Friday, April 12, 2019

My Bromeliad Summit haul...

I could be showing you hundreds of photos of amazing SoCal Estate Gardens—and I will, eventually—but I figured it would be best to start with my Bromeliad Summit haul...

No, not the sink, that was already in our laundry room. The bromeliads are hanging out there to re-hydrate after their California road-trip and flight to Portland.

First up, from the nursery at the Ruth Bancroft Garden, a trio of plants tagged as a Billbergia sp. They were potted up, but I bare rooted them for the trip home.

They're rather reminiscent of Quesnelia marmorata 'Tim Plowman' don't you think? The foliage is stiff and rough just like the 'Tim Plowman' I purchased a few months ago.

This flashy guy came from our stop at Airplant Alchemy.

Unlabeled, he and his friends were hanging out on this table just inside the door. While everyone else was shopping the (expensive) tillandsia selection I focused on him, and was surprised at his affordable price.

I believe the owner said these potted and blooming specimens were the same type of plant. Can you ID them?

I was especially happy the plant is unpotted...

He's destined for a summer perched in Clifford's branches (our Magnolia macrophylla) and that way I won't feel any guilt about removing soil.

I won this little Vriesea rubyae at the Sunday morning silent auction.

The poor guy was going completely unloved, so of course I had to bid, and he came from the Huntington Garden collection, so there's that. My only question is why did I bid $5 instead of $1?


I guess because all the proceeds from the silent auction went to help cover the expense of putting on the event, which was impressive in its scope and quality. As one who has participated in many volunteer organized multi-day garden tours this one was among the best. If you ever have the opportunity to participate in a Jeff Chemnick (owner of Aloes in Wonderland) event...do it!

Here's a quick look at many of the plants donated for the auction, a few of which I bid on, but was quickly outbid...

Racinaea crispa, one of the auction plants I REALLY wanted, but of course it went for more than I could rationalize.

Did I mention the auction took place at San Marcos Growers? Ya, the setting was pretty idyllic.

Back to my haul... this Vriesea 'Gwydonia' came from the gift shop at Lotusland.

From here on out I will be referring to it as V. 'Ganna Walska' not V. 'Gwydonia'... at least privately.

Pamela Koide Hyatt, the owner of Bird Rock Tropicals, was one of the lecturers at the Summit. She's entertaining and knowledgeable and I highly recommend attending a talk of hers if ever you get the opportunity. Meanwhile you should order from her online shop, I've done so a few times now and the plants are great. She brought us all a tillandsia (add generous to that list of her qualities), mine is T. intermedia X streptophylla, or Curly Slim for short.

If you're thinking I stuck to the soft and kind bromeliads on this trip you would be wrong. This colorful, and spiky, Puya mirabilis was my other Ruth Bancroft Garden purchase.

When Gerhard and I arrived for the Friday evening kick-off party we parked behind a truck carrying this spiky payload.

We later discovered the truck belonged to Brian Kemble and Walker Young, curator and assistant curator at the Ruth Bancroft Garden. They collected hechtia (yes, another genus in the bromeliad family) seed in Mexico in May of 2013 and sowed the seed that July. The label I photographed specifies the seed was collected at the location of Agave rzedowskiana. They were selling these seed-grown plants to anyone who happened to need them.

Naturally I needed one...

Well I needed more than one but I was flying home, so I was trying to be practical.

Big plant, little pot.

That's my haul from the Bromeliad Summit! Aren't you impressed that I stayed on target and only bought plants in the Bromeliaceae family?

Weather Diary, April 11: Hi 55, Low 49/ Precip .19"

All material © 2009-2019 by Loree Bohl for danger garden. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited and just plain rude.

18 comments:

  1. I'm so happy all your babies made it home safe. Your silent auction purchase was the best deal, I think!!!

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  2. Cathi LamoreuxApril 12, 2019

    Amazing haul! I have never tried to bring a plant home on the plane. You will have to give me your tips!

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    1. I cheated with this group and checked a box. I was just too tired to try and get creative squeezing things into my carry on.

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  3. What a great haul! I love your Quesnelia lookalikes, I'd love to find one of those for my own. Also the spiky, colorful Hechtia. I actually went back to Watson's the day after I posted those photos on Instagram and bought the Orthophytum 'Copper Penny' that they had for sale -- also spiky and colorful. Probably not all that rare or unusual compared to what you saw on your trip, but I like it.

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    1. Yay! Glad to hear you went back and according to Evan they're not just Quesnelia lookalikes but the real deal!

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  4. I can imagine the curator and assistant curator groaning and rolling their eyes if they saw that very obvious Quesnelia marmorata 'Tim Plowman' sold as "Billbergia sp." by the nursery at the Ruth Bancroft garden. Some volunteer didn't know what they were working with.

    Oh, that Hechtia! So cool! So inviting of jokes like "what the Hechtia!"

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    1. Thank you for confirming my suspicions! And to be fair to the nursery staff/volunteers I think the nursery orders in a lot of their inventory so it may have arrived mislabeled. They were getting ready for a big plant sale the day after we were there and busy running around getting ready.

      Oddly I didn't hear anyone use that line all weekend. You should have been there to pick up the slack...

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  5. You did well, especially given that you had to pack them to fly home. I love the Tillandsia and the Hechtia. Surprisingly, I've never come across anything in the latter genus locally. Maybe I'm just not looking hard enough (or wandering far enough from home).

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    1. Maybe they're pretending to be Dyckia when you see them?

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  6. Love the curly Tillandsia and that Hechtia is pretty special, too. Good haul!

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  7. Well done Loree ! The flying thing does interfere with the haul doesn't it ?

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    1. Sadly it really does! You're driving when you come up for he study weekend, yes?

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  8. Nice haul. Must have been a great event. What the Hechtia, good one.

    Unnamed might be one of the red variations of Aechmea blanchtiana. It offsets quite freely. Takes full sun here.

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    1. Ah yes indeed, that looks like it's it, thank you. Full SoCal sun eh? Maybe it won't be happy in Clifford's branches...

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  9. I love following all your adventures! I'm starting to really long for a way that I could Winter over wonderful collections like these. MUST.KEEP.PLOTTING

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  10. How cool that you got to go to the bromeliad summit. Your plant haul is drool worthy.

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