They are one of the most common plants sold in the houseplant section at most garden centers, or you can buy bromeliads online. Bromeliads have colorful, long-lasting blooms (which last for weeks) that contrast beautifully against the strappy green leaves. 🙂 Some bromeliad varieties can rebloom, so it’s not totally uncommon. Makes sense. Some ripe fruit like an apple, kiwi or banana. Many plastic bags have some as a safety feature. If you have difficulty teasing the pup away from the parent plant use a sharp knife. Mist the whole plant rather than pouring feed into the funnel or around the roots. Bromeliads are very popular during the Chinese New Year season as they are regarded as auspicious plants. By the way, I too have tried bananas to force my broms to bloom. It looked root bound so I repotted it in a much larger pot. As a postharvest physiologist as a past profession, ethylene is the most important gas we know, because it is the ripening hormone. Subsequently the gas should stimulate the plant to flower. thanks! Avoid high nitrogen feeds as they elongate the leaves. I linked to it from my comments and will link to it from my post too. Don't water again until the top surface of the compost is dry to the touch. . Clicking these links will not cost you any extra money, however, as an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases which helps me keep this site going! Bromeliad Plant Care: Growing And Caring For Bromeliad Plants There are also leaves which are ripening enhancers, meaning they produce more ethylene when senescing. Thanks for this information, so helpful. Bromeliads flower very very frequently here without any help. Try again. While during the winter you keep the funnel dry but add a little water around the compost so that it doesn't dry out completely. I seem to kill off most houseplants as soon as I look at them but really envy folk who have the knack of getting theirs to flourish. It continued to produce more leaves and looked good even with no flower! You can think of it as an umbilical cord I guess, LOL! I gave up trying to force them to thrive and chucked them in a plastic bin crammed together. Bromeliads don’t really need to be fertilized. This gives me confidence. But some of them don't flower. I think most people buy Bromeliads when they are in flower and then they never know how to care for them This article is an invaluable resoure. However, at present, indoor plants are to be admired in the houses of others…..yours, no doubt would be amazing!! Bromeliads propagate by sending out pups or offsets. Is this possible? So if you put more, you will also induce the plant to die. Bromeliads like humid air, so consider misting your plants on a regular basis if the air in your home is dry. My brother is Ray Coleman and he was known for his Bromeliads he’s no longer with us he grew a large amount outside as will in the green house but under oaks my question is where I live we get a rainy season and I have them under oaks banked I know you water them inside? Small, bright yellow or orange flowers are borne on unbranched spikes that emerge from between the leaves instead of from the center as with other bromeliads. I've never grown a Bromeliad before now I'm inspired to try and get it too reflower too. They don't have a proper root system that absorbs nutrients. Bromeliads are slow growing plants, and most of them will only bloom once in their lives. An indoor humidity monitor is handy to help you give your bromeliads the perfect amount of humidity. It is different from all of the website pictures that I see. These inferior ovaries … I never knew it was all that hard to get the pups to flower … and I've never heard of the 'ripe fruit in a bag' method of encouraging flowering. Bromeliads usually won’t start to form pups until the mother plant blooms. Organic neem oil is a natural insecticide that is very effective at getting rid of these nasty houseplant pests. But for the most part, bromeliads make great, easy-care houseplants. Dead or dying leaves can be pruned off at any time. https://homeguides.sfgate.com/bromeliad-after-bloom-died-64636.html I love the variety of colors they add to my houseplant collection, and they are very unique indoor plants. Within 6-14 weeks you should have glorious coloured bromeliads in your home again. How To Care For Rubber Plants: The Ultimate Guide, Tropical Houseplant Care Guide: How To Grow Tropical Plants Indoors, How To Care For A Pothos Plant (Devil’s Ivy), 17 Of The Best Office Plants For Your Workspace, 15 Easy Indoor Plants That Anyone Can Grow, How To Fertilize Houseplants: The Ultimate Guide, Terms Of Use, Disclaimer & Privacy Policy. Good luck, hope they will grow great in their new spot! Thanks Amy, I really appreciate your help and advice. After about two years it bloomed, one or two flowers on one spike. Arggggg . Bromeliads’ leaves form a cup at the plant’s base that catches and holds rainwater. Most vrieseas are tank bromeliads with soft, shiny green leaves. Thank you for posting this article. Its flower spike can be six feet tall. Smaller bromeliads can be potted into small containers until they are established, then moved into 4-inch or 6-inch pots until they flower. They’re capable of surviving temperatures down to 20 degrees. Many types of bromeliad flowers are tiny and insignificant, and can look weird once they start to grow – which can be alarming if you’ve never seen a bromeliad flower before! Some bromeliad flowers are large beautiful spikes, and others are tiny and insignificant. They don’t get their water or nutrients from the soil, their roots are only used to hold onto trees, plants or other growing supports in the wild. … This is the best site I have found on bromeliads. I will now water only the leaves. The flower spikes range in color from yellow with red edges to pink with blue, and many are bright orange. So, depending on the variety of the plant, it’ll likely take 1-3 years for the pups to reach full maturity. If they have, then you can loosen the entire rootball, tease the roots apart to separate the pups from the mother plant, and then pot them up into their own containers. Your Bromeliads are lovely! By the way, my Bromeliad is still alive. Dear Rosie, I think it must be at least twenty years ago that I last grew an indoor plant. They are also pet friendly houseplants that are safe to grow if you have cats or dogs! That should be enough time for the gas to build up inside the bag. Soft water or rainwater is best. The best homemade bromeliad potting mix would be a fast draining soilless mix made with sphagnum moss, bark, perlite and/or other coarse organic materials. In a natural growth cycle, a mature plant will send up a flower spike that includes small, sometimes insignificant flowers, surrounded by showy bracts (it's really the bracts that people like in bromeliad flowers). Just mature bromeliads blossom; therefore, you can wait till a puppy develops and also take pleasure in the same flower spike. Hi Amy, Rosie: Great and helpful post! Another beauty blooming in the cloud forest was Tillandsia cyanea, an epiphyte with interlocking pink bracts and deep purple flowers. I can not seem to get a comment to post. I live and garden in Minneapolis, MN (zone 4b). is this a common thing? Those of you who grow bromeliads outdoors have no problem getting the pups to flower. Its foliage is decorated with silver bands varying in width. I planted mine outside (in the mid-island, cooler region, frosty in winter) and they hated me. I bought a bromeliad 1-2 years ago. Bromeliad Plant: Types with Pictures & Basic Care Requirements Please check out my disclosure policy for more details. While bromeliads are tropical plants, certain varieties can be planted in the North Florida landscape.The most cold-hardy bromeliads are those in the genus Puya. Once the flower dies, the plant dies along with it, too. The Bromeliaceae is a family of monocot flowering plants of 75 genera and around 3590 known species native mainly to the tropical Americas, with a few species found in the American subtropics and one in tropical west Africa, Pitcairnia feliciana. I would remove the entire plant from the pot, and then gently brush the soil away from the base of the pups to make sure they have established their own roots. See the repotting section below for further details. Have a good week Miranda x. Rosie – Thanks for reminding me about this excellent blog post of yours. It was a knock out beauty. It's from these pups that you will get a bromeliad to flower from again. I have always admired Bromeliads along with Orchids, and everything Tropical. Another common question I get is “how long does it take for bromeliad pups to flower”? In their native habitat which is in the tropical rain forests of South America and the southern states of the USA, they are epiphytes. Before she does, though, she’ll produce babies, called pups. Aechmeas are tank bromeliads that have some of the most fanciful inflorescence. Bromeliad Guzmania grows to about 2ft tall and wide depending on the variety. Many bromeliads won’t flower, but if you do get a bloom, you’ll need to remove the flowering stalk after the bloom fades by cutting down as close to the plant as you can. As long as there’s fresh water in the center cup, your bromeliad will be happy. Bromeliad flower turning brown, or the color is fading – Once the flower bract (what most people refer to as the flower) starts to turn brown or the color fades, it’s a sign that the plant is done blooming and is starting to die, which is a normal part of the bromeliad life cycle. How do I look after a Zygopetalum Orchid? It’s also important to keep the water in the cup clean and fresh, you don’t want stagnant water sitting in the cup. It didn't occur to me that I can use this method on other bromeliads too. They are yellow and the floral bract is red/pink. It's those types that you need to use. Atop this is the flower spike, which is bright red and extends well above the foliage. You call these pups. Bromeliad flowers grow out of the floral bracts. Rosie has been featured on TV on BBC2's The Beechgrove Garden and she uses the outdoors as her natural light studio. That’s so funny that the bromeliads ended up thriving on your neglect. (Garden centres or pet stores that have an aquatics department will normally have large clear bags. Mom just got her first bromeliad as a birthday gift, and is bewildered. #4. 🙁 Just watch for pups to grow around the base, and keep those once the mother plant dies. Bromeliads don’t usually have too much trouble with bugs, but houseplant scale or mealybugs can be a problem, so be sure to keep an eye out during your regular bromeliad plant care routine. Thank you for sharing. While here in the northern hemisphere they are normally grown indoors in pots of compost or else mounted with wire onto wood and covered in sphagnum moss. I’m a passionate gardener who loves growing everything from vegetables, herbs, and flowers to succulents, tropicals, and houseplants - you name, I've grown it! If you’re new to growing these tropical beauties, you’ll find that bromeliad plant care is much different than any other plant you probably have. Monocarpic plants flower only once in their lifetime and then die. They look like they’d be harder to grow than they actually are, and bromeliad plant care is pretty easy once you get the hang of it! Sad I know, but they usually have lots of babies before they die so you’ll get even more plants out of the deal (but more on that later). Then place the plant in the plastic bag along with a ripe fruit. Their leaves will experience leaf burn if exposed to too much direct light. I will have to print this out as I've been hankerin' to bring a pup or two indoors, but am afraid I might kill them. It bloomed twice since I got and it was maybe two years between blooms. For best results, put your bromeliad in a spot where it gets medium to bright light. You can also use a cotton swab dipped in rubbing alcohol to kill mealybugs and houseplant scale on contact, and to remove them from the plant. Here’s the downside of blooming: Once a bromeliad has flowered, the mother plant will slowly begin to die. They don't mind growing in shadier areas around the home but filtered light is best. Horticultural oil or organic insecticidal soap also works great. If I were to try again, I am sure that your instructions would guide me through the process perfectly. That is fantastic that your bromeliad has bloomed again, great job! This is a sad fact of life, but the good news is that they usually have lots of babies before they die. The longer you leave the pups attached to the parent the quicker they will mature. I would have loved to have been at that trade show in Germany. Bromeliad Plant Features Bromeliads are bold, stylish houseplants that work especially well in contemporary, modern, and tropical decor styles. Thanks for your very informative post.My bromeliads grow outdoors. This is the first time I got a chance to comment after picking the post, But this is really good information. Never use garden dirt or top soil in a pot meant for … Since they take up nutrients and water through their leaves, you’ll need to take special care in watering, feeding, and potting your bromeliads. One clear plastic bag that has no air holes in it. They are not even ground plants to begin with. If your bromeliad was blooming when you got it, that might mean that it’s starting to die back. Next time I'm going to get Bromeliad for indoors, thanks for the advice. If you are interested in houseplant care I have published some more blog posts: How to care for Calathea crocata Tassmania Blooms – The Eternal Flame flower. They provide riots of color with their green, bronze, yellow, orange, red, purple, pink, and white leaves. Or else leave all the pups to flower in the same pot. Chopping the peel will also help as bruising enhance C2H4 production. They give out oxygen during the day and absorb lots of nasty toxins around our homes during the night. They don't absorb any nutrients from roots. Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment.