Norm's Nursery: Beautiful Bromeliads

Tuesday, January 14, 2020

Beautiful Bromeliads

My latest obsession is bromeliads. For those of you who might not be familiar with this mostly epiphytic group of sub-tropical plants, Tillandsias (air plants) are the most recognizable. There are many genera within this group but the most common (and popular) would be Aechmea, Billbergia, Dyckia, Guzmania, Neoregelia and Vriesea. I've recently ordered a dozen different varieties of these winter hardy plants and thought I might post photos - taken from the web - of both the ones I bought and some I considered.
Bromeliads are sought after for both flower and foliage. Even when not in bloom, leaf color can range from the palest green or cream, through a spectrum of yellows, pinks, oranges, reds, purples and of course every shade of green imaginable. That is enough for some to add these beauties to their garden but for many a collector it's the pronounced spotting and/or banding on the leaves that is the main attraction. With that in mind, here is a spectrum of varieties that I considered, in this case all falling within the Aechmea, Billbergia, Neoregelia (Neo) and Vriesea genera.
A word about the photos. They show these varieties at their idealized color and markings. It sometimes takes full maturity and/or long exposure to sun to bring out the depth of color and marking.