Plant Profiles

Bottlebrush  A small tree for zones 8 and up with fuzzy red flowers. Love it! NEW!!!

Firecracker Plant  Hummingbirds love it and so do I!

Lady Palm  A frost hardy tropical looking clustering palm  

5 Cold Hardy Bromeliads  My top 5 genus' so far, with bromeliads that take a hard freeze

Kurume Azaleas  These ordinary shrubs look exotic with a special pruning technique

Split Leaf Philodendron  A massive tropical plant hardy through zone 8

Thunbergia Grandiflora A vine with big blue blooms also known as Skyflower

Rhipsalis  Chain cactus is a great epiphyte with fine texture.

Chamaedorea Radicalis and Microspadix  Two great tropical looking and yet hardy palms

Ti Plant  A colorful addition to your garden, kitchen and home.

Alocasia "California"  A great tropical that can be grown up north as a bulb too!


More to come!

5 comments:

  1. I recently was gifted with a bromeliad...I have looked online to find a pic of this particular variety and haven't found it...
    it has dark green leaves...that fall over nicely, no spiky edge, and it has one burgundy bloom ... this bloom put forth 4 yellow tips for a bit, now they have dried...
    the medium it is planted in has lots of pebbles and seem to be little dirt...
    I have watered it in the center by the bloom...
    well the medium had gotten rock hard...so I soaked the whole thing in a sink of water for a bit...the leaf tips were all turning brown : (
    So I decided to just clip them all...
    NOW... any more tips for the care of this plant?
    Or have I "done it in, so to speak"
    I sure would like to keep it going, as it was given to me in memory of my sister.
    Thank you for the tips I will recv : )

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hi Cindy!

    Here's the thing about bromeliads: The soil doesn't need to be moist, as long as the cup is periodically filled with water, so you've done the right thing by watering it in the center. The roots are mostly there as a means for attachment.

    After bromeliads flower, the flowerspike dies and the plant starts to decline as it puts up "pups" or little plantlets in between the leaves. These eventually take the place of the original plant and can even be divided and given to friends! That makes perfect for living on in memory of a loved one, since they can be grown indefinitely.

    Also, if the leaf tips have gotten brown it might be a result of low humidity, which also leads to spider mites, which dry out the leaves. I would wipe the leaves with a moist paper towel and spray it with a mister if possible, since it helps to replace the humidity.

    I hope this helps!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Ok....yes it does help ....the plant actually does have two "pups" already....so should I leave them and just watch them grow? then as you say the original plant will die back? or take them out now and repot?
    thank you so much :)

    ReplyDelete
  4. Just leave them in the bromeliad for now and the mother plant might even produce more pups! I don't have a picture but I'm thinking your plant is either a guzmania or a vriesea, which are hard to divide until they get bigger so I would wait for a while.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Ok will do thank you
    I will send a picture one day soon : )
    I looked up both the varieties you mentioned...
    may be the guzmania

    ReplyDelete

Please feel free to share your questions, ideas and suggestions!