My Tillandsia are not attached to anything, they sit on pieces of driftwood in my bedroom, and they are very happy! As long as yours are thriving then you must be doing something right! I also find that not having them attached to anything makes it easier to water them and ensure that they dry quickly after watering :)

Gonzer, Everybody,on Agaveville plant board they have photos of a mess of Mexican Tillandsia's in Oaxaca. You might like to take a look. I learned that there are quite a few common Tillandsia's growing in those mountains that we have growing in California. T.butzii, T.tectorum, T.juncea..and others. They all need cool nights. Perfect for the bay area. We have plenty of those-lol.

I had read that there weren't any native USA Tillandsias outside of the Gulf and maybe up to North Carolina. To have them growing naturally in California, in Mexico-like conditions, is neat!

I have most of mine sitting in bowls, cups, shot glasses, or hanging with smart wire or fishing line. I have some wood bark that I've collected after storms (cottonwood or elm), and I noticed recently that a clump of my ionantha has dug in to one piece of bark, so there it will stay. I've wired some plants to driftwood I've bought, but they are taking their time rooting to it. Maybe they like to root to wood when it is unexpected.

Spanish moss, of course, just likes to hang out, but I do have one clump at the base of some lemon grass that seems happy. I'll hang it up eventually I can grow Spanish moss here in the high desert, I just soak it more frequently than any other plant. One day maybe some will bloom. I'm thinking of hanging some out where birds can make of with threads of it for their nests.

The California Tillandsia's are not growing wild. I meant as gardening plants. BUT, I have heard in coastal soucal, T.aeranthos has naturalized..or I misunderstood.

Spanish Moss is very cool. It looks jungle or fits in with cacti. The Agaveville post has some in dry Mexico hanging off of tree's that I guess get some kind of dry season fogs.

I see now. Aereanthos is a good plant to naturalize; hummingbirds like it, too. I bet with a little help, a lot of other Tillandsias could find niches in more mild parts of California and not become a nuisance (except maybe ball moss). Certainly nowhere as bad as, say, starlings. I saw a video on YouTube once of someone in Ohio(?) who had some Spanish moss survive a winter there, so who knows? Maybe it would survive in parts of New Mexico if it could adapt to the general dryness of the state. I'll check this site's search function for "Agaveville". Oh, we do have agaves here in NM, known as century plants. They take a long time to bloom (12-15 year?), sending up a long stalk, and then they die... but first they do produce seeds and also send out runners with new plants, rather like Tillandias.

I have a T.ionantha that has done great in two years or so. Its now 4 plants Or 5. Something like that. The funny part is...its still in the green Christmas wire it was in when I bought around that time. It hangs on the big driftwood piece I have. I meant to place it more natural....Maybe this year- wink.

Since you obviously know how to grow ionanthas, maybe you can get some other forms of it as friends for your current one -- er, group/ball. Fortunately a Tillandsia fan can buy online packages with 5 or 10 mixed ionanthas or even ionanthas of one kind (like Mexico or Guatemala, Fuego or Rubra). They are easy to mix up if not tagged or kept apart though (like all of one kind in a bowl). I didn't worry about that at first, several years ago, but with the last several orders I made, I tagged everything as soon each package arrived. Makes me feel more like a real grower (and if I sell any, I can be sure what they are -- probably, if the seller was right). Oh, I do take pictures of everything in every shipment to identify them later, but ionanthas still often look quite similar.

I bought a mounted Tillandsia a couple of weeks ago. Yesterday I noticed some green mold on the bottom of the plant. I also noticed some of the dead leaves on the bottom of the plant were rotting and when I tugged them they disintegrated off.

I unmounted the Tillandsia immediately and I noticed that the side of the plant that was attached to the board was moist. I then dried the plant quickly with my box fan. The plant seems okay today, but I realize that I need to be a lot more careful about I how care for Tillandsia that are mounted.

I'm sure in nature these plants do a better job of attaching themselves in a way that doesn't cause them to stay moist and rot. It seems easier to care for plants that are not attached.

Anybody have any idea what variety of Tillandsia this is? A lot of the plants that I saw on the wall were hybrids so this one might be a hybrid as well.

Farmerton, I'm not confident enough to ID your tillandsia, but it looks like it's pupping!! Very exciting.

I had a similar experience, my Spanish Moss was tied up tightly with wire around the middle when I first got it, and when I took the wire off I saw it had turned brown where it was tied up. It is healthy and doing fine now. I have it hanging over a piece of driftwood where it can air dry quickly after I mist or soak it:)

Cork Oak LOOKS like it should be great for Tills. But they don't seem to me to attach to it happily. Like I mentioned on another post- cocofiber works better from little I have tried.

When you think of it..when was the last time you saw a living cork oak with mosses and lichens and ferns on it? Never. Our native Oaks..like valley and coast,can be covered in the stuff even in a park. Cork Oaks stay bare. A "Hmm" to think about.

Farmerton X said "I'm sure in nature these plants do a better job of attaching themselves in a way that doesn't cause them to stay moist and rot." I saw a picture somewhere of a lot of caput medusa(? might have been bulbosa, can't recall exactly) that were growing in the wild. They had attached themselves to the bottom of the limb of a tree and were pointing downward. Any heavy rain would drain off the plants easily. That picture made me decide that if I ever get the chance to go Tillandsia hunting in the wild, I will hunt with my camera, not with a bag to collect them (too much trouble getting them through customs!). That way, with pictures I can help fans see how plants grow when they are left to their own devices.

Your plant looks familiar but I can't come up with a name. I'm sure Gonzer or any of several other people will give us some clues to help you look it up. In the unlikely event that they can't, you can check the pictures at the various sites that sell Tillandsias.

I do count four pups on the plant, there may be others on the other side of it. You're doing something right as the plant must feel you will take good care of the next generation .

Thanks for the insight Debbyabq. I need to do some research on mounting Tillandsia or maybe I won't mount them but just sit them on the wood.

A lot of what I read so far confirms what Stan is saying about coco fiber being a good medium to grow Tillandsia on. I am growing some little baby Tillandsias on a coco fiber basket. I found the volunteers hitchhiking on an ionantha that I ordered from the internet.

Here are a couple more photos of the Tillandsia that I am trying to identify:

I'll have to look for coco fiber baskets. I wonder if they are those black metal forms that are lined with brown fiber (maybe coco fibre)? I'll search the Internets :)

I have quite a few tillies,some are attached to driftwood,some are just sitting on pots or spaghnum moss,and some are hanging.I have to go to an award ceremony for my gs in a few minutes,i'll try to remember to post some pictures when i get back,or tomorrow.Some of you will remember some of mine and me when you see them.I just havn't been over here lately..

Kathi

PS Do we still have a gallery anywhere???

Farmerton, your plant resembles T. elizabthiae.

By attaching your plants to a living host tree they can take advantage of the warmth and also somehow react to the movement of water inside the trunks as seen on my T. harrisi growing on a palm.

Its more natural and natural looking..but all they really ask in Cali is be outside and watered.

T.harrisi? Another on the list..great looking bloom.

Here in New Mexico, in the high desert of (downtown) Albuquerque, my Tillandsias would love to be outside more, but they're lucky if they get outside at all even six months of the year. For the past several weeks, in nice weather, I've put out a xerographica and some other similarly colored (i.e., gray/silver) Tillandsias, to get full afternoon sun for a few hours. Recently my Spanish moss has joined them for a while every day. Then, everyone back inside over night. Once the nights cool down *only* into the mid 50sF, they can all move out into my north-facing porch 24-7, but now our nights are still getting as low as the mid 40sF, so I don't want to risk it even if it might not hurt any of them. Also, I just checked, and the humidity outside is 7% (normal for this time of year). It's likely to be higher and thus better for the plants here inside.

Just to add,I know a local Hort who takes his Tillandsia's and wraps a wire (like hanging basket wire) around the stem and - just like that they hang from whatever. Worked great on Tillandsia's like T.bergerii..they just grow into big balls. All on a single wire...not even close to a mounting.

I have been looking at pictures of T. elizabthiae on the internet and my plant does seem to look like them. Thanks Gonzer.

I have been hanging all except my largest Tillandsia with green floral wire that I got from Michael's. The majority of my plants are thriving.

The only plants that I have problems with are the large ones that I bought as mounted Tillandsias. There probably isn't enough air circulation around the base of the plants and that is causing green mold to grow on the base leaves of the plants. Them being mounted is probably making the problem worse.

For now I am going to keep these plants outside in the open air to see if that stops the mold growth. If not I might have to unmount the rest of the plants just like I unmounted my T. elizabthiae.