It was worth the wait, Lisa! Very nice!

Japie

Hi Lisa, the trip to Venice was looking nice. Notice from the third picture of the huge Aec. tayoensis, I'm wondering what is the best growing condition as mine is a bit yellowish.

From the fourth picture, at the background I have seen some ant plants, do you what species is that?

Lisa, Thanks for all the marvellous pictures.

Spectacular!

Glad to see you're up and running again.

Sander

Good job Lisa! Great photo's.
Now you see why I make a trips there as often as possible?
That greenhouse is 245 ft long just to give an idea of the number of plants that could be in it
I just added a few of these plants in the phot's to my collection:
Hohenbergia burle-marxii, Ae. tayoensis(will turn yellow in to much sun), Barbarian x Hal Ellis.
D. estevesii is grwon like that to encourage the pups and they cut of the blooms as soon as they notice them
so pups form sooner

I just realized I ordered this plant and it will be registered with another name(new name isn't decided right now). "Metis" is a less attractive clone

Hi Lisa,
Thanks for the excellent photos at Michael's.
Really makes me want to head back down there for a visit.
More plants there then I'd ever imagine,and well maintained too. That's a 'must go' trip for the future.

Could you elaberate on the 'suitcase full of goodies'?
Were they 'carry on',or checked as baggage,and was any paperwork needed to bring them into Hawaii? Any airport security problems ?
[can answer me on my e-mail if you prefer]

And that Brazil dyckia species looks close to D.beateae,but is likely a relative with those large spines and dark green color.
Thanks for taking the spiny pics for Stephania and me,and all other spiny fans.
Very happy to see you back on GW with the beautiful pics.
Bob

I'm screaming after I was those pics Liza!

Agree with Bob. I could told that it look very similar to D. beateae from my first glance, but it was different in color. I think Stephania would also melting after he saw the pics, since he also D. beateae lover like me too.

Hey, miribilis,
I missed noticing the first time I looked,but see the pic after the 'Brazil sp.' photo,the D.estevesii pic,and you will see half of a large D.beateae on the left side of the photo. Thats about the same size as the one I picked up at the Extravaganza show.
It's there if you want to order it :^)
Go for it !
Bob

Okay, that's not Metis, thanks, HDD. It sure is nice, and one of them lives with me now!

Han, Michael says that Ae. tayoensis must be grown in low light. I attended Harry Luther's talk on the diversity of bromeliad habitats, very interesting! He emphasized how important it is to know what the elevation, rainfall, temperature range, light and soil conditions are in each species' native habitat if you want to grow it successfully, and one of the things he said was that if you have any bromeliad with this kind of "Spathiphyllum shaped" leaf (Bromelia scarlatina is another example), then you know it's a forest floor plant, i.e. terrestrial, used to shady conditions and regular moisture. Good to know!

I don't know what the ant plants are in the background, or if he's even selling those. Not everything is for sale, if I didn't see a pup I didn't even ask, and there is so much to look at I was just trying to zero in on the things that interested me the most and skim over the rest. Michael saw my radar-like eyes going, and started teasing me about making mental maps of all of his shadehouses, but I was only trying to help him by being more efficient-- when we got around to pulling the plants I knew exactly where to go! ;-)

A few more Neos (you can never have too many, can you?) Another Hannibal-based grex, this one is [(carolinae x HL) x N Bates] x Tiger Cub, so they are one more step in the smaller direction from the first batch shown above. One of these little babies came home with me:

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HDD told me to look for "that gurky thing". ;-) This is "N. sp. 'Nova Friburgo' spineless (Gurken collected)" on the list. Sometimes sold as N. pontelii, but that is not a valid species name. Small, spineless, spotty, and a species..... yup, gotta have that for breeding!

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How often do you see a true species N. carolinae (not 'Meyendorffi' or some variegated cultivar?) Here's one:

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This was tagged as N. cruenta Dwarf. All the cruenta characteristics, including the red tips, but a more manageable size:

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N. johannis yellow variegata:

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carolinae Pink x nivea:

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Takemura x Big Blue:

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And on and on.......

We also went to Selby Gardens. I had arranged to meet Harry Luther and go through the greenhouses, as there has been so much confusion with Neo species names and I wanted to see what he considered the real deal on some of them. Unfortunately the house where most of the Neos are had just been sprayed, so we didn't want to venture in there, but they had enough in other areas that I was able to see a few and talk to Harry about some of them.

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I was really intrigued by the size and coloration of this plant in their shop. No tag, but if I had to guess I'd say Guz. wittmackii x Werauhia sangunolenta???? It's probably a xGuzvriesea, but the foliage sure had a Werauhia look to it. Ken is probably thinking "When the heck are we going to look at some Heliconias or gingers?" ;-)

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We also went to visit Larry Giroux (AKA Dr. Larry) and Steve Hoppin. Cryptanthus everywhere!

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I encountered an old friend, Crypt. Eruption, looking like it was on steroids. That thing just keeps going up and up!

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But as usual, I had my eye on the Neos:

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Bob, bringing plants back was not that difficult since Michael is certified and has a good relationship with his inspector. We had our import permit and had to buy a Phyto, were inspected on that end and then they are subject to inspection again on this end. That's the part I worry the most about, since our guys go over everything with a fine-tooth comb! They held them overnight but they passed with no problem. We had the box sealed and stamped and it fit right inside our checked luggage. Since we'd brought a box full of plants for him, we were pretty much obligated to fill it up again for the return trip, weren't we? ;-)

Wow Lisa, thanks for the virtual tour. We appreciate the chance to view plants we would not normally see which is why this GW is such a great site. Our favourite is that HL hybrid Metis, but we lust after all of them. Thank Goodness for our tough quarantine laws, otherwise we would be flat broke. Out of interest what are the biosecurity requirements for Hawaii?

Unfortunatly N. sp. 'Nova Friburgo' spineless (Gurken collected)" still isnt official I dont think. And watch the lil rascal it tends to want to open its flowers at night :(

Oops sorry looks like you've already answered the biosecurity question above. Sounds like it's similar to NZ except that you don't have to go through quarantine & get sprayed with chemicals.Looks like there's little chance we can get our white one to you then

Very nice. Lisa! You seem to have inspected and photographed a lot of the stuff that I would wanted to have a look at! And if did not get it about a month ago, I would seriously have sulked looking at the cruenta Dwarf! N cruenta is the other fixation that I have!

Thanks for the lovely tour Lisa, I must pay a visit to Michaels on my next Florida visit.
bradisha

Lisa, Thanks again for another batch of great photos. Has been an educational virtual tour for me.
Just can't get my eyes off from those huge fat bulbous bulbosa clustering all over the the hardwood vine. Look like sort of aliens prying for anything that walk by!
NICE!!!

Billion Lisa, Great picture I must visit Michael and Donna Kiehl nursery to collect the best Bromeliad that you present many thank Lisa...

Nice Lisa. Brings back the (recent) memories. I'll try and post a few once I get through a couple deadlines.

Hi Lisa, glad you got your PB issues sorted, and posted these great photos...wow...some amazing plants & places there. You do have a knack of picking out the interesting plants. I just wish Michaels nursery was a little closer to home...I think I would be quite happy strolling thru all those shadehouses.

BTW...have not heard much about the Skotak talk...did he pass on any hybridizing secrets, or interesting tips...???

Devo, the Skotak talk was basically a slide show of his operation (and home and family, etc.) with a running commentary on what he's been up to. Lots of pretty plant pictures! I didn't realize that the Neos are just one part of the mix; he's also working with Guzmanias, Aechmeas, and all kinds of other things, including developing new pineapples (edible varieties) for commercial production.

No big secrets. Most people know about transmitters by now, so he didn't bother trying to be cagey about it, but didn't go into a lot of detail about how that works either. Maybe someone else will remember more of the details.

Thanks Lisa - great photos of beautiful broms, and places I can only dream about going to. Also good to see faces of people I have read and heard so much about. More incentive to save and plan to attend the world conference in New Orleans in 2010! - and of course extend the trip to include those wonderful nurseries you have captured for us.

Cheers, Kerry.

Chester's program was pretty much a fun thing which included good humor. He did share a couple of seed starting tips. The pineapple seed tip was unusal for sure.
The austion was another matter. I left and read 1/3 of a book, returned and it was still going strong. About that time Bob came in with his plant dilema, so I was happy to get my empty bag to offer him for his trip home with his prizes, to escape that

I forget, what was the pineapple seed tip, HDD? The part about letting them soak until the cap pops off?

Yes, the auction was poorly organized. They should have just had people go over to check and see if they'd won the silent auction instead of interspersing all of those into the regular auction, that really dragged it out. The guy next to us ended up cancelling his bid on the silent auction because he didn't want to stay up and wait for the results. We only stayed up to see how much the ones I donated brought in, and they did pretty well considering the late hour and sparse crowd by then. Would you pay $160 for a Billbergia pup??? If so, you should've been there! ;-)

I like the neo cross of yours at $165 woohoo!...the pineapple was the acid trick soak

Thanks for the pictures Lisa. Do you have any from the show? I'd love to see some shots of the big bucks plants that you brought to the auction.

LOL Mike if she had takien pictures...they would be in slow motion on that auction

Thanks! my dear Lisa, that Dyckia sp. Brazil is really awesome
and I have to get one.

Actually, I found that my Dyckia estevesii naturally grows sideway too.
If we leave their pups, they will form a kind of great clump,
but you know, who could resist, as you can get 50-100 USD$ for each pups (^_*)
Yet from a very very long waiting list !

Did you meet your Crypt. 'Lisa Vinzant' overthere.
I would like to know how do they do in Dr Larry & Steve's Crypt. jungle.

Gald to see all those great people who have done great jobs for brom lovers.

I think that Dyckia sp. is a one-of-a-kind, Chanin. I didn't see any more, but you can ask him.

As to the Crypt, nobody that I've talked to has been able to keep the red center stripe, including Dr. Larry. It just reverts back to plain brown fosterianus. What's the secret?

Stephania/Lisa,
Yep, I spoke with Dr.Larry too,and his and mine also have reverted to the original C.fosterianus. I think I mentioned this to you some time this summer,and you said to give it more light.So I did,morning/evening sun,and 50% shade cloth during the afternoon hours. But it still stayed fosteranus.Only you have the Magic Touch. :)
Bob

About Crypt. 'Lisa Vinzant' it's quite strange that why they revert to the normal.

(^_^) I really don't have any Magic Touch...Bob !
Please take a look this pic that I took from Ban Kampu Tropical Gallery
where selected and sell 'Lisa Vinzant' to our plant market here.

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Actually I know some source, a local nursery near Bangkok
where has propagated and selled this cultivar for years
and the plants kept on its mediate-variegation,
though some pups will turn to normal but only few.

I don't know this could be the trick or not, as we normally use chopped coconut husk
mixed with loam & leaf mould to grow most of our Crypt. here.

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Thanks for the pics Lisa.

I am new here but not too new to gardening. I have a few bromeliads which I have kept for over 10 years now but most of these are, I'm sure, the very basic stuff compared to what you guys have. I live in Malaysia and as Atmccmn said bromeliads are not too popular here. There is no Micheal's or any of those places in Stephania's pics above.

Stephania,
Thanks for all your posts about Chatuchak. After a while I caved and made a visit to Bangkok last month. The plant market is incredible. So much to see although I did not see Cryp Lisa and also Cryp Dennis Cathcart. Can you tell where the nurseries referred to above are? I would really like those on my second trip to Bangkok. I love Cryps. I have about half a dozen of them, will learn to post photos soon.

Thanks to all for inspiring.

Lisa,
Did you see me and that other guy going toe to toe on that Neo. "Blueberry" pup that you donated? I ended up "getting" it for $105.00. And I got one other one of yours that I can't remember. Thanks for donating.Speaking of late, I was there untill the last customer finished paying.

Hi Albatross (^_^) those Crypt 'Lisa Vinzant' and 'Dennis Cathcart' are new here.
Anyway, you can obtain 'Lisa Vinzant' at Ban Kanpu Tropical Gallery
(Please visit the link enclosed)

These are my Crypt collection with one of the most striking 'Lisa Vinzant'

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Here is a link that might be useful: Ban Kampu Tropical Gallery

Thanks Stephania for sharing your Cryp collection and also for Ban Kampu's contact. Its like looking at a menu in a restaurant. You want everything :).I will keep this address and hopefully when I visit next year they will still have some left for me and Dennis Cathcart will be available then. Should have asked you before my trip :(