This time of year, I'm usually further south enjoying the unseasonal warmth. This year, however, I am enduring the long dark winter. Now that the proper garden is out of commission and the cleanup pending (or postponed until spring), I can focus on my evergreen indoor plants. I must admit that it feels like a great weight has been lifted off my shoulders now!
My tillandsias are some of my favorites. How could they not be? Since getting my first one a few years ago, my collection has grown. I have devoted a lot of time to them if you think about it, seeing that they need careful and deliberate watering nearly everyday day.
Then I was graced with a blossom! Well, it wasn't really a surprise. I knew it was going to be soon because I started to notice it was turning hot pink! They usually 'blush' before blooming.
Upon closer inspection, I noticed another blossom on the way!
Double bloom! Although it is a single plant at the moment, it can be separated into 4 genetically identical individuals (clones).
The flowers are now spent. The piece of beef bone I mounted it on was experimental. I guess you can say it was a success. It's aesthetically pleasing and doesn't collect water anywhere, which would be detrimental to the plant. Don't be afraid to get creative with air plants.
This motif is common. Though it usually starts as just one 'pineapple' head. I'm going to let this one grow as a cluster as well and see how much hair this guy can grow.
This was my first one, and it has grown to be quite a monster! It also produced a double bloom in the past. It is massive, and I think the pup is quite ready to be separated. The general rule is to wait until it is half the size of its mother. I think I will wait until it is larger though.
I feel like this one, cut from the previous, is taking forever to grow. Though it did grow noticably bigger by a bit in the last year.
The air plant you see here is a younger sibling of the previous, if I'm not mistaken. It is larger because it was allowed more time attached to the great mother. It's a little rough around the edges because, if you remember from previous posts, it didn't really like where it was in its old home. So I removed it, to which it responded very well. And it even has a nicely developing pup of its own. I have a feeling this one will live to produce a few more.
Up until now, all the air plants are of the species Tillandsia ionantha. The next is of a different and yet unknown species to me.
It loves living in my bathroom, where it gets bright, filtered light. It is the biggest by surface area. Once it blooms, I'll be able to accurately identify it.
I'm thinking of giving them names. It'd be better than saying this one and that one. And many of them are siblings or are children of others, so to speak. I think maybe I'll go with a celestial bodies theme and name the big ones after planets and their progeny after moons.
