Below is a another area at my place. As you can see it was taken when just planted so quite young.

Below are some hybrids my father bred that I grew and registered last year.

Below is a recycling idea I had. It is an aluminum bin holder. Around the outside I cut slits to open an area up to put small pots with broms in it and to soften the metal look I put shade cloth around the outside and a feature plant in the top.

Below I have put down some white rocks so light coming into the greenhouse reflect up to the underside of the leaves to get more colour in the leaves (this is the theory at this stage)

I think the white stones are a very good idea - but how do you keep them so nice and clean and fresh looking?

Japie

I am trying a product on the rocks we have in australia call "wet and forget" which is primarily a liquid when mixed gets rid of moss, mould, black fungi and algae. Currently sold as Benzalkonium Chloride but better known as Zephran the detergent doctors scrub up with or alginox which is used for pools to treat algae. It contains no bleach or chlorine. Extremely potent to aquatic life but in very low concentrations used to kill fungi on fish. The way it works is to kill the fungi but not remove the dead sooty colours. A second application and a good hosing a week or so later might detach this. For the australian's out there the alginox (available in coles or woolies) is far cheaper than wet and forget and stronger in it's concentration. Hope this helps!!

P.S. BA i will leave the toothbrush for now and may bring it out if the above does not work.

all the best
Kristan

Well dooleybugs01, firstly let me welcome you as another new member from Aus. and also say that as a new member you sure know how to make an entrance with a "bang"!.

Wow, what a collection of plants, how long have you been growing brom's?

Also, what about your Dad, they're nice looking hybrids, I especially like the two on the right. Has he been growing and hybridizing brom's for very long and do you have pic's of any of his other hybrids?

I look forward to hearing and seeing more from you on this forum in the future.

"Long live the hybridizer"

All the best, Nev.

Thanks for your kind words. I have been growing broms only for about 6 years and have never looked back. The love came from my father Who started with orchids and has now moved onto broms. His name is Rob Smythe you may have heard of him. You can look up his rego's on the fcbs. I mainly have neo's as i got most of mine from him to start off. He has a lot of knowledge about broms and is always willing to share. I am doing my own hybridizing and will have my own in another year.
My only issue with people hybridizing is there needs to be more "culling". What i mean is if seedlings grown from a young age are not showing colour or not good shape they need to be thrown out. As a hybridizer you cannot register everything as was happening in the past and now.

If you have some similar seedling's coming up group them together and if they look the same when flowering call them ONE name and not have a different name for each just because one has one extra spot on it than the rest. I see recent neo's registered that are green strappy looking and i wonder why? sometimes i think some people just want to have their name up in lights.

Until next time!

Yes I know your dad, but not in person. I admire a lot of the Neo hybrids he has created and he emails me his "Brom Watch Townsville" each month. In fact I have on a few occasions on this forum, promoted his write up on "Oils ain't Oils" for people wanting an easy to make oil based spray for scale, and it's good to see his son is following in his dad's footsteps with the hybridizing.

As for the culling, well this is something I still find a bit painful especially after an experience I had last year. I came across a plant that was to have been tossed and had been overlooked. When I found it there were two nice big pups which looked to be an improvement on the original plant so I grew them on and they matured into really nice plants, well worth keeping for the garden. I am now wondering how many nice plants have been tossed by many hybdidizers after a hasty initial assessment, ones which may have produced pups of a much higher standard than the original. I have never registered anything yet as I think only the "best of the best" should be registered and at this stage I haven't bred anything so perfect, but that doesn't mean they aren't worth keeping for garden plants.

I do agree with you that there has been a lot of rubbish which has been registered, and can't understand how some of the greenish, strappy looking things that should have been trashed have found their way onto the cultivar register.

See what you've done, you've started me ranting again, so I'd better get off my soap box and go home.

All the best, Nev.

I think also that only registered plants should leave a hybridizer's yard. This should help in the misnaming of plants!! I cannot understand why some hybridizer's put names on plants and do not register them. I see some on ebay sometimes.
That's enough for now, off my soap box.
dooley.

It looks like your dad's passion for broms has rubbed off on you.

Cheers,

Rick