Tag Archives: Guzmania Bromeliads

Six on Saturday – Bromance

I am joining Jim and the SOS gang this sunny Saturday morning from my South Florida garden. Anyone who reads my blog eventually notices my love for Bromeliads. This Saturday I am focusing on the winter color in my garden from these super tough tropical plants. Visit Jim at https://gardenruminations.co.uk/

Bromeliads are native to the tropics and many of them hail from the Americas. Most that I grow are from Brazil. There are native Bromeliads in Florida, though many were collected to near extinction and are now protected. Tillandsias (Spanish moss and friends are the most common native to Florida) I see these native Bromeliads from time to time in state parks and relish sighting one. Native orchids met a similar fate.

I am not quite to the northern limit of growing Bromeliads in the garden, though most I grow here will not take any frost. When I first started gardening here the idea of having what I considered house plants in the garden seemed very odd. Now, not so much. My average low temperature is 40 F (4 C)

Jill Neoregelia climbing a palm trunk. Some Bromeliads will climb trees and some won’t. This one was planted at the base of a Christmas Palm and started up the trunk with no encouragement from me.

Martin Neoregelia started the change from winter to summer color. These are yellow and green striped in winter deepening to red in summer. The pink coloration lasts for a couple of months.

Silvery foliage of the Silver Urn Bromeliad. Aechmea fasciata. These are well known for their pink flowers. They bloom every other year in my garden.

I am very likely to buy unnamed Bromeliads at garage sales or garden shows as they are usually expensive elsewher and it is rare to find good directions on where to site the plants. This is a unnamed Neoregelia I have enjoyed, it is probably three feet wide.

Another garage sale find. I have no idea what this is – it flowers every winter. The flower is about four feet tall.

The very reliable February (Valentine’s!) bloomer. The flower of the Guzmania Bromeliad is starting to peek through.

The time to move Bromeliads in the garden ends in March. I am plotting relocations now to add some more of these tough beauties in new places…

Thanks to Jim for hosting and Happy Gardening!!

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In a Vase on Monday – White Hot

It’s not white hot in South Florida. Yet. The fragrant white flowers are in bloom and some soothing fragrance for the house seems necessary (read, for me!). I decided to add some hot colors for spice and put them in a crystal rose bowl from my mother. I am not sure it has ever held roses during my tenure, certainly not while in South Florida. Roses can be grown here, but it is a lot of trouble and I would rather have the tropical flowers. Honestly, I would never do the amount of tending roses would need here. Here is an easier and much more forgiving fragrant flower, the Bridal Bouquet Frangipani. Shove a few cuttings in the ground and they reward you with six foot semi evergreen foliage and fragrant flowers for months.

Bridal Bouquet Frangipani is a favorite of mine, and oh, so easy to grow. It joins some other fragrant friends in my vase this Monday.

The Bridal Bouquet Frangipani (Plumeria pudica) is on the right side. The fragrant friends, in white, are Tropical Gardenias (Tabernaemontana diviricata) hanging over the side and Sweet Almond Bush (Aloysia virgata) spikes in the background. The hot colors, in red, front and center, the Red Guzmania Bromeliad; the red bells are Russelia equisetiformis, sometimes called the Firecracker Plant. Purple flowers are from Mona Lavender Plectranthus, and the purple foliage is Little Ruby Alternanthera. The ferns, much as I enjoy them in vases are the weed, Asian Sword Fern.

Thanks every week to Cathy, who hosts In a Vase on Monday at her blog http://www.ramblinginthegaarden.wordpress.com. Follow the link to find more vases.

In a Vase on Monday – Spring Salad Surprises

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Winter in South Florida (or as I call it, Not Summer) is winding down. As I was planting my last crop of vegetable seeds, I noticed the lettuces fading and bolting. I grew Red Romaine lettuce this winter and was surprised to see how pretty the flowers are. While picking them, I could tell by the scent that the Romaine had turned bitter, no need to taste it. Even the rabbits have quit eating it and turned to munching on my Bromeliads and eating the old green beans.

20190303_100841-1Another surprise in the garden was the emergence of 5 flowers on a Guzmania Bromeliad I left in a container for a little too long. I did not know Guzmanias would even put out multiple flowers, so I cut one since it went so well with the Romaine.

In keeping with the salad theme, I added some Copper Fennel (Foeniculum vulgare) to the arrangement. The vase is a junk store silverplate heirloom from my mother, gaining patina (rust) with every use.

Here is the Papaya update: More surprises, six fruit so far. I think there will be more.20190303_162431