Show your favorite Bromeliads

[Paradise Found]

This is one of mine I cannot live with out, Neorgellia Carcharpdon Stotaks Tiger x giant.  Grow up to 24” to 30” across. Very drought tolerant and can even grow as an epiphyte. 
 

 

 

[Paradise Found]

Two Dyckia I like are Mega Tooth the one with dark leaves and white fang teeth.  
Mariner - lapostollei var. estevesil. One of the whitest leave species.  
 

 

[Looking Glass]

9 hours ago, Paradise Found said:

This is one of mine I cannot live with out, Neorgellia Carcharpdon Stotaks Tiger x giant.  Grow up to 24” to 30” across. Very drought tolerant and can even grow as an epiphyte. 
 

I’ve been rearranging broms and planting pups all winter!  

Carcharodons and their various hybrids are definitely my overall favorites.  I’ve got a “Giant” pup coming this week.  

C. Stotak’s Tiger is making a little pup currently…

C. Rainbow pups, and a Rainbow x Fingerling….

Aechmea correa araujoi is a nice pupper to stick on rocks and trees in part sun…

 

Various Hohenbergia look neat, but like to be kept very dry down below…

 

Neoregelia rubrovitatta take full sun like champs…

 

Other sun champs….

Neo wine and gold has a great color…

 

Neo candy apple…

[happypalms]

Here’s a couple of my favourite brooms the best thing about bromeliads is you never have to buy them there always being given away having 5 acres to garden in there not a problem to me with lots of space 

[Paradise Found]

Looking glass things are looking bright and colorful at your place. Thanks for sharing! 
Hohenbergia have been on my radar for a long time love to try one here maybe this spring.

there’s a pic from my old garden. 

 

 

[Paradise Found]

Happy palm love the pineapple bromes the orange bromeliad is awesome lots of great photos.  

[Looking Glass]

2 hours ago, Paradise Found said:

Looking glass things are looking bright and colorful at your place. Thanks for sharing! 
Hohenbergia have been on my radar for a long time love to try one here maybe this spring.

there’s a pic from my old garden. 

If you like the look of Dykia, you’ll probably love the various Hohenbergia.  They have that similar gnarly, spiny look.   Most want to be kept dry, I put mine in a mix of orchid or bromeliad mix with more sand than the mix.  Many people pot them in mostly rock mixes.  Some like full sun, but most seem to like half day sun.  They don’t get too crazy and behave well in pots. 

Yours look great too.  Bromeliads add great color and are super durable.  Super addictive. I definitely have a problem at this point.  

 

 

 

[Paradise Found]

Cactus mix and small bark with small gravel on top is my mix has excellent drainage.  I do have dyckia red b.b. ,coming next month.  

Do have the sticks in your pots for support till they root up? 

Edited March 20, 2024 by Paradise Found

[happypalms]

7 hours ago, Paradise Found said:

Happy palm love the pineapple bromes the orange bromeliad is awesome lots of great photos.  

Yes the good old pineapple 🍍 often overlooked but a bonus you can eat the flower but a bromeliad still  most of the broms I inherited from my father’s collection after he passed away 

[Kim]

Oh gosh, one of my favorite plant groups. So many beautiful examples, and you all put me to shame by knowing all the names of your plants!
Some years back I went crazy for bromeliads and stuffed them all over the garden. When the lava erupted two streets away, many died from the gases and acid rain. I sort of gave up on them at that point, but to my surprise, many recovered and multiplied. So this thread inspired me to focus the lens on them.  
This first is Alcantarea ‘Julieta’ named for a woman who sells plants at a nearby farmers market. Her husband’s employer hybridizes bromeliads and wanted to honor his employee with this plant, but the husband thought his wife’s name would be better. Smart husband!

 

some little striped Neos

No ID Vriesea

This next Alcantarea is massive — measures as wide as I can hold my arms, a bit more than 5 feet. 

The familiar Aechmea blanchettiana

Not a bromeliad, but an impostor of similar form, Cochliostema odoratissimum

I have more if you’re curious. 
@happypalms are your pineapples yellow or white? I grow white and harvest late summer. So good!

 

Just one more — a clumping form that makes wonderful ground cover 

[happypalms]

3 hours ago, Kim said:

Oh gosh, one of my favorite plant groups. So many beautiful examples, and you all put me to shame by knowing all the names of your plants!
Some years back I went crazy for bromeliads and stuffed them all over the garden. When the lava erupted two streets away, many died from the gases and acid rain. I sort of gave up on them at that point, but to my surprise, many recovered and multiplied. So this thread inspired me to focus the lens on them.  
This first is Alcantarea ‘Julieta’ named for a woman who sells plants at a nearby farmers market. Her husband’s employer hybridizes bromeliads and wanted to honor his employee with this plant, but the husband thought his wife’s name would be better. Smart husband!

 

some little striped Neos

No ID Vriesea

This next Alcantarea is massive — measures as wide as I can hold my arms, a bit more than 5 feet. 

The familiar Aechmea blanchettiana

Not a bromeliad, but an impostor of similar form, Cochliostema odoratissimum

I have more if you’re curious. 
@happypalms are your pineapples yellow or white? I grow white and harvest late summer. So good!

 

Just one more — a clumping form that makes wonderful ground cover 

Hi Kym they are the yellow variety of pineapple and are so sweet I love the colchliostema I have two in containers there a spectacular flower what conditions is your one growing in and watering iam  not game enough to plant them in the ground I believe they are a epythite 

[Looking Glass]

12 hours ago, Paradise Found said:

Cactus mix and small bark with small gravel on top is my mix has excellent drainage.  I do have dyckia red b.b. ,coming next month.  

Do have the sticks in your pots for support till they root up? 

I’ll put the sticks in for tall, wobbly ones like billbergia and the hohenbergia when I pot them or move them around.  .  They seem to rot away at the soil line after about 6 months and by then the broms are rooted in well.   The flatter Neos just pull up and plop down anywhere you want without a problem. 

 

5 hours ago, Kim said:

Oh gosh, one of my favorite plant groups. So many beautiful examples, and you all put me to shame by knowing all the names of your plants!
Some years back I went crazy for bromeliads and stuffed them all over the garden. When the lava erupted two streets away, many died from the gases and acid rain. I sort of gave up on them at that point, but to my surprise, many recovered and multiplied. So this thread inspired me to focus the lens on them.   

Nice whoppers there.  Hawaii has some that you don’t see in other areas too much.  

With some of these you can toss a dried up, dead carcass into the bushes and find a pile of pups months later, even after the mother seemed totally spent.  
 

[Billeb]

I have a couple from @Palmiz that are my favorite but no idea the names.  Maybe somebody will know. 
 

-dale 

[Kim]

Richard -- My Cochliostema is planted in soil mixed with black cinder for good drainage. I made a wide supporting "pot" of big chunks of lava, filled it with the soil & cinder mix, and put some snail bait around. I read an article saying a snail could devour the whole plant in one night, but it's been more than 2 years now and no problems yet. We have giant African land snails that cruise through now and then, and one could easily destroy the plant. Watering? Here it's all done by nature. About 150 inches of rain annually and the broms can tolerate the occasional dry spell.

Looking Glass -- you are right about easy propagation here. I have tossed excess spent broms in my compost heap only to find them growing pups later on. 

Roger, your Carcharodon "Skotak's Tiger" is a real beauty! I have one in San Diego but it's not as well grown. Those teeth are fierce!

A few more photos...

Picked up this Alcantarea imperialis at the grocery store

Wish I could find more of the Aechmea odorata

Hope to see more beautiful bromeliads in this thread!

 

 

[realarch]

Kim, your garden is looking sooo nice with the Bromeliads and beyond. .

Tim

[Paradise Found]

Dale thanks for sharing some pics that first One I have never seen before.  
 

[Paradise Found]

Kim your garden always looks awesome when ever you post pictures.  The tropical garden only makes your bomeliads look extra tropical and colorful. Thank you for sharing. 

[realarch]

Some nice photos in this thread, here are a few more to add to the mix. I’ve looked the names up before, but honestly I don’t remember what any of them are. 

Tim

[Paradise Found]

Thanks Tim love number 6&7 photo.  Nice ground cover bromes.  
 

few more of mine.  

[Billeb]

5 hours ago, realarch said:

 

 

 

 

 

Tim, no clue what this one is either but it’s fantastic.  Somebody please state the name and where they can be found!?!?  😂

 

-dale 

[Looking Glass]

4 hours ago, Billeb said:

Tim, no clue what this one is either but it’s fantastic.  Somebody please state the name and where they can be found!?!?  😂

 

-dale 

I can’t say for sure if it is a younger Alcantarea vinicolor or julietta in shady conditions, but it might be.   You might also like Aechmea mulfordii malva, and Androlepsis skinneri, which it it not.   It’s crazy how much lighting conditions influence the color of bromeliads.  Heavy shade vs heavy sun and you’ve got two completely different looking plants.   

Between eBay and Etsy and a handful of online nurseries you can find any bromeliad just about, and they ship very well unpotted and dry, especially as pups. 

[Kim]

Thanks for the positive comments, guys!

Tim -- the true jewel box garden as always, love seeing all the diamonds, emeralds, and rubies! 😉 (Sigh!) what perfection!

So many of the broms look familiar but I can't.quite.think.of the. names!

Billeb -- join the local Bromeliad Society and soon yourwill be up to your eyeballs in lovely plants. 

[Calosphace]

Love broms, great for those problem spots at foot of palms and thirstier trees like my Red maple and there's a great old garden feel to a healthy, mature Live oak with broms mounted to it

some favorites from the three most common genera:

Aechmea caudata Santa Catarina a favorite because of the blue the foliage gets especially from cool weather and the fact it has hummingbird-attracting blooms, relatively "soft" aechmea too and quite cold-hardy to at least lower mid-20s

Billbergia x 'Casa Blanca'

 

Neoregelia 'Tiger', my favorite of the larger Neos i prefer how the markings fade on the lower rosette

Not pictured but other favorites:

Nidularium, likely innocentii unique cool green tops with red violet undersides
Vriesea gigantea 'Nova' (so far actually a rather compact brom)
Aechmea gamosepala, great small groundcover one
Portea nana, good peachy blush color and size
Androlopsis skinneri likely 'Paradise', another peach spectrum brom, good sun tolerance
xNeomea likely 'Strawberry' another peach spectrum brom, smaller than the above and just as sun tolerant

 

Tillandsia aeranthos, Tillandsia stricta, Tillandsia tenuifolia and the native Tillandsia bartramii are showy hardy species too I have them mounted to dwarf tree outside my window

 

[Paradise Found]

California, Florida and especially Porta Rico. I got mine off of eBay & etsy.

[Tracy]

Alcantarea imperialis was an easy choice for me given its ease of growth and significant size.  Puya alpestris for its silver leaves, drought tolerance and spectacular immense inflorescens with blue flowers had to be on my list.  Aechmea recurvata "Aztec Gold" is a simple easy full sun groundcovrr well suited for my climate which contrasts nicely with other colors in the garden.   Finally, an unknown Dyckia,which the humming birds are always attracted to when it has its orange blossoms.   That is my list today, although it might be different on any given day in the future. 

[Hillizard]

I tested one of my clumps of Pitcairnia ringens outdoors in clay soil this past winter. It did well with a Trachycarpus 'nova' overstory.  I grew this bromeliad from seed. This is how it looks this week.

Pitcairnia ringens in California low water garden - Agaveville

 

[Hillizard]

On 5/24/2024 at 1:37 PM, Hillizard said:

I tested one of my clumps of Pitcairnia ringens outdoors in clay soil this past winter. It did well with a Trachycarpus 'nova' overstory.  I grew this bromeliad from seed. This is how it looks this week.

Pitcairnia ringens in California low water garden - Agaveville

 

Here's another species of terrestrial bromeliad now blooming. It's in the ground year-round: Pitcairnia xanthocalyx, endemic to Mexico. That's Pleroma heteromallum (Tibouchina grandifolia orTibouchina heteromalla) behind it.