Pride of place goes to the Bromeliad.
From the year 2000 to 2010 this area was in the grip of a terrible drought. Ever increasing water restrictions were put in place. No sprinklers allowed in the garden, only hand-held hoses every second day from 4pm to 7pm. Then even that small consideration was cut off. Only watering cans allowed to be used. The local dams were down to below 10% of capacity.
I was in despair for my garden. Plants were wilting and dying. But one plant thrived in these conditions. It became the plant of the decade and as other plants died I replaced them with this versatile survivor. Now the Bromeliad is everywhere in my garden.
It is an attractive and tidy edging plant.
Attached in the fork of a Frangipani tree. It colonised it, needing no soil to grow in.
Filling in bare spaces.
Thriving in full sun against a north facing wall.
Surrounding the fish and lily ponds.
Used as a feature plant in a pot.
Even in a dark corner under trees.
Or scrambling up trees.
With so many different colours, shapes and sizes the Bromeliad will happily fit into any space.
All it requires, every now and again, is a small amount of water dribbled into the centre cup.
And then it will reward you with a variety of unusual flowers.
The drought broke in 2010 with torrential floods and it kept raining through 2011 and 2013 with more floods. As you can see the garden is still colonised with broms. They are an excellent choice for easy care and as we travelled these amazing plants just looked after themselves.
Is bromeliad a tropical plant? Is it good for flower arrangements too?
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Yes it is a tropical plant. Comes originally from the tropical rainforest areas of Brazil. I have not seen it used in flower arrangements. I don’t know how well the flower spike would last if taken out of the mother plant.
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Thanks for sharing that. You have a beautiful garden.
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Thank you Joel
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You’re welcome Pommepal.
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3 cheers for the bromeliad family, Pauline. I love that one that’s deep green with a rose centre. 🙂 Not a problem we’ll ever know over here!
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They make good ground covers too Jo. Weeds cannot grow through them.
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These are a lovely plant and you’ve made great use of them in the garden, Pauline. You reminded me with this post how the water rates were raised when we were in Canberra because of the drought – once the drought broke they didn’t lower the rates again. Don’t you just love local government 😉
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Yes same here Dianne and when the drought broke as well as not lowering the rates they encouraged us to use more water!!!
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They have such lovely varieties and of course would not survive our winter. You’ve made such wonderful use of them around your garden and you’re all ready for the next drought😉
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Just the opposite at the moment Janet, in fact the present weather, heavy rain, is not good for them. But rather rain than drought.
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Bromeliad heaven. I love their architectural style! Have also popped over here to aplogise for zapping your most recent comment on Organized Sound. The comment sidebar function seems to have become very slippery, and if the cursor hits some invisible link – zap goes the comment, and then the little box for rectifying things flies off before you can take action. I wish WP would stop tinkering. Any road up, I was very tickled by your organized sound of hoovering. I really think you’ve got the hang of the concept, Pauline 🙂
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I’m working on it Tish and Jack has come up with a different slant on organized noise, ie digital noise in photos…
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Oh that’s interesting too – digital noise.
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Got to find a photo of it now…
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These are perfect for your weather, Pauline. I like them myself, but I don’t know how well they’d survive here with our sometimes brutal winters. 🙂
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I think they are tropical and would curl up and die in your winter. Could be an interesting house plant though…
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Do they flower often? I just have the idea in the back of my mind that once they have flowered that’s it, but maybe that is only true for one bought as a pot plant.
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They flower erratically, some flower every year, mostly in spring, but spot flower all year, some take years to produce their flower. After flowering they gradually die off, but not before putting pups around their base to replace themselves. Very interesting plant and the form of the flowers is very varied, some just a change in the centre colour, some sending up huge spikes. I will have to sort through my garden folders and find some flowering shots to do another post. Only a couple in flower at the moment.
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The colours of both foliage and flower are incredible.
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They are gorgeous, Pauline.
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Perfect for my life style too Jane…
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Marvellous plants!
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They certainly are Gilly
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The bromeliad are very rewarding…what could be better than plants that you don’t need to worry about? My succulents are terrific, they don’t seem to mind heat or frosts, and seem to grow in hardly any soil. Luckily Canberra has more dams these days so, although we still have water rationing, things are not as bad as during the early drought time.
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No water restrictions here now as the dams filled to overflowing during the floods. I agree succulents would be the next most abundant plant and on the super easy to care for list. No frosts over here to worry about… 🙂
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The photo described as surrounding the fish and lily ponds is my favourite.
To sit on that blue chair hidden away just watching the fish and taking it all in is gardening at its best.
If all the plants were as easy to care for we would not need the bore water from the spear pump.
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That bore is still needed for the few delicate plants.
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In Sydney, there is a simple rule for bromeliads – if it is spiky, it is sun tolerant, if it is not spiky, keep it in the shade. I assume you have similar experience up your way?
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Yes that is a good rule of thumb. Do you have them in your garden?
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Just a small number by your standards! We are a bit less tropical than you, but with global warming, we are catching up 😦
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and we are getting more like Cairns!!! 😦
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Perfect for someone like me..the forgetful, neglectful gardener.
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I don’t think you could kill a brom Dawn and they produce lots of pups to replace themselves when the reach their use by date
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Yup…perfect for me!
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🙂
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