How to grow bromeliads, the strangest of all strange plants!

I first fell under the bromeliad spell about 30 years ago!

I was having a house built, and while wandering around the nurseries, looking for landscaping ideas, I spotted this very strange and very beautiful bromiliad.

I was intrigued with the fact that it didn’t really look much like a plant at all, but in spite of that, it had very attractive coloring, and this really weird flower, that looked like something out of the ‘day of the triffids!’

Since then I have had a fascinating and enjoyable relationship with this amazing plant.

Bromeliads grow in the jungle, in the deserts, and the mountains. They often put up with torrential rain, heavy dews, or blazing sun. In spite of that many of the bromeliads are easy to grow, and can provide a burst of color in your garden, even when not in flower!

There are about 2700 species. In Nature they cling to tree trunks or branches, grow on the rainforest floor, cling to rocks in mountainous terrain, or grow on ocean sand dunes. They have been known to colonise power poles! Some have cups in the rosette, which collect water and nutrients from the trees or forest in which they live.

There are half a dozen popular varieties.

Cryptanthus are terrestrial plants, and grow on the forest floor, so they dont like too much sun.

Aechmea and Billbergia are very easy to grow bromiliads, like reasonable light, and can be grown in the garden, in pots, or on a tree.

Neoregelia are perhaps the most spectacular bromiliads, and require bright light of sun. Prefer to be in a large pot, or in the garden.

Bromeliads will grow mounted to planks or bark, or in planted a pot. They like good drainage, so an orchid mix is fine. They are pretty spectacular when mounted onto a large piece of water worn driftwood.

If grown inside, they like lots of water, but not over watering, and plenty of humid air circulation. Lack of drainage may cause rot problems.

One of the most fascinating things about them is the flower! It grows from the center of the rosette, and can reach far away from the plant, or just sit in the center of the plant. Usually they only flower once, and then reproduce by growing small plants from alongside the parent plant, or sometimes from the end of the flower stem! They are certainly intriguing plants.

The best thing about bromeliads is that they are easy to obtain from almost any nursery, easy to grow, and require very little attention. They will reward you with being a beautiful plant in their own right, and when in flower, will provide brilliant long lasting flowers which will never fail to delight you and your visitors!

The only problem with them is that they can almost become addictive, and the sight of a new variety growing in a nursery can almost be guaranteed to induce one to withdraw ones wallet. But then, they are not expensive plants, they dont take much looking after, they reproduce easily, so what the heck!

Happy gardening, Patrick

ps....if you keep a green tree in your heart, a singing bird may come!

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