By Odean Head 
Presented by Odean Head and Merrill O’Neal at TEAS NURSERY Saturday, Apr. 12, 1997
It is our pleasure to be here at Teas Nursery this morning to share our wonderful world of bromeliads with you. This is a very exciting plant family. We will be telling you where and how they grow in nature, their cultural needs and some of their unique characteristics.
We hope to stimulate enough interest to get you growing more bromeliads. We would also like to promote our very active bromeliad society in Houston that meets on the third Tuesday of each month at the Hermann Park Garden Center at 7:30 pm. You are welcome to visit our meetings where we always have a good program, share cultural tips, an exciting show and tell and the greatest refreshments and camaraderie. Our society publishes an informative bulletin each month, presents an annual judged plant show to the public, provides regular plant sales and enjoy selected garden tours. We also encourage you to join our Bromeliad Society, Intl. This is an international society that provides many services to members in over fifty countries all over the world. We publish a high quality journal six times each year that provides members with the results of ongoing research, beautiful color pictures of specimen and newly identified species, and information on what’s going on in the world of bromeliads. It also provides resource information on the commercial bromeliad growers, how to get books and publications on bromeliads, and other services that are available. We will have some applications and some BSI Cultural Manuals available.
The family Bromeliaceae, commonly called Bromeliads, is one of the larger plant families horticulturally and certainly one of the most diversified. This diversity applies to some very unusual plant forms, colors and markings that exist among its fifty or so genera and over two thousand recognized species. Bromeliads can vary in size from midgets less than 1 inch wide to giants over 35 feet high. They have scales on their leaves which are remarkable moisture absorbing organs that pull water right out of the air.
We will discuss briefly the natural habitats of bromeliads, both geographically and environmentally, how they are propagated and some of their cultural needs. We should have time for some questions and maybe some demonstrations. We won’t have time to tell you everything we know about bromeliads but hopefully enough to whet your appetite and to convince you that they are easy to grow.
Geographically, bromeliads are found in the United States from Virginia to Florida across the southern states through Louisiana and Texas then down through Mexico, Central America and the West Indies and finally into South America all the way to central Argentina and Chile. The largest concentrations are found in Mexico, the Antilles, Costa Rica, eastern and southern Brazil, the Andes of Columbia, Peru and Chile.
They are remarkably tolerant and adaptable plants. They can be found along seashores where the salt sprays, and into the extreme heat and drought of the coastal deserts. Some grow in the filtered, broken light of the rain forest and others high in the tree tops where there is a great deal of light and air movement. They are found growing at sea level to as high as 16,000 feet. Some are terrestrial and others are saxicolous, growing on rocks, but most of them grow in trees, epiphytically.
Bromeliads are very adaptable but they, like most plants, must adjust when moved to new surroundings. Extra care should be given a plant during this adjustment period to provide its critical environmental needs. In many cases this means extra water or misting of the plant. It could be a need for extra air movement or cooler temperatures. Most of the bromeliad genera adjust very easily to our environment. We will be discussing the basic cultural requirements in a few minutes. The plants that we have the most trouble acclimatizing are those that have been collected at high altitudes. Some growers have had reasonable success by placing them in their cooled greenhouses next to a wetwall.
It would not be possible or even desirable for us to try and duplicate all of the ecosystems where bromeliads are found to be growing in their natural habitats. Most bromeliads will adapt to our environment and in many cases our growing experiences will enable us to improve the growing conditions over their native habitat. We will discuss the basic needs and some of the ideal conditions that you should strive for in your growing environment. While we are discussing these requirements you also need to remember that bromeliads are not difficult to grow and most will respond very well in less than ideal conditions. They are survivors and most of them will withstand much more abuse and neglect than many plants from other plant families.
When adapting bromeliads that normally grow as epiphytes to pot culture it is important that their potting medium contain the following qualities: enough substance to hold the plant firm and upright in the container, the ability to hold moisture, enough drainage to provide good aeration and prevent root rotting.
Inorganic materials such as perlite, polystyrene or styrofoam beads, hadite, coarse granite (turkey grit) or river gravel aid in maintaining the porosity of the mix as the organic materials decay. Some of the organic materials used to provide good drainage : crushed pine bark, shredded tree fern, redwood wool, redwood bark, fine and/or medium fir bark, and cork. Coarse sand, potting soil, long fiber sphagnum moss, osmunda fiber and peat (Canadian or German) are materials which have water holding ability. Peat also furnishes acidity and bromeliads like a neutral to acid medium.
There are about as many formulas for mixes as there are growers. The formula used depends a lot on the availability of the ingredients, their cost and the grower’s experience. The mix that I am currently using is three parts crushed pine bark, one part perlite and one part Canadian peat. To this I add a double handful of osmocote (14-14-14) a double handful of super phosphate and a small amount of trace elements to a batch of about 15 gallons.
Instructions for watering in every given condition is difficult to give. Much depends upon the type of potting mixture, humidity, light, temperature and air circulation of your growing environment. You must also consider the plants moisture requirements and whether you are growing indoors or outdoors. Generally, plants that are equipped with a cup should not be allowed to become empty. This is not critical but when it happens the plant has absorbed all of the water and any salts or residual fertilizer that may have been in it will become concentrated in the cup and could damage the center of the plant and/or burn the leaf edges near the base of the plant. Rain water is certainly best when it is available. Those who grow outdoors during the summer will reduce the watering requirements and will provide the ideal humidity for most bromeliads. If you use city water and it contains excessive salts, flushing of the plant periodically will reduce the chances of salt damage. If you are growing indoors you need to mist the plant about twice a week in addition to your watering in order to prevent drying of the leaves by the low humidity.
Light is extremely important in growing bromeliads to their maximal beauty. We have learned a lot about the light requirements of the various genera by studying their native habitats and from our own growing experiences. The beauty of most of the genera will be enhanced by giving them even more light than they would have received in nature. Most of the brightly colored foliage plants require some strong light to maintain their brilliance. Few will take our direct noon day sun during the hot summer. Most of them will take early morning and late afternoon sun but should have some filter from trees, shelter or shadecloth during the heat of the day.
Growing indoors can present some problems when it comes to providing ideal light conditions. There are some bromeliads that are more suitable to normal indoor lighting than others. If you want to keep some of the more colorful foliage plants indoors you will be more successful if you have enough that you can rotate them about every two weeks. If you have some good strong light through a window, a skylight or an atrium you may be able to provide adequate light for many of them. Do some experimenting to see what does best for you.
Most bromeliads grew as epiphytes in their original habitat. They were accustomed to good air movement and have commonly been referred to as air plants. Even though they will thrive for a while in a confined area indoors their best potential will only be reached where they can have an abundance of fresh moving air.
All growers are not in agreement as to when to fertilize, how much or whether to fertilize at all. In nature bromeliads thrive on small amounts of nourishment received from bird droppings, dust, stray leaves, and the droppings of tiny creatures that live in their cups. Some growers like to provide similar nourishment by feeding lightly each time they water their plants. This can produce leggy growth on some plants if it is done during periods of low light. There are plants, neoregelias for example, that will attain a more desirable, compact growth and more brilliant colors when grown in a stressed condition with little if any nourishment. Usually, a small amount of osmocote in the plant’s growing media will be sufficient to produce a healthy appearance for these type plants. Plants with beautiful inflorescences will usually benefit most from regular feedings. Their inflorescences will be larger and more attractive. Fertilizing will also stimulate better propagation of all bromeliads. To some people bigger is best but this is not shared by all and you could benefit by doing some experimenting on your own. When fertilizing in the cups of bromeliads use a balanced fertilizer diluted to one quarter to one half of the strength recommended. This dilution is important because if the cups are allowed to partially dry up before the plant has absorbed the fertilizer it will tend to burn the plant.
Bromeliads are relatively pest free. They are subject to scale and a few other insects. The most common scales found are the ‘flyspeck’ and the ‘palm scale’. The ‘flyspeck’ scale appears as tiny hard black dots on the leaves and the ‘palm’ as a softer either gray or beige dot. These can be controlled with Safer Soap, Malathion, or Cygon 2-E. Safer Soap and Malathion are contact insecticides and must cover the entire plant either by spraying or dipping. These are more effective when you have a bad infestation and need fast action. Cygon 2-E is a systemic insecticide. It can be sprayed just to touch each side of the plant in order to be absorbed into the plants entire system killing all scale attached to the plant. This procedure takes a little longer to kill but is effective for a much longer time. Be sure and follow the safety precautions on the label when handling these insecticides.
Diseases rarely come to the bromeliad. If fungus appears, it is usually caused by sudden drops in temperature, extremely high or low light conditions, mechanical injury or insect damage. This will show up as either black spots or a soft rotting spot sometimes with a yellowing center. Cut all of the damaged area away with a sharp knife and treat the plant with a good fungicide following directions of the manufacturer. Be sure to flush out the cup well after treatment and to disinfect your knife with chlorox to prevent spreading the fungus. As most plants grow older it is normal for the outer leaves to turn yellow and die. These should be removed to improve the appearance of the plant. Trimming of leaf tips may also be needed in your grooming procedure, especially if the plant is being grown indoors where the humidity is low.
You need to understand that most bromeliads go through a life cycle in which they bloom only one time. That is the bad news. The good news is that they are very easy to propagate. They are propagated through vegetative offsets and from seeds. The normal way is offsets which we refer to as ‘pups’. These pups can appear before the plant blooms but are normally produced after blooming. Pups can be removed when they are one third to one half the size of their mother. As they are removed the mother plant will continue to produce them for a year or two giving you new plants to grow through their life cycle and plenty to share with friends.
Most of the epiphytic bromeliads have also adapted very well to pot culture and that is the way most of them are grown. However, their ability to grow without soil is one of their main attractions so we should grow some of them mounted to show off this quality. If you have a large collection it is not practical to keep a lot of them mounted because of the extra time, space and mounting material required. There are some that do better mounted and even others that do not like to be potted at all. A good example of this can be found in the genus Tillandsia. Most of these tree-dwellers do not have a cuplike formation that will hold water and must depend on tiny peltate scales or trichomes on their leaves to control their moisture requirements. These scales open up to capture needed moisture and close when a sufficient amount has been absorbed. The survival rate for this type is much better when mounted. Mounted bromeliads form small but strong, wiry root systems that serve primarily as holders and will take little if any nutrients into the plant. We don’t have time to go into detail on the various mounting procedures. Just remember that it is important that you have some mounting material that is not going to deteriorate and fall apart just when your plant has rooted and beginning to flourish. Pieces of hardwood or tree fern slabs are good. Juniper or cedar stumps make some very interesting mounts. It is also important that the plant be firmly secured to the mount so roots will form and attach themselves.
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