Hi Richard,

Wow Wow!!!! You make me crazy. I'm so jealous. How can I get plenty of plants like you. You might have no room for this lot. Send me your superfluity. I will keep my best. ;-)

Cheers
Yong

Thats more than a bug Richard...thats a pandemic!!!

You have done very well...its good to see them all well organised, & tagged. Keep us posted on how they develop...I'm sure you'll have some beauties their.

Cheers, Andrew.

P.S How old is the one in pic #4?

Good on you Richard ,trying to outdo me hmmm? No really i am flattered that i have inspired you as well as a couple of other people ,you ,like me have reached critical mass! i have no idea what we will do .i would estimate that between Tamera and myself ,we would have 100,000, seedlings at stages from just germinated to 5' pot size , we need serious councelling ,and we still have seed to sow and are doing new crosses ,think we are mad ? yep ! they look nice and healthy
Jack

Are these all only you Vriesea crosses?

Hi Yong, sorry -dont think they would last the trip.

Hey Andrew, that one is 16months old - seed sown July08.

Jack we most definately need counselling - I also have seed sown and multiple crosses still to ripen.
Keeps us out of trouble.

Yes noid guest - all foliage vriesea crosses.

Cheers Richard

Hey Richard,

What a great way to go. Terrific setup with beautiful, healthy looking seedlings and it looks like a lot of variations are starting to show up already. That is a serious amount of fun on the way! Thanks for showing them.

It is just great to get that sort of stimulation and puts even more pressure on me to set up my first little attempt at a seedling area over the Christmas break. I am fully inspired. Cheers, Paul

Wow - I can imagine a visit to Jack's garden wld've been an inspiration to you but posts like these are just as inspirational for those of us unable to visit such set ups in person. Like Paul, I'm just getting started at this sort of thing and looking at establishing some sort of seedling/brom "house" so is great to see pics like these and those in other posts to see what can be done.

thanks for sharing and I'm looking forward to seeing more pics as the plants grow. Well done!
Kristan

I've said it before and I'll say it again: scratch the surface of any prolific hybridizer and you'll find a borderline obsessive-compulsive hiding underneath. You're showing your true colors, Richard. Welcome to the club! Yes, an intervention may well be in order, but I think we're the wrong folks to organize it.

That's very good for 16 months! I can't get Vrieseas to grow nearly as fast, and I would have thought our year-round warm temps would be an advantage.

Ha ha, I was thinking the same thing Lisa, the kind of help you get here is more likely to send you in deeper...
-andy

I would have thought the year round warmth in Hawaii would have made them zoom ahead Lisa ,but even hear in Oz ,we find that the best growing period is in spring and autumn ,slightly warm to warm days ,but quite cool nights ,seems to suit the foliage types best.Middle of summer is hot nights and hotter days,speeds the Neo's up, and slows the Vrieseas down.I knew years ago I could CORRUPT Richard with a little effort ,poor guy ,did'nt think he was THAT easely led up the path though, he he .
jack

Hi Richard,

Dear! Oh! Dear!, glad to hear you've become infected with that same incurable disease (bromhybridizitis) that a lot of us now have.

When my friends comment, I just tell them at least it keeps me off the street and outa the pub!

Great work, thanks for sharing.

All the best, Nev.

Hi Richard, great work getting all those to that size in a bit over a year! In a year you'll really be able to see the glyph patterns and colours when they have filled their pots. Patience is needed!

As Jack says, the cooler nights in autumn and spring favour most Vrieseas (as well as the other Tillandsioides) so our climate along the east coast sth of the tropics is very favourable - the Brazilian plants especially due to climate similarities. Sea level here is like 500-1000m in eastern tropical Brazil where most of these grow, whereas north of Brisbane is getting a bit too hot in summer but has marvellous winter growth - Neo country! Cold changes whip up the Brazilian coast in winter just like here. When I was there in 2007 a change passed through - the nights were bloody chilly and days below 20C. In the mountains it was even colder, where most of the Vrieseas grow. Further north, west of Vitoria in Espiritos Santos, it was cold and damp up where Al vinicolor and a small silver extensa type grew (~1000m). Vr fosteriana grows in this area too, as well N gigas. Always interesting to look at habitat!

Your label supplier must have a smile, Richard!

Cheers, Pedro

Jeepers Rich! Nice job...I reckon there have to be some goodies amongst them! Please keep us up to date on progress.

Cheers

Dennis

PS You can always hit the pub at night for a couple of tinnies, unless of course you have flood-lights setup to do some night work!

Hey Dennis, we do our pollinating at night.
It's hard enought to see the stigma's now let alone with a couple of beers under the belt.
Very hot here again tonight and a cold one would go down well.

Thanks everyone for your encouraging comments.
Its all a lot of fun.

Cheers Richard

Yes we are mad .i thought i would post these piccies of some trays, No this is not all of them by any means .

{{gwi:510176}}

{{gwi:510177}}

{{gwi:510178}}

Get the picture ? need serious counceling,
Jack

Wow! I am very impressed and motivated but you guys seriously need some sort of counseling.
Someone just told me I need to keep all the 93 neo. species to be a serious collector.

What, you mean you don't have them all, Lyndi????

Actually, 93 is just the number of Neos that have photos on FCBS. As of 2002, Harry Luther listed 110 species, and that's not counting the undescribed ones like Fireball, or multiple cvs of species like ampullacea, carolinae, concentrica or carcharodon. There have probably been a few new discoveries since then too.

I haven't done an inventory, but I probably have about half of them, so I guess I'm not that serious either. ;-)

Here is a link that might be useful: An Alphabetical List of Bromeliad Binomials

Gee i can't be serious about Vrieaseas then i guess ,i seem to be missing a couple ,or 4 or 6 or ?,what the heck ,i have enough to get by on ,i am not a serious person anyway ,so that lets me of ? !

I checked the post again, he actually said 'great collector'.
It's alright for me not to be 'great collector' as long as I am able to enjoy the hybrids of the many 'great' hybridizers. I guess this alone will keep me busy for a long, long time.

Hi Richard,

Sorry to de-rail your thread, but Jack, I've noticed unpainted timber in a few of your pics before and I've been meaning to ask, you being a professional painter - have you used a sealant of some sort on it? Or is it a timber that is fairly durable un-sealed? I'm interested to find out, since I'm sitting down now to work out the materials I need to build my seedling area over Christmas .... having been motivated by this thread .... hey, I did get back on subject!

Cheers, Paul

Hi Richard ,the unpainted treated pine is only unpainted because i was to lazy and where it is it did not present a problem at the time (might now ) so thats it ,Mostly i paint everything( except hardwood does' nt need it but do it for looks as well) I paint all the timber in advance ,by roller and brush ,then when its cut ,you only have to paint the cut ends ,easier than doing it when its all up there ,any good quality exterior Acrylic will do ,:Solarguard" or Dulux " Weathershield" are best ,ok ?
Jack

Im a little late but Wow!! thats a colossal number of potted ones Brom nutter, must have taken weeks to pot up, hope you have plenty of space? all look very healthy. Do you pot up all of yours or just the bigger healthy ones from each tray?. Pic4 is looking very good, out of interest im trying the 'reverse' of that one. seed has just germinated so will see what they are like in 2 yrs time all so , growing is much slower here in NZ. All very interesting, thanks for sharing this with us all.

Hi Jaga, thanks for your comments.
I have had to sacrifice a lot of my Aechmea's and Neo's
to make room.
Yes I have already done some serious culling and only potting up the strongest in trays that I have a lot of seedlings.
But some of the really promising crosses that were not so prolific I am planting all out and will cull if they dont show potential.
Some crosses I ended up with only 10-12 plants others 100's.
I went a bit berserk with approx 50-60 differennt crosses.

All the best Richard