More Tillandsia and Bromeliads

I'd love this kind of garden Delonix!

Meanie:

It is an incredible bromeliad garden. The front yard had many large Alcantarea imperialis (fka: Vriesea imperialis) - Giant Bromeliads which is native to Brazil. The flower spike grows up to around 10 feet/ 3 meters tall.

Just googled it - magnificent!

I have managed to kill every Bromeliad i have ever had ..:o(((

I may well do the same!

Mushybanna, Meanie:

One suggestion - neglect it! It's a plant which needs very little water (it's watered only in the middle of the leaves...never the soil!)

I only have a couple of Bromeliads which are planted under the Jacaranda tree in the front yard. I threw a lot in the trash a year ago. They multiply like crazy! ...and the snails love to live in them during winter.

I have one Bromeliad, thanks for that tip re the watering, it is now inside the garden room lol

Dottydaisy2:

You're welcome! :>) I'm waiting for mine to bloom...as many bloom this time of year.

I just checked your location - I don't think bromeliads would do too well outdoors in Uk, even in the south, sigh. I have enough trouble keeping them alive indoors: most have drowned, even though I try to remember to be sparing.

Franl155:

Bromeliads must have very good drainage...especially, if they're in cool weather.

They grow very easily outside here in San Diego. I have some in my front yard which I've had for years. My plants are lucky if they receive water once a month...and we don't get rain for 7 or 8+ months of the year.

ah, that's the main differece between San Diego and London UK! - or most of the UK, come to that - our rainfall is just a tiny bit more regular ...

I had an indoor one for some years; bought it in flower and eventually learned how to get the babies off without killing them or the mother plant. The largest "child" grew to about thirty inches across, and I had a few smaller, but none put out offspring - until the parent plant died (drowned, sigh). Then they all started reproducing like mad - it finally got to the stage where a plant barely three inches across was having kids - tired to take them off to get the "teenage mother" to grow bit itself first.

I've no idea why none of them reproduced while the original plant was still alive, and some of them had a couple of years in which to do so. Made me wonder if the mature plants put out some chemical or somthing to keep down any opposition? and once that plant was gone, so were all inhibitions? certainly wished I could have put the young plants on the pill, so that they'd use their strength for growing rather than reproducing!

Actually, there's a huge difference in rainfall totals from the UK to San Diego...we receive very little rain a year, only about 10in/25cm., if we're lucky. This year we finally broke the 7 year drought. Also, the climate here is subtropical.

Most Bromeliads species tend to flower and produce many off-shoots. After the original bromeliad leaves blooms it dies...however, the many off-shoots should bloom in a year or so.

*s* I think we surpassed your 10" average just in the last month!

I know that in nature the parent dies to nurture the offspring, but I wanted to see if I could save both parent and child. Took me a few goes to do it, but I'd have rather lost the offshoot than the parent. and then, sigh, I lost 'em all - they were reproducing while they themselves were so small.

Maybe I'll have another go one day, if i can find the same type as I had before - we call it urn plant, I do'nt know what it's called elsewhere or the proper name. Sharp-edged sword-like leaves, deep well in the centre.

In the 2001 - 2002 rainy season we had only 3 inches of rain. It's was awful! Everything was bone-dry.

After a bromeliad blooms it naturally dies...then the pups take over. Bromeliads are pretty easy to grow as long as they don't get over watered.