Yeah there are some pretty bad looking ones! The ones I'm most confused about are just colored on like half of the leaf and are realistic colors but I don't know because I am so new to air plants. I hope someone has an answer. I googled this topic for the longest time last night and didnt actually find much.

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

I am talking about the actual plant itself.

Here is one of mine that turns red when it blooms:

That one is gorgeous.

Amanda, all three of the photos you posted look like they've been 'enhanced', and you're correct that they've been spray painted (or however they apply the color). Clues are color at the ends of the leaves, where tillandsias blush naturally from the center out, and color on the top but not the bottom of the leaves. I've bought one of these locally when it was a good price and a species that I wanted, and I just ignored the enhancement the first year and waited for new pups.

Ok thank you so much!

I just bought mine! Then to learn more about airplants, I started to read the comments. I read that some that are being sold have enhanced colors or painted on. I decided to check mine. I wet the face towel, slowly/gingerly wiped some of the leaves of each plant. I realized that all of them were painted on. So, if you are suspicious, just go through the same process that I did and you will find out if your air plant's color is real or painted on. Good luck!

Enhanced means painted,yes.

I love air plants but it is the new trend to paint them,they come painted I hate that they do this the plant is beautiful on its own,nurseries should stop selling them painted or give you a choice I spent hours looking thru air plants to find the ones that are not painted.Please stop painting the air plants!