Tropical Bromeliads

This book by Andrew Steens  is one of the best reference books I have ever seen for Bromeliads and will inspire you to the extent that you can hardly wait to get out there and get cracking. Summer here has been very dry - no rain for over three months and hardly any water to spare so the Broms have suffered  - now, in mid winter we have the opposite extreme with them practically floating out of their pots there is too much rain ! The good news is that  the Possums here are leaving them alone - those leathery leaves are great to deter them but we are keeping our fingers crossed as they have demolished  all the Rhubarb leaves and not a dead Possum to be seen ........

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Its always a good tip to keep the cups of Bromeliads full and try to make sure they have clean water and not a stack of old leaves and gunk inside but this morning I was puzzled to find that the cups of quite a few needed topping up - again! As we are now going into Autumn, I figured they shouldn't need watering quite so much but I seem to be always topping up the water. Surely the weather isn't drying them out..... caught the culprits red handed, all eight of them !! Six free range hens and their two "escorts," the roosters, and then later that evening our cat was helping herself to the fresh water out of the cups lapping away at the Bromeliad cups in great style. They have all obviously been enjoying my daily replenishing of the water. I suppose its not too bad a payment for their control of the slug and snail population. Click Here to visit Exotic & Tropical Plant Center

Here is one of the latest gems from my Sister in Law's place - another madly keen Bromeliad fancier and we cruised around the garden and spent ages drooling over her latest additions.

One of my favorite Broms. Over winter it becomes brilliant yellowy orange but this year we have moved all our Bromeliads to an area where it is usually much more tropical and warm but it has rained almost continually since we got here and all the Bromeliads are suffering. It occurred to me that we hardly ever find any information on how to relocate them and get them from house to house without damage so here are some tips that may help your precious Bromeliads from becoming statistics. Wash out the cups and leave damp but tip out the water from the cups for the move. They transport quite well being pretty hardy but you can help the process by condensing them and packing quite densely into boxes. The proximity will stop them shifting all over the place in transit and snapping off pieces and will protect them from damage. If it is a long haul move leave the bromeliads until the last possible moment and pack in boxes with as many upright as you can fit and then add extra layers with...