On 6/26/2026 at 9:04 AM, Jonathan said:

Aechmea recurvata, pink form, top.

Aechmea recurvata var benrathii below.

I think!

A right little bromeliad mine field of information @Jonathan. Hers another one for you to I’d.

A few more floating around the garden, and once again no idea as to what varieties they are.

Over the years you get so many of them given to you. You have as l these broms in the garden that I never paid any attention to, now iam starting to get a brom addiction, thanks @Jonathan, the seller you get your ones from is just around the corner from me, and had a stack of great broms!

1 hour ago, happypalms said:

A right little bromeliad mine field of information @Jonathan. Hers another one for you to I’d.

I'm just learning as we go Richard!

I think that one might be Aechmea cylindrata 'blue cone'.

1 hour ago, happypalms said:

A few more floating around the garden, and once again no idea as to what varieties they are.

Over the years you get so many of them given to you. You have as l these broms in the garden that I never paid any attention to, now iam starting to get a brom addiction, thanks @Jonathan, the seller you get your ones from is just around the corner from me, and had a stack of great broms!

The spotty guy I have no idea but the bottom one I'm pretty sure is Aechmea blanchetiana, maybe orange form?

7 minutes ago, Jonathan said:

The spotty guy I have no idea but the bottom one I'm pretty sure is Aechmea blanchetiana, maybe orange form?

Thanks for the I’d, they were my fathers broms and the spotty one would have been a special one in his collection!

2 minutes ago, happypalms said:

Thanks for the I’d, they were my fathers broms and the spotty one would have been a special one in his collection!

Spotty one looks to me like it could be Billbergia 'hallelujah' Richard, or possibly a similar cultivar. There's some stunning flowers coming out!

Out of curiosity Jonathan, have you tried A blanchetiana? They're very hard to find in NZ as apparently we're too cool for them, but I'd love to try one in a hot sunny spot!

21 minutes ago, Motlife said:

Spotty one looks to me like it could be Billbergia 'hallelujah' Richard, or possibly a similar cultivar. There's some stunning flowers coming out!

Out of curiosity Jonathan, have you tried A blanchetiana? They're very hard to find in NZ as apparently we're too cool for them, but I'd love to try one in a hot sunny spot!

Thanks, it would have been a prize in my father’s collection!

51 minutes ago, Motlife said:

Spotty one looks to me like it could be Billbergia 'hallelujah' Richard, or possibly a similar cultivar. There's some stunning flowers coming out!

Out of curiosity Jonathan, have you tried A blanchetiana? They're very hard to find in NZ as apparently we're too cool for them, but I'd love to try one in a hot sunny spot!

Hey Scott, strangely enough I just bought an orange form blanchetiana a couple of weeks ago, it's safely tucked away in my greenhouse for now, so I can't comment yet on whether they're tough enough for us sub-subtropicalos. My plan with the broms in general is to grow them in luxury till I get a few pups then start testing them outside. Similar to NZ, Tassie suffers from the tyranny of distance, so it doesn’t pay to be too cavalier.

40 minutes ago, happypalms said:

Thanks, it would have been a prize in my father’s collection!

After a quick bit of research, that looks like a good call from @Motlife

1 hour ago, happypalms said:

Thanks for the I’d, they were my fathers broms and the spotty one would have been a special one in his collection!

It's great that your old man's collection lives on Richard, and that we can all still get to appreciate it.

I've been trying to get my daughters interested in climatically unsuitable plants for years, to no effect 🙃

1 hour ago, Jonathan said:

It's great that your old man's collection lives on Richard, and that we can all still get to appreciate it.

I've been trying to get my daughters interested in climatically unsuitable plants for years, to no effect 🙃

His last words to me where take the native bees and the bromeliads are yours. And that I did, curse you cancer!

1 hour ago, Jonathan said:

After a quick bit of research, that looks like a good call from @Motlife

Yes I think @Motlife is our go to brom Gurru! 🙏

On 6/28/2026 at 7:58 PM, Jonathan said:

Hey Scott, strangely enough I just bought an orange form blanchetiana a couple of weeks ago, it's safely tucked away in my greenhouse for now, so I can't comment yet on whether they're tough enough for us sub-subtropicalos. My plan with the broms in general is to grow them in luxury till I get a few pups then start testing them outside. Similar to NZ, Tassie suffers from the tyranny of distance, so it doesn’t pay to be too cavalier.

Oh great, best of luck with it! I'm super interested how it goes for you. Hopefully I find one for sale here at some stage. I've seen them looking fantastic in Sydney, which isn't TOO much hotter than here (at least with some wishful thinking). Is it easy for you guys to order plants from out of state? Must be some great places in QLD to acquire tropicals to try.

On 6/28/2026 at 9:19 PM, happypalms said:

Yes I think @Motlife is our go to brom Gurru! 🙏

Definitely not, but maybe I'll get there one day ! I just happen to have a couple of those Billbergias. I don't even know the name of some of my own collection though to be honest!

35 minutes ago, Motlife said:

Oh great, best of luck with it! I'm super interested how it goes for you. Hopefully I find one for sale here at some stage. I've seen them looking fantastic in Sydney, which isn't TOO much hotter than here (at least with some wishful thinking). Is it easy for you guys to order plants from out of state? Must be some great places in QLD to acquire tropicals to try.

Definitely not, but maybe I'll get there one day ! I just happen to have a couple of those Billbergias. I don't even know the name of some of my own collection though to be honest!

That’s more knowledge than I have, I was never really interested in broms, yer sure I had them but they get given too me by many gardeners who renovate their own gardens and say I dont want them anymore, I have five acres so I say I’ll take them.

And Australia has quarantine states that you cannot import live plants, fortunately iam not one of those states I can buy whatever I can find!

21 hours ago, Motlife said:

Is it easy for you guys to order plants from out of state? Must be some great places in QLD to acquire tropicals to try.

No, unfortunately Tas has pretty strict quarantine laws, but there are some mainland nurseries with accreditation to send them here, just not many very interesting ones!

I've been pretty lucky with FB marketplace recently including finding a Bromelia humilis, which is a species I wasn't expecting to find down here, or even looking for. I think the lady I got it from bought the original plant from the botanical gardens sale a few years ago.

Billbergia pyramidalis has always been a great performer for me in 9b Florida.

10 hours ago, MikeB said:

Billbergia pyramidalis has always been a great performer for me in 9b Florida.

Oh yeah I like, top looking brom.

Thanks now a have another brom to obsessively search for!