Brod,

Yes your berries look nice and fat - they should change colour and come off freely when ripe. Then squeeze the seeds onto a perlite/coirpeat mix or sphagnum moss. Mist and watch them grow, takeaway food containers work well.

I couldn't see any Bill x Canistropsis billbergioides on FCBS - it should probably work.

Your last photo has a lot of winter colour.

Cheers,

Rick

I've tried Bill x Canistropsis, both ways with no luck. You should put the gamosepela pollen on the canistropsis, that will likely work.

Thanks guys for your coments.I'll try and put the gamosepela pollen on the canistropsis

Canistropsis billbergioides produces seeds in about 5 weeks so mark your calendar.

Hi Brod,

Well it looks like another grower has been bitten by the hybridizing bug. Did you know that as your interest grows, this incurable disease leads to an ever growing stock of seedlings, seedlings, seedlings! As a budding hybridizer you're certainly going to be a "busy little bee" if all your hybridising efforts are succcessful.

That my friend is the easy part, now all you have to do is grow them, pot them on and make more accommodation for them as they grow. That of course is before you eventually have to sell-up and buy a bigger block and then start working day, afternoon and night shift to keep up with the extra work.

Well maybe it's not quite that much work, but it sure is lots of fun and very interesting.

The plant in pic. 10 looks like Quesnellia liboniana to me. The flower looks similar to a Billbergia and I find it likes to grow mounted on something rather that being potted.

"Long live the hybridizer"

All the best, Nev.

Thanks bromadams for the info on Canistropsis billbergioides. Do these self set seed. Or will I need to pollinate.

Nev, I sometimes wonder what sort of rod I have made for my back. But what the heck, this is just the beginning, I will continue to plough on.
Somehow I don't think that little mystery Bill is a Quesnellia liboniana. I have one of these and it is much bigger as my photo shows. The Bill to the right is full size.

{{gwi:475350}}

Cheers

Brod

Brod, take a look at the link and see if you think it matches your mystery Bill.

Here is a link that might be useful: B. Windigig Special

Lisa you rock. This looks just like it. It has a little flush of pink just like Uncle Derek said with faint white banding and spots.
Another mystery brom bites the dust.

Cheers
Brod

Brod,
Windigig Special looks to have blueish petals, your petals look plain green to me - will the petal colour change under different growing conditions or doesn't it matter?

I thought your plant may have been Poquito Blanco but it also has the blueish petals and doesn't get the banding like Windigig Special.

Cheers,

Rick

I've never had Canistropsis billbergioides self set seed.

Rick,
The plant in question (photo 10 ) is the small one growing on the palm trunk with blue petals.Thats the one Lisa ID'd as Windigig Special.
The one with the green petals (photo 4) is amoena var. viridis I think.
Bromadams, thanks for your reply.

Cheers

Brod

I am 100% certain that the little one you have growing on your palm is the same as the one I have. Now, mine is labelled amonena var. minor- and was when I got it, but looking at te FCBS site this doesn't seem to match up. Windigig special is definately closer.

{{gwi:475352}}

I also have a Q. Liboniana, waiting for it to flower, I think there is some great potential for some crosses with Billbergias, I want to try B. Sanderiana, maybe get some of that Liboniana colour in the more impressive Sanderiana flower Bract.

Dan, I had the same thought as you. Years ago I had a little Bill that looked just like that and it also was tagged B. amoena v. minor. I was about to suggest that as an ID but thought I'd better check it against FCBS first. You're right, it doesn't look the same, which led me to Google it and I came across the thread in the link below. So Brod can credit Uncle Derek for coming up with the name, not me. ;-)

Here is a link that might be useful: BSI forum

It's fun to get an "id" but you can rarely be certain of the id. Check out this old article to see why we have some many Bert/orlandiana like things floating around.

Aechmea âÂÂPickaninnyâ and Its Family
William C. Frase
Mr. Foster gave me plants of Aechmea âÂÂBertâÂÂ, Ae. fosteriana, and one or two of his original stock of collected Ae. orlandiana. The first year that all of the plants bloomed (1959), I pollinated all of them using the pollen from each. Every flower available was made to bear seed, the idea being to increase my stock of these pretty bromeliads. A large number of seedlings resulted. When they were big enough, I potted them singly in clay pots in crumbled osmunda fiber. The plants grew well and by the fall of 1960 a few showed color although most were ordinary. I kept three very dark seedlings and sold or threw out all others. These three were very attractive to me so I gave them names. The darkest and smallest suggested the name "Pickaninny." Another, having good green and black contrast, but more the size of Mr. FosterâÂÂs "Bert," I named "Black Marble." The last and lightest showing some tendency toward purpling, I named "Shadow." None of these named selections was registered. I believe that registering bromeliad hybrids and their names and pedigrees was not being done then.
The identities of "Pickaninny," "Black Marble," and "Shadow" were retained and the three separate stocks were propagated vegetatively. Concurrently, selected plants from these three groups were crossed back and forth and the seed planted. At this time, a collected plant of Aechmea orlandiana was obtained from the late Mr. Wyndham Hayward of Winter Park [Florida].
Mr. Hayward got his more perfect, larger, and stronger plant from the Plant Introduction Board. That plant was then substituted for the original orlandiana because of its better characteristics for subsequent cross-pollenization of the products of the other four, that is Ae. âÂÂBertâÂÂ, Ae. âÂÂBlack MarbleâÂÂ, Ae. âÂÂPickaninnyâÂÂ, and Ae. âÂÂShadowâÂÂ. These stocks were, and still are, kept separate and propagated vegetatively. Specimens of each were all crossed back and forth with each other each blooming season. Only the darkest and most unusual were kept and the rogues thrown out.
From 1962 until 1978, 16 generations of mixed and selected stocks have resulted in a tribe of very beautiful plants. Some have purple, rose, or bronze backgrounds. Most have either black bands or checks, or chestnut-red banding, but some have none. The mixed plants have numbers only, and of course, as offsets occur, they get the number of the parent. Thus, the Ae. âÂÂPickaninnyâ you see today was propagated from the plant known as Ae. âÂÂPickaninnyâ in 1960.