Gonzer, Michael has gotten at least one or two of all of my registered ones, but as to when he'll have enough of any variety to sell that's up to him. I don't get involved in that at all if I can help it. If he gets requests for certain ones then he'll ask me for more and I'll send him what I can when I can, so if there's something you have your eye on, ask him about it, not me. As to the names, I sent him a shipment of mostly Bills and Neos about a year ago and at that time I agreed to come up with names for all of them before I sent them so that they'd be easier for him to sell. Since there were well over 100 different varieties I was racking my brains! Some things just name themselves and others stubbornly resist any monicker you try to put on them. It's an intensely personal process for me, and often comes down to just "talking" to the plant and asking it what it wants to be called. In the end I was just scrambling to come up with something for some of them. I do like using Hawaiian-themed names for a couple of reasons. First, it establishes a geographical identity for the plants and an awareness of local hybridizers on the global scene. Second, and from a more practical standpoint, it's unlikely they'll be sniped by anyone else, at least the Hawaiian language ones. I know that some of them may be hard for outsiders to pronounce, but that's just too bad! ;-) I do try not to make them too long, though. I've used a lot of different languages in the names, but whatever language I use, it has to be something that means something to me. I've had other people suggest names and it usually doesn't work for me if they don't know my frame of reference. There are a lot of music-related names on my broms because I'm a World Music freak. I have Bills named Keali'i, for local singer/kumu hula Keali'i Reichel, and Bruddah Iz, for the late great singer Israel Kamakawiwo'ole. Just wait until you see that one, it's HUGE (like the man!). Watermelon Man not only refers to the color of the plant but the old Mongo Santamaria tune. Surfrider is just kind of generic, because it needed a name. It does have somewhat of an island feel, and the plant has a lot of white splash on it, so why not? Midnight Sun, on the other hand, is one that just named itself. It's another DM hybrid so the plant is basically black, but at a certain point in its development the lower half flashes bright creamy white like the sun rising. Very high contrast. Royal Blood, well, it's a deep blood red and just a super little plant, and also it parents were both my hybrids too so that seemed to fit.

Gee gonz, if I'd known you were going to order from Michael I would have told you to ask if he has any 'Miss Aloha Hula' too. I think that's another one he picked up from me, although I can't remember now. I didn't suggest it earlier because that is one that seems particularly prone to bleaching out for me, but since you don't seem to be having that problem you could probably grow it better than I can. It's another 'Pink Champagne' hybrid, with very hot peachy colors. I don't know Vriesea 'Santa Barbara'. You're not talking about Bill. 'Santa Barbara', are you? I'd like to see a pic if it's a nice Vriesea. As to how you tell the difference, yeah it is difficult from a picture, and sometimes hybrids come out looking very similar to one that's already been done. I don't have 'The Artist', but I made that same cross too and it looks less like 'The Artist' than 'New Year's Eve' does. Go figure. I can still see a slight difference from the picture, but that is a mother's eye and I don't know how to describe it except that the pattern of blotches is slightly different. You've got to figure that with all of the hybridizers out there working independantly there will inevitably be a lot of duplication and similar-looking hybrids being produced. If you doubt this, just take a moment and scroll through all of the cultivar photos on the FCBS site. At last count there were nearly 2000 Neoregelia cvs. alone, and those are just the ones that have been submitted. I just sent Uncle Derek the pics of the ones I posted here earlier and plan to send more when I have had time to go through all my bags of old photos, so you can imagine that there are many others like me who just haven't posted yet, and the number of cultivars shoots up even higher (and that's not even counting the ones that get sold off without ever having been named or registered!) That's why have to I chuckle and roll my eyes when somebody says "I have the one that turns red, what is it?" Still, sometimes a cultivar will be so distinct that it is instantly recognizable. Those are the ones that become classics and find their way into everyone's collections. That's what you always hope for, but it is the exception rather than the rule.

Hello everyone. Bihai, you had it! All you were missing was the equal sign after img src. Remove the parentheses in the begining of the following code and your good to go. I was going to post the pic but I will let you have the honors. Very nice ( Give it another shot Jenks

Hi espor, I haven't grown Bil Nutans on a piece of wood, but I have grown Bil. amoena on Hakia and Peppercorn trees and I don't see why they couldn't be grown on a piece of wood providing the following precautions are taken. Most importantly, make sure the wood hasn't been treated with any type of preservatives i.e. paint, copper/arsenic compounds, creasote, oil etc. It must be free from all contaminents. Even driftwood from the ocean must first be given a thorough soaking and all salt which may have soaked into it is rinsed off. I have found, that for any mounted plant to feel secure enough to attach itself with new roots it must be firmly attached and held securely so there is no movement. They can be attached by various means, and a common one is wire. But first a word of warning; The wire must not be copper, as this is toxic to bromeliads. Also I have found that if new galvanised steel wire is used, it can also damage the plants at the point of contact. There has been good info in previous posts here on the GW about what to use and some of the things that come to mind are, old stockings, plastic coated wire, fabric strips and even glue for smaller brom's like mini neo's and tillys. I even know of one grower who just hammers nails through the rhizome and into the tree (Ouch!) and attaches his plants this way. My personal preference is for 4cm strips of green shade cloth. These have a certain amount of stretch in them, are very strong, won't rot, and blend in with the surroundings well, especially when finished of with a few bits of "old man's whiskers". Kerry wrote some good tips on mounting plants in previous posts here on the GW and if you type "mounting bromeliads" into the search engine of this forum, I'm sure all of your questions will be answered. Good luck, and please post some pic's of the results. All the best, Nev.