First let us look at what Don Beadle found out for the 1998 Register
Neoregelia 'Marcon'
Foster, M.?? European? <1945
cv. of marmorata X spectabilis - (See 'French Hybrid') - Foster says, "..in stiff rosette form - green leaves w/red marbled spots - has bright red fingernail leaf tips - purple flowers low in the center" - Merkel gives this plant French origin and said, "The still upright leaves are soft yellow-green w/crimson blotches - cherry tipped ends - thought to be a hybrid of spectabilis X marmorata - lavender flowers deep in the cup" - Luther said, "Neoregelia marmorata is in cultivation and is indistinguishable from Neoregelia 'Marcon"'.
JBS 13:67,133; 15:6; 19:70; 23:179, KentCat1972, TF1981, Luther 1/98, FL1978, MB1998
Neoregelia 'French Hybrid'
Wendland, Holmes? <1968
syn. 'Marcon' ? marmorata ?- Talnadge said, "From France - medium sized plant w/red body w/bright green spots - bright reddish-pink fingernails - blue flowers - takes full sun".
JBS 28:36, SDDN1968, TFG1971, TF1980
I suppose problems really started in 1950 when Mulford Foster told hybridists to go forth and and multiply - which they did with gusto. But nobody recorded their efforts! What I find odd is that nobody recorded crossing marmorata with concentrica which would have been a fairly common species in the hands of hybridists at that time! The first reference to 'Marcon' is in the International Checklist by the BSI 1979 where it is blandly recorded as marmorata x spectabilis Foster.
Brian Smith's Manuscript of Hybrids etc 1984 is more revealing because he recognised the need to list formulae because this was how you identified your hybrids. After all, this was how it was done with natural hybrids where mother was never known so the parentage could be swapped with impunity - but that is another story. Here we find 'Marcon' and 'French Hybrid' linking to marmorata x spectabilis but - horror - reference to ('Marcon' x marmorata) unregistered! and 'Marconfos' a clone selected by Foster as being different? in 1973. Was this last one a sport or, - wait for it - a seedling?!
About the same time Brian Smith was preparing his Manuscript I was in touch with him while preparing my Australian hybridis listings and we had 'Marcon' in Australia. In fact it appears as a parent in some of the registered hybrids. I could not see the difference between 'Marcon' and what we were growing as N. marmorata. This 'con' bit niggled me, so I wrote to Racine Foster asking her to check Mulford's studbooks. Alas, she said that they were scattered everywhere and in any event were in shorthand that only Mulford could understand. So I found out less that Don did for the Register!
The photo on fcbs.org from the Singapore gardens can be linked to a shipment from Shelldance nursery in California so has direct links with the USA. We have no photo of the plant we used to grow in Australia as 'Marcon'. Is the photo from Carol Johnson 'Marcon' or 'Marconfos'?!!!
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AND THAT'S NOT ALL. In the 1960's seed got to Australia from Julian Nally as marmorata x spectabilis. We think it is seed that Julian actually crossed and not self set seed from a plant called marmorata x spectabilis. In any event it was grown in Australia for many years under formula until I bit the bullet in 1999
Neoregelia 'Julian Nally' by Butcher in 'Bromeliaceae' (Queensland Journal) Nov/Dec 1999
Neoregelia marmorata x spectabilis: In the recent past I have only managed to get as far north as Townsville when I saw a plant we called Neoregelia marmorata X spectabilis down south but up north it had an additional 'Julian Nally' on the label. Further investigations revealed that the plant probably came to Australia via Bill Morris or Robert Tucker.
In the 1950s Julian Nally grew this and similar Neoregelias, by the acre at Gotha, which is near Orlando, Florida. Down south in Adelaide it is a Neoregelia that could best be described as a bit drab looking so I could not understand Julian's enthusiasm. The Far North Queensland dry season seems to bring out the best in Neoregelias and as Rob Smythe points out ALL Neoregelias turn red at this time of the year. So Neoregelia 'Julian Nally' is an attractive plant which I saw being grown widely in the Cairns area.
This plant does have weak bands on the back of the leaves which I think came from the N. spectabilis and should not be confused with the plant so-called, 'Marcon'. I understand that there is a plant circulating in Florida as marmorata x spectabilis without growers realising that the parentage is the same as that 'quoted' for 'Marcon' but I think more likely to be 'Julian Nally'
May it rest in peace.
Finally, did you know that Foster's small form of N. marmorata was really a N. chlorosticta!
Just to add to the confusion N. marmorata is said to have white flowers but N. chlorosticta has blue unless you refer to its cultivar 'Marble Throat' which is white. Do white flowers crossed with blue flowers mean you always get blue in the progeny? Would a white petalled 'Marcon' exist?"