The flower was probably pretty old when you got it, unfortunately. It had probably been sitting on a shelf in the store for a while. The original plant won't flower again so you might as well cut off the flower when it gets unattractive. I have never had luck with Guzmanias (that's what yours is). I wouldn't remove the pup until it's quite large as the mortality rate for me has always been high with that type. When the mother plant declines heavily stop removing the pups and cut off the mother when it's time. They grow best outside in heavy shade like under a dense tree or on a porch that never gets direct sun except in the mornings or evenings. Fertilize them more than other bromeliads (that's still way less than most plants). I keep mine under a plant bench (with other bromeliads on it) under a tree and they seem to like it a lot. Put it in a heavy clay azalea pot with orchid mix, and water the roots thoroughly on a regular basis. If you keep water in the cup, dump the water out from time to time and let it dry out to prevent rot. This post was edited by gosalsk on Tue, Jul 15, 14 at 0:58

T-bird, IIRC, you and I crossed paths on the 4 seasons gardening forum last year, talking about growing tomatoes and other veggies indoors. How did those turn out for you? Sorry to hear about your thyme...it may come back. Mine froze last winter and was looking dead at the start of the season, but it it is all thriving now. I was once a serial killer, too and over the years I've garnered lots of relics to mark my failures. There's the aforementioned strawberry pot collection, and the half dozen WM 'window box' shaped planters...long and 6 inches deep, which were intended to be for cut and come again greens. These have now been repurposed as plant starter boxes, as they are just deep enough for 3" cuttings to take root and survive until i get around to transplanting them. I just have to keep reminding myself starting plants is the easy part and that every start is going to need up potting once or twice more later this summer. Also, your question about soil for your herbs. I think the main thing to worry about is whether of not they have good drainage. If they do, I'd go ahead and plant them and not fertilize them any more. If they don't, mix in lots of bark, which will also help steal nitrogen from the soil for the rest of this year. Jan

yes joel, quiet a shift you pretty much have it one mate, yes a shift in lifestyle to a degree definately a shift in location, but not a shift in the philosophies i aspire. yes i will in all aspects adhere to what i suggest recommend to others, no i can't change the mcmansion manicured lawn set, yes the lawn on our place won't look that manicured it won't get any watering from us nor will it get any other man made or chemical application. as we are on a corner block the footpath represents app' the same area of available lawn space, so we will be planting the footpath with habitat trees as mauch as we can, that will minimise that grass area to a small degree, however there will not be much lawn in the yard, the yard will be utilised for those supplementry type activities (i find terms like sustainability and self-sufficiency don't carry any attributes to attract the masses it is like "tooth fairy" stuff isn't it, and sad to say with the undercurrent of making dollars in the permy' sector that word to is now being rejected by the lack of following building in the simple terms of it). so we need vege' gardens and as much room as possible for food trees as well as some of the more exotic natives especially to create atmosphere around the pool/patio area, where we will pretty much live in the summer time. at present (this could be modified) we are wanting to put in two 5,400 (24,500 ltr) imp' gallon water tanks, they will take up app' 14.2 sq/mtrs of space. the tank size could yet be settled back to the 3,200 imp' gal' (14,300 ltr) size, city administrators think that a tank in a garden looks uglier than most garden sheds but you can put as large a free standing garden shed as you like where you like, not so when it comes to water conservation, silly hey?? but yes i am still very much critical of what we humans are doing in the name of providing accomodation, in these new suburbs now the ruling bird is the crow (in my opinion not native but so out of control the officials don't want to deal with it) and the indian myna(h) ferel. so we have new generations of children who if they don't get to go to an expensive tourist attracting nature park/zoo/circus will never know that we have more birds than the 2 afore mentioned species winging our skies. where we are is close to some nature reserve so at least i can attract some of a small variety of resident good birds. there are no frogs but we can change that. still after spending many months living in a newer sub-division than that where we currently are there is no likleyhood that i can see of this mythical but wonderful shed-culture that existed in the 'burb's way back in the 40's & 50's and in rural up to about the 80's, but i would welcome it with open arms. and as our 2 car garage will be converted to a games room for the pool table and an area for tall tales and fishing stories we may well attract some of the neigbourhood hey? of course in today's world of litigation they will have to sign a waver won't they?? one neighbour has come over and introduced himself as i will when i catch site of other neighbours in their gardens, certainly want to be friendly at least. and our quicky vege' garden has already been a trail blazer though it hasn't attracted any looks from neighbours so far. and where the yuppy standard for water conservation is a tank of less than 1,000 litre capacity (no enough to brush your teeth with hey chuckle) our tank(s) will reset the goal posts. please excuse the typo's len

1) Yes 2) Allow to grow & in a while the rapid growth will slow down ... soon they will be large enough to remove (with a sharp knife) ^ with the aid of rooting hormone & mist will have new plants.