Bromeliads: These Plants Thrive on Thin Air and an Occasional Misting
What could be easier to grow than a plant that can literally subsist on thin air? The answer, of course, is nothing, and the plant is the very popular bromeliad.
There are almost 2,000 species in this large and fascinating family, which includes Aechmea, Vriesia, Guzmania, Billbergia, Tillandsia, Cryptanthus, Neoregelia and the bromeliad we’re all most familiar with, the pineapple plant (Ananus).
Although most bromeliads are very exotic in appearance--they have beautiful coloring, striking leaf designs, breathtaking blooms and always make a dramatic statement when used as decor--they really are the easiest of all plants to grow indoors.
Classified somewhere between a foliage plant and a succulent, most bromeliads are epiphytes--plants that in their native Western Hemisphere habitats attach themselves to a host, such as a rock or a tree, and then take their nourishment directly from the air.
So even in the most unfavorable corner of your house or apartment they need only an occasional misting and some water in their cup, or rosette, to keep them thriving.
In fact, bromeliads have such small root systems that as long as you keep enough water in their centers they can exist for months and even years with no roots at all!
The best known example of a pure “air plant,” would be Tillandsia usneoides-- Spanish moss. You may have seen this silvery gray, rootless beauty hanging off the branches of trees in places as diverse and far-ranging as Canada, Florida or semi-tropical South America.
It hangs in long, stringy clumps that grow up to 25 feet long. Next time you buy a bag of Spanish moss to use as decorative accent, drape a little on the branches of your Ficus benjamina or whatever kind of tree-like plant you’ve got. Spray it once in a while and you’ve got a new houseplant.
Generally speaking, bromeliads need only filtered light to thrive and will tolerate temperatures from 40 to 90 degrees. They should be given a foliar feeding about once a month--mix a little liquid plant food with water according to bottle directions and spray the leaves of the plant.
The greatest bromeliad collection I’ve ever seen was tended by an amateur gardener friend of mine who fed his bromeliads by spraying them with 7-Up.
Most people buy their bromeliad when the plant is at its most showy--usually in full bloom. Probably the most commonly seen potted bromeliad is the ubiquitous urn plant ( A echmea fasciata ) , which can be found wherever plants are sold. Also known as the living vase or fascination flower, this plant has large, powdery-looking grayish-green leaves, but what will catch your eye is the spectacular spiky rose-and-blue flower that emerges on a stalk from the center of its urn.
I have good news and bad news about A. fasciata’s glorious flowering. The bad news is that the urn plant, like its fellow Aechmeas, blooms only once during its lifetime (which can be years and years). The good news is that it will also produce profusions of baby plants, or “pups , “ over the years , and each of these will in turn bloom and produce its own pups.
To propagate the urn plant--and most other bromeliads, for that matter--just cut off the pups or offshoots, they’re also called suckers, and root them in damp peat moss. Once rooted, allow the peat moss to dry out and begin watering into the rosette.
You can force an urn plant--once again this is true for almost any bromeliad--to bloom prematurely by putting half an apple into the rosette and then covering the plant with airtight plastic.
Ethylene gasses will escape from the apple and will literally shock the plant into flower, as long as the plant is mature. Blooms should appear within four to eight weeks, depending on the species and variety of the plant--in the case of aechmeas about six weeks.
One bromeliad that everybody recognizes is the pineapple plant ( Ananus comosus ) , whose inflorescence is the familiar supermarket fruit. Its relative, the variegated pineapple ( A. comosus variegatus ) , produces those marvelous little pink and cream-colored pineapples sold as cut flowers in many florist shops.
To propagate a pineapple, twist the top off your store-bought fruit, (some people prefer to cut the top off along with about one-half inch of the pineapple--either method will work, but I’ve had more success with twisting), submerge the stub in water until roots appear, which should be about three weeks to a month, and then plant it in soil. I’ve had the best luck with pineapple plants when I could keep them in a bright, sunny spot.
Another of my favorite bromeliads is the earth star ( Cryptanthus acaulis ) . The earth star looks exactly like its name--a small (no more than 8 or 10 inches in diameter), flattened, star-shaped rosette with stiff green leaves variegated with light green or pink.
Because of its striking, unusual look--almost like a gardener’s starfish--and its ease of care, the earth star is a most rewarding plant for your children’s collection as well as your own. Spray your earth star daily to help prevent the tips from drying and turning brown--but this may happen to the lower leaves no matter what you do. When they do turn brown, simply cut them off with sharp scissors.
Tillandsias are very popular and are truly air plants. They’re usually displayed glued to seashells, rocks or pieces of driftwood. I’ve also seen tiny tillandsias planted in interesting little containers with magnets attached to the backs so you can put them on your refrigerator door.
Every now and then I stumble across a “bromeliad tree”--a large, trunk-like branch or piece of driftwood, mounted on a stand, and then “planted” with several varieties of bromeliads, usually including lots of tillandsias and always creating a very sculptural and striking effect.
It’s easy to make your own bromeliad tree--simply get the driftwood and a small board for a stand, buy a few tillandsias, a cryptanthus, a small vriesia, a little guzmania--whatever turns you on--and then, one by one, stick them to the wood using waterproof glue. Cover the base of each glued-on plant with damp spaghnum moss and affix the spaghnum moss to the wood with invisible fishing line or thin wire.
Vriesia, by the way, is considered by many bromeliad fanciers to be the Royal Family of bromeliads. The flower spikes of vriesias come in many colors, from dark red to pale yellow and the leaves usually have some very dramatic variegation.
The most familiar neroegelia would be N. spectablilis, commonly called the fingernail plant. This bromeliad has a tubular rosette with stiff, glossy, narrow, olive-green leaves with gray markings on their undersides. It gets its nickname from its red markings around the bottom of the leaves--around the cup--and its sharp, pointed tips.
Whichever variety you choose, next chance you get, add a spectacular, hassle-free bromeliad to your plant-tation. You’ll be glad you did.
