While routine watering of houseplants, I saw what I thought was "dog fluff" in my Mother's Day Vine/Rosary Vine/ Ceropegia woodii. I reached up and found that somehow this plant had been pollinated and it presented seeds like Dandelion or Cat Tail. The sad thing is I went to get an envelope and went back and most the seed blew away.

Here is a picture of the flower:

Okay, I will try again:

Cool!

How about that.

I have several clumps of the Ball Moss i got a couple weeks ago that had already bloomed and they are exploding every where now too.. Like Rolling around in a field of Dandelions
i'm saving some tho, if you want some of them
cliff

I would love to see a picture of them. Right now we are in the single digits and going under 0 degrees until Saturday. I don't think the ball moss would appreciate our temperatures.

A lot of folks down here in Florida think of Ball Moss (Tillandsia recurvata) as an ugly pest plant but I love it ... it grows all over the place and although the blooms aren't spectacular I still think they are pretty and the silky seeds as well. I used a bunch of ball moss one time for living wreaths to donate for our raffle table at a function at the local botanical gardens. A friend had given me a few grapevine wreaths when she was cleaning out her garage so I tucked ball moss all around the wreaths, added a bit of Spanish Moss (Tillandsia usneoides) and then glued a little artificial birds nest to the center bottom of each wreath with a little craft bird in the nest, then tied a bow on the side. They were big hits at the raffle table and I wish I'd taken pictures.

I have an old suet feeder that the raccoons tore the roof from and I hated to throw it away so I stuck ball moss in one side and Giant Air Plant (Tillandsia utriculata) in the opposite side and it's still hanging out in the Magnolia tree.

Lin,

I wish you had pictures too. Sounds like you are a crafty person! Looks like it too with the suet feeder!

LOL, Leda ... I used to be craftier in my youth but as I get older my brain doesn't have too many creative ideas anymore.

Ah, Lin, I am not as crafty as I used to be either. The house is too full of knick-knacks and junk and it is time for me to clean some of it out. Sigh. (That will make more room for the plants... )

If I get to the point where I can garden outside again, that is where I will use my creativity! If Spring ever comes and if I ever get to "that point." I really am beginning to envy you people in "the tropical zones."

We had a week of dreary, rainy weather here last week but now it's like springtime (the past few days anyway) and I'm loving the sunshine and low to mid 70 temperature's. I've been out "play-working" in the yard the past two days; I so want to prune but I know it's a bit too early for that just yet. We must wait until about mid-march here before pruning and trimming stuff back because even though it's rare we've been known to have a frost or even a freeze in early March. For now I will just pull weeds, run around and play frisbee with the dog and just enjoy the nice weather. Last week I was wishing I could send some rain to drought stricken California ... and I wish I could share some of this pretty weather with some of you in the north. Hang in there ... Spring is on the way!

Yes, the potatoes are sprouting in my potato bin, the onions are coming alive in the refrigerator, and the aquarium is full of algae. Ugh! These are the signs of spring here.

Leda

I like that Ball Moss I have seen while visiting Fl. but didn't know what it was. Very neat.

this is 1 of my Ball Moss clumps it is a little over 12" when i bought it, was advertized as 20" across but i assumed it would be about a ft because the pic had a lot of remains of flower stalks and those are between 4 & 6". nice clump tho .




and this is a individual plant



and this is a clump of Floridiana i have coming

cliff

Thanks Cliff, I really wanted to see what one looked like. Fascinating! It must have been amazing in bloom. Was there any blush? You are going to be King of the Air Plants!

(My husband teased that I should send in pictures of tumbleweeds.)

Thanks again,
Leda

Cliff: Great pics ... love the T. floridana! That one is endemic to Florida: http://entnemdept.ufl.edu/fran... and I believe it grows at the Botanical Gardens where I volunteer. I'll have to find my picture to compare.

A little while ago I was taking pictures of the backyard birds and when I downloaded them to my laptop I got this kinda blurry one of Tillandsia recurvata (Ball Moss) in the Cypress tree ... apparently the Blue Jay took off.

This is the photo I took last March of a Tillandsia growing at our little botanical gardens; upon further comparison I'm not sure it's floridana. I'm so bad at comparing photo's for ID anymore ... any help with identification appreciated.

Lin @plantladylin,

Thank you for posting the above picture. I am fascinated with these plants.

Leda

Leda, you are welcome ... I posted on the Plant ID forum in hopes of getting an identification.