Any of you that have ever looked over my "want" list have seen Quesnelia marmorata cv. 'Tim Plowman' has been there since forever. As a purchaser of mostly Nepenthes, bromeliads are not often at the top of my list but after cruising eBay (terrible habit) one of the better looking ones I've seen listed had me finally pulling the trigger.
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| Quesnelia marmorata 'Tim Plowman' |
Not only did I pay well under retail but the seller threw in an extra, a decent sized Quesnelia marmorata. How cool is that?! Rarely do many vendors do this anymore, so I certainly didn't expect it from an eBay purchase.
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| Quesnelia marmorata |
Now, I'm no bromeliad expert so I read a lot about this species and ended up changing how I had originally potted it up. According to what few sources sounded like they had a clue about growing Quesnelia, they like it on the dry side. Normally I'd pot epiphytic bromeliads like Neoregelia in a mix with orchid bark or mulch, perlite, and regular garden soil. So I'm trying this one with orchid bark, perlite, and hydroton. Seeing as how these are epiphytes, you could just mount them and be done with it too for any epiphytic bromeliad. Mounted typically require watering more often than potted though, and I don't always have time for that so we'll see how my potting mix works out.
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| Quesnelia marmorata (left) & Quesnelia marmorata cv. 'Tim Plowman' (right) |
There seems to be some conflicting information regarding the curliness of 'Tim Plowman.' I've read that the true cultivar will retain it's curly leaves despite cultural conditions, and then I've read that watering too much or various otherwise worse than ideal cultural conditions can cause it to lose it's curliness. I certainly have no plans on growing this any other way than you're supposed to, (dry and in the sunlight,) so it shouldn't be an issue for me. It does make me wonder if there are other curly leaved forms that maybe resemble the 'Tim Plowman' cultivar that people have either accidentally assumed are that cultivar or purposefully passed off as such to make plants more valuable. Seeing as how the 'Rafael Oliveira' cultivar was also found in the wild and also has curly leaves, I'd bet there's not only more out there, but many intermediate forms as well that maybe do react to cultural conditions more so than others.
In other news, I really need to create a black background to take plant photos in front of, one of these days.
Recommendation: buy a piece of black foamboard. You can set it up anywhere, there's no work involved in making it, and they're relatively cheap. Works better for small plants than for large ones.
ReplyDeleteI've also used a piece of black cloth, but those get linty and dirty, they have to be attached to something else before you can use them, and if the lighting is wrong you can sometimes see through them, which sort of defeats the purpose. (If money were no object, I'd buy a big piece of black vinyl, which wouldn't have the transparency or dirt-collecting problems, but when I've looked into how much that would cost, it comes up around $60 around here. Foamboard suits me well enough.)
Foamboard it is then. I'm hoping some staged photos will help show off plants like these when regular pictures don't quite do them justice. Thanks for the suggestion!
DeleteHey Melody! I too have been bitten by the Bromeliad bug. They're so interesting and I love the look of the ones you have acquired. Nicely done on the e-bay score!
ReplyDelete-Rich
Hey Rich, glad to hear I know another brom grower out there. We should trade pups one day, I should have a bunch more by the end of the year aside from what's on my sales list. So if you see something you like let me know, thinking about making a video of my collection here soon too.
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