Wallpaper!
Too fine for words.

Zowie !! How perfect can it get ? That is one fine Neo !
(drool)

looks good enough to eat!
Hmmm not in the Michael's catalog drats!

I have this plant. Mine isnt as mature as Lisa's. Maroon color just starting. I love the confirmation of this plant.

That's a beauty. Didn't see any of these at the bromeliad conference!

Lisa, it just yesterday that I met Mrs. Nongporn who knows your family, I didn't get when she said to me that you are 'Princess'.

Well, I've already got that what she means, a 'Brom princess'
with her beautiful Rosette, I think.

So it's true about screwdrivers and hammers? To hasten pupping? I seem to remember a story of someone doing that to a very *very* rare plant, but I don't recall the outcome. What if it didn't work?

She said I was a "princess", Stephania? I wonder what she meant by that. I haven't seen Nongporn in a while. She usually stays with Sharon Petersen when she comes to Hawaii, and she probably got many of her bromeliads from Sharon. Very nice person. She always invites me to come to Thailand (without my husband). Maybe someday I will, but it's difficult to get away these days.

Kim- yes it's true about screwdrivers and hammers. You need a very long narrow screwdriver and you just put the tip down at the very center of the cup and pound it all the way through until it comes out the bottom of the plant and hits the bottom of the pot. This is very important because if the water doesn't drain out of the cup it will cause the plant to rot where you injured it. You have to continually be checking the plant to make sure it is draining properly. It is okay to let water collect in the outer leaf area, though, just not in the center. I lost one very nice Vriesea that way, and it was the only one I had, so I am a bit wary of doing it to one-of-a-kind plants. If you can get at least one pup the old fashioned way first, then at least you have a back-up.

Having said that, if you do it right you shouldn't lose any. If I had checked that one and noticed the water wasn't draining I could have reamed out the hole and saved it. You don't want to use too wide a screwdriver though, or it'll pull out most of the center of your plant when you remove it. If you miss the meristem and aim a little off to the side it won't work either. The plant will keep growing but it will be all distorted and it won't initiate pup formation. It's not for the faint of heart, but once you get a feel for it it's not that difficult.

If you think that's bad, you should see what we do with the big Aechmeas (blanchetiana etc.) that we use as a cut flower crop. They started out all in neat rows but over time have all grown together in a big mass so that it's become impossibe to access the ones in the middle, so we just have to hack and stomp until we make a pathway through there. And of course when we cut the flowers the whole center of the plant gets slashed with the sickle. They're not treated like precious jewels AT ALL!

Lisa ! I can almost hear the screams of the blanchetiana all the way here to N.Y. !! [not a pretty sight !]