The program for May 8th was informative!

Graeme Barclay on

Growing Broms in the Bush

This presentation will highlight the cultivation of many Brazilian species in his collection, plus other rarities that grow well for himself and others in New Zealand. Particular focus will cover techniques and tips on growing bromeliad species as epiphytes. We will see many extremely well-grown bromeliads and can pick up growing tips for our own collections from this enthusiastic grower.

His Story in Broms

Graeme is the current BSI Director for New Zealand, Assistant Editor of the BSI Journal and Manager of the Bromeliad Species Database ('BSD') - a brand new resource he has designed and helped construct that will be hosted on the BSI website probably later in 2021. He is the current President of the Bromeliad Society of New Zealand and Convener of 'Kiwi Broms’, the 21st Australasian Bromeliad Conference, due to be held in Auckland, New Zealand in April 2022.

He has grown bromeliads for over 20 years, purely as a hobbyist. For the last half of those years he has focused on building and maintaining a large species collection at his native bush-clad property in Auckland. His passion is growing species as they would grow in habitat, trialing and experimenting with different growing methods and plant locations to achieve optimum cultivation results. To help achieve this, he has imported a number of bromeliad shipments from Australia and Hawaii in recent years, not only to expand his collection but to help increase the range of plants available to local growers.

Graeme is also an active seed grower, hybridizer of Neoregelia and is a regular contributor of species and cultivation articles for the BSNZ monthly ‘Bromeliad’ Journal.