#AdventBotany 2020 Day 23, Hope rekindled and gardening with Cassowaries

By Alastair Culham

This year I planned to upcycle existing blogs in the spirit of making the best from what you have during the COVID-19 pandemic but I just couldn’t resist mentioning a plant that has flooded the supermarkets this year as a new Christmas flower. That new plant is Guzmania Hope (=’Durahop’), a hybrid cultivar that was awarded the RHS Award of Garden Merit (AGM) in 2015 for its ‘long-lasting inflorescence with good colour’. As is so often the case, tracking the origin of this plant down was not simple. For a start the plant is sold as Guzmania Hope but it was registered for Plant Breeder’s Rights under the name ‘Durahop’ in 2011. Why is a tropical bromeliad suitable as a Christmas houseplant? One glance at the white tipped bracts on the holly-berry red flower stalk and you can see.

Red and white bromeliad bracts on green rosette seen from the side — A recent purchase from a local supermarket: *Guzmania* Hope in a bright red pot.

Red and white bromeliad bracts on green rosette seen from above — *Guzmania* Hope inflorescence seen from above. The brown tips were probably damage in transit as the plant had these when I bought it.

Chester Skotak

Looking further in to the orogin of this wonderful bromeliad I discovered it’s breeder was Chester Skotak Jr. who turns out to be a major player in this field. He is based in Costa Rica and has introduced many beautiful bromeliad cultivars into the horticultural trade. There are a few videos of him talking about his plants – this one I particularly enjoyed watching.

Warm in winter

Those of you in USDA zone 12 and higher should find this plant winter hardy. In northern Europe this is very much a houseplant and needs a minmum of 15°C according to the RHS. If you are growing this plant in Australia then Cassowaries are something to worry about, at least according to June Bennett. I once met a Cassowary in Queensland and had no idea how dangerous they can be – perhaps i shouldn’t have followed it through the jungle to get a photo (which I didn’t manage – that was in the days of film when rain & low light made photography quite difficult in rainforests).

Southern (or Common) cassowary (*Casuarius casuarius*) (Photo: Summerdrought, CC BY-SA 4.0 , via Wikimedia Commons)

That links me through to the Bromeliad Society International, which seems hugley active in promoting the cultivation and study of these incredible plants. I can see that i’ll need to look further into the world of Bromeliads. Chester Skotak has an active Facebook page and and nursery called Dura Flor. He’s also written a book ‘Searching for Miss Fortuna: The Hunt for a Bromeliad’, published in 2007, which I’ve yet to read – and current Amazon price of US$109.99 means I’m not likely to be reading it in the near future!

Here’s to hope for the New Year!

For the full #AdventBotany 2020 story see the index.