I like that 'Snow Flake' but it looks fragile. Is it?

I have this seedling and about half the leaves have an interesting, almost checker-board pattern. I hope to get some pups from that side that are fully checkered.

{{gwi:513789}}

Jack, your Snow Flake looks spectacular! I seriously need one for my collection. I see you grow it in the shade house - do you know whether it can handle some direct sun when grow mounted outside?

Here are some of mine. The first pictore is one of those that I was in the right spot on the right time with my camera in my hand - 2 spots of sunlight fell through the the leaf canopy above on just the right places!

Aech orlandiana and Ensign:

{{gwi:513790}}

And here's my Gold Tone. I first mounted it where it got hardly any direct sun and it turned green! So I moved it to some sun and now getting maybe a bit too much, as the emerging pup coming out looking exactly like my Ensign!

Aech Gold Tone:

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Aech Black Beauty:

{{gwi:513792}}

Aech Medio Picta:

{{gwi:513793}}

Aech orlandiana var. orlandiana:

{{gwi:513794}}

I'll get some pictures of my other orlandianas and post them later.

Japie

Hello Jack and all friends,

Jack, your Snow flake is stunning. I have one but doesn't look good as yours.

Bromadams, The leaf pattern of your plant looks very interesting. Look like a check.;-)

Japie, It's awesome. How long have you planted on the stumps? I also have some plants you posted but I hve no pics. Unfortunately, my thumb drive was lost. There are a lot of pics inside. Great for sharing. Thank;-)

Cheers
Yong

Here is my A.'Ensign Reverse and A.corriea araujoi

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{{gwi:513796}}

Well thanks everyone ,great photos and good variety ,love that first photo Japie ,the spots of sunlight are just right ,my ' Snowflake' is slow growing and i would not grow it outside here in Port Macquarie ,to cold in winter ,my friend Tamera has 'Snowflake' thats a bit greener and is variegated in green but needs more development,once again this shows the variability of a species and its cultivars ,i dont know if you will keep the well defined checkerboard pattern ,bromadams ,nice clone of reverse ensign Yong ,and the A,corriea araujoi is nice to ,its interesting how that plant and the Canistrum seideliana mimic the Orlandiana group ,perhaps these plants all share a common pollinater in the wild,mimicry is only ever practised in nature for a distinct advantage to the mimic , i must try and self my plant to see what the offspring will look like , Jack

Beautiful plants all. Jack, what a good idea for a thread. I do like seeing how different the plants look in varying climates and countries and collections.
Here are my orlandianas
A. 'Snowflake'
{{gwi:513797}}
and
A. 'Snowflake', A. orlandiana
A. "Black beauty', A. 'Ensign'
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I have an A. correia-araujoi on the side of a tree fern trunk, but its too dark to go get a pic. I should take one though, just to add to photobucket
BA

Hi B.A , not being critical but i suggest you give your ' Snowflake " a bit less light ,its not as tough as the other Orlandianas ,the others are spot on ,thanks for showing , Jack

Two of my favourite photos. Ensign in flower and Bert showing interesting patterning.
{{gwi:513799}}
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Thats a very nice clone of ' Bert ' i have one identical to that but there are several clones ( slightly differing ) but the one with the big black finger nails is the pic in my book , Jack

Hi Jack, great idea for a thread. Terrific plants and pics from everyone and Japie, your light show is a beauty.

Things have moved on a bit since I posted my last lot of orlandiana pics, so this morning I decided it was time to take some new ones.

There is an "orlandiana rock garden" around at my brom-mad mates place, where we've both experimented with different orlandiana clones to see how they respond. The garden gets full sun for most of the day through winter, with dappled shade through the middle of the day in summer. Here is a pic of the garden, followed by a closeup of each of the orlandiana clones in it. Some of them have question marks against their names, so I'd be interested in any thoughts.

The "orlandiana rock garden". There used to be more succulents in it, but they've mostly been overtaken by orlandianas sending their pups crawling out over the rocks.
{{gwi:513801}}

'Dark Princess'
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'Snowflake?' - gets a real pink blush in the sun
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'Snowflake?' on the left, compared to 'White Knight' on the right. WK seems to have more regular patterning underneath and doesn't seem to develop the same pink blush as 'Snowflake?'
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'Rainbow?' - heavier patterning underneath than 'Snowflake?' and seems to develop more of an orange blush in the sun, rather than the clear pink of 'Snowflake?'
{{gwi:513805}}

This one was just identified as 'dark form', but it's a beauty, with really intense clean dark purple markings
{{gwi:513806}}

'Picaninny Heywood'. An old plant now a bit past it, but in its prime that blush on the outer parts of the leaves is a more pronounced orangey-reddish colour.
{{gwi:513807}}

Now at my place. For Germaine (bromaloonie) if you are following, this is my little experiment with a pup of my 'Snowflake?' on the left, and the pup that you sent me from your 'Snowflake?' - possibly 'White Knight?' - on the right. They have both been growing together in that spot since you sent the pup back in early May, getting 30% shade through winter moving to 50% shade over the last couple of months. They certainly seem to be maintaining their differences. How are yours going?
{{gwi:513808}}

Let's see some more orlandianas! Cheers, Paul

Hello All,

I just find my thumbdrive and has some A.olandiana to post.

A.White Knight looks similar to your plants Paul.
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Another A.'Gold Tone' Albomarginated plant.
{{gwi:513810}}
Cheers
Yong

Here are some of the others that I got pictures of:

Aech orlandiana Pink:

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Aech White Knight:

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Aech Rainbow:

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Aech Pickaniny:

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Aech Pickaniny x White Knight:

{{gwi:513819}}

Aech Black Beauty:

{{gwi:513820}}

I know they are not all grown in the ideal spot, but I like to have them mounted all in more or less the same place. As soon as I get pups to spare, I will put some in other places to try and get them looking as good as possible!

Japie

Well thanks everyone ,you can never tell whats out there ,never heard of " White Knight " before.thats the great thing about this forum look what we can all gain from this type of cooperation ,have posted some piccies ,i only grow the ' Ensign' and reverse ' Snow Flake ' and thats it ,but have two different clones of ' Ensign ' the bright pink tinged clone gets that colour whether growing inside or out and grows much bigger than the green and white clone .

{{gwi:513821}}

{{gwi:513822}}

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so thats my input ,I like the other forms but room does not allow it , Jack

Hi Jack. My Snowflake is still only young, and it probably is in too much high light while it is establishing, but it will make it a tougher plant and the pup (when it gets one) will be more tolerant of the high light conditions, (or at least, thats my theory) My Black beauty seems to have more solid patches of colour to the leaves than others shown here. Is mine maybe not a Black Beauty? None of the others seem to have as much colour
{{gwi:513824}}
Any ideas?
BA

Japie, maybe you could get them looking different if you grew them in a different place, but better? I'm not so sure about that. I reckon those hot colours and hard features stand up pretty well in their own right. Some great clones as well - terrific collection.

Jack, you're right about these threads as a source of unexpected info. I never realised that there were two clones going around as 'Ensign'. I have the big pink upright one and have wondered many times what other people have done to theirs to make them go green and floppy. Now I know - nothing!

BA, that 'Black Beauty' of yours looks pretty cool - what is it like from the side?

Cheers, Paul

Well Japie I do like your pink clone and the ' Black Beauty ' is very nice ,yours to B.A but it looks different , just the same its nice ,thanks everyone for all the great shots and your input.We have to do more of these threads ,look at all the varied clones that come to light , Cheers Jack ,

sorry paul, it hs taken awhile for me to get back to you, what with one thing and another.
Here is my plant from the side, taken last week.
{{gwi:513825}}
It looks even better if I wet it before the pic, but its a bit too hot for that!
Any ideas on what it is?
BA

Wow - you folks have so many stunning broms - thanks again for sharing. I'm a big fan of splotchy/multi-coloured broms and looks like the many Aech orlandiana's have that in spades. Definitely a few more for the wish list - that list is getting remarkably longer since joining this forum!

cheers
Kristan

Well Thanks everyone for participating in this thread ,I find it rewarding in so far as we all find out the variety and differing conditions that they all are / grow in ,and look at the extremes ,my 'Snowflake' is the palest,and Japie's ' Black Beauty ' the darkest ,with all the differing ones in between ,and B.A's plant that looks like it is splattered with Tar, No wonder our collections can get huge if you ' Want' them all ,Cheers
Jack

Hi all, well 2009 since there was a post on Orlandiana's and since it is 2016 now and reading your posts for information, I thought I would revive it. LOL

Here is mine, isn't she spectacular! Some of the Orlandiana's leaves are almost paperlike, and more delicate than first appear with their bold stripes, camo patterning, crimson splashes, and spikes, beautiful!

I wanted to ask if any of you with some expertise can help: the splashes of crimson splotching of the Orlandiana have faded a little since I have had her, but now also there are burn like marks creeping in on the edges and within the splotching. Is that leaf spot or frost, sun burn or part of what they do? And is there a way to minimise it, or treat it? I know she likes to be grown warm, the climate in Melbourne is not exactly tropical, but no extremes in the weather that would have caused it. I wanted to mount it onto the trunk of a tree fern but terrified I will kill my favourite plant already, so have in a pot growing in quality orchid mix in the same way as the grower. Cheers Diane!

Hi everyone.

Dianne – I remember when “vriesea”
(An Australian grower) first posted this thread seven years ago, and what a wonderful array of
different orlandianas followed with several other growers from different
countries all adding their pictures and comments.

It was a real eye opener to
see just how many variations in foliage colour there were and what an
interesting plant Ae. Orlandiana really is.

To help clarify things a bit
for you, I live on the south east coast of N.S.W.; so just up the road from you
really, however our climates are much different. Also there’s a post on this thread
from “paul_t23(Coastal Sydney)” who is a friend of mine who grows beautiful
orlandianas in his open garden and he lives just south of Sydney. Although we both
live in what's classed as temperate areas, we do occasionally get hot and cold extremes of
weather.

As for your question
about mounting on a tree fern, I don’t know how it would go; but I’ve seen them
mounted on various other trees with the main criteria being that they all
require trees with rough bark. I have
Tillandsias and a few mini Neoregelias and Aechmea nudicaulis mounted on a tree
fern and they seem to love it, so I don’t know why your orlandiana wouldn’t
love it also. Remember however that it must be fixed FIRMLY so that there is no movement. If it can move it won’t
attach its roots as they will keep getting broken off.

Looking at your plant, the leaf
damage appears similar to what previously happened to my orlandianas following a
patch of very hot weather; and I’ve found
it was caused by the sun’s rays shining through water lying on the leaf and
acting like a “magnifying glass” which ultimately caused a scald and I imagine damage
caused by cold or frost would appear in much the same way.

To avoid this from happening
you need to make sure there are no areas of water lying on the leaf during the
hot part of the day, and I find the best way to do this is in summer time, to water
in the late afternoon on the falling temperature when the heat has gone out of
the sun; and in winter time, water in the early morning on the rising temperature
so the water can dry out gradually before the heat from the sun reaches its zenith.

If it was just natural leaf die-back it usually starts with the leaf tips on the very bottom leaves which go brown and gradually bend downward with the whole leaf eventually going brown and looking like “brown paper”.

All the best, Nev.

Thank you so much Nev, for your advice really appreciated! I emailed to the seller to ask about it who just wrote back..

"Its a common thing that we have found to happen with most of the Orlandianas. We regularly spray for scale and other insects. So I really cant tell you much more about it..It does appear more in summer"

So yes perhaps the sun!, I have had it under a make do shadecloth as well as with and under ferns, and I usually only water in the evening ( so understand on scalding plants with watering in sun) but still possible some got wet on the leaves, in the sun shower..

As for a suitable positioning for climbing. The tree fern is stripped of debri so stable base with that and have grown broms on it before, but as get's more sun hitting the trunk I wonder if I should risk it, we are not even into Summer yet LOL I otherwise only have a maple trunk for it to climb but would not be visible, It would look fantastic if would survive in full sun on trunk of the giant strelizias!

In Melbourne we usually get a few strong heatwaves over summer over which all my plants suffer and use a make do shade cloth for for that mostly. None of my other broms have had the same kind of problem so must be particularly sensitive or grown indoors perhaps.

Shame because it is the light /sun hitting it when the Orlandiana looks it's most beautiful, that stained glass effect. I. I'll try to relax and enjoy what happens to plants out in the elements with all the crumble and blemishes..as long as it isnt dying already or need to treat it for Helminthosporium leaf spot. Will look for another of the same Orlandiana grown in the elements perhaps, will try to contact paul_t23(Coastal Sydney) see if he can help

Such a beautiful brom, I really dont want to kill it, is difficult to understand why until you see one, I really enjoyed seeing everyone's pics, great thread, so thanks again Nev and to all for sharing.. Cheers Diane

Any idea where I can pick these up in Australia? They are stunning and would they survive OK in coastal Victoria.?

Yes I'm wishing some of yours too Nev, I misread and thought you were not in Australia! they are all beautiful! Cheers Diane

If you or anyone you know has pups available of the Orlandiana, please contact on me at missy.ahern@iinet.net.au

Aphotograph of our garden and with no broms in sight!-. posting because I can :P

Hi everyone.

Len – Although Neoregelias are my first love, I can probably find a few
spare pups of different orlandianas if you want to buy some, and I’ll see what
I have and email you the details.

Regarding suitability for your area, they should be OK; although I’m in N.S.W., I’m also in a coastal
area being just one street back from the ocean and they grow OK here, so you
shouldn’t have any problems. Maybe they will require some protection from very
cold weather but apart from that they should be OK.

I can’t find an email address for you so if you could email at splinter1804@gmail.com me I can send
you further details if you’re interested.

Diana – As I said above, I can
probably find a few spare pups if you’re interested and I’ll see what I have
and email you the details also.

Any plants I sell via mail are always “bare root” or fresh cut pups with
no roots. I always send plants in polystyrene boxes to protect from excessive
hot or cold extremes. I did on one occasion send some plants to S.A. in mid summer and they
went astray and didn’t arrive for two weeks, but because of the protection
given by the polystyrene, they were still in great condition. If you have any
further questions please feel free to ask.

Incidently you have a nice looking garden with the bananas giving it a great tropical appearance.

Just to finish I’m adding a few pictures of what I consider to be the best
bromeliads of the lot, based on easy to grow, resilience, variety of sizes
shapes and colours; I’m speaking of course about Neoregelias

All the best, Nev.

........and here's a few more I couldn't fit in the previous post.

All the best, Nev.

Very beautiful collection of neos great variety of colors and patterning, I recognise some have seen photographs of, will keep in mind for resilience, thank you. I love Neoregelias they are all so different and fascinating, and look like big flowers. I have quite a few going now in the garden and seem to do fine in Melbourne.

On resilience A very weak solution of Seasol sprayed onto leaves of my neos every few weeks, seems to protect a little from sun damage and frost and not affect color. I know broms are not usually fertilised, but read this was tested on neos (for resistance to burn and frost) and so far so good. But it is a very light / weak solution not per the packaging, probably too risky at the full strength.

The 2 banana's in my garden are bird of paradise/ giant strelizia's, had no idea they would get that tall at planting around 8 years ago, and about a metre taller than when the photo was taken now! Hilarious. The plant in the middle is a bird of paradise/ strelizia too, it has very small arrow type leaves. Cheers, Diane!

Hi everyone.

Dianne – I should have stuck to trying to ID bromeliads
and left other plants alone. When I first looked at the picture of your garden
I noticed the outline of the leaves on those large plants and instead of
looking more closely I assumed they were
bananas so It looks like I’ve now fallen into the old trap of “assuming”, and we
all know what happens when we do this don’t we?

The thing is, you’ve now prompted me to look this plant
up on the web and find out more about it, and as way of compensation for my
mistake, I see it’s commonly known as the “wild banana”, so now I don’t feel so
much of a dill. Incidentally, this is part of what Wikipedia had to say
about it:

Strelitzia nicolai, commonly known as the giant white
bird of paradise or wild banana, is a species of banana-like plants with erect
woody stems reaching a height of 6 m (20 ft) and the clumps formed can spread
as far as 3.5 m (11 ft).

The 1.8 m (5 ft 11 in) long leaves are grey-green and arranged
like a fan at the top of the stems, similar to Ravenala madagascariensis. The
inflorescence is composed of a dark blue bract, white sepals and a
bluish-purple "tongue". The entire flower can be as much as 18 cm
(7.1 in) high by 45 cm (18 in) long and is typically held just above the point
where the leaf fan emerges from the stem. Flowers are followed by triangular
seed capsules.[2][3]

S. nicolai is among the few plants which have been
verified to contain the pigment bilirubin, which is usually found in
animals.[4]

If you want to know more, you can read the whole article
at https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Strelitzia_nicolai&action=edit&gettingStartedReturn=true

Your mention of Seasol brings up the topic of one of my favourite
products which I have used for years on every plant in the yard. It can be used
all through the year as technically speaking it isn’t a fertilizer, but more
like a “tonic” which strengthens the plant cells and among other things, helps them resist disease
and better withstand extremes of hot and cold by (it’s claimed) and extra four
degrees each way.

I used it after the terrible January heatwave we had a
few years back when everything in the garden was pretty well “cooked” and after
just a couple of weeks you could see signs of recovery already and ever since
them I’ve been a fan of this wonderful product and recommend it to all of my friends.

For anyone who doesn’t know about this product, go to: http://www.seasol.com.au/products/61/Seasol
and learn all about it.

There are
other seaweed products on the market which I haven’t tried and may be just as
good, but this one has given me the results I want so why would I change it? As
someone once said, “If it ain’t broke , don’t fix it”.

All the best, Nev.

Thank you Nev, and for the article interesting!

Their leaves do look like banana trees! My fault I showed you a photograph of it at night. lol I thought seasol was a fertiliser but yes does work like a tonic.. and you also see it pretty quickly, they immediately look more robust after spraying.

Perhaps you know whether "plant oil" in an aerosol can (used on fruit trees) is ok to spray on broms or will it suffocate the brom leaves, which of course it needs (want to rid of the mosquitoes mostly but also earwigs etc, Since have some of the spray, also might give some of my broms a gloss, neo colors look so much more spectacular when their leaves are wet looking) cheers! Diane

flower from my giant strelizia, the flowers have trippled in size now the plant is so tall:

and more difficult to trim back the debri my saw on an extension stick barely reaches now, heavy too, when they fall they hit hard! LOL

brom_adorer(Mid-North Coast, NSW)'s

Very dark orlandiana looks like it could be 'pickaniny' See the specimen pic at
http://fcbs.org/cgi-bin/dbman/db.cgi?db=photo&uid=default&photono=239&ww=on&mh=5&view_records=View+Records

Hi everyone.

Diane – In my experience (gained
from both from talking to other growers and reading articles in books and on
the web), I believe it’s risky to spray any substance containing oil on
bromeliad foliage as it can block the pores which is how the plant breathes in
and out.

Petroleum based oils are worse
than natural plant oils such as Canola oil etc. and if they are applied and the
plant left in the sun, the leaves will be virtually “cooked” in the oil.

There is a “safe” easy to
follow recipe derived from a Canola Oil base and used by many bromeliad growing
friends of mine. It was originally made up by Rob Smythe who is a retired
chemist and a well-known bromeliad grower and hybridist. It can be found at: http://www.fcbs.org/articles/canola.htm

There is also a “home-made”
mixture originally developed by a N.Z. grower to get rid of mosquitoes but has other benefits as well. I have also found
that when sprayed on Neoregelias it makes them look much more attractive
perhaps due to the fact that it cleans the foliage as well. It too is easy to
make from easy to obtain household products and the recipe can be found at: http://bsnz.org/articles/47-mosquitoes

I hope the above is of some
help to you.

All the best, Nev.

Thank you Nev, very appreciated! I sent you an email also! cheers Diane

Great photos and info as always Nev, love and have fallen in love with the Neos as well. Have sent you my email address in the hope of purchasing some plants from you. I only discovered Broms in June and my collection is at about 65 plants. Re Seasol am reluctant to use as the bulk of my collection from one grower who advised he does nothing. I got a few ugly ones from a local grower and will try some seasol very weak as these plants look like they are on their last legs. Look forward to hearing from you ,

regards Len