Bromeliads As House Plants

Bromeliads have not always been used as a house plant. Twenty-five years ago few varieties graced the interiors of buildings. Today, Aechmeas, Neoregelias, Guzmanias with numerous introductions of hybrids Bromeliads are a common as house plants and color rotation indoors.

However, 50 years ago the below article was published (1957) and introduced many indoor plant lovers to the possibilities of this “new” type of house plant. The variety names have changed but their beauty and use continues to grow.

Published in 1957…

Bromeliads Everywhere

The word “BROMELIADS” – signifying a certain group of plants – will seem terribly formidable to most house plant enthusiasts, and yet, we come in contact with these plants—in one form or another—in our daily lives. When you partake of a pineapple sherbert and eat a pineapple cake or pineapple-filled pastry, you are consuming a bromeliad, even if you don’t realize it, for the pineapple (Ananas comosus) is a bromeliad.

When you get into your car or sit on an upholstered piece of furniture, you are most likely coming in contact with a bromeliad. The stuffing used in seats, chairs and divans may well be strands of hair from Tillandsia usneoides, which is a bromeliad better known by the common name of Spanish moss. Some of the imported bags from Brazil that you carry around may be fashioned from pita fiber derived from Neo glaziovia variegata, which is another bromeliad.

In the past few years, bromeliads have stirred up quite a bit of interest for these exotic plants have much to recommend them. In the first place they possess year-round good looks, produce handsome blooms and are easy to grow. There are hundreds of them, varied and colorful, but, of course, not all of them suitable for the house.

What makes a bromel (a shorter word, if you prefer) such an unusual subject? It is the uncommon form and growing habit coupled with colorful flowers—which make it so outstanding. Then, too, culture is relatively easy.

Tropical Bromeliads

Bromels are, for the most part, tropical plants although a few of them can withstand a certain amount of cold weather—even freezing, if not of prolonged duration. They are strictly American plants although one species has been discovered in French West Africa in 1937. The plants are either terrestrial or epiphytic. Some grow in the ground like the well known pineapple and prefer a xerophytic condition, which means they can take sun, wind and drought for long periods. Even better examples are the Dyckias, Hechtias, Encholiriums and Puyas which often grow in association with cacti and therefore demand equal cultural treatment.

On the other hand, there are other terrestrials, like the Pitcairnias and Cryptanthus, which prefer shade and moisture. The epiphytic bromels find abode in the crotches and fissured bark of tropic trees where only filtered sunlight reaches them. Some species hug rock faces of steep canyon walls. At no time can bromels be considered parasites as they derive all their nourishment from the air. They rely on their host merely for support, clinging to it with a tenacious grip. One species, Tillandsia recurvata, has invaded telephone wires in civilized lands just to be different.

Typical Bromeliads

A typical bromeliad plant is composed of several to many leaves arranged in a whorl or rosette. It can be gigantic or very diminutive with leaves grasslike or widely strapshaped, short or long, rigid or flexible and with or without marginal spines. The leaves can be extremely showy especially if mottled, marbled, striped or spotted in various shades of green, yellow, pink and purple. The flower stalk may be terminal or lateral, in various degrees of thickness and size, and as diverse as the leaves. The flower head sometimes is hidden in the nest of leaves or extends beyond the rosette, sometimes erect and other times definitely pendent. Individual flowers may be minute and inconspicuous or large and showy, with or without fragrance. The seed pod or fruit is often richly colored and remains on the stalk for several weeks, depending upon the genus.

At the present time there are around 1,600 species and varieties of bromels recognized but some of them are extremely rare in cultivation and others not known anywhere except in their natural habitat. In recent years, hybridization has increased the number of horticultural forms. It appears that among this great number one would be able to choose suitable species for the home, office or store, that are tolerant under average house conditions. In addition to their hardy constitutions, many of the bromels have all the captivating qualities that make desirable indoor plants: decorative leaf patterns, stunning flowers, beautiful berry-like fruits—all of which lend themselves fittingly to all kinds of artistic arrangements. Some of the Aechmeas and Billbergias produce a vase-like appearance and actually hold plenty of water in their centers. A resourceful lady of the house can place cut flowers in these living vases; the flowers will keep fresh for a period of days.

Deliver Lots Ask for Little

There are few houseplants that will give so much and ask so little in return. Among them the bromeliads are almost foolproof plants. It is true, some species are extremely touchy outside of a greenhouse but quite a few can withstand abuse as much as the cacti and succulents in the stuffy apartment house. One advantage bromels have over other house plants is that they always remain such tidy, compact little plants in the pot. They never grow so tall as to need a support or spread haphazardly in all directions necessitating tying up to keep them in place. If you leave on a short vacation they need no one to look after them and will not suffer from negligence. However, the grower ought to get acquainted with the kinds that will be suitable for various parts of the house.

If there is a glassed porch or sun-room, one can assemble a neat collection of bromels for a hobby or grow them with other ornamental subjects such as begonias, ferns, aroids and other exotics of kindred nature. The amount of space will determine the number that can be grown. An ordinary sunny window will not hold too many plants but it is possible to build an extended glass compartment from it in order to insure additional space for more plants. This compartment can be erected at slight cost and need not be elaborate. It can be permanent or just a temporary affair, resting on the windowsill and its sides screwed to the window frame, – covered with glass or any of the plastic materials developed for such purposes in this modern age. It is heated from the living room or kitchen as the window is always open. A well-lit basement is likewise a good place to grow plants especially if there is room under the windows for a sort of pithouse compartment. Window sash serving as roof will admit plenty of light and give identical conditions as are prevalent in a greenhouse. Glassed-in breezeways in ranch style homes are also excellent places for growing bromels.

Pleasing Form

Because of their pleasing and often colorful forms, bromeliads may be placed in various parts of a room to add accent to a particular spot even though that spot is a darkened corner or a niche in the wall. Some species will retain their brilliant coloring for a long time even in the dark but it is advisable and more appropriate to return the plants to more favorable environment between intervals in order to insure proper development.

Bromeliads do well in a soil mixture of half leaf mold and half sand – a mixture which drains very freely and certainly among the easiest of ingredients for gardeners to find. However, if you make a serious study of these plants common sense will advocate a slight deviation from the general potting medium when dealing with the true xerophytes and the true epiphytes. The desert kinds like a much heavier soil composed of ordinary garden loam and sand to which decayed leaf mold and some pulverized manure can be added. Some of the tree dwellers, like most of the Vriesias and Guzmanias, prefer straight osmunda fiber, the same which is used for potting orchids. For others I have been using, with excellent results, decomposed leaf mold and sand mixture to which is added old discarded orchid fiber, pulverized cow manure, and horticultural peat. Frequent transplanting is not recommended, unless the soil mixture becomes too loose with careless potting or quick deteriorating material. Often a single potting is sufficient to carry a bromel plant through to maturity.

In their native habitats air plants, like the epiphytic bromels, are well supplied with moisture the year around. The gutter-like leaves which form the rosette growth direct rainwater to a natural reservoir in the center. When growing any of the cup forming bromels in the home it is imperative to keep the leafy cup filled with water at all times. Other epiphytic bromels should be syringed daily especially during the summer season when rapid evaporation takes place. The dry-soil kinds will get along with less attention. Like cactus, they should be watered sparingly.

Although bromeliads will thrive for years on plain water, they will appreciate food occasionally, especially very weak liquid manure (diluted to the color of weak tea). Foliar fertilizers are also beneficial. Rain water is ideal, too. Tap water is often highly alkaline and bromels resent its use.

As to temperatures bromeliads are not too fussy because many of them can endure extremely high degrees and others quite low. However, to arrive at a happy medium, temperatures best suited should range in winter between 50 and 70 degrees.

How is one to go about selecting a few bromeliads for the window? First, you had better limit your choice to those that are offered in the trade. There are several rare plant nurseries which offer a variety of bromeliads.

Among the best known and established varieties you can make your choice from the following:

• Aechmea fasciata
• Aechmea fulgens discolor
• Aechmea miniata discolor
• Aechmea orlandiana
• Neoregelia marmorata
• Neoregelia spectabilis
• Neoregelia. tristis
• Nidularium Innocentii striatum
• Billbergia pyramidalis
• Billbergia zebrina
• Cryptanthus bivittatus
• Cryptanthus Lacerdae
• Cryptanthus zonatus
• Dyckia sulphurea
• Guzmania Zahnii
• Quesnelia Liboniana
• Tillandsia cyanea
• Tillandsia Lindeni
• Vriesia hieroglyphica
• Vriesia Marine
• Vriesia splendens

by L. Tutak

Related Articles Of Interest:

• Bromeliads – Air Plants can provide year round color with many interesting looks
• Try The Bromeliads – Newest Things in House Plants in the 1950′s
• Go Colorful With Bromeliads
• Bromeliads – Which Varieties Hold Color the Longest