morning...she is still not flowering, she is bleached pretty bad and looks a dreadful mess....LOL
loading pic now
this is the mum...obviously sunbaking for too long(she seems to drain fast if we have a heat wave day)
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This is her in comparison to her daughter...daughter is 3 years old already
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Avane, i took a pic of Lavender Lovely (left) Concentrica johannis...pfffttt...yeah right...LOL (right)
and Black night at the bottom
they do look similar in their ways and they also are a little different, im guessing if there is difference it may be because if the different lightings they are getting in the brom house to show them up differently colour wise
Black night (little one) is much younger then the other two so might still have alot of growing to do
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so what do you think???Do you think i own 3 black nights.....hahahaaaaaaaaa

Hey Hummer! Sorry i had you mixed up with a fella who bought the orange Meyendorfii...LOL
Wow so your a young fella and starting a new addiction early...thats awesome...LOL
WELL, if you and your parents wanna stop in here in May then feel free to get adress details.
Im feeling very chuffed that you love my broms and had come in and say so...thankyou muchly

I'm not into the punch technique. I would say to strip off all the lower leaves to let some light in to the base. You will probably want to move it out of that group so it does get some better light at the base. I would then fert the heck out of it and although it may loose color, you are going for pups at this point so that shouldn't matter.

If you punch or stab the plant...also feed it. Passion is the one plant I dont get squimish about...

Being a peaceable sort, I'd never go around punching or stabbing anyone, let alone mothers! Besides, everyone knows that screwing is how you make babies! See link below for previous discussion of this practice.

A less drastic alternative would be to treat your plant with something (Florel, Ethrel, etc.) to force it to bloom. Pups will follow.

I'm not sure whether or not your 3 Neos are the same, but they certainly do look close, and Black Knight (with a K) is the only name of the three that makes any sense. I don't have either BK or Lavender Lovely, but looking up both the photo and parentage of LL, it doesn't add up to what you've got there. "Concentrica johannis" as you have correctly surmised, is virtually meaningless. Those are two different species. Perhaps they meant concentrica x johannis, but which "johannis"? That name has been mis-applied to so many different species and cultivars that it's hard to know what is being referred to when you come across it in a formula.

Here is a link that might be useful: pupping

Lisa, do you screw with your plants often? I hear you complain a lot about plants that won't bloom for you, so I have to wonder if you go to extremes to get them to pup.

I have 3 plants that won't bloom. 2 will pup so I don't care too much, but the other one doesn't pup and doesn't boom. I'm tempted to do something but I doubt it will involve a screw driver. I'm going to try root pruning, fertilizing and florel in that order. I'd try florel first if I had any.

Now that I think about it, I do have a plant that was florel'd and hasn't bloomed but has put out lots of pups. I think it's an xNiduregelia, but not one of mine.

Depends on what you mean by "often", Nick. I'll gather together a batch to screw maybe 2 or 3 times a year. Certain cvs. I just can't seem to propagate any other way (if they never bloom or pup). If you're going to do more than one it helps to do them all at the same time, then you will be reminded to monitor them all for clogging during the early stages.

Thank you Lisa and Bromadams and HDD for your views

I did feed her and gave her different lighting and removed bottom leaves, it has only made her go squif and lose colour and change shape. She has leaned out of her pot for years due to her top heavy leaves. I doubt i will ever find a screwdriver long enough to do the job on her...LOL...shes SO BIG and So LONG in the throat...and neck and butt, possibly 60 or 70 cms by now.
Lisa you have rested my mind at ease with doing this job to passion mum. Would I wait until our rainfall is not so much just incase it rots her too fast?we are ending summer here and moving into autumn very shortly, then winter when it goes dry season for us. Im thinking best time would be either spring or now (warm and humid)but kept out of the rain?

bromaloonie your last sentence above covers it all...I sharpened a bamboo stake for the big plants

Bring your plant into a covered area to do the job, bromaloonie. Let the hole dry out for a few days before you put it back out where it will get watered or rained on (probably best to do it in the dry season), and then be sure to check the cup periodically to make sure it is draining out okay. If not, you will have to ream it out again with the screwdriver, otherwise you'll lose it to rot.

It is hard to do them once they've developed a stalk, though. I've done a few that way if they weren't too tall, but if the stalk is not perfectly straight and vertical the screwdriver tends to come out the side instead of going all the way through. That's okay though, as long as you've killed the meristem and it's draining out (and it's still strong enough to stand up).

I bought an extra-long and narrow screwdriver just for this purpose. I deleted the pic from the other thread, but here it is again, along with a lovely pair of arm-protecting gloves I bought around the same time, which have since gotten very dirty and been ventilated by hungry mice! The screwdriver has held up much better, fortunately. It's long enough to do a fairly good-sized foliage Vriesea, but you've got to pound it in with a hammer and then one person has to hold onto the plant and the pot while the other person pulls on the handle with both hands and twists it to get it out! I don't think a bamboo stake is gonna do it for that kind of thing...... ;-)

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Wow Lisa, thats pretty heavy duty weapons i must say...lol
thanks heaps for showing them as they had disapeared from the other thread like you said.
I will do what you suggested and bring it in ,tip out water, dry it out and do the deed. Will obviously need hubby to help me with this big girl. I can certainly see my screwdriver getting stuck or something. Now you say its hard to do when their stalk is long and not straight and then you say its ok if it goes out the side? I can see this happening.It may come out the side somewhere as shes not straight...geeez dunno if I can go ahead with this....lol...im getting nervous just thinking about it.Ive never done this sort of thing and here I am thinking of doing it to my biggest most difficult specimen....LOL. Wonder which one i can do it to first to warm me up...heheee
Our dry season is winter time, thats normaly not a good time for pupping is it? It does happen here yes but thought it would be best to do this when the temps are right. The temps are right now but we have too much rain.If I kept her on the front veranda in morning sun then she would stay dry with giving her a sprinkle every now and then to moisten roots? or cup?
bitting fingernails now with worry

LOL

Thankyou....i dont think i would have gone ahead with this without your instruction

I never had a problem with the sharp bamboo stake and I stab multiple times on some plants. The screw driver is the best way if you find one long enough. What ever you do bromaloonie it will be a learning experience.

Hmm.... I hadn't thought about dry season being slow pup season, as we have wet winters and drier summers, and the growing goes on year-round regardless! I guess I'll have to leave that to your good judgement. The veranda sounds like a good idea.

I'd try it out on something you don't care about or have multiples of first. Getting the feel of it and seeing the results will give you more confidence, and the tall stalk does make it a bit more complicated. Not an ideal candidate for a first attempt. The screwdriver does usually get stuck when it's a big plant, that's why I have to call on my husband to help me wrestle it out!

Even though I'm pretty comfortable with the procedure by now, I'll seldom do a plant if it's my one and only specimen of it. Just being cautious, although I've only ever lost one plant this way, a Vriesea, and that's only because I stopped checking it to see if it was draining properly and it got plugged up. This can still happen several weeks after you do the deed, so best to keep an eyeball on them for a couple of months at least. You'll usually have to pull additional leaves out of the center at some point too, as the ones you damaged start to die back. Don't be alarmed, it's all part of the process!

If I remember, I'll take some pictures of some I screwed a few months back, to show you the progress.

"gosh it sounds funny when you say you screwed them"...LOL...sorry but i have a little giggle when i read it...*giggle again*

Yep HDD it sure will be a learning experience thats for sure and im kinda excited about it....and very very nervous at the same time...we could almost say im a virgin at this....*giggle again*....Hahahaaaaaa

Now...Lisa, im kinda tempted now to just hold off on my Dear ole passion mum and try doing it to another one...a less loved...ugly....maybe burnt or squiffy one thats has no place in my brom house just to get me some experience up my sleeve, also then it will bring me to spring time instead of doing it just a few months before winter too...ohh gosh dont know havent decided completely on that one. But the longer i leave it the longer her stem gets too.(obviously still havent decided on the time)
In that picture up there you can see a couple of Bosa Nova neos beside her...well those broms are actually sitting IN her pot at her base, she is on a huge lean and then obviously has a slight turn in her stem. Do you think that if i put the screwdriver down her throat and came out her stem at the elbow of her lean/bend that she still might pup?It would also then be easy to keep ckecking on her hole for drainage....During this thread and while we are talking about doing it im feeling more and more growing apart from her and letting go....lol....i have gone through months of feeling like chucking her out and then holding on to her...then chucking her out then holding on to her, Ive had her sitting in my care for years now...

hmmmm this post is showing alot of mixed emotion and mixed decision

I dont know or have the ingredients to make her flower to then make her pup..so i think it definately has to be done with the screwdriver method
There is a lady down the road who sells lovely broms on ebay who also has heaps of passions that just NEVER pup...the stalks are about 20 to 30cms long already, all they are doing is sitting in her brom house doing nothing but growing up, she has had hers for years also. So im thinking obviously there will be no natural waiting for things to take their course. It has got to be done artificially
Im talking out loud here and going over stuff in my head by the way but also letting you know what im thinking so i can get some sort of approval...LOL

I now am only concerned for her bend in her stem and if i can do a short cut and not go all the way down the throat/stem and just do half the job?...I suppose ive got nothing to lose huh? I have one beautiful daughter(who will probably never ever pup herself either)to carry on the beauty in the brom house i guess so i wont be losing the showiness.

takes a big breath

Yep im feeling more comfortable with it now....*smile*

I would love to see photos of your progession one day , thats would be amazing...(if you remember)hheheeee

maybe i could even take photos of mine too just for keepsakes...lol
*gawd i love me...

I do mine in the spring...I am doing Neo 'PHITS' next...he wont bloom so he gets the Florel treatment tho. He does pup

Sorry for the late reply Bromaloonie I would love to see your lovely Brom collection that would be awesome!.

I'm not so sure it is such a great idea starting so young imaging the Broms I'll have by the time I'm 50 or 60!. I've already got more Broms than my parents who have been collecting for 15 or so years (I've only been collecting for 3 years). I started out buying just Neo's now I buy any think and every think.

Now, if I can start thinking aloud here: The aim of the screwing exercise is to destroy the apical bud, but you are hesitant to detroy the plant. So why not try the golden midway: Cut off the 'plant' 2 or 3 cm below the lowest leaves and pot that up as a new plant. Leave the stem in the pot and add a bit of liquid fertiliser and see if the stem do not want to pup. Or if the stem would need some leaves to photosyntise, cut to top of the plant off just ABOVE a couple of the lower leaves - especially if you have a nice stack of leaves on the plant now. And then just pull the lowest few leaves off the top section, and root it in perlite. That way you should end up with a nice 'young' Passion AND the tall, crooked stem producing some pups! Or is my logic totally illogical?

We, here in Cape Town, do not have the problem of plants not flowering - some of them actually flower way too soon. But we also have a problem with the Groves hybrids to colour up. So, it seems that the 'nice colour and the non-flowering', is a tropical thing. When I got my Passion 2 years ago, it had some pink on the leaves. But gradually, it disappeared and stayed green, even if I: "Its been everywhere man, its been in natural fair dinkum morning sunlight, its been in green shadecloth, its been hidden under a tree and now its in the cream". BUT, my Passion is flowering now - a green plant with a bit of a pink cup!

Hope I did not confuse you!

Japie

Hummer, Im unsure of how to contact but if you know then email me that way and we can organise a visit when your up this way
ohhhh sounds like youve got it bad mate...lol
its a good thing to be starting early in my opinion....lol
Im still 'FAIRLY' young and have been collecting the same time as you...and i still dont have enough, i think when my collection is double the size it is now i still wont have enough...LOL

Shivers Japie now youve thrown a screwdriver in the works....lol
sounds like a very logical thing to be doing, IF the brom will take root from planting its head and if the left over stem throws some pups in shock. Is that something that broms do and can do? ive not heard of it

Yes i do believe the tropics and our climate has alot to do with getting more leaves and so not flowing as fast. I only have two broms that i know of thats just wont and thats Medallion and Passion. I also every now and then get a few that flower before their time as less then half matured plants, now that is upsetting and frustrating

I would be much more nervous about trying Japie's suggestion than taking the ol' screwdriver to her! Not so much the first one: cutting mama off a few inches below the foliage and rerooting her is not too big a deal, although mature plants don't root this way as well as pups do. Once it does root, however, it would be easier to screw it (go ahead and giggle) than one up on stilts, so there's that. The odds of getting pups out of a leafless stalk are fairly low, though. Even if you do get them they tend to be tiny, like seedlings, and take FOREVER to grow. I've had tiny shoots like that sit there for years without doing much of anything. If it's something really special I might nurse it along with foliar fertilizer, but frankly it's not something I'd recommend unless there's no other way.

As to cutting the stalk above the lower leaves, YIKES! Seems like you'd stand a good chance of losing both top and bottom that way, and how would you even get in there to do the job without turning the whole thing into Neo salad? If you want to try it, Japie, be sure to let us know how it turns out, but as for me: uh uh, nope, sorry, not gonna happen. ;-p

Now if you'll excuse me, I'm off to see if I can manage to take those pictures before I get distracted by something else......

Yes I am nervous thinking about Japies way, but boy it sounded pretty darn fine...LOL...sounded logical
But I will certainly only take the screwdriver way...now THAT is something im feeling more comfortable with....lol

Looking forward to seeing pictures when they are ready...:)

Sorry for the delay... here is documentation of the post-screwage progress, as promised!

Neo Perfection is one that NEVER blooms or pups for me, so the screwdriver is an absolute necessity. I often curl back the leaves and tuck them into the leaf axils as the pups emerge, to give them more room to breathe and color up properly. Some people cut the leaves back for the same reason, but it seems to me like that would decrease the shelf-life and further pupping potential of the mother.

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Lorena occasionally throws out a pup, but not nearly fast enough for me, and I can't remember seeing it bloom. This is a popular plant, one of Skotak's best in my opinion, so I want more NOW:

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Hot Lips, one of my own. I does bloom and pup reasonably well, but I'm trying to increase production more quickly since it seems to have a lot of commercial potential.

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Vr. 'Ehiku, another of mine. This is about my favorite from the Hawaiian numeric series grex (see "Color by Numbers" thread). A couple of the clones from that grex do pup a lot, but this isn't one of them. Interestingly, the foliage has retained its nice late-summer pink color from when I did the dirty deed, whereas all of it buddies have faded out temporarily in the winter light.

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I tried to take some down into the throat to show what the center hole looks like, but I haven't yet figured out how to get my camera to focus on what I want and not what IT wants (old dogs, new tricks, you know how it is....). At any rate, here's the cup with the center pulled out and a tag with the date.

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All of these pictured were done on the same day last October. As you can see, the rate of development of pups will vary, reflecting the overall growth rate of each cv. in general, as well as how much it's being fed. Hot Lips' babies will be ready to remove in another month or so, but Lorena has a ways to go yet. I have another Neo done at the same time that is a REALLY slow grower, and it's pups are still just tight little buds (pic was out of focus, sorry). Some things you can't change, but that's just one more reason to bypass nature and do what you have to do to propagate them.

Lisa , you are a wealth of info for me. The pictures are brilliant. I understand all you are saying there. The leaf curling idea is wonderful, thankyou for sharing that. Seeing your pictures has eased my mind and now i know I can do it, weather it be with big mumma passion or with another i own first. Im ready for the job, feeling confident and able.

Thanks again for your time and effort Lisa

i will keep you informed with how it all goes

Hi everyone,
Lisa, like bromaloonie said, great pic's and thanks for the great tip about the folding of the leaves to give the pups more room to grow.

There's always something new to learn; all the best, Nev.