“The garden is growth and change and that means loss as well as constant new treasures to make up for a few disasters.” – May Sarton.
Cape Town - Some of my most recent garden treasures have been bromeliads. Though found in humid sub-tropical forests of the Americas, they do surprisingly well here too.
A fine display of these unusual, often spectacular, plants can be seen in Walter Mangold’s “Secret Garden” at the World of Birds, Hout Bay.
Bromeliads come in a variety of shapes, forms and colours, many with bright centres or exotic-looking spikes of flowers. They have little or no root systems, absorbing most of their nourishment through their leaves. Some can be grown as pot plants in a light, porous mixture of coarse sand and chopped pine bark, with a little charcoal added to keep the soil sweet. The bigger ones, with rosette shapes, need to have their centre “cups” kept full of water.
All bromeliads enjoy a good movement of air around them and dappled light, varying in intensity, depending on the species. Those with grey, stiff leaves originate in desert areas and can cope with the most sun. I have seen some clinging to cliff faces in full sun in Peru and was told they were regarded as medicinal plants by the Incas.
The most commonly grown bromeliads include species of Tillandsia, Aechmea, Vriesia and Neoregelia, as well as the pineapple, which is the largest member of this genus. Tillandsias are small, air plants or epiphytes. This group includes the well-known Spanish moss T. usneoides, which can be draped from a branch to form a living, silvery curtain. It needs to be misted regularly and bears insignificant yellow flowers, in contrast to the showy T. lindeniana, which has vivid pink bracts and purple-blue flowers. Mine grow happily in a frangipani, which is deciduous for a short time in winter.
Aechmea fasciata, the urn plant, is a tough but glamorous bromeliad, which can take bright conditions. It is undemanding and can be grown terrestially. Its leaves are silver-dusted and produces a single, striking inflorescence of pink bracts and violet-blue flowers. After flowering, the mother plants dies, replacing itself with off-shoots that appear at its base. These should be about a third in size of the mature plant before being removed and replanted.
The Vriesia can be grown in pots or in the ground. Its tall, flattened, spiky floral bracts come in purple, red, yellow or orange.
The Blushing Bromeliad, Neoregelia has a rosette shape. Its centre leaves go brilliant pink, purple or red in late spring and summer, while its tiny flowers open in the centre of the rosette in what appears to be a mossy pool of leaves.
You can create an attractive feature of bromeliads on rocks, logs, dead trees or among driftwood, planting the larger species, such as aechmeas and neoregelias at the base, and suspending tillandsias higher up. To keep your bromeliads in top condition, give them a balanced foliar feed fortnightly and mist them regularly. - Cape Argus