very nice Paul ,good photos ,see your black Chantinii from B.S Tony looks just like mine ,it tends to struggle a fair bit more than the green forms ,not sure why though ,your Nid.'Ruby Lee ' is very good for colour and pattern ,it allways escaped me so i gave up. good show .Jack

Hi Paul,

Great pic's of a great collection.

We copped the heat down here as well but it didn't start 'til about 3 pm. The morning was good and then the hot westerly came up and ruined it.

I really must get up to see your collection in the near future.

All the best, Nev.

Hi Jack, thanks for your comments. You're right about that black chantinii. I've had it for a bit over 2 years now and for the first year it grew well and looked terrific, but then it flowered and started to go downhill rapidly soon after that. What a shame, it is such a striking clone when it is in good shape. I'm hoping that the pup will do a bit better.

And Nev, thanks, but I keep telling, you just have to drive up that hill. Cheers, Paul

I can't get chantinii 'Black Ice' to do well. I bought a tissue cultured plant a few years back and it threw a few pups but all are in decline. I did manage to do a few bigeneric crosses with the original plant and those are doing OK.

Paul

Nice collection! What is the brom in the 3rd picture?

Lyndi

Hi Lyndi, thanks. The brom in the 3rd picture is Nidularium 'Ruby Lee'. It's the first one I've had and I'm really pleased with the way it is going now a year or so down the track. I'm not sure what it is that it likes though. I've been trying to grow a couple of plants of Nid. innocentii v. purpureum right next to it and they are not happy at all. I would have thought that they would be very similar, but they alternate bewteen growing nicely for a bit then just dieing back. I just can't work it out, especially since the purpureum seems to be tough as boots out in shady parts of the garden. Maybe it gets too much light near the 'Ruby Lee'?

Nick, you mentioned in another thread recently that you had done some bigenerics with chantinii and I meant to ask - what were they? Interesting results?

Cheers, Paul

I've crossed chantinii with Neos and Nidulariums. Of the six neo crosses that I did with Black Ice, five took. I tried to put Nid Ruby Lee on and that didn't take and none of the aechmea crosses took either: weird. I've also had success with Grey Ghost and Dark Deleon although I think Grey Ghost may be a weak selfer and probably isn't a great choice anyway.

I have some Dark Deleon bigeneric seedlings that are a year old and a few look very interesting while some don't. Most of the others are still too young to make any call.

nice pics and nice collection - hope they all survived the heat. Copped the heat down here too - have got a few burnt/faded broms but at least that lesson is learned.

Hi malleeaustralia,

Great to see another Aussie joining the worldwide ranks of GW brom growers. I'm sure you'll enjoy yourself being a member of our friendly forum.

What part of our great country are you from? Judging by your name, possibly one of the drier areas.

All the best, Nev.

Hi Kristan, thanks. Yes, all the plants came through the 40+ temps without a mark - well, without any more marks, anyway. As often happens here on the very hot days, there was a bit of haze in the air, then a bit of light overcast, and that was enough to save them from burning. Cheers, Paul

Cheers Nev - yep a mallee boy here - Swan Hill, Nth West Vic. Yr right about the dryness but have had a bit of rain in the last week (very nice after a fortnight or so in the 40's - not too mention a decade or so in drought!) The crazy weather of late has generally been great for the broms and are all madly growing after winter (no year long growing season here). I just have to remember that plants that are "full sun" elsewhere are just like people and would much prefer some shelter from the hot dry summer sun here...

Glad no burning there Paul - Im not the best with names yet but the Blushing Tigers(?) in pic 2 look great - I have one (somewhere, backyards a mess!) but hasn't coloured as well as yrs yet - all yrs in yr pics here seem to have fantastic colour - nice job!

Kristan

Lovely plants Paul.

May I ask what is that nice green-white, quite evenly stripped Neo on the middle of Pic #5?

Thanks.

Hi noid.guest, thanks. Its a modest collection so far but I'm doing my best to make it bigger!

The Neo you ask about is 'Roy's Special'. That particular pup does have nice even striping and I really like the shape. There is another pup from the same mother plant at the top of pic #6 as well, but the striping is much less regular. This is my first experience with it, but I've been told that the variegation is very unstable in this plant. Still, I'm really happy with it if I can get the occasional very nicely marked plant - the uncertainty sort of adds to the interest.

Cheers, Paul

Paul, are you *sure* about Roy's Special? I was going to ask what that one was too! That looks nothing like my plant. True, RS is a bit unstable, but the instability seems to be limited to being either M-P (white stripe down the middle) or throwing a green or half-green pup. I've never known it to go all striated like that. If it blooms, you might try pollinating it. ;-)

Roy's Special:

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Hi Lisa,

That 'Roy's Special' came from a reliable and knowledgeable grower who is not unknown in this forum, so I am as confident with the name as I can be. And yes, I bought it a year or so ago, just after one of your postings where you talked about the need for a mixture of green and variegation along the edges of the leaves to maximise the chances of transmitting the variegation to seedlings.

This plant has that in spades and I just had to get it as soon as I saw it to be the recipient of some pollen from Hannibal Lector - if I can ever get my HL to flower. I've tried apples and bananas on it without success so far. If it doesn't do something soon, it is going to get a dose of water that has had ethylene gas bubbled though it, then, we shall see.

I'm really hoping that the broad rounded leaves of the RS might carry through to some of the offspring, as well as the variegation and zonation, so I end up with something that has the general appearance of a dartboard. Ha - nothing like optimism!

Cheers, Paul

Aha! I just had another thought. I wonder how 'Royal Cordovan' would go on that RS as well. Super broad rounded leaves, nice and red. Hmmmm. I think some RC pollen is about to get frozen. Lisa, thanks for nudging my poor addled brain into action. Cheers, Paul

Paul,

I love your Roy's Special too! Very special indeed!
Was wondering what it is but too embarrassed to ask a second time.

Hey Lyndi, never hesitate to ask. It's great fun when everyone shares this stuff around and I invariably learn something from trying to answer anyway, so it's a case of "the more the merrier" as far as I'm concerned. Cheers, Paul

My RS is striated like pic 5 and so are all the pups. RS X RC is slow growing but has good form

Hi all ,the 'Roy's Special' looks like mine allthough if you give me a plant i will produce Albo Marinates from it as well as variegates ,striates ,takes a while but it does it ,however if you get a really good one like that you get better pups just the same ,mind you can also get plain green plants ,it is very unstable ,still it nice with good shape and colours up well ,pups like mad as well. Have posted a piccie of 2 opposite types

{{gwi:509859}}

so this is them , did your plant come from us Paul ? cheers .Jack

Well, either there are two different cvs floating around with the same name or my plant has been oddly consistant over several generations. Did your RS come from Michael, HDD?

I hesitate over this Lisa ,but i have a feeling that yours may not an R.S ,the spines and general shape does not fit, have not seen your clone in Oz at all,and there is a lot of R.S over here ,and have never seen a M.D pup on my plants or a half Var. get the odd almost plain ,but mostly they are just about like Pauls ,yours is a very nice plant though ,no offence and as i said i hesitate over it ,but it would not be the first time that 2 plants have the same name ,
Jack

Hi Jack, yes, my plant of RS was from you. Those two extreme variations are interesting. Both are nice plants, but that white one is a beauty. Thanks for showing them. Cheers, Paul

Jack, I was thinking the same as you about the spines and form. I've seen the pic in Steens' book too, which seems to agree with your plant and Paul's. I don't know Roy Ford, but if he's an Aussie breeder, then it would seem more likely that the clone circulating around Oz would be the correct one. Being me, however, I always have to get to the bottom of things rather than to just accept majority rule! You know how it is. ;-)

Sooooo.......... I looked it up in the registry. Here's the official description: "Broad leafed Meyendorffii type plant in deep green w/clear central variegation in white - most of plant overlaid by fire-engine red heavy glaze - cup red at blooming - striation w/green stripes in white areas."

Now, look at the FCBS pic (in the link below). That matches the description perfectly! I actually ordered the plant based on that photo and was somewhat disappointed that it wasn't as glossy dark red, but I can see how under different growing conditions it might be. It does have an overall red cast, and the central pattern of variegation and general Meyendorffii look are as described (which can't really be said for the other plants I'm seeing here). I got mine from Michael's, of course, which is why I want to know where HDD got hers.

Based on all of that, I'm feeling reasonably comfortable that mine is correctly IDed. Here's another photo which shows the mature form a bit better. It's a really nice plant, whatever it is, but I like the striated one too!

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Here is a link that might be useful: FCBS - Roy's Special

Hmmmm, the plot thickens.

Hey Nev, if you're following this, since you know Jarka Rehak - he provided the fcbs photo - can you find out a bit more about that plant? In particular, how variable was it and how did it match up against the plants we are talking about? Might be an interesting addition to the discussion. Cheers, Paul