Thank you gonzer and hdd for your candid input. I guess Pam is just getting tired of the brom business,and that can happen I suppose,but if so,just sell out and move on. I too don't feel right having to 'go the extra mile'just to hand over my $$ for a plant that is unseen,or that the seller won't help to generate the sale. The prices have gone way up too. Not good for business. ( reminds me of a cartoon in the paper,a tropical fish store located all alone in the heart of the desert...a half dead starving and dehydrated man crawling up to it for help...the owner spots him and says..."if you're just hear to look around,...okay,..but if you were thinking of buying a fish...well,..you just better keep moving along".) This could be me if it was my bromeliad store,(said my wife),and she may have been right. ;^) As for Tropiflora,I'm hoping that the coming changes there will be for the better. We'll have to wait and see. HDD...I'm aware of most all sources for broms,but I was hoping to get a better response from BR,as they may have something I'd want in the dyckia / hechtia genera. But with no pics,and very high prices,I'll be 'mov'n on'. Thanks for the help. Bob

Here's a few pics of some of my large Neo's. Please bare with me as I have little experience taking photos outdoors of plants and my yard is getting little sun with Winter. Originally bought as Johannis but i think its wrong. Can somebody please confirm this for me? My guess if not Johannis is DeRolf. Its an old dying parent but it still produces some fantastic pups. Again I don't know the name of this one. Guess would be Johannis? Morris Henry Hobbs USA Brazil Cockabelle (an old parent who is still pupping) Cockabelle (one of the first pups) GeeWhiz Rubra (First large Neo i purchased. Alot of the colouring has gone but todate it is still producing pups. 13+ Thurs far) GeeWhiz Rubra (Here u can see the colouring and deep purple) cv Knockout (I only acquired this one last week from my old man. Its one of his first pups.)

I was hoping for a discussion like this. I'm not saying we're cracking the code but we are getting somewhere. (at least I am learning something here) I guess it is not this or that, but it is this AND that. You're right there Hanwc. Wich obviously makes it very hard to control the flowering. But still it amazes me that my broms flower at the same time, while they have very different growing conditions. The only thing I can think of now (in my case) is they're triggered by the few weeks of warm summer nights where the temperature hardly drops in my terrarium and in the garden. My house can be pretty warm at night. The length of daylight in my terrarium is constant, so I rule out that one. The only stress they get in there is extremely acidic water flowing through the root system but that is also constant. The morning sunlight shining in does not reach the spectabilis and that one is on time too. You are right Lisa I did not realise that the inflorescence is induced months before I take them in. In Hawaii the temperature goes up at the beginning of summer but stays up for much longer. (is that correct?) So saying that when the day/night difference get smaller is the moment Neo's 'initiate' sounds right to me. The internal clock thing seems unlikely if you look at the different times Neo's bloom wordwide. Still this can be explained both ways. It could also be a temperature drop at night before the warm season. I choose the warm nights as the trigger in my case, that lasts only a few weeks and is exactly four months before the flowers pop up. The big high/low difference starts about six weeks before they go in, so too late. Bob said that during summer, temps can go much higher and they get the most flowers in wintertime. Could that be four months in between? Sudden stress, like damage or low humidity, can be a trigger. Years ago I left a big spectabilis pup outdoors in winter in a sheltered corner to see what it could take. (I get loads of pups each year) When it looked completely dead I noticed it died with a starting inflorescence, that was in february -8C (17,6F). It even gave me one pup in april wich grew up to be the clump in my terrarium. So I don't think it completely froze. But I don't like forcing them into bloom at gunpoint. So, no way I can stop them but maybe some of you can start them by keeping them cool for a while.

Thanks everyone for your positive comments. It does help when others take the time to show that your efforts are appreciated. Devo, with the number of photos I take of my neos I couldn't help but get a good photo occasionally. You have been spared from many of my other poor attempts I assure you. Not too many neos in flower yet. I expect to be busy from about November on if the main flowering season is the same as last year. atmccmn, don't give up, Prince of Darkness is worth waiting for. As for the Grande x Concentrica cross I haven't tested it in too much sun yet, maybe this summer. Bob, I tend to run a fine line with the amount of sunlight I give my plants. It is good for the colour but can be a disater for some. I do have an number of bleached and sunburnt neos where I have gone too far looking for that extra wow factor. Lisa, the mixture of sun and shade is a necessity at my place as my shade house is crammed full of many, many seedlings. Japie, as I mentioned earlier with the number of snaps I take I have to get some good ones. As for you having problems with photos I think you are being modest after seeing some of your beaut photos on previous threads. jaga, as you see I haven't put myself in any of the backgrounds. After my comments on your previous thread on vreisea I wasn't going to give you the chance for payback. As for the temperature they are grown at? The best answer I can give is that Brisbane has a sub tropical climate, the summers are usually hot and humid average max 30cel(85F), aver min 20cel(70F).The winters are mild aver max 20cel(70F) aver min 10cel(50F). bradisha, Yes I'm really proud of that Tangerine, it has really coloured up well. After I've taken my next thousand photos I should have a few more to post in a new thread.