Great photos Japie. Your Broms seem to like the rain..! That Neo Purple Star looks to be a nice size plant, did you manage to do any hybridizing with it...? Purple Star is one of those plants that looks good as a pup & just gets better & better as it matures.

Only a few more weeks until spring..! yippee..!!!

Haven't done any hibridizing with it Devo. Only got hooked on the hibridizing thing a couple of months ago and then it was winter, so no flowers. But I plan to! And ditto for yipee! for Spring!!

Yes, Spring can't come too soon for those of us in the Southern Hemisphere. I'm also getting my hybridising equipment ready to attack all the blooming broms in a month's time.

I enjoyed your photos Japie. Love that Purple Star, first time I have seen it, wonderful blues.

Neonut, don't be fooled by the blues! They only appear when the plant's life is almost over. Pity. But I like it for the way it is never boring and keep on changing. Here are three photos of the axact same plant.

Befor flowering but starting to chage colour:
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Flowering:
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And flowering just done and starting to turn blue!
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Thanks for the show,Japie.
We're having a weather day here too,just as you described,
but warmer of course,so your beautiful photos added some cheer to a gloomy day.
Beautiful plants and garden arrangement,as always.
And it seems that N.'Purple Star' could have 3 names,
Pink Star, Red Star, Purple Star. Thats a real eye pleaser.
Bob

Japie, Your albertiana looks marvelously beautiful. Don't know why mine doesn't do well. Never flower at all.
I particulary like your Neo. Purple Star. Interesting plant.You have quite a good collection too.

Bob, so what about Triple Star? And I am envious about your warmer weather!

Andy, try giving albertiana as much sun as you can and a bit of neglect. But I suppose with your humid, tropical climate that is a bit difficult. Mine is flowering on and off right through the year. So it is never covered with flowers, but there is hardly a month going by without a flower!

Nice Purple Star Avane. It's nice to know that one day my purple star will get that color some day.

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These photo's are all of the same plant with different lighting..its in a 3 gallon pot ..beginnning to bloom Purple star
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HDD, it is amazing how this plant acts like a cameleon in different situations. And if you really would like to see how different it can be, keep three (or how many ever you would like)plants permanently in three different light intensity spots and see what it is doing then! I have got one in deep shade, some in various lighter positions and one in FUL sun. It is amazing. Will try to get pictures to-morrow if it's not raining. The colours just do not come true on this one if you use a flash.

Japie, I'd be interested in seeing the pictures with the different lighting conditions.

Japie, Triple Star sounds good, or, perhaps 'Triple Rainbow Star'. Theres a few 'Rainbow' names on the fcbs that are worth a look too.
Bob

Mario, it's a dark and overcast day here so the pictures are not very nice. And for the first one I had to use the flash on a low setting to get something showing up! That one is grown in a real low light postion and after flowering it should have almost plain green leaves with the most intense blue in the centre:
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And this one gets a reasonable amount of light, will get more and even some sun in summer and should get some nice colour in its leaves befor starting to flower:
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And this one is grown in almost all day sun and is exposed to a lot of wind. During summer, the leaves should turn almost black and it should actually get some sunburn and that will show up as green splashes in the leaves:
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I should have a picture of a flowering one that was grown in full shade. I will look for it.

And here it is:
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None of my 'Purple star' look like yours Japie...not even the pups..they look like the pictures above

I should think so, HDD! You have warmth and humidity and bright light for most of the year. Even when its raining by you, its still warm! Here we have cold weather - not freezing though - for a couple of months with very low light intensity and then most of the time it is then raining as well. That's why the colour in our Neo's is such a seasonal thing. Here is a pup of my Purple Star at the end of summer that had not experienced winter yet:
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