Bigfan, I'm happy to hear your prayer plant is doing well..how's it doing in summer? Do you have it outside or indoors? What type of light is it getting? Are you bottom-watering or top? I'm sorry I didn't see your question when you asked about bottom watering..it's done by using a semi-deep saucer, then pouring water in the saucer instead of the top soil. I find this works well w/some plants like African Violets, but not prayer plants. Since it's so hot in our house, I usually take my prayer plants to the sink and hose them..even though I prefer using water that's been sitting out over 24 hours, they do fine w/my tap water..A couple look bad, but I'm thinking once it cools off they'll resume health. Do you have a pic of yours? If so, please send it..Toni

Perfect growing conditions or imperfect growing conditions? Stick them outside, they'll thank you for it ;) Every last one of my plants goes outside (though that may change since I have a few slightly more intermediate plans now). You have the heat, and humidity [assuming your summers are humid] that both genera will thrive in, and better quality light than a lightbulb could ever provide...assuming you have space that provides for their different light requirements

I'm wondering if I should take a chance and plant the seedling directly into the garden instead of potting them up. Depends on what your soil temp is up to. If it is 60 degrees and you don't mind covering them up on the occasional night if frost threatens, plant them. Dave

Hi everyone. Mr Blubs – First of all let me say that your plant is definitely a Vriesea, but as for a cultivar name, I can’t help. It’s probably one that’s commercially produced in their thousands by tissue culture to be sold as a substitute for cut flowers. It’s always interesting to take up a challenge such as a brom rescue and it’s usually very rewarding. Bromeliads are very resilient plants and it takes a lot to kill them so just because they may look a bit “rough” doesn’t mean they are going to die, in fact quite the opposite often applies as “Mother Nature” has included a survival system within each plant. Whenever these plants are severely stressed by various causes such as, neglect, excessive heat, excessive cold, injury from objects falling on them, over watering, under watering, and even diseases such as rot, this survival system come into operation and the plant immediately begins to activate a plan to reproduce itself. This can be done in two ways, by producing pups or producing flowers which in turn can produce seeds. Once this is done the foundation for new plants are in place, and your plant demonstrates this by already producing new pups. Plants like yours are marketed with the intention of taking the place of a “bunch of flowers” so that when the flower dies off, the plant is tossed out and another is bought to take its place. Therefore the medium around the roots was never intended to make the plant grow; it was just there to support the plant and act as an embellishment to make it more appealing to the eye of the purchaser. In fact, quite often these plants are sometimes an attractive looking pot which often doesn’t even have any drainage holes. Looking at your plant, it seems to me it’s suffering a bit from under watering; this assumption is based on the age old rule that (1) Brown leaf tips means Not Enough Water; and (2) Yellow leaf tips means Too Much Water. This could be a direct result from the way it has previously been potted and the mix it’s been potted in. You say, “The plant appears to be a plug, so there’s only a bit of dirt surrounding the roots and the rest was that fake moss”. Obviously your plant is also suffering from lack of nutrition as well, as the fake moss is an inert substance with no nutritional value and the little bit of nourishment in the soil would have previously been used up. Look at how these plants grow in nature; they usually grow attached to trees and therefore have their roots exposed to the air and never remain wet for very long. Obviously in pots we can’t expose the roots to the air, but we can do the next best thing and make sure they are in a mix that is open, free draining and doesn’t stay continually wet. This is a general requirement for all bromeliads that normally grow as epiphytes in nature. Bromeliads will grow in almost any medium that drains well, does not pack down, and provides stability. A ready-made, good quality commercial “all-purpose potting mix” or bark based “orchid potting mix” can be used as the base for a suitable bromeliad mix. To this you can add any number of ingredients depending on what’s available to you. The most common other ingredients that come to mind are, Tree Fern fibre, Coco Peat pieces, Perlite, Charcoal, small Polystyrene pieces, small sized gravel or Skoria, Pumice, pine bark, fir bark, coarse river sand, broken up brick pieces and no doubt many others. These are all good additives if they are available, and will all help to make the mix open and free draining while base mix ingredients will still retain sufficient moisture without staying wet. I have used all these ingredients successfully based on mixtures of 50% all-purpose potting mix and 50% of a combination mixture of some of these other ingredients listed. e.g. 50% all-purpose potting mix, 10% small polystyrene pieces, 10% charcoal, 20% Coco Peat pieces, 10% small Skoria. Alternatively if you can get a good quality bark based orchid potting mix, 50% of this could be mixed with 40% all-purpose general potting mix and 10% of either Perlite, charcoal, pumice or any of the other above inert ingredients to help keep the mix open and well-draining. The important consideration is that the potting mix must drain rapidly and not remain wet. With a plant in a condition such as yours I would give I a good soaking in one of the good quality basic Seaweed supplements on the market; these aren’t fertilisers but act more like a “tonic” or a “pick-me-up” which is what your plant needs initially. Once the plant is settled into its new mix and after being watered in, you could give it a misting of a half strength foliar fertiliser; this would give it an immediate boost of food and nutrients much quicker than any of the slow release types usually applied to the potting mix. I hope some of this advice is of help to you, but remember, the above information is just a guide on how I would treat this plant if it were mine, based on my conditions and the potting ingredients available to me here in Australia. All the best, Nev A few Vrieseas and Guzmanias in my shade house