Bromeliad Confusion

[BewilderedGreenyO.o]

So I'll start out by saying that I've got a Vriesea Bromelaid which is pretty small. I purchased it from Home Depot. I've been reading conflicting information about Bromelaids.

First, "Bromeliads flower only once, and then they die" is this true? And if so then how is it that people are able to grow such incredibly large Bromelaid?

Second, Potting- " Repot the bromeliad if needed. This is typically unnecessary " If this is true then why is it unnecessary? hmm *typically* unnecessary... ok so is it necessary that I repot mine? lol

Third, To water or not to water.. I can't find the exact references for this one but I've heard it go both ways... I think the tag it came with said not to water it much but the internet says they need to be watered frequently. Oh and should I water in the tank or just in the soil?

Fourth
From the picture below... are the greenish yellow flowers coming out of the bracts suppose to bloom or is that as much as they are suppose to grow? O.o

Thanks Every1!

[img]https://i618.photobucket.com/albums/tt261/NySnap/Plants/Bromelaid/P7310624.jpg[/img]

[lorax]

First of all, looks like you've got a Vriesea splendens, aka Fiery Sword. It's one of the more common house-bromeliads because it's pretty and very easy to care for.

1. Bromeliads do flower only once and then die, but the great thing is, they take quite a while about it, and after flowering they make pups - so for the one mother plant, you'll probably end up with between 2 and 5 smaller plants once that bloom has finished, and that bloom is going to take several weeks to finish, if not a month. I don't grow much for Vriesea, but from what I can recall of them in the wild, they're fairly prolific puppers.

Those "incredibly large bromeliads" are generally Neoregelias, which are predisposed to get gi-freakin-normous - one in my garden is more than 3' in radius. The size of your brom is dictated by the genus/type. Vriesia generally stay fairly compact, which is why they're popular as houseplants. However, if you grow the plant as a complex, without separating the pups, you will eventually end up with a pretty large colony. And if you can provide them with a high-humidity, fairly high-heat environment, you'll see a lot more foliage growth before the pups bloom, which naturally leads to larger plants.

2. Technically, what you're growing is an Epiphyte and doesn't need soil at all. The only reason to repot would be that the pups have completely filled the current container - and when you do repot, it should be into something like Orchid Bark with a bit of charcoal; this will make the plants immensely happier and reduce their chances of rot. However, the epiphyteness (yes, that's a technical term, ) of bromeliads presents a challenge to stores that sell them, so they're normally potted into any old dirt. Not the best of techniques, and people do tend to assume that they can water broms like regular plants, which brings me to.....

3. Vriesea come from wet forests, where they grow on tree branches, but most of the moisture they get is collected in the cup of the plant - the point where the flower spike is coming up. You can easily overwater and kill a bromeliad by watering its soil, because soil holds moisture (wild broms grow directly on tree branches, and water only runs across their root systems, it never stays) - it's better to mist the entire plant and make sure that water accumulates in the cup than it is to try to bottom-water. Most bromeliads (there are a few true terrestrials, which are fairly rare in collection) work this way and don't have true roots in the sense you're used to. You're watering properly if the cup of the bromeliad has a little bit of water in it at all times, but you're safe to let it dry out completely for about 2-3 days as well.

4. Those greenish-yellow flowers will open; typically they're little tube-type flowers with protruding stamens, kind of like Lobelias but less petally (again, technical term ), quite cute, imho The entire spike will produce them, two at a time, from the top of the bracts to the bottom.


There, probably a bit more than you wanted to know, but I'm telling you anyway!

[BewilderedGreenyO.o]

Hehe! Thanx Lorax! My intention when purchasing this bromelaid was for it to be huge lol I once saw a Bromelaid on a HGTV show ( can't remember which one lol) But in their landscaping they had this gorgeous "gi-freakin-normous" Bromelaid with a "HUGE!" Red Bloom. Similar to the one I have just a lot larger lol. Unfortunately They didn't tell me the name of it!! Darn television shows lol. Either way I fell head of heels for it.

Are you positive that mine isn't a Vriesea Bromelaid? Cause it sure does look like one lol I feel it looks more like a Vriesea Bromelaid then the flaming sword one. But then again they do look fairly similar lol.

Do you think I should take my Bromelaid out of soil and prop it up on a small rock indoors? I know you said bark and charcoal mix would be better then soil but would a rock be better then bark and charcoal? And furthermore would it even matter considering my plant is slowly ... slowly... dying. oh! and in that case the baby pup that I took from the mom and put into soil should most likely be put elsewhere to then right?

[lorax]

I'm certain yours is a Vriesea, Vriesea splendens to be exact. (Actually, I think I started off by saying that last time....) Flaming Sword is the common name. (And I think we were having the discussion about that in another thread, which is why I gave the Latin name first.)

If you can give it the same conditions that the gardeners on HGTV did, the pups will likely get quite big - the plant you have now is blooming and won't be producing any more leaves. But there's also the possibility that what you were seeing on HGTV was one of the big Tillandsias or even an Aechmea, both of which get much larger than even the biggest Vriesa, and both of which have similar inflorescences.

[BewilderedGreenyO.o]

Lorax! Look back up I added more

oh and the name thing... yup lol still trying to get into the habit of speaking and typing technical

[lorax]

Nope, in this case, rock is not better than bark/charcoal - the plant in the wild grows on bark. If it grew well on rock, it wouldn't be a Vriesea, it would be a Tillandsia. I wouldn't do any repotting until the mother plant has finished blooming - because it could upset the bloom.

And yes, the baby plant should go into bark. It will do better there.

[BewilderedGreenyO.o]

kk... just plain bark... no soil... just bark which should be purchasable at home depot or Lowes? Perhaps a large piece of bark that I can prop up inside? Unfortunately I havn't got any spare bark hanging out in my back yard

Tillandsias are gorgeous too. I am amazed at all the gorgeous gi freakin gantic bromelaids. Can't you just see my backyard a few years from now? its going to be stuffed full of bromes lol!

"Bromeliads do flower only once and then die" Does the whole plant dies or just the flower?

[lorax]

1. You can buy bags of orchid bark at Home Depot. If you can find entire slabs/sheets of cork and wrap those around medium (say 3") diameter PVC pipe (attach with silicon glue), you can fake up "logs" for your bromeliads. Use either silicon glue or superglue to attach the broms to the log (or tie them on with twine), and eventually their own roots will hold fast into the cork. Then just mist the whole shebang with your hose.

If you want the really big in-ground broms, look at Neoregelia, the larger Tillandsias, Aechmea, Guzmania, and Puya. They look marvellous interplanted with Agaves, and with ginger/Alpinia or another tall, unusually-flowering plant at the back. You're in a warm enough zone for that to work well - but the bed underneath all of those broms, except Puya, should be bark for at least 3-4" before it hits soil.

I'm probably evil for doing this, but [url=https://www.ecuagenera.com/epages/whitelabel4.sf/en_GB/?ObjectPath=/Shops/ecuagenera/Categories/Tropical_Plants/Bromeliaceae]Ecuagenera[/url], an Ecuadorean company, is an excellent and reliable source for the big species broms, especially the ones that I see everyday in the forests.

2. The whole plant will die, fairly slowly, but not before pupping.

[BewilderedGreenyO.o]

Sweet! Thank You soooo much for all that information Lorax! I will be referring back to it quite a bit. It will likely be helpful for others looking to learn about Bromelaids as well. ( hehe you rebel! thanx for the link despite your evilness it will also come in handy for me )

[lorax]

Ha! A thought just hit me. If you're going to stuff your backyard full of bromeliads, why not grow some Pineapples (Ananas comosus) in there too? They're quite decorative before they fruit.

[BewilderedGreenyO.o]

hmm might not be a bad Idea... Just not sure if I'd ever put the Pineapple to good use.. Might make great gifts though lol!

[lorax]

You don't like pineapples?!?!? You're first person I've ever met who's said that.

[BewilderedGreenyO.o]

LOL! I didn't say I didn't like pineapples!! I said I don't know if I'd be able to put good use to them... for example I'm growing tomatoes and there are so many that I can't eat them all lol As far as pineapple goes... its such a large fruit... and I wouldn't know what to do with it all... I normally just have pineapple in small portions. But I bet Pineapple straight from the plant would taste amazing

[lorax]

Well, you don't have to wait until they're huge to harvest them - the very best pineapples I've ever had were about the size of softballs, off of a friend's plant which I'm sure she just went and found in the forest and put in her garden. Straight off the plant, small pineapples are pretty acidic, but if you give them a few days to ripen up the acidity goes away and they're beautifully sweet. If you wait for the fruit to mature on the plant, it will be huge, but the benefit is that you don't get any of the bitter undertones that storebought fruit normally has, just pure, tart sweetness.

Now that I've been used to really fresh pineapples, I can eat an entire large one in two or three sittings - it keeps quite well chopped and covered in its own juice.

The other thing you can do with truly massive pineapples is make juice from them - cut the fruit into largeish chunks and blender it with a bit of water, then strain the pulp off. Sooooo goood, especially on hot days.

[BewilderedGreenyO.o]

Tis' Me again lol Back with some more questions

1. Why Cork on Pvc pipe?

2. I purchased some orchid bark... could I just glue some of that to pvc pipe instead of cork? Or maybe glue Cork "and" Orchid bark to Pvc Pipe? I want it to look like a log not a pvc pipe wrapped in cork lol! Which reminds me... maybe I should go check a reptile pet store to see if they have any bark looking environment things that I could perhaps use instead.

3. I have a Bromeliad Pup that I have already taken from the mother before creating this topic that I unknowingly put into soil. Would it be best to leave it or should I attempt the move to the Pvc pipe... or orchid bark. If I do move the pup should I rinse the soil off of it before replanting it to its new home?

4. Why can one type of bromeliad only grow on rock while the other can only grow on bark? Is there a difference in roots? or... strength of the roots or something?

Tis' all I've got for now lol Thanx!

[lorax]

1. Cork on PVC pipe is what my good friend Steve Lucas over at the [url=https://www.exoticrainforest.com]Exotic Rainforest[/url] uses for his extensive bromeliad collection. I generally don't argue with his techniques, since he's doing all this in Arkansas and enjoys tremendous success. Check out some of his atrium photos - if you didn't know that his "logs" are made this way, you'd think they were real branches.

2. Once the bromeliads are established, it won't look like a PVC pipe wrapped in cork. However, if it bothers you, you can glue some of the orchid bark ontop of the cork. "Bark-looking" environment things are often plastic, and since what you're doing with the cork is providing a surface similar in texture and penetrative properties to actual bark, "bark-looking" isn't going to cut it - what will the roots hang on to there?

3. I'd move it onto the pipe. The sooner you start establishing your colony on there, the faster it will cease to look like a pipe covered in cork. Definitely rinse the soil off the base gently before replanting.

4. It has to do with the environmental adaptations of the different species. In North America, you don't have the wide range of habitats for broms to observe something like this; Florida and parts of the Gulf states are the only place that bromeliads grow naturally in the US. However, in the true tropics, and especially in Ecuador, there are about 20 distinct climate zones, all of which have bromeliads that are specially adapted to live there. The Bromeliaceae is a reasonably large family in the tropics, and there's a lot of diversity within it.

Vriesea are only found in fairly hot, humid forests, high up in the canopy of very tall trees, where they grow as epiphytes (hence my knowledge that they're bark dwellers and like to be humid). Below are Vriesea in the middle-amazon, 300 feet up in the canopy of a Kapok tree.
[img]https://i256.photobucket.com/albums/hh196/HabloPorArboles/DSCN7988.jpg[/img]
Tillandsia, on the other hand, are adapted to some of the harshest conditions the tropics have to offer - many species grow in deserts, and often at very high altitudes. These are often found on stone because that's the first place that water collects when the temperature of the day changes, or when there's fog or the area is inside cloud. Tillies are also found in our cold and permanently-clouded forests, where most other bromeliads would perish. Below is a blooming Tillandsia in the Imbabura highland desert, in Ecuador's north.
[img]https://i256.photobucket.com/albums/hh196/HabloPorArboles/DSCN8719.jpg[/img]
However, taking the cake for the toughest bromeliads are Puya, which are semi-carnivorous and grow in extreme altitudes and the driest of the deserts (the Atacama), where they are generally the largest plants. Below is a Puya cultivated in Quito, which, at 2,850 m above sea level (about 10,000 feet) is the lowest altitude where it will survive. I've seen these right up around the snowline (5,000 meters).
[img]https://i256.photobucket.com/albums/hh196/HabloPorArboles/DSCN7495.jpg[/img]

[BewilderedGreenyO.o]

Thanx for the info Again Lorax! *gasp* I'm so obsessed with Bromeliads! Well... plants in general for that matter... when will I ever draw the line lol

[BewilderedGreenyO.o]

Hi! I'm back again! ;p I took my pup today from the soil and put it on a cork log.. I had some troubles getting it to stay on... the plant hadn't formed roots yet ... Is that unusual?

I couldn't find any super glue and read that hot glue would work the same so I did it... the problem is that when I glued it on it wouldn't stay but I finally made it stay.. (sorta) ... The hot glue wasn't sticking to the plant very well. So I left and when I came home my Dad had decided to tamper with it and said that it had fallen off... He then continued to say that he got it to stay on

I quickly looked at the plant and he has the whole bottom of the plant submerged in hot glue. I know he was totally just trying to help but I asked him where the roots would come from lol! He thought they came out higher on the base... then continued to say that if they come out on the bottom that maybe they will grow through the hot glue...well at least the plant wont be falling off anymore lol *sigh* Is this pup doomed? Here are photos of it from different angles...
[img]https://i618.photobucket.com/albums/tt261/NySnap/Plants/Bromelaid/P8040626.jpg[/img]

[img]https://i618.photobucket.com/albums/tt261/NySnap/Plants/Bromelaid/P8040627.jpg[/img]

[img]https://i618.photobucket.com/albums/tt261/NySnap/Plants/Bromelaid/P8040630.jpg[/img]

[lorax]

You're not doomed - you'll get root formation at the leaf nodes above the hot glue puddle.

Lookin' good - now you just need umpteen-squidly-dozen more!

[BewilderedGreenyO.o]

Yay! I'm so glad to hear that my little Bromeliad Pup has hope! I noticed the other day that my Bromelaid mom has 4 more pups on the way Yay!

Oh and guess what? I just ordered a Puya berteroniana from Ebay Tis' so beautiful!! The plant I purchased is just a youngish one in a 4 inch pot. And later after purchasing I found out that it could take up to 8 years to bloom... hehe oh well! It'll just be great to know that I own one I think Here are some pics of it in bloom

[img]https://strangewonderfulthings.com/BluePuya4898.jpg[/img]

[img]https://strangewonderfulthings.com/BluePuya4897.jpg[/img]

one thing I'm not sure about though is how to determine what variety of it that I purchased since I've read that there is one that is more turquoise then there is one that is more blue... and also another species that looks similar but is less impressive.

Here is the link to the ebay plant I purchased[url]https://cgi.ebay.com/Puya-berteroniana-CHAGUAL-Chile-Rare-PLANT-/160460250393?cmd=ViewItem&pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item255c2d1d19#ht_1094wt_930[/url] ... If you read the description, It says all plants are guaranteed to be true to species and variety so if this is true then the plant should be Puya berteroniana either variety terqoise or blue and not the Puya alpestris. But how can I tell the difference between the three without it blooming?

[lorax]

Well, since both are native here in South America, and I've got personal experience with both, I can give you a couple of hints - there are minute differences in the foliage between P. alpestris and P. berteroniana - the former has very even spacing of the thorns along the edges of each leaf, and the latter seems more random, with more thorns but occasional groups of them.

There are also a few differences in the inflorescence, which you won't know about until the brom produces one - the main one is that the unopened buds of P. berteroniana are more silvery, and P. alpestris more green. However, take heart! Even if you do get P. alpestris you're still going to get those stunning dark turquoise flowers - it's just that on P. alpestris the deep turquoise tends more towards greenish while on the darker variety of P. berteroniana the deep turquoise tends more towards bluish.

Unfortunately, there's no way to tell whether you're growing the blue or dark turquoise form of P. berteroniana until you actually see the flowers - personally, though, I wouldn't worry because both forms are stunningly beautiful, especially if your plant decides to bloom in the wintertime.

You can help the plant by making its soil fairly alkaline rather than acid - this seems to affect the bloom colour, making it darker and pushing it further towards the blue tones.

Oh, and goes kinda without saying - Puya are true terrestrial bromeliads - you should be planting this one in actual soil.

[BewilderedGreenyO.o]

Thanks Lorax! I love the rare and unusual plants I just can't get enough of them! I just got my Jade vine in the mail today, I think I'm in love and it hasn't even gotten its blooms on it yet ;p

The reason I was curious about the differences between them was basically just so that I knew if I had an extremely rare form or a more common form. (Bragging rights) ROFL Plus to make sure I wasn't getting scammed by the ebay seller with false advertising of the wrong species being sold. Either way I know each type is gorgeous ... I just tend to sway towards the rarest ones

[BewilderedGreenyO.o]

So I just got a Puya berteroniana in the mail from a seller on Ebay and its so small!! I wasn't expecting it to be so small lol (Ebay sellers never cease to amaze me) Nevertheless I do have another one on the way from a different seller that looks much larger then this one. Anyway! I am just gunna roll with the punches and keep the lil' one. I couldn't possibly send it back (already attached lol) Here are some photos of this one that Imma properly name "Lil'bit"

Photos of My First Puya berteroniana "Lil'Bit"
[img]https://i618.photobucket.com/albums/tt261/NySnap/Plants/Bromelaid/P8110639.jpg[/img]

[img]https://i618.photobucket.com/albums/tt261/NySnap/Plants/Bromelaid/P8110642.jpg[/img]

[img]https://i618.photobucket.com/albums/tt261/NySnap/Plants/Bromelaid/P8110643.jpg[/img]

This plant is so small it honestly just looks like a pup from a mom prematurely lol Poor lil' thing

Anyhow was just wondering if anyone can tell from these photos if it is for sure a Puya berteroniana or if it is actually a Puya alpestris. I am just curious but will love it just the same either way I want to be able to label it correctly in my garden Hope you all enjoy the photos of my newest addition as much as I do

[lorax]

It's healthy, as far as Puya pups go - make sure you keep it in part shade until it bigs up a bit. I'd say, from looking at it, it's P. berteroniana. Confirmation, of course, will come when it blooms, several years or decades down the road.