Yes Mauvegirl8, guilty as charged! Usually its Vintage that keeps me up that late waiting to click the go button on the latest listing "gotta haves"! Cydney "Preserving History One Rose at a Time"

O.K. folks - now I can help with the latter vrieseas shown. Thanks John and Agatha, and Han, for trying to help solve this for us. Firstly - Lisa, your Intermedia Rubra does look very like my Gulz. If my Gulz and your Intermedia Rubra and Mike's new acquisition do have fosteriana in its parentage, then I don't think platynema, in any of its forms, could be the other parent due to the branched flower spike. All of my (supposed) platynema forms have a single flower spike, as does fosteriana. That is why I suspected hieroglyphica as a possible parent - or maybe gigantea? I have seen several vrieseas with hieroglyphica as a parent, which do not necessarily inherit the strong glyphic markings, but usually a branched inflorescence. John and Agatha - your Intermedia Rubra looks to me more like either Angela, or Han's plant - except that Angela has a single flower spike, like its suspected platynema parent, but with lemon bracts, dark red stem. Han - your Exotica Dark Form, like Angela, is an Australian hybrid. Someone along the track renamed it Exotica, when it should be Erotica - maybe they thought it was too "risque" sounding! There is in circulation here an Erotica and Erotica Dark Form. They both come from the breeding stable of Lou Forrest, many years ago, and then inherited by his neighbour and fellow hybridist Bob Larnach. I grow both forms of Erotica, and Angela - all thought to have platynema (?) in its parentage, all bred by Lou Forrest, and Angela named by Bob Larnach. Forever the 'doubting Thomas', I suspected that Erotica Dark Form was really Angela. I have been growing them side by side in my shade house, and have now been proven wrong as there are differences in the foliage patterns. However, I have not flowered the Dark Form Erotica yet, so I don't know if the spike is single or branched. Have you flowered your Erotica/Exotica Dark Form yet, Han? I would expect that it has a tall single flower spike, like plain ol' Erotica (dark red bracts). Once again - the plot thickens....... Cheers, Kerry

Hello again Mike, You did real well with your choices. I think the Bil.'Caramba' you have there was grown in shade. Some I've seen pics of are red/maroon color,sort of like B.'Halleujah'(see my pic below).Maybe others with more Bil.experiance can help out on how to grow it for color. That Q.marmorata 'TP' is one of my favorites,and should give you a nice grouping in time.I think that Hoh. will likely develop that same pattern as the one of the previous BSBC show.Really different and showy. All selections are very nice. That sure was a Fun day,so much to look at,so little time. I'll post my pics of the plants I bought when they get here later this week.Sure was good to see you again,and all the other GW'ers Bob [the photo B.'Hallelujah']

Sorry I could not get sooner to thank you all for posting so far, but I had some internet connection problems. All seems ok though now! Thanks for sharing all of your opinions and even pictures!!!! Thank you Mike for the congrats! This year is my first pretty good year getting fruit on most of my trees, some for the first time. I had given them a plant light last year, along with a new fertilizer I found this spring, and that seemed to help. I still need to get a better light for them now that they are inside. I started a post a month of so ago, and got a lot of helpful info from you all (thanks!). I am just deciding whether I am going to keep them upstairs in the living area where they have always been when I bring them in every winter, or transport them down to the basement. If I do basement, I would go HID, but if I stay upstairs, the HID would be too much, so I would just need something to supplement. Even the cheapy GE plant spot light I got last year helped well compared to just window light, so I am sure if I moved up to something a little better, I will be able to keep my leaves, flowers, and fruit attached for the whole winter season. ANyway, so I am finally getting good fruit to grow after all these years of waiting and learning how to keep them happy while indoors for the winter. (oh, and another MAJOR thing I learned from here that helped was how to make good REAL container mixes for citrus). Although I did not think of this before until mksmth said so and mksmth is right, that the flowers are all white so far. I will check again over the next few days as they get bigger. A few should open up soon. I guess the last test will be tasting it. But I feel so happy that the tree got fruit for the first time, that I am waiting till the last possible moment to pick them because I am enjoying just seeing them on the tree finally! I am also wondering what would be the correct thing to make with the first lemons. I would like to make something special with them just because they are special. Any suggestions? LOL! I will keep this updated as the blooms get bigger. THanks again for all of the help! Christy