cold hardy bromeliads

[Tropicdoc]

Looking for any 9a/b cold hardy broms- they exist, however they are hard to find

[mnorell]

Aside from Tillandsia and Billbergia, I found some Neoregelia to tolerate 9a in Natchez, Mississippi. The nice thing is that you can throw mulch all over them during a cold snap and just as easily expose them again under warmer conditions. You can do the same more or less with pineapples. Some of the bromeliad society sites have documentation on which species can tolerate low 20s.

[Tropicdoc]

Thanks I've seen some of the species your talking about online the problem is I never see them for sale! Ex aechmea Caudata and cylimdrata. I occasionally see what I think are these on gardens around here.

[mnorell]

You can find just about every bromeliad known to mankind on eBay. Some are actually reasonably priced...others are outrageous after the bidding wars are over! You could also contact your nearest Bromeliad Society chapter and ask for sources of plants.

[Tropicdoc]

Thanks friend will check eBay and get a few broms for my jungle understory

[Ben in Norcal]

I wish someone on eBay would do a cold hardy "pack" of Neos...I'd be all over that...

[Ampli]

I have tons of Aechmea Distichantha which I think should be the cold hardiest in the Aechmea genus.

I have two of them in the and they have survived to they first winter (we got nearly 60 cm of snow on the 31st of December) with only minor damages.

[Tropicdoc]

Wow! That's cold hardy.

[enigma99]

I have bought several at big box stores over the years and have yet to lose one. In fact they are growing pups like crazy and blooming. I am on the border of 10a 28/29F, but some winters can be closer to 25 degrees. I'm sure since they are under canopy they are getting down to 28-32F in the winter. Hope that helps

[cycadjungle]

You need to grow some Dyckias. They love full sun, they don't die after they flower, and they flower every year, and my landscape types tolerated 15F uncovered. They didn't show any burn until it got down before 18 and some didn't burn until it went down before 16. If you brought the largest Uhaul truck you could find we could fill it a few times with what I have around here.

Then, I have "collector types" like "Arizona", Snaggletooth" and other types you would have to look up to see what they look like. I have about 5000 seed grown, one of a kind hybrids, mixing qualities I thought would be good combinations, like Dyckia goehringii, with Snaggletooth.

Cherry Coke seems to be the favorite landscape type I have. My Cycad Jungle website has a whole section, in the landscape area which has pictures of the landscape types I have,and pictures of the flower spikes. Oh yea, they are also xeric, but at the same time, grow fast and cluster when given good fertilizer and water. Single heads of some species are said to live longer than 100 years. Tom

[Tropicdoc]

Cool I will look at your website

[cycadjungle]

This is the best page in the world if you want to look at pictures, and pretty good for identification:

http://fcbs.org/pictures/Dyckia.htm