They look like they've been shaded out, which makes it a bit harder to ID. Everything tends to look the same when it's strappy and green! ;-)

The first one certainly does have that spectabilis look. It would really help to see it in more light, or see an inflorescence. Same with the last one, which has more of a cruenta look to me, but under these conditions it's hard to say if you've got the species or one of their hybrids. The second one I have no idea.

They all look to be the same to me.
I too have the same broms and don't know what they are called. I believe it might be "Pink Toe Nail" or simular. Hopefully somebody can name them for us both.

I found an older photo of the first one, taken Dec 07, not sure if it is much help. It was taken with my old low resolution camera so can't crop it to show the flower better.
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Hi Gail,
I'm taking a punt on them all being Neo. spectabilis grown under varying light conditions, but then again, I'll leave the final decision up to the experts.

All the best, Nev.

Hi Gail, welcome!

#1 I would say is exactly the same as what I have as Neo specatabilis
#2 Not certain
#3 Neo cruenta - the specie

I am sure all of them will amaze you when you grow them in full sun - just avoid mid day sun - and go slow on the fertiliser! I got some of the same from a friend some time ago who grow it in the shade and fed them heavily and I started growing the pups in the sun and you can't believe they are the same plants!

Japie

That last picture does help, Gail. That is a typical looking spectabilis inflorescence, the dark maroon color of the bracts with the lavender-blue flowers is very distinctive for this species. You can see a bit more foliage color there, and of course the trademark magenta fingernails, so I'd feel reasonably safe calling it N. spectabilis.

Thanks. The area where that first one is used to get more light but the trees have grown quite a bit since we had good rain over the last 12mths. Those photos where taken later in the afternoon so are a bit darker than during the day, it does get some filtered sun. We have moved a couple of pups to a brighter area but will leave this one where it is. The 2nd one with the purple fingernails gets the same conditions as it is only about 1m from the 1st one.

None of these broms, or any that are planted in the ground, are fed at all.

You may not be adding fertilizer, but a plant in the ground is drawing nitrogen and other nutrients from the soil, as opposed to one in a pot in artificial media. It can make quite a difference in appearance.

Hi Gail and welcome to the house of bromnuts!

I'll just put this pic here of my Neoregelia 'Barbie Doll'. it's a long shot but it looks similar to your 3rd pic to me.

Note that it also has purple fingernails on the older lower leaves, so maybe yours are purple from old age?

Cheers Rossana

Here is a link that might be useful: FCBS Barbie Doll

Hi everyone,

Rosanna, is there any chance of a pic. of the underside of the leaves on your plant?

Lisa, thanks; that's a great tip on plants in the actual ground, and something I've never really thought about and I'm sure a lot of others probably haven't either.

Gail, just for interest sake, there is a variegated form of spectabilis around also.

All the best, Nev.

Hi Rosanna, that is a pretty one, seems a different shade of pink to mine but I like it.

Nev, when you mentioned variegated I was hoping it was going to be like this one but when I looked it up it is totally different... would have saved me a lot of time searching :) I haven't started looking for this one yet... and there are so many different neos! :)
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Lisa, yes that is why we don't feed the ones in the ground, same with ones in pots under trees. The only ones that have been fed at all are the ones in the shadehouse where there isn't any leaves to fall on them. The ones we have in pots at least get watered regularly but the ones in the ground have to rely mainly on rainfall as this is a large garden (about 1 acre) and we aren't on town water - only tank and dam water. We've just gone through several years of drought where the plants had to struggle but we've had good rain the last 12mths so they are starting to look much better... and at least I don't breed dogs any more as that is what a lot of the damaged leaves were from - pup attacks! Thanks for your help.

That last one is a hybrid of spectabilis and marmorata. That type of pattern is called marmoration, as opposed to variegation, which means it has stripes of white (or yellow or pink, but lacking in chlorophyll) running the length of the leaf.

Hi Gail, welcome (belated)!

I have the green strappy thing happening with a particular Neo. in the garden as well. Lisa and Nev - that point about them picking up nutrients from the soil (and probably every where else) is a great one and from my experience they seem to be very, very good at doing it.

My green strappy thing-of-the-moment is some sort of Neo. with a fair bit of marmorata in it (I think) that I've had for the last 18 years or so. When I plant out part-grown pups individually, or maybe just a single mother plant plus pup, in a fair bit of full sun, I get something with leaves that max out at around 30-40cm long, broad, mainly bright yellow with lots of bright red marmorata-type patterning.

They stay like that until they get into clumps of around 3-4 plants, and then they start going green and strappy, no matter what I do. Still in lots of sun, zero feeding, horrible sandy soil with virtually no nutrient retention and fighting for every bit of available nutrient in a mat of roots from the huge gum trees.

Just like these plants in the pic below. All the ones with the red fingernails are the marmorata-y plant. Not much of the bright red and yellow patterning visible now and strappy green leaves up to a metre long - in a spot where they are still getting full sun through the middle of the day and bright dappled shade for the rest.
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I suspect with these plants that once the clumps reach a bit of a size, the root systems are extensive enough to be pretty good at scavenging any availble nutrients. I also suspect that over a period of several years, the clumps are able to build up a enough of a store of nutrients from the stuff that collects in their cups so that it doesn't matter whether they get any nutrients via their roots or not - they can just green-away happily regardless of what I do.

Seems to work really well for the foliage Vrieseas out there with them, but for the Neos ....... naaaa. About time I took a few pups for the garden and used the rest to re-populated the footpath outside with a couple of cubic metres of "please take plants". Then I should get some nice bright colours in the garden again.

Sounds like you've taken some pups to re-establish your spectablilis Gail, so hopefully you will get some nicely marked plants again, as I expect to with my marmorata-ish Neo. Cheers, Paul

Hi Nev!, yup I'll take a pic of the undersides of Barbie Doll tomorrow when it becomes daylight. I've never thought to look under it's skirt to be honest LOL!

Cheers Rossana

Thanks for that Lisa.

Hi Paul, hope one of these days that my broms will get a bit bigger like yours to fill up the gaps in our garden. At the moment we keep taking pups off all the broms to fill up other areas. Most of the year here many of the broms seem to handle full sun except in the middle of summer then they burn especially on the regular 35C+ days - have ruined the looks of a few broms that way so prefer to give them some light shade in summer. We have a few deciduous trees they seem to like being under - gives them plenty of light in winter but shade in summer.

Hi Gail,
I find that Neo. spectabilis is best seen to advantage when it's mounted on tree branches in good light. That way the colour is enhanced and you can look up from beneath get a good view of the nicely coloured banding on the under side of the leaves, which in my opinion is its best feature.

All the best, Nev.

Nev, here you go! a couple of pics of the underside of Barbie Doll.

Not very spectabil-ish is it LOL!

Cheers Rossana

Barbie's undergarments do give a clue as to her ancestry, though. With those squiggles I'm guessing either macrosepala or farinosa or something along those lines found its way into the mix. And she may well have spectabilis in her, judging by her nice round painted fingernails, but she didn't inherit spect's silver banding below.

Which brings us back to the last pic in Gail's original set. The silver banded underside is also a characteristic of cruenta, as are the green leaves, although as said earlier, a lot of things can look greener with less light and more nutrition than they would under harder conditions. It would be nice to see a closer pic of the inflorescence, but you can see the bracts are green, which would rule out it also being spectabilis. Cruenta has green bracts and it also has red fingernails, not the magenta of spectabilis and the shape of them is slightly different. Spect's nails form a distinct rounded zone around the tip spine, whereas cruenta looks more like the entire tip of the leaf was dipped in paint.

Here is a link that might be useful: {{gwi:466797}}

Thanks Lisa. I can't find a photo of No 3 flowering so that will have to wait until spring but I will go down when it is daylight and check the fingernails.

Hi Lisa

Plant #3, photo 5 & 6 with the silver banding on the underside I feel is Neo. richteri which had commonly been confused with Neo. cruenta.

Pinkbroms

Here is a picture of the fingernails of plant no 3
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I'm not familiar with N. richteri, pinkbroms, but I checked the FCBS photo and it does look like a possibility.