It has been a whilst since I posted anything, have been very busy lately so the garden has been progressing in fits and starts. I'll open with a shot of the front of our little cottage. We are about 5 minutes from BroMagic in Palmwoods QLD.

The back gardens are pretty much just 600m2 of Brom territory. We have shade, full sun, dappled sun, a 20 meter long rockery & a shade house attached to the yard. So far the only broms we have are the ones that we inherited with the house, I have pupped, pulled, binned, fertilised & repositioned every plant in the yard and still haven't finished yet! A few recent bloomers include...

An oddity is this guy who for the last 12 months had been a flat green and nothing else, in a clump of about 10. Now they have all blushed to some extent. Some in sun, some shade, some in between! It has started to really firm up in the centre lately and the blush is moving out quickly to the edges. Fun to watch!

Here is my seedlings which are going well thanks to Nev's instruction on how his process is time lined. They have gone from this.

To This!

The Sphagnum is growing as well but the plants seem healthy and mould free so I will let it go and see what happens once it warms up again! I hope they don't take a turn in the current cold weather!

Lastly my little trooper who's colour change I have been tracking continues to change a lot. It's gotten a bit rangy (I did fertilise with a nitrogen some time ago when I was a bit of a newbie) so its getting high instead of "dishy" but still holding some colour! I'm hoping with more time and sun it will end up larger but similar to what it was originally.

1. When I Inherited it, Full Sun Grown.

2. When I Moved it in to Shade.

3. Part Shade, Fertilised, Currently Looks Like This...

The front of the house we are going to stick to a cottage theme of sorts but we are at a loss on where to start. I am trying to pick some larger Perennials to set a bit of structure first but i'm at a loss for what I should plant where. I am aiming to have a bit of interest all year round (so far only Gardenia's come to mind) whilst mixing in blocks of annual colour & herbs to give it a cottage feel. I was going to be really brave and try to stick to the theme of the house which is white & purple. Was thinking of using Yellow's and Purples as the main colours out the front where possible. Any advice, ideas are MORE then welcome!

Phew....

Sorry about the HUGE update, I just felt I should let you all know I'm still going and still planting more broms, its taken about 3 months now to clean out the old growth around the yard and I have now got three more gardens to re-plant, one is a great rambling drystone retaining wall that I am really looking forward to covering so watch this space! I hope that your all enjoying your gardens as much as I am.

Regards
Gordon.

You have a nice looking house, I think your oddity is Neo. macwilliamsii. Your seedlings are growing well.

Cheers,

Rick

That's a nice, neat looking cottage you have there and would go well with the type of garden you are planning. Is that the "little lady and the ankle biter" out the front surveying the garden?

Pleased to hear your brom's are still doing well and you're getting on with the massive project of re-structuring your brom garden. The drystone wall sounds very interesting, and I look forward to seeing the finished product.

Thank's for the pic's and please keep them coming

All the best, Nev.

Rick, are the photos I've posted Neo. macwilliamsii as well. This one is stolonifores.

Brod

Is that an inflorescence coming from the plant behind the one in the pic. or an orchid flower spike?

All the best Nev.

the infloresence in behind the Hohenbergia correia-araujoi is an Aechmea 'Shining Light'.

Cheers

Brod

Rick, I think your on the money with Neo. macwilliamsii. The photo's I have seen look exact with a similar blushing and form.

Nev, very happy with the little seedlings so far, I have a bit of a plan to build a similar setup to yours on the eastern side of the house where the sun is strong in the morning. Filter with some heavy shade cloth and try promote some more growth in this cooler period. You have a good eye for detail! That is in fact the boss & the little man. Almost walking now mind you! I'll update this as soon as I can with some pics of the continuing stonewall. Building and planting over the coming weeks. Very heavy lifting but fun work.

Brod, thanks for the message. The same plant by the looks of it. :)

MarleneAnn, make the trip out to BroMagic it's a great little spot with some specimens that make me drool. Nice folk too when i was there last!

Regards to all
Gordon.

And Brod, have you tried to grow that Ae Shining Light as a single specimen? Still in bright shade though. And that Hoh c-a can take quite a bit of sun. Then the colour is very nice and the leaves shorter and wider.

Aech Shining Light:

Hoh correia-araujoi:

Japie

I have moved a clump of that MacWilliamsii out into a more sunny spot and I agree it has flushed a very deep red very quickly. Is that something that will stay on the plant or will it fade as the plant declines? I assume its getting ready to flower at this stage? Here is a more recent picture of one from the clump.

A quick question for you what is that in the terracota pot behind your Hoh? I have several similar and can't seem to get the markings to really pop no matter where I place them.

Regards
Gordon.

cheers
Kristan

It's been pretty mild up here the last few days! I have managed to be productive in a few spots. Even went as far as to build a new mini greenhouse in a sunny position for my seedlings, pics to come amongst other things happening!

In the mean time my very common little Billbergia Fantasia has opened up properly over the last couple of days and is a real picture.

I hope you all get some warmer mornings to get outside!

Regards
Gordon.

Another update of a couple flowers that have poked out the last couple days with the winter weather here. Some serious wind gusts and chills has me worried more for my little seedlings then ever but they seem to be doing ok! Pictures of the latest stuff. Any missing ID's would be welcomed!

Heavily Photoshopped Image to show Detail. - NOID

Random Flowering Neo 1

Random Flowering Neo 2

Flowering Neo. MacWilliamsii

Aech. Rakete Flowering

And for something a bit different a couple of shots form about 15 feet up in my frangipani tree. There is a lot of odd little fungus, orchids and things sprouting up there, its fascinating what I can find haning off the old girl.

Cool little orchid.

I have slummed it the last couple weekends working on the front yard, so there hasn't been a lot of movement in the Brom Garden, they seem to be doing ok on there own!

Regards
Gordon.

Neat little orchid and the lichen does it's thing too. Just love the other pics. Cheers, Paul

I think your Neo may be Neo. Gee Whiz -

Cheers,

Rick

It looks like I'm wrong again, at least I'm consistant :)

I was over at Matts the other day and his Neo. Cockabell had banding and tips similar to Gordon's NOID.

Rick