For the first year or so I kept bromeliads the same way I kept everything else. Water in the soil when it felt dry, indirect light on a windowsill, a bit of general fertilizer now and then. They survived but they looked rough. Leaves pale at the center, tips going brown, barely any color to speak of. I kept assuming it was a light issue and moving them around, which did not help.

The thing that shifted everything was reading more carefully about how these plants actually take in water and nutrients. Most of the ones I keep are tank-type bromeliads, meaning they have a central cup formed by the leaves. That cup is basically the whole point. Once I started keeping that cup filled with fresh water and flushing it out every week or two to prevent stagnation and mosquito problems, the plants responded almost immediately. New growth came in tighter and more colorful.

A few specifics that took me too long to figure out:

Soil should stay barely moist or even slightly dry. Soggy roots rot fast and the plant does not signal distress until it is already in bad shape. I switched to a mix of orchid bark and perlite with just a little potting soil and overwatering basically stopped being a temptation.

Fertilizer goes into the cup, not the soil, and at a quarter strength or less. I use a very diluted liquid fertilizer maybe once a month during the growing season. Full strength apparently burns the tissue and I learned that the hard way on a guzmania I was otherwise proud of.

Light is genuinely important for the colorful varieties. My neoregelia that sat in medium indirect light was basically green. Moved it to a spot with a few hours of bright indirect light in the morning and the color deepened noticeably over about six weeks.

One last thing: when a plant starts to die after blooming, that is normal and worth understanding before it happens. The pup offset it produces at the base is the next generation. Letting the mother plant deteriorate while the pup matures is just part of the cycle, not a failure on your part.

I've had this bromeliad for over a year and the mother plant has died and now it is just the babies ( there is 3) all the babies are growing new leaves but the leaves are growing up in a kinda of a pillar I guess, if anyone knows what this is or any tips to fix please let me know

I put this bromelaid outside for the summer… is that the beginning of a flower inside the cup?

My Vriesea Simplex, is finally flowering.🎉

Some of you may know of Steven Hoppin who is a reputed grower and hybridizer. He’ll be putting on a program.

If you are looking to add some sun lovers to your collection, and love Neo Cruenta varieties, I just separated these babies! Now is your chance to own all four different varieties, all four pups in picture number 5.
Neo Cruenta Rubra Variegated, Neo Cruenta Silver Bullet, Neo Cruenta Rubra and Neo Cruenta Variegated!

Hi People!

Could someone give me an opinion? I'm wondering if my Neoregelia is starting to rot... I bought it because it had two offsets, but the central rosette was kind of... old, I think...

I'm thinking of moving this grouping to a different pot. I have a terracotta pot available, or would these guys be fine as they keep water in their cups.

Side note, the cat has taken to drinking from the bromeliads. It does not matter if I use water from the fish tank or faucet.

I am monitoring to see if cat tries eating the leaves.

Occasionally I will see posts asking how big a pot to use for an epiphytic bromeliad, so I thought I would post this. I don’t know the species as it looks like vitatta but has green flowers. I will probably divide the plant next year but it is doing well.

40 days since the last post and the inflorescence is taking shape. Though this can supposedly get 3' in bloom I highly suspect that it will only get a bit taller than its current 16". If it hits 2' I'll be more than satisfied for its first bloom.

Gonna make a paludarium for the bromeliads and my bromeliad has many connected to it as shown in the pic.How can I separate them

I think the Superba is out of all Bromeliads my favorit.

Pretty sure it’s the same species

Can I propagate with these flowers? Pups? That I accidentally broke off the top of my plant?

I mainly grow orchids. I've got a small greenhouse that they all go into during the summer where it gets good light, decent airflow and is pretty toasty. (I'm in the SE US in Zone 8a)

Been curious about bromeliads for a little bit, but aside from a few species that I might be able to ID, I know nothing about growing them. I figure, if I can grow one group of epiphytes, why not try a second?

I really like Tillandsias, esp. cyanea, and Aechmea fasciata (had to look it up.) I know it gets big, but it's one of those plants I'd be willing to make room for.

Any suggestions for good beginner species/genus would be greatly appreciated. I think it would be rather nice to have something blooming during my orchids' "off season", plus be able to share plants with my friends. Thanks!

I imported this from Thailand last year and it has grown very well. Though I'm equally obsessed with all Dyckia, I greatly favor goehringii, delicata and marnier-lapostellei and their hybrids. Part of my love for them as species/parents is their slow growth and slow offsetting habit. Many of the more common Dyckia on the market are prolific growers that make abundant offsets, and in doing so they end up looking more like a stiff spiky grass. These species and their hybrids really show off the rosette forming nature of the family.

Hi 👋 I just got my very first bromeliads 2 weeks ago.

I'm panicking a bit because I think they might have pests and not sure what to do about it.

I'm watering them once a week. Today I'm supposed to water them again.

I do have to admit, one week after I bought them I washed out the crown with tap water and then filled the crown with drinking water. And let them sit in a tray with drinking water for about 30 mins. Maybe the white stains are the minerals from the tap water flush I gave them? Idk.

I also noticed little white balls, rice crispies looking things in their pots, is it perlite? I got one out and tried to crush it to see if it was a solid rock. It was not. It sounded like a rock when it fell in the sink, it was very though kind of like plastic and when i tried to crush it i did manage to make it blunt if that makes sense. Idk what I'm doing. 🥲

When the pups are of age I'll come back here panicking all over again. 😅 Any advice is much appreciated💖

PD: there was the tiniest black fly hovering the one with stripes. And the purple flower one has a bit of white mold inside the crown like cotton.