That ranging colour alone is really special. Thanks for sharing, Nev.

#6 hands down Nev.

Thanks for the tour around the color wheel.

tj

Thumbs up. Creating something new is always a step up in this hobby.

Nice!

Hi Nev,

Nice crosses.

Cheers,

Rick

Hi everyone - Thanks for the compliments but these results weren't planned by any stretch of the imagination. The cross was just something that was done on the spur of the moment because both plants were in flower at the same time and I have an inquisitive nature and wondered what this cross would produce.

For any members who aren't familiar with these two plants, let me say that although they are both Aechmeas, that's where the similarity ends as both plants are structurally so very different as the pictures below will show.

Ae. nudicaulis var. aequalis (Seed parent)

Hi Nev,

I've read before that growing out Ae gamosepala has a reasonable chance of producing different coloured flowers, it's interesting that that trait followed when used as a pollen parent.

Rick

Hi everyone.

Rick
- Although the gamosepalas in our garden are always full of seed capsules I've
never tried growing any seed as I find they are almost feral and terribly invasive when planted in
the garden and they take over everything. I have enough trouble with weeds without adding to the problem and at
least every month there's a green bin with several gamosepala plants going to
the council mulcher.

The
interesting thing about this cross was when I mentioned it on another forum, I
was told by the "experts" that Ae. nudicaulis var. aequalis was a
prolific "selfer" and the entire grex would be the same or very
similar to it. As I like that particular plant that didn't bother
me and I decided to grow them anyway and had intended putting them on a Golden
Robinia tree I have in the front yard.

Mother
Nature however had other ideas, and there wasn't a single plant that looked
anything like Ae. nudicaulis var. aequalis. They were all vigorous growers and the only thing they had resembling the nudicaulis parent was that they followed the
nudicaulis habit of growing out of the pot and about 50% had the nudicaulis
thumb print.

The next four pictures give an idea of the foliage colour

This picture below demonstrates the vigour of these plants with six pups visible and two more around the rear; also it shows the typical nudicaulis "thumb print"

All he best, Nev.

I really enjoy reading thru all these hybridizing experiments and great photos as well. With everything growing so well, you must soon run out of room. The two parents look so different.

Hi everyone.

Dave
- You've just hit the nail on the head when you say, "you must soon run
out of room" as that's exactly what happened to me.

When
I first started growing bromeliad seed I never thought it could get out of hand
like it did; in fact if I had followed the advice I was given when I started, it
wouldn’t have gotten out of hand.

I
had been told by a well-known hybridist to “cull ruthlessly” and this was where
I made my big mistake. You see I couldn’t bring myself to toss out healthy
looking little plants and it was always a case of “grow it a bit longer and see
how it develops”. The fact is, I forgot that little seedling eventually grow
into adult plants which need to be accommodated.

To
asses the true worth of these seedling you really need to grow them to
maturity and that’s where I came unstuck, as I didn’t have the growing area to
do this. In our normal size suburban back yard I quickly ran out of space and
plants became overcrowded which of course isn’t the best recipe for successful
growing. Plants become overcrowded and compete with each other for light and
before long all you can see are unattractive plants with long gangly leaves
devoid of colour.

To
overcome this I had to cull anyway, there was no other answer, so I selected
some that looked like they could have a bit of potential and tossed the rest
(about 75%). The remaining plants all had leaves about twice as long as they
should be, and were very soft and droopy. I
realised that these plants wouldn’t improve, and any chance I had was with
future pups, so to hurry up pup production I decided to stress the plants to
initiate pups more quickly. To do this I shortened the leaf length by half which
meant in most cases cutting off about ten to twelve inches of each leaf.

I
now had a bench full of sorry looking excuses for plants, but at least they did
have space to grow and I reckoned that now the plants didn’t have to provide
nourishment for all of the excess foliage this nourishment could be directed to
any new pups. It was only a month or two before the new pups started to poke
their heads out from the base of the plants and in many cases it was two pups,
one on each side. As they grew, the original plant declined and when the pups
were three quarters the size of the original plant, I cut the original out
which made more space for the pups to grow unrestricted.

When
spring time came I had a lot of nice healthy pups which unfortunately didn’t look
the best as they were all growing to one side of the pot. This was due to the
fact the original plants had been in the centre of the pot, so they were all
re-potted and have now grown into nice healthy almost adult plants.

It’s
been a lesson well learned and a mistake I’ll never make again.

This is where it all started.

....and they grew

.......and grew

Then they were potted up into small pots and move to the baby section of the shade house.

......as they got bigger they were potted on and moved to the seedling shade house

where they just got bigger and bigger

until they stared to get out of control.

The following year they were all twice as large as what you see here and that's when the culling took place and things are now back under control again.

So yes Dave, I did soon run out of room.

All the best, Nev.

Nev, how do you get the "snot" off your fingers to place the seed so evenly?

Hi everyone.

Gonz - First let me say
that I previously used to sow my seed direct from the berries by just squeezing
it onto the growing medium as this avoids the possible contamination you often get from
airborne fungi spores that you get with dry seed.

The big drawback was that
the seed was stuck together by the mucilage (or "seed snot" as it has
been called). To help overcome this I would give each group of seed a firm
squirt from a hand held spray bottle and "blast" the seed apart.

Immediately after sowing

This
helped to disperse it to a certain degree but there were always the stubborn
groups of seed that wouldn’t break up.

After a blast from the water spray

I remembered when I grew
orchid seed I used to mix them with a small amount of sterile water and suck
the seed and water up into a sterile eye dropper and drop the mix on the agar
growing medium in the bottom of the flask and then swirl it around a bit to disperse the seed.

As brom. seed is much
larger than orchid seed I thought I'd try the same thing but using a large 20ml
syringe. Because it was going onto a rough surface I knew I couldn't swirl the
seed around like I had done with the orchid seed, so I needed to be able to
place it where it was to grow and I thought this was the answer, but the
syringe kept getting blocked up with the seed as it settled to the bottom.

Eventually I worked out a
system whereby I gave the syringe a good shake every couple of seconds to keep
the seed suspended in the water. Although not a perfect solution, it did separate
the seed much better than my previous method and after a bit of practice it
becomes easier.

With small seed like Neoregelias
and the smaller Aechmeas it works fine but with seed larger than this I widen
the opening in the syringe if possible or get a larger syringe to suit the seed.

What’s more, I don’t get any “snot” on my
fingers.

All the best, Nev.

Hi everyone.

Gonz - First let me say
that I previously used to sow my seed direct from the berries by just squeezing
it onto the growing medium as this avoids the possible contamination you often get from
airborne fungi spores that you get with dry seed.

The big drawback was that
the seed was stuck together by the mucilage (or "seed snot" as it has
been called). To help overcome this I would give each group of seed a firm
squirt from a hand held spray bottle and "blast" the seed apart.

Immediately after sowing

This
helped to disperse it to a certain degree but there were always the stubborn
groups of seed that wouldn’t break up.

After a blast from the water spray

I remembered when I grew
orchid seed I used to mix them with a small amount of sterile water and suck
the seed and water up into a sterile eye dropper and drop the mix on the agar
growing medium in the bottom of the flask and then swirl it around a bit to disperse the seed.

As brom. seed is much
larger than orchid seed I thought I'd try the same thing but using a large 20ml
syringe. Because it was going onto a rough surface I knew I couldn't swirl the
seed around like I had done with the orchid seed, so I needed to be able to
place it where it was to grow and I thought this was the answer, but the
syringe kept getting blocked up with the seed as it settled to the bottom.

Eventually I worked out a
system whereby I gave the syringe a good shake every couple of seconds to keep
the seed suspended in the water. Although not a perfect solution, it did separate
the seed much better than my previous method and after a bit of practice it
becomes easier.

With small seed like Neoregelias
and the smaller Aechmeas it works fine but with seed larger than this I widen
the opening in the syringe if possible or get a larger syringe to suit the seed.

What’s more, I don’t get any “snot” on my
fingers.

All the best, Nev.

Excellent tutorial Nev. Thanks.

tj

Wow! Sounds like a catch 22. You have to let plants get to blooming size before you can evaluate, but at that size you'll soon run out of room. Too difficult to cull at small sizes. You are rolling the dice as to what might be the next best thing. You must give away lots of plants?