BROMELIAD Vofl'gfii‘? Society of New Zealand Inc. BROMELIAD SOCIETY OF NEW ZEALAND (INC). Affiliated with the Bromeliad Society lntemational. The Society was formed on the 28th. August, 1962. The objects of the society are to encourage the cultivation and study. of bromeliads grown indoors or outdoors and in particular - (a) To promote discussion and arrange instruction on cultivation, propagation and control of diseases. (b) To provide a library for members. (c) To assist members to identify plants. (d) To make awards for outstanding new bromeliads. (e) To hold shows or public exhibitions. (f) To promote the distribution of bromeliads amongst members by exchange, purchase and sale, and to encourage the importation of new plants. (9) To affiliate with any Society or other body, and to do such things as may be deemed necessary or desirable in the furtherance of these objects (h) To accept affiliation from other Societies having similar objects. MEETINGS Held on the FOURTH Tuesday of each month except December, at Greyfriars Church Hall, 544 Mt. Eden Road, Auckland at 7:30pm. MEMBERSHIP SUBSCRIPTIONS NewZealand NZ$20.00 Ordinary NZ$ 5.00 Associate (same household) Overseas NZ$25.00 Australia NZ$30.00 United States and other overseas Send all payments to the Treasurer, Peter Waters, 22 Halfmoon Rise, Bucklands Beach, AUCKLAND. CORRESPONDENCE All general correspondence should be sent to the Secretary, Bromeliad Society of New Zealand, 33 Marsden Avenue, Mt. Eden, AUCKLAND. 4. FRONT COVER Nidularium Something Special (Nid. innocentii var. Iineatum x Nid. regelioides) ...see article on pages 9-13. Photo: Gerry Stansfield 2 CONTENTS 4 From the President Graham West 4 Brom-a-warra 5,6 May meeting news Dave Anderson 6 New members 7,8 Brazilian vrieseas/freeze stalwarts Ervin J. Wurthmann 9-13 Nidulariums Gerry Stansfield 14.15 Tillandsia imperialis Len Trotman 16 “Plant flower then die” Dave Anderson 17 Bay of Plenty Bromeliad Group Kevin Schollum 18 Ant gardens of the Amazon Doug Upton 19 Wellington Tillandsia Study Group Phyl Purdia & Andrew Flower 20 Northland Bromeliad Group Jacqui O’Connell 21 Seedbank Gerry Stansfield 22 Basics for Beginners - potting mixes ~ 23 Officers, journal and advertising COMING EVENTS JULY 23rd ' Northland Bromeliad Group at Colin and Iris Symonds’ home at 4 Crawford Crescent, Kamo. 25‘h Auckland meeting, Greyfriars Hall at 7:30pm Talk: BSl World Conference — Golden Anniversary (slides) Monthly plant competition: Hanging baskets 30‘“ Wellington Tillandsia Study Group at the home of Dianne O'Neill, 7 Black Beech Road, Akatarawa at 1:30pm. AUGUST 1" ' Deadline for copy for the August Journal. 9‘h Bay of Plenty Bromeliad Group - General meeting at 1pm at the Tauranga Yacht Clubrooms. (Committee meeting 12 noon) 22"" Auckland meeting. Greyfriars Hall at 7:30pm Talk: Dick Endt — Horticultural travels Monthly plant competition: Mounted plants FROM THE PRESIDENT My apologies for being absent at the last meeting. This was only the second time that I have missed a general meeting in four and a half years. Where I live, it has rained off and on for the last ten days. It is certainly not easy to work up any enthusiasm to do much work outside. But winter is nearly over and I am looking forward to Spring. On the brighter side, two garden visits have been organised in South Auckland, the first at the end of November and the second for early March. Details will be published in the Journal later. A record number attended the June meeting. With so many new members and visitors, it is most important to keep the trading table well stocked with reasonably priced but quality plants. My rule of thumb is - price the plant at what I would expect to pay for it myself. The profit that the Society makes from the trading table and the raffles helps to keep the subscriptions steady. The Journal is subsidised by the Society as its production and postage cost more than is received from the membership fees. ‘ Graham PLANNING A HOLIDAY IN AUSTRALIA NEXT YEAR? Why not plan it to coincide with the 11th Australian Bromeliad Conference...“BROM-A-WARRA”, hosted by the lllawarra Bromeliad Society Inc. and to be held from Thursday, 11th October to Monday, 15th October inclusive, 2001. The venue is at Shellharbour just south of Wollongong, on the beach waterfront, at a function centre called Sea Spray. Shellharbour is a popular tourist and holiday destination. You don’t need to be a bromeliad expert to enjoy one of these conferences — just ask any of our members who went to Cairns last year. There will be so much going on in addition to the conference itself, and spouses are well catered for. For further information about registration and accommodation costs (or anything else) Dave Anderson, our Secretary will be kept up to date by the lllawarra Bromeliad Society. The opinions expressed in letters or articles in this magazine are the authors' own views and do not necessarily express the policy of the Bromeliad Society of New Zealand. _ 4 JUNE MEETING NEWS Gerry Stansfield stepped in at short notice to chair the meeting after Graham West had suddenly taken ill and could not attend. I spoke to Graham the next morning and he was feeling much better, which was pleasing to hear. The number of members (88 — another record), attending our monthly meetings keeps on increasing, which is a reflection on the current popularity of bromeliads. First up in the Show & Tell plants were four neoregelia hybrids - all wanting names. Unfortunately, as we have said so many times before, it is very difficult to identify neoregelia hybrids. However some, such as Neo. Barbarian, one of the plants brought in, are relatively easy to identify. I must add that it is not made any easier when viewing the plants under the fluorescent lights at the hall. There was a large spotted Neo. hybrid that I thought may have been a man'norata cross but other people didn’t think that this was so. I took in for show a Tillandsia parryi that was out in full flower with its one metre high spike. it was a bit tatty for putting on the competition tables as I grow it outside all year under an albizia tree on the brick patio. i think that it is a magnificent plant, together with Tillandsia cartsoniae, the “big jewel of the tillandsias”, which I had also brought in as it was just coming into flower. There was a large billbergia that had brown damaged leaves as a result of cold burn that sometimes happens in Auckland at this time of the year if the plants are not protected. Next, an Ochagavia camea, that was 10cm overall, with brown leaves, with the owner asking how it should be grown, as this one was going backwards. Being a desert plant it needs to be kept dry. Glenys Guild brought in a plant that she had bought as Aechmea pectinata but turned out to be Nidularium innocentii var. Iineatum. The mind does boggle as to how anyone could confuse these plants when labelling them to sell. Lastly, there was a Tillandsia hitchcockii with three 10cm long stolonlferous pups with the owner wanting to know when they can be removed. It is best to leave them on until they are about a third the size of the mother plant. They will then virtually come away from the parent with very little pressure, by pulling and moving them by hand. Rosemary and Megan Thomas gave an interesting short talk on how they became interested in bromeliads. Gerry Stansfleld then gave the main talk - Nidulariums - which was accompanied by a large array of plants. See pages 9-13. 5 COMPETITIONS Open flowering: 1St was Len Trotman with Guzmania lrene, and 2"" was Gerry Stansfield’s Billbergia sanden'ana. Also in the competition were Aechmeas recurvata var; benrathii, flavorosea and Pink Rocket, Billbergia vittata and Neoregelia Pink Sensation. Open foliage: Glenys Guild was 1St with Vriesea fosten'ana ‘Rubra’, and 2"d was Len Trotman with Vn'esea gigantea var. seideliana. In the competition were Neo’s. Charm and Happy Thoughts, Aechmea Pink Rocket (this was labelled Neomea). Tillandsia: Lester Ching was 18t with T. fasciculata out in flower and 2"“ was Len Trotman with T. streptophylla. There were also on the table T’s. Iindenii, balbisiana and stn'cta. Plant of the month - Vriesea fosteriana and hybrids: 1St was Pat Lawson’s Vr. fosten'ana ‘Rubra' followed by Len Trotman’s Vr. Vista. In the competition were Vr. Red Chestnut and a fosten'ana ‘Red Chestnut’ x platynema. Novice flowering: 15‘ was Chris Paterson with Neo. Takemura Princeps and 2"d was Noeline Ritson with Neo. carolinae tricolor. Novice foliage: 1St was Chris Paterson with Vriesea platynema and 2"d was Kevin Kilsby with Neoregelia Beta F2 #2 together with Aechmea Aztec Gold, Neo. Catherine Wilson and two Neo. hybrids. Best plant of the month: Glenys Guild — Vr. fosten'ana ‘Rubra’ Len Trotman - Vr. gigantea var. seideliana In the Plant Spotting, several of the competition plants had their names corrected, including Vriesea Red Chestnut changed to Vr. fosteriana "Rubra" and Neoregelia Maggies Pride to Neo. carolinae tricolor. To improve the accuracy of labelling, this could become a regular feature. The special raffle prize this month was a guzmania that was won by Heather Cooke with the door prizes going to Brenda Vevers, June Sly and Ulrike McLachlan. Congratulations to all the winners. Dave Anderson NEW MEMBERS Edwards, Gary & Hawkins, Murray, 85 Wharf Road, Te Atatu, Ak. Heaven, Mavis, 10 Heatley Avenue, Palmerston North. (rejoined) Ravens, Janette, 15 Woodlands Avenue, Snells Beach, Northland. Wetting, Erik, 64a Alabaster Drive, Papatoetoe, Ak. BRAZILIAN VRIESEAS PROVE TO BE FREEZE STALWARTS Ervin J. Wurthmann Twenty degrees F. (minus 6.6°C) on Christmas morning 1983 could hardly be considered a matter of cheer to bromeliad growers. Many in central Florida were dealt a devastating blow with two successive nights of that abnormally low temperature. Some bromeliads just were not tough at all, but many of the vrieseas proved their mettle. I became an unwilling expert overnight. For weeks we had been relocating the nursery and had not had enough time to prepare all of the stock for cold weather. The general arrangement of our nursery that December was that many of the plants were being grown in the open on benches grouped under a canopy of laurel and live (evergreen) oaks, which provided some protection from the wind. In other respects, the plants were completely exposed to the weather. Some valuable lessons are to be learned from this unpleasant experience and I want to report these expensive observations for you to think about. While the southern hemisphere is moving toward the autumn of the year, the northern hemisphere is inevitably going to get colder before it gets hotter again. While appearing to be delicate, many Brazilian vrieseas showed that they could tolerate sudden drops in temperature far below the expected range. It is fairly obvious then, that some vrieseas will tolerate a relatively cool greenhouse (in areas where winter shelter is required) and a thermostat setting of 40-45°F. (4.4 - 7.2°C) might be perfectly adequate. In warmer areas, vrieseas can be used for landscaping along with aechmeas, dyckias, neoregelias and nidulariums. They will contribute much to the beauty of a bromeliad garden and deserve wider use. Some vrieseas put through the extreme stress of cold, survived with a surprising defiance of their situation. i shall list them first: Vn‘eseas atra, ban'lletii, bituminosa x saundersii, Black Beauty, carinata, x coral/ina, (x coral/ina x flammea) ‘Mon Petit’, corcovadensis, ensifonnis vars. bicolor and ensiformis, x erecta, Flamme (Richter), flammea, flammea x friburgensis var. friburgensis, friburgensis vars. friburgensis, paludosa, and tucumanensis, gigantea, guttata, incurvata, Iubbersii, Lucille, x man'ae André, philippocoburgii, Purple Cockatoo, Purple Pendant, (x Rex x malzinei), rodigisiana, Rosa Morena, scalan's var. rubra, schwackeana, schwackeana x fosteriana ‘Red Chestnut’, Seminole Chief, simplex, vagans. Now comes the §A|_3 part and with this list are my notes — x Belgische auslese was heavily damaged. erythrodactylon had serious losses. (There are evidently clonal differences in this plant since it occurs over a wide range and some growers report it as being hardy). fenestralis - In a group of approximately thirty plants, a few were lost outright, but the remainder survived, some with leaf damage, some unhurt. fosten'ana ‘Red Chestnut’ exhibited the same problems as fenestralis. hieroglyphica — A single plant in the ground had some leaves damaged, but the centre and base remain intact. Nova had no test because I had sheltered them in a heated glasshouse. ospinae had 80% loss, the balance showed minor leaf damage. saundersii suffered severe damage with almost half of the group killed outright and the balance had serious leaf damage. Vrieseas from Mexico, Central America and northern South America including Colombia, Ecuador and Venezuela were clearly not to be classed as hardy. chrysostachys was wiped out to the plant. malzinei yellow and red bracted forms and variety disticha suffered 25% loss and the surviving plants had leaf damage. splendens was wiped out. splendens x glutinosa had a 30% survival rate. splendens x incurvata sun/ived with little damage, apparently inheriting its hardiness from the incurvata side of the family. Seffner, Florida. Reprinted from the Bmmeliad Society International Journal — Volume 34 Number 6. #- This article reinforces the comments about the hardiness of vrieseas made by Kathy Dorr in her article “Togetherness??" in the March Journal and also the cold hardiness quoted by Dale W. Jenkins in the June issue. Perhaps more members could try these attractive plants in their gardens, remembering also that many vrieseas have long-lasting inflorescences and are shade lovers. JUNE TALK Nidulariums Gerry Stansfield The genus, Nidularium, was established in 1854 by Charles Lemaire, a learned French botanist. The name Nidularium was created by him for Nidularium fulgens. Prior to that time, the genus was referred to as Karatas (an Indian name) and Bromelia. Lemaire derived the name from the Greek word, nidus, referring to the nest form In which the leaves are arranged In the centre cup. Most species are epiphytes from the rainforests .-of Brazil, denoting that the genus is generally shade loving. ‘Medium to large size plants, they usually form dense, low rosettes with strong leathery leaves. Their flowers are white, blue, orange, pink or reddish, dome-shaped and nearly always closed. This is one of the reasons why they are difficult to pollinate and hence their seeds are not readily available. Because there are copious amounts of pollen, opening up the flowers to cross pollinate can very easily lead to pollen contamination. Like many bromeliads, nidulariu ms do not accept their own pollen. One of the features of nidulariums is that the blushing inflorescences in the centre cups can last for up to twelve months in some species, making this genus the source of many desirable plants for both the house and the garden. Compared with a number of other bromeliad genera, nidulariums could be considered a small group of plants. Smith and Downes list some 21 species, although more have been added to the list since publication. There are now some 45 species. As well, many very attractive hybrids have been introduced and also some intriguing bigenerics. Nidularium amazonjcum - This is usually a large plant With light green, matte surface leaves above and glossy wine red underneath. The flowers are green. lf grown well it will make a handsome plant. However, lfind it marks badly' In my conditions, spoiling the foliage. it is interesting to note that we imported this plant some 35 years ago as Nid. amazonicum, and despite some years as trockia amazonica, it has now been returned to its former genus. Nidularium fulgens is still one of the most popular species, with its light to dark green leaves with dark green spots, and its heavily serrated leaf edges. In the red bract form, at flowering time the cup becomes a bright red, ageing to cerise over a tWelve month period. The flowers are blue. There are also orange and bronze bract forms, Next >