Neoregelias, anyone?

in the bromeliad family, these plants make wonderful potted specimens. I haven't planted mine inground yet, fearful of selecting the wrong spot. The man that gave me these beauties is a very accomplished grower/hybridizer. His wife is seriously ill and he's had to give up on his precious plants to care for her. My gain in this case results from an unhappy event, so I really want to carefully select their permanent inground homes--I don't want to lose any of these plants.

Some are named, some aren't. When I tried to verify names on google, there were so many disparities, I just gave up.

I think this is my favorite

another one

not a neoregelia but in the brom family. I think I have it in too much sun, tips are dried up

Wow, that 3rd one is very cool. The 4th one is an ananas, I think- one of the ornamental pineapples. I suspect the tipping could be excess moisture as the variety loves the sun. I have 2 of the 4 that you have, and I'll try to post some pictures of my bromeliad plantings for you if I get the chance. You can keep the first 3 in pots if you prefer to keep a close eye on them. 1 and 3 need shade. 2 will take part shade/part sun. 4 will take sun/part sun. Nice of you to accept and care for plants that need a good home!

I remember now, my friend did tell me #4 was an ornamental pineapple. So it likes sun and less water huh? I was doing the exact opposite!

thank you for your input, I would love to see your pics. I have the name tags from #1-3. I like to google them to compare/verify names. When I did, the discrepancies were so great that I thought perhaps my friend, overcome w/ grief and worry, had slipped. I will edit my pics later and add the names I have.

I have a 5th one that was absolutely gorgeous when I got it. It had the most amazing bloom. Then, it reverted to almost all green. Maybe I will post a pic, but it is not too interesting a plant.

My 6th one is a neo. that was a deep burgundy almost black. I peeled all the leaves as they were mushy at the base and kept the rhizome, hoping something will happen. That one was truly the most beautiful.

Here is my shade/part sun bromeliad bed. This is under a strawberry guava and it once was just matchstick bromeliad, but they kind of petered out, so I added all these. I will have to seperate and remove them later, but it looks cute for now. A bunch of these I got from a neighbor, about the other half I bought.

Is this like your 6th neo that you describe as almost black?

This tree leans to the east thanks to one of the hurricanes, so I plant broms that like more light on the west side. There are 3 ananas here- 2 red ones similar to yours and a small green and white. I have sun bromeliads in pots in another area, and I have the large ornamental ananas that has the pink pineapple. Its a dramatic plant.

Just happen to have a pic of that big ananas at a nursery. To the left and behind the crypts.

I play around with some concept plantings. I put bromeliads in this dead tree stump rather than cut it down- here you can see another ananas.

This is one of my new treasures. I've been pretty bad about labeling stuff until recently- this one is Lambert's Pride.

This is (if I can read the handwriting) Chantini black and behind it is "painted fingertips."

f4f what a fantastic collection you have. I like the two in the last pic. that one with the red tips is just beyond awesome and the dark one is so striking. I can see why your fave is your fave, my friend's collection (and it was vast) never had one so evenly and completely red. His were stripes, blotches, etc but never solid like yours.

as to your question, yes, my darkie looked exactly like yours. I still have the rhizome, hoping something will happen.

as to your ananas, when perched on a tree, how do you water? or do you let mother nature handle it? I have a tree that is fixing to come down and I have been asking hubby to keep the stump, however, it is too far from water source and it wouldn't be practical to water w/ a can.

your collection is very impressive.

I watered everything in the tree stump initially, especially becuase I was trying to cascade some sedum, too. It's also in an area where there is not a convenient water source, so after a while I just let it go to mother nature. The sedums broke and re-established somewhat on the ground, but the broms were the only thing that really survived in the tree (there is a tree aloe and some miscellaneous critters at the base.) Still a success for what I envisioned, though! Gardening is a lot of experimentation, I think. Glad you like the pics!

I think this is painted fingertips. I have it is full sun & has been doing well. I think it may be the only variety I seemed to plant in the correct spot on the first try...

Cute! Yes, I agree- painted fingertips.

Neri, I love looking at Neoregelias. Have you ever seen the ones they have in Australia? I was looking at a nursery website there that hybridized them a few months ago. And the nursery was for sale! I just tried to find it again for you to look at the gaud plants but couldn't find it.

I wish I could buy some from eBay Australia.

http://search.ebay.com.au/search/search.dll?sofocus=bs&sbrftog=1&dfsp=1&catref=C6&from=R40&satitle=Neoregelia&sacat=-1%26catref%3DC6&sargn=-1%26saslc%3D2&sadis=200&fpos=Postcode&sabfmts=1&saobfmts=insif&ga10244=10425&ftrt=1&ftrv=1&saprclo=&saprchi=&fsop=1&fsoo=1

This message was edited May 5, 2008 2:24 PM