Gee those all look regal. Thanks.

Unfortunately, I have no "G"s.

tj

Always enjoy reading your posts and looking at your beautiful plants, Nev!

Here is my small contribution to letter G:

Neo. Guacamole

I love looking at everyone's brom pictures. I never get tired of it. :) Guacamole. How cute! (It's all in good naming, isn't it?!)

Carol in Jacksonville

Hi everyone.

germangirl - Glad to see you posting a picture of your nice Neoregelia 'Guacamole' hopefully you may start the ball rolling and others will post pictures as well.

In the meantime (and to feed Carol's thirst for pic's) I'll try and post some more. This time plants with names starting with the letter "H"

All the best, Nev.

Neoregelia 'Happy Thoughts'

Neoregelia 'Heart Music' x concentrica (One of my crosses which on maturity had a nice purple centre)

Neoregelia 'Heck'

Neoregelia 'Homage'

Neoregelia 'Honour Bright'

Neoregelia 'Hot Gossip'

The even pattern on Gold Fever is exceptional. One to look for.

Love them all, especially the Heart Music cross! (Names are above each photo, right?)

Nev, if I remember correctly, you grow your broms under shade cloth. Mine are under oaks and magnolia trees, which make them very happy, but messy in appearance. I have to clean them up and pick leaves out before taking photos. Are yours always camera-ready? :)

Carol

Hi everyone.

Carol - Yes, names are above each plant.

I do grow most of my plants under shade cloth except for a few in garden beds in the front yard. I found the cost outlay for the shade cloth was little to pay in return for the work and time it saved in having to clean debris out of the plants all the time.

I have three shade houses and with the exception of the shade cloth, they are built mainly from re-cycled materials so they weren't expensive.

The remaining areas aren't shade houses as such, but just shade cloth roofs built out off the fence.

As for plants always being camera ready, the answer is "not always"; occasionally birds will perch on the shade cloth roof which sometimes results in "bird poop" on the leaves which needs cleaning off first.

I also have some brom's growing in the front garden and if I wan't to photograph them I have to clean all of the debris out of the leaf axils first, to do this I find the best thing is a pair of 12" stainless steel kitchen forceps which I bought at a kitchen shop for about $12; the best $12 I ever spent, they're just so handy for getting into the awkward places.

They say a "picture paints a thousand words" so here's a few pic's of my collection so you understand what my back and front yards looks like.

As available space inside the shade houses is always a problem, I utilise vertical space as well and I find the plants love to grow this way

Standing on the back deck looking down the yard. On the left is one of the drop down shutters I built to protect the hanging plants from strong southerly winds.

This is a section of the shade cloth roofs I have built out from the perimeter fences.

Another section of roof built out off the fence further down the yard.

Inside a shade house where I grow some of my Neoregelias and Billbergias

This is what it looks like with the shutters down

The same area with the shutters up

This is the front yard taken from the driveway

One of the gardens on the north side consisting mainly of Neoregelia seedling culls

A garden of mainly Aechmea recurvatas, facing west

All the best, Nev.

Just beautiful! Thank you for the virtual "walk" through your yard!

I would love to sit in that chair (in two of the pictures) , have some coffee and enjoy the colorful view.

I was surprised, there are actually some areas without brows in your yard!

Are those Quesnelias behind the Aech. recurvatas?

Does it have to be a Neo with a name beginning with H?

I have a Billbergia 'Hallelujah', purchased last November and just started growing a pup.

My yard is relatively small and I grow mostly orchids but I have and area in the front under a medium size oak that is perfect for broms.

I try to plant most of my broms in the ground so they don`t dry out as quickly (it`s enough work to have to water some of my orchids every day) and it creates a more natural look as well.

Hi everyone.

Eve - That chair is reserved for me to rest my old bones when the going sometimes gets a bit tough.

I would like to cover the whole yard with brom's myself, but at that time I had a little dog and he and my grandsons needed some grass to run and play on.

Those plants behind the Aechmea recurvatas are Aechmea bromellifolia albo-bracteata. They are mainly grown for the sculptural effect of the foliage as the flowers aren't special and mainly just of botanical interest.

They are sometimes seen around here being used as a centre feature in cacti and succulant gardens where they really look good.

Here's a few pictures of the plants and the flowers - The first picture shows the two different types I have. The one on the right is Aechmea bromellifolia albo-bracteata and the one on the left was once known as Aechmea bromellifolia rubra but now just called Aechmea bromellifolia. The remaining pic's show close-up images of the flowers.

Hi everyone.

Eve - We must have posted at the same time that's why I've just seen your post. It doesn't matter what sort of brom it is Billbergias are fine as are any other genera, it's just that most of my plants are Neoregelias and that's why that's what I mainly post.

I seem to have completely mucked up the continuity of the post about names starting with "G" because I then went onto names starting with "H" and from there I'm now posting pic's of my garden.

I should have started a new thread with names starting with "H" instead of getting side tracked. So, sorry everyone.

I'll just add a little more about what I do with plants in my garden. Firstly I plant an empty pot of similar size or a little larger and then put my potted plant inside that. By doing this you can move plants around more easily and also you can control the growth better. If you plant the bromeliad directly into the garden, some types (e.g. Ae. gamosepala) can become quite invasive and tend to take over.

All the best, Nev.

Thanks for the pics of Achmea bromellifolia.

Know what you mean, I have Ae. gamosepala in four places in my yard. So far I still like it, if I get tired of it I`ll make some of my neighbors happy with it (broms are still the exception in Houston yards).