This is another Tillandsia my MIL gave me. She found it on the ground in Naples, FL. I liked how the other one has been doing, so put the newer one between 2 trunks of this Cordyline, well, technically a trunk & a nub where another trunk was, but was cut-off. I think it's going to live, it's looking a lot better than when I got it a few months ago.

Wow, Tommy, those look amazing. > The problem with most of these [Bromeliads], though, is the fact that nurseries force them into bloom long before they've had a chance to reach their full grown, mature size. What does this mean, Tommy? Both my big-box-bought Broms created pups after flowering, so they were apparently mature enough for that. We can't blame commercial nurseries for creating the right cultural conditions for plants to flower and otherwise reach sellable/showable/photographable condition sooner rather than later. Isn't that exactly what we hobby growers also strive to do? As for literally the "size" - I do not think that it's a goal for many consumers necessarily. That is why a lot of miniature varieties of plants exist and are very commercially successful. Bromeliads can get huge indeed, depending on the species/cultivar - but then much of the market is excluded from even considering them for purchase, so the growers' incentives are clear. > Cryptanthus are terrestrial members of the brom family as are pineapples. Their roots are made for water uptake and should be watered like "normal" plants. Paul, many broms including epiphytes, can adapt to also take water in through their roots in addition to taking it through the reservoir, if the roots feel any moisture. Neoregelias and Aechmeas (which are the only two I grow) both can do that, I think. I've left both in the original medium, and they are doing fine. My Aechmea doesn't even have much of a cup, so barely any water stays there and it all drains into the mix. Bromeliads are fascinating, I think - unlike any other house plants. I am still learning a lot about them. > Aseed, interesting point about cultivars being possible novelties. I prefer a sturdy species plant usually too. Oh boy, many orchid growers would have a lot to say about that - on both ends of the spectrum. There are species growers who want things as they are in nature and want a challenge. They also do an absolutely indispensable work of preserving many endangered species. But the fact that even they do not dispute is that many orchid hybrids have become so much easier over the many years people have been hybridizing them. Hybrids often bloom larger, brighter, easier, longer and more often - often all of the above in the same hybrid, compared with their ancestor species. Temperature preferences are often wider than for either of the parent species or hybrids. Culture is often consistent or nearly-consistent throughout the year - rather than the cold period and the wet period and the dormant period and the tambourine dancing period that species often have to have. Imagine growing even just a few species with divergent periods like that in a typical house or a greenhouse or outdoors - wherever you grow. I can't personally, unless I am growing ONE group of plants with similar requirements (I'd lose interest in three milliseconds). So that is where the hybrids may come in. With orchids, hybridizers often grow thousands of seedlings for years, they get many of them to flower, then they select one or two for many of the characteristics desirable to growers and consumers, DISCARD all the rest and clone the hell out of the best of the best of the best of the best - we are talking football field sized greenhouses growing 100% genetically identical orchids. That is what ends up in your local big box store, and I would not knock it at all, resiliency- and looks-wise, considering the crazy selection those plants went through. I do not know much about cultivating other species, but I am sure with any cultivars, they do not do it to be difficult, in fact they breed what can be sold - in other words what you and I would buy. So, what's the problem again? Here's another example of this sort of "artificial selection": what's called "Christmas Cactus". In the good old days, your grandma probably grew Schlumbergera bridgesii. But their natural flowering period was a bit off to be sold for the holidays, and their growing habit is to grow out the pot and down right away. That was difficult for growers (need to force the blooms), difficult for shippers (lots of snapped-off segments in transit) and difficult for buyers (the look is not for everybody). Then they noticed that a similar looking Schlumbergera truncata grows more upright (easier to transport, less damage in stores, and a more traditional potted plant look), is a more resilient species and flowers more naturally when they need to be sold. So they hybridized that one instead, and now it is impossible to find the old-fashioned "true" Christmas cactus commercially, except for through word of mouth exchanges - probably from a few grandmas that still grow it. But S. truncata is truly a stronger species. I actually grow the "vintage" one and have no interest in getting the one wider available - but I am not like the mass market, and probably neither are most of you reading this.

If the leaves are fine, it's fine. Blooms don't last forever on any plant, and bromeliads are no exception. T. cyanea forms a pink paddle of bracts from which blue flowers emerge, starting at the bottom and moving towards the top. Each flower will last only a day, and once they have all opened, that's it, it's done. It may take a while for the pink to fade to green, and then brown, but that's its natural progression. It won't rebloom. Cut it off and wait for the pups to mature and bloom.

I have a hard time not liking all of them! It might be easier to ask which ones I don't like, and those would have to be the very few that have up and died without reason... while those identical to the losers are thriving, or any plant that seems to be attracting scale, blah! Just because they were outside for the summer doesn't mean they should get buggy, too! I'd rather them attract hummingbirds! (though hummingbirds might be confused to see Mexican plants). But yours is a good question. Last year I ordered more juncea, funckianas, and ionanthas, and I discovered neglecta, heteromorpha and crocata. This year, when it warms up enough to order more, I don't know what I'll get, but shopping is at least half the fun :)