Thank you, Bihai! I suspected they were billbergias but I'd really like to know more about them. I always thought the top one is nutans but I've been assured that nutans doesn't have such large bracts and the pinks are paler. The second one looks a lot like a heliconia to my untrained eye(not that I think it is a heliconia, it just has that kind of hanging-down, open-look thing going on. I don't know if I've expressed that correctly, lol, but it's the best I can do right now. I'm sort of on cloud nine, I think I'm going to buy a nursery and I'm so excited! Anyway, I think it looks like from the Florida Council of Bromeliad Societies Bromeliad Photo Index, I'd love someone knowledgable to either confirm that ID or let me know the correct one. It's a beautiful plant, the leaves are quite wide for a billbergia, up to 4" wide, and on the short side, although I haven't measured them I'd say 18" or less, with a looser vase than many. The vibrant, medium green leaves have a touch of blue in them and what appears to be a certain amount of translucency but that may be due to the extremely fine silver fuzz that covers the surface and disperses the light waves. This fuzz also covers the bracts, which are a beautiful candy pink with thin darker rose veining. Thanks again, I value your insight!

When I was repotting my Alocasia poly, I also saw these gauze-wrapped dirt things. They are peat pellets, as people have told me. I guess they make things easier for the football field quantity wholesale growers, but they do nothing good for the plant long term. I chose to remove the gauze and wash off the peat. Some people advised against it, but my plant happened to pull through and is growing fine. Here is a link that might be useful: alocasia roots wrapped in gauze? what?

Hi Rhonda, You might be paranoid, I can't quite tell from your photos but usually scale that comes off easily is soft scale, spiders eggs or mealy bugs, most don't do too much harm unless it is a serious infestation. Hosing off with a jet of water usually clears these problems away, good air circulation helps keep unwanted pests off them. Cheers, Rick

Hi everyone. Bunny – First of all lets discus the idea of using tobacco as a repellant to insects. Being an old orchid grower, at the mention of using “tobacco with plants”, the alarm bells start ringing. The reason is that tobacco has been traced as the source of mosaic virus diseases in orchids. The following excerpt from an article on Mosaic Virus informs us, “There are no cures for viral diseases such as mosaic once a plant is infected. As a result, every effort should be made to prevent the disease from entering your garden. ... Avoid working in the garden during damp conditions (viruses are easily spread when plants are wet). Avoid using tobacco around susceptible plants.” The key words here are “susceptible plants” – of these it is widely known that orchids and bromeliads are susceptible to contamination from viruses, therefore this should answer your question, “How successful do you think the tobacco tea might be, particularly on these little air plants?” To read the article about mosaic virus in its entirety go to: https://www.planetnatural.com/pest-problem-solver/plant-disease/mosaic-virus/ The thing is; there are other alternatives with the two most accepted methods being prevention and treatment. Myself, I prefer the prevention over treatment simply because I don’t want to go spraying insecticides around my yard where it may harm friendly garden creatures such as frogs, fish, lizards and birds. To do this I use an insecticide but not as it is intended, i.e. I don’t spray it over my entire collection of plants. I just spray it on and around the individual pots and I find the repellent properties in this product keep the insects away, even grass hoppers, which are very destructive and were a real problem until I found this product. The product is called “Clensel”and it is an insecticide made from natural ingredients. See: http://forums.gardenweb.com/discussions/3857331/katydids-and-clensel In conclusion I would say this product will meet your requirements inside the home just as effectively as it does in the garden; and what’s more it’s non-harmful to humans and pets and doesn’t have an offensive smell. If you aren’t able to buy this product in your area you could probably get the same result by just using the Citronella Oil which is the active repellent ingredient in the Clensel insecticide. All the best, Nev