Nice photos Ozvon, and good to have you participating in the forum - after so much lurking! lol

Is that Aechmea 'White Bouquet'? I tried to read your label, and of what I could see, it looks likely. I bought one on eBay from Robert Olds of Melbourne, and read on the registry database that is a hybrid by Victorian Maurie Kellett, and photographed by Mike Romanowski, also of Melbourne. So it must cope well with your colder temps and low humidity. Yours is a lovely healthy specimen. I'm now even more looking forward to flowering mine - thanks for sharing the photos of it. :)

Re your broms outdoors in winter. The ones under the deciduous trees will get lovely winter sun, but won't necessarily be protected from frost without an overhead canopy. I sadly learned this last winter, when we had an unprecedented black frost for 2 nights at -8 C, on top of prolonged dry weather - and I didn't water them at all. The ground being dry apparently made the broms more susceptible. Even some broms under evergreen trees were 'toasted' by the frost, under those conditions.
This winter, I will be investing in plenty of frost cloth, and have started applying diluted 'Seasol' fortnightly to most broms - which I have been told strengthens their resistance to adverse conditions. Worth a try?

Cheers,
Kerry

It is Ae White Bouquet - i bought it from Robert early last year. It is still in flower - I took the photo last month. I was delighted to find on the FCBS that Maurice was the hybridiser - i met him at the Brom Show last year and didnt realise that i was talking to such a talented bloke! I had Ae WB sitting under the deciduous trees last year all thru the winter but moved it under the back verandah late last year. It actually got more light under the verandah and started to show some color. I think WB could color up even better in more light and i plan to experiment if i get any pups.
Kerry, regarding your Black Frost - i nearly puked in shock at the devastation it caused to your spectacular garden - it was so horrible to see. But, being the GW voyeur that i have been, i was pleased to read that your garden is slowly repairing itself (with a bit of help from new additions).

Aw, thanks Ozvon! I didn't realise I had a sympathetic voyeur :)
Yes, my garden is slowly repairing itself, and getting back to its former glory. It's almost ready to fill the gaps with my latest acquisitions. I too have been confused with conflicting advice re winter moisture, and always relied on the adage "Better cold and dry than cold and wet". I agree with you and Sander about keeping the vases full, but roots dry - as they tend to be when mounted.
Sounds like your keen observations and logical deductions will aid you in growing your precious ones well in your specific conditions. Fingers crossed for a kinder winter this year!

Cheers,
Kerry

Hi Kerry,
I have read that adage before and it sounds very reasonable.
Apart from rot tho', broms are my kind of plant - i belong to the 'Lazy Gardener' school of gardening. I have always grown natives and cottage garden plants: no fertiliser required, minimal water and a quick trim all round once or twice a year!

Welcome along!! ozvon

Thanks for showing us your Aechmea, nice pics. Now that your no longer a 'lurker' lets see what else you have, where all 'brom crazy'and need a daily fix. Yes to above, broms do not like to be wet and cold, if too wet the end result is the upper leafs get a pink hue and on close inspection with a little tug will all just pull out right down to the stump and the smell is seriouly bad!!. yes a rotten brom is not nice. Just thought we would share that with you.

Hi Jaga
I am brand new to Picture Hosting too. I am using directions that i saved from this site (thanks HDD!) The directions dont come with the bit that tells you how to add text too so if you end up with pics without any explanation, i apologise now :-)

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I got these not that long ago and they are mounted on recycled oregon planks that i cut to size. Electricians out there might notice that i have used cable clips as fixtures.
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This Aechmea is actually coming into flower for the first time. It is mounted on a red wood slab that i scavenged the other day when we had "hard rubbish day" (everyone dumps all their unwanted stuff on their nature strip and the council comes with a variety of trucks to take the rubbish to various recycling facilities). I found a pile of ready made mounts - both large and small - just ready for a brom!!!
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Any suggestions??
a href="http://s297.photobucket.com/albums/mm225/ozvon/?action=view&current=TillPunctulata.jpg"; target="_blank">{{gwi:454400}}
Tillandsia punctulata
I only have a couple of tills. They just dont do it for me - no offense intended to anyone.
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These came today.
I bought these on ebay - 10 unamed neos. One i suspect is actually Vr. Vagans but i dont mind as she is on my Wish List.

I got the text adding process right but i posted the wrong pic of the unknown neos. I have found these cable clips to be an excellent alternative to tying if you are mounting your broms. I have the clip in three sizes - suitable for minis upto mid sized broms. It is a plastic u-shaped clip (that fits snugly over the stolon) and had a nail ready to be bashed into anything wooden.
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good job !

Ozvon,

Good tip about the electrical clips, I've used a few of them but never would have thought of attaching broms with them.

Another good device for attaching Broms to things is ribbing mentioned previously by Kerry, after buying some and eventually working out that you have to cut accross the ribbing, I can now support that tip.

Rick

Hi rickta66,
I grabbed Kerry's suggestion of using ribbing to attach broms too, and promptly raided my husband's wardrobe for some cruddy work T-shirts to slice up. Lesson learned: cut in a straight line coz any jaggedness in cutting creates a weak point that will break if too much tension is applied! Lesson two: The ribbing is excellent if tying a brom onto a thin-ish branch or mount. Lesson Three: Harsh language will be uttered if you try to tie ribbing around a fat tree fern trunk whilst trying to hold more than a solitary brom into position.
I am experimenting with some new mounts that i am very pleased with so far. I keep thinking of potential downsides for these new mounts but i can't think of any yet.... i'll post some pics when i get organised :-)

Hey Ozvon, those electrical clips sound and look excellent as attaching devices - I should give them a try.
Re using ribbing - lol Rick! Sorry I forgot to mention that you need to cut across the ribs, in order to get the true stretchiness working - glad you worked that one out, and have had success. And yes, Ozvon, sharp dressmaker scissors are necessary to get a good smooth cut on the ribbing, or else it will break when stretched. I find at least 2cm width necessary for strength when stretched. I still do use the ribbing on thicker branches and trunks, but only tie one brom on at a time when doing so. If I want to attach another brom at same height, but on another side of the trunk, then I can sometimes use the ribbing already there, and pull it slightly away from the trunk, and manoeuvre the brom under the already tight ribbing. Often I would like a third hand, but find my head works quite well! lol
With vrieseas, which I wish more people would consider for epiphytic cultivation in their gardens, those clips might not work so well, without an obvious stolon. I have some very large vrieseas up trees, and they are fine if mounted on a horizontal branch, or only slightly angled. But when mounted on a vertical trunk/branch, the weight of them as they grow can sometimes cause them to detach, even leaving the established root system still on the trunk. In these cases, I also use the ribbing thread through the lower layers of leaves, about quarter to a third up the rosette, figure eight it behind the plant, then around the trunk. This keeps the vriesea upright, and lessens the tension at the base, and if done sneakily, you can't even see the ribbing :)
Looking forward to seeing your experiments Ozvon.
And Rick - I'd love to see some pics of your mounted broms.

Cheers,
Kerry

Hi Kerry,
We had gale force winds sweep thru Victoria on Wednesday - trees crashing down all over the place, power outages and top-soil fogs. Some places had winds of 140K+ winds. I'm going to have a very long time of it picking out a gazillion leaves that have wedged themselves throughout my broms (i dont even want to think about what's in the gutters). The bulk of my collection sits underneath my fence line so they were protected from the rage of the winds but i did find a couple that blew the cable clip off - luckily they only landed on the ground and not down the street! I just banged them back into place.

I haven't dared (yet) to mount anything that will grow too substantial - the few larger growing broms that i have are either in the ground or in pots. I do have a few established trees but can't imagine that any broms would appreciate COLD howling winds blowing thru their leaves!!!