Hi everyone. I'm not really up on Tillandsias so I'm not sure what you are referring to here. Are you talking about the actual Tillandsia plant, or photo's of the plant? I live in Australia and have never seen a Tillandsia plant which has been doctored with colours to make it look something different. On the other hand I regularly see pictures "on line" of bromeliads for sale which have obviously been digitally enhanced; touched up; photo shopped or what ever else you like to call it. This is done by unscrupulous sellers to make their plants look more eye catching to attract buyers, especially ones who are new to bromeliads, or perhaps some unsuspecting person who knows nothing about bromeliads and is just buying one as a gift for a friend. The experienced grower can quickly identify these "doctored" pictures as firstly they have usually been "cropped" so they don't show any background. The reason being, if the background is shown, not only does the plant appear an unnatural colour, but parts of the back ground do also and this is a dead give away; e.g if a plant has had the purple colour enhanced, any background grass will usually take on a purple hue as well. The best way to check if the colour is natural is to compare the picture of the plant advertised, to a picture of the same plant in the photo indices of either the F.C.B.S. (http://fcbs.org/pictures.htm) or the B.S.I. Cultivar Register (http://registry.bsi.org/) This is a picture of Neoregelia 'Cliff Siverd' as it appeared on a popular on line plant auction site........ ............and this is the same plant on the Bromeliad Cultivar Register showing the true colour. In this example on the same site, this plant was advertised as Neoregelia 'Black Onyx' ,......... .........and this is what it really looks like as posted on the B.C.R. When buying plants from an unknown source, it's always a case of "Buyer Beware" All the best, Nev

Hello, I grow my curly slim bare root and they grow quickly.

Your instincts are right that they are not getting enough hydration. They probably need longer soaking more frequently. I soak my baileyi for several hours once a week. Can do an overnight soak. I add 1/8 of the regular amount of liquid fertilizer to the soaking water, and don't use distilled water. Different species do need different treatments so I would look up your particular varieties or watch some YouTube videos about tillandsia care and you might see your particular plant and how people successfully care for them. Occasional misting doesn't help in our dry climate because the water will evaporate before the plant has a chance to absorb much of it if any.

presuming your ID is correct .. and im sure it will be corrected if it isnt .. this is how i would compare it to others .... https://duckduckgo.com/?q=Tillandsia+caput+medusae&t=ffcm&iax=images&ia=images it doesnt not look like yours is an uncommon shape ... perhaps there is nothing to fix ... i doubt the spraying does mush of anything .. other than make you feel like you are doing something with it ... if you want to increase ambient humidity .... put a tray below it and fill it with gravel and water ... but im not sure it even needs that ... or that will accomplish much of anything ... most likely.. this needs a greenhouse to make it grow to perfection ... and you dont have that.. so on some level.. accept it for what it is ... and dont hurt it trying to make it better .. it is what it is.. for where you have it .... and thats just ok ... as it surely doesnt look like its suffering ... ken ps: the marbles make neat pix ... cool effect ...