Hi Sid_Marx,
Whereabouts are you located in NZ ? Do you get frosts in winter ?? ...presume as you say full sun, can also mean unprotected from frost ?
Cheers,
Graeme

Hi Graeme, I'm in Howick, Auckland. We don't tend to get frosts in the part of the garden where the wall is, not in a typical winter anyway. I'm thinking Neoregelia Pascoaliana might survive on the wall, and maybe Neo Aztec...
Cheers
John

Hi John, good to see another kiwi here! Sounds like youÂve completed a fine project there, & covering the rock wall in broms will make it a stand out feature.

From your list IÂd remove Aechmea Ensign (unless youÂve got a few spare & just want to try it out) I suspect the variegation will burn in the peak summer sun. Aechmea Covata, & any other recurvata hybrids will be fine, along with Aech. nudicaulis varieties, plus orlandiana & its hybrids. There are probably many other Aechmea that would perform wellÂa couple that come to mind & are readily available are Red Bands & Mary Brett.

The AlcÂs will be great in all day full sun, but to get them to look their best, plant them into the ground or into a raised bed, with some good garden mix around their roots.

As for NeoÂs, you mention pascoaliana, which I think would do OK, & other large neoÂs you could try would be correia-araujoi & johannis, along with some of the tough concentrica types. The ampullacea varieties should be fine at the top of the wall, they may just take a generation of two to adapt. Over the last few months IÂve planted a number of ampullacea into a bed of scoria, & they will get full summer sun, so itÂll be a test to see just how tough they are. IÂve had Morris Henry Hobbs blister in our summer sun, so would avoid that oneÂbut if you could just add a few palms, yuccaÂs or dracena to give a touch of midday protection, then you have a situation that would be great for a whole range of broms.

Have a look at the link below to see J&AÂs amazing brom wall to get an idea of what can be achieved with a bit of imagination & a lot of hard work.

Cheers, Andrew.

Here is a link that might be useful: J&A vertical brom wall

Hey thanks very much for the advice Andrew. I only have one Ensign and its just a pup so I won't experiment. I'll check out Red Bands and Mary Brett.

I have a few Alcantareas planted around the garden but I reckon a few planted into the ground along the top of the wall could look pretty special. The wall is dry laid stone so the soil should drain well.

I've wanted to get a correia-araujoi for a while now but haven't seen any for sale and haven't made a serious effort to track one down yet!

Good luck with the ampullacea in scoria, sounds like good conditions for them.

I use draecnea and beaucarnea elsewhere in the garden to provide a bit of midday radiation relief for my bromeliads - they do a great job.

Wow, J&A's wall is inspirational, totally stunning - now that's a project!

Thanks again.
John

I really like A. blanchetiana. Maybe someone else will know, do they need to be down in soil as well though?
-andy

Hi John,

Definately the recurvatas, they will take what ever you like to throw at them, I find they're "bullet proof"

All I would add would be to acclimitise any plants to their new hot, full sun environment gradually starting before it gets too hot.

Andrew, do you have another pic of your vertical wall now, eighteen months later? It would be great to see the progression.

All the best, Nev.

Hi John,

Yes I agree with all of Andrew's and Nev's advice, and yes 'Aztec' and all similar "Mottles" type neo hybrids are very hardy and will be fine.

One thing to be careful and mindful of is also the heat coming off the rocks in our midday summer sun. With the Ampullacea mini types, just watch the midday heat doesn't zap them and dry out their water supply too fast. Some of these also don't like the harsh cold and frost in winter, so plant them under large plants or it rock niches maybe ?

Definitely get as many plants as you can in soon or before the spring sun starts in force, so they gradually get used to the increasing sun and heat change. Don't leave it too late when it's getting hot, otherwise the temperature change may shock/burn many of them.

I have a number of pebble gardens over in West Auckland that get this full summer sun and to add with what has already been suggested, I've found that Neo's spectabilis, 'Noble Descent', 'Guinea' and of course the smaller red Fireball hybrid types do particularly well in handling the reflective heat from the rocks and pebbles.

'Noble Descent' is of olens parentage and a great little plant that you should definitely have on your list. It's VERY hardy and starts of quite bright kermit green/yellow (a nice contrast against most other neo colour types) and goes a nice burnt orange when mature near flowering and in full sun. Like most of the other neo's mentioned, it also pups quite well so you will have multiple plants in 2-3 years that will look great positioned in clumps.

I've also had a number of Wittrockia Leopardinum's growing in hot afternoon sun (as long as you acclimatise it slowly) which look nice too if you want another larger plant with a bit of a different look. They may also do a bit better and be more stable planted in the ground like the Alc's though, as they can get quite large.

Hope that helps with some more ideas...and look forward to seeing a photo maybe when it's done !

Cheers, Graeme

John,

I'm northwest of you in Brisbane so my plants probably cop more of a flogging than yours.

Graeme's suggestion of Noble Descent is a good one - it is probably the best full sun performer in my yard.

Neo.Fireball is another that handles full sun most of the time.

The only other Neos that I have had much success with have been Cockabell and GeeWhiz (Rubra)two plants from Bruce Dunstan via Matt - I'll try and take some photos.

I burnt the centre out of my MHHobbs trying to climatise it last spring.

My recently acquired ViniColor is colouring nicely but starting to burn, it will probably do better for you.

I'm growing Aech. Blanchetiana as an epiphyte, it is doing well. As stated by a few others previously they don't like wind, I've burnt a few leaves trying to climatise one in a pot to full sun.

Neo.Kautskyii would probably be worth a go.

Cheers,

Rick

Neo.NobleDescent
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Neo.GeeWhiz (Rubra)
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Neo.Cockabelle
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Wow, what a wealth of good advice coming through, thanks a lot everyone, this is really going to sort me out!
I have a number of fireball type neos which I guess I was lumping in with the ampullacea becuase they're similiar size - and I thought similar hardiness, thanks for the tip regarding protecting the miniature ones cups from drying out Graeme, that wasn't something I had considered.
I'll be sure to get the plants either into the wall or put the pots at the foot of the wall shortly to get them acclimatised before the sun starts getting really fierce - so thanks Nev and Graeme for that warning.
I'm not terribly keen on the look of spectabalis, so I'll give that one a miss, but I'll probably add a 'noble descent' and maybe a 'guinea' to the list, I don't have either of those so will have to be a new purchase... and maybe a blanchetiana, but I'll have to be careful or I'll run out of room.

I have a leopardinum which would probably contrast well with the others. I also have gee whiz, but they aren't the rubra form so I'm concerned they'll take a scorching, plus they have quite a large open form so may not do too well on a vertical surface. Thanks for the photos Rick.

I'll try and upload a before photo of the wall, which I put in to make space for a glasshouse to replace my crumby makeshift hothouse (an old tent inner with a PVC sheet over it).

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