Melli, it looks an awful lot like a Cymbidium of some kind. Please do keep us posted.

I googled the Pitcairnia xanthocalyx and sure looks like that could be it.


Went to our Master Gardner show yesterday and these two followed me home....

Quesnelia marmorata - my kind of plant...told me to NOT fertilize, which would encourage more curls !
Already have this one up in the tree.



Vriesea ospinae var. gruberi - gets a yellow bloom, should look awesome with that foliage.

Nice, MJ! I should put more of my bromeliads in trees. Or at least use more of my vertical space to free up more horizontal space so I can have more plants!

Hoping to get some help with this one on here. My friend says I have a bromeliad you can have. If you don't I will just let it die. "Die"? Did he say let it "DIE?" I don't need more pots to tend to. I already have a dozen or so broms in pots that I bury and un-bury each winter to protect them. I am not sure what to do with this giant thing. Maybe you can help me identify it, how to separate it if needed without getting sliced up. It's sharp! Or is it best to be pot-bound?



From the top:


It blooms a lot, he said, all different colors. Here are the spent blooms if that helps with the ID.

Bromeliads are epiphytic so they don't need to be pot bound. I would turn the whole thing upside down and deal with separating it from the bottom end.
It could be a type of Aechmea but I can't be sure.

I wonder whether there are several (different) varieties here? When your friend says they bloom in "all different colors", does he mean that the flowers on the stalk are various colors or the flowers are really different on each stalk? I would guess Aechmea.

Wear light-weight gloves and a long-sleeve shirt. Really, in my opinion the only reasons to divide the plant is the fact that "pups" have no place to grow, and the pups are where new blooms will come from. Also, the shear size of the plant can become quite a problem. Epiphytic plants don't even have to grow in any kind of soil, so "root-bound" has no particular significance to me. I have lots of my bromeliads mounted without a speck of soil.

As Hetty says, just turn the whole thing out of that pot, pull the plants apart and save the healthy looking pups. The rest you could throw. The 'mother' plants won't bloom again, just make more pups. There's a lot of dead material in there, I'm guessing. You'll be surprised how little root material there is. If you have those gloves with the long cuffs on them - rose pruning gloves - they will protect you, otherwise, leather gloves and long sleeves will do. The thorns are very short.

As Ken says the pups will bloom probably before summer is over. Set the pups somewhere it will be light shade and keep an eye on them for blooms. I just prop them up with a stick, bottoms resting on the ground. A spot under trees where there is leafy stuff on the ground will work great, (or back in that pot). If you like them, (warning, they might be gorgeous!) bring one or two in next winter. Just a small pot with a couple of starts so you won't lose the whole thing. If you love them, just lift the whole bunch, stuff them back into that nice big pot and stick it in a corner somewhere for the winter.

Broms are such easy plants, as long as you don't let them freeze, they will reward you. You can't overwater them, mine get pouring rain every day through the summer. You can't underwater them either, as long as the air is humid. I spray mine occasionally with my orchid fert, but other than that they don't get fertilized either.

Can't wait to see a picture of the flowers! They're probably Aechmea, or maybe Billbergia with those long flower scapes, too. Very hard to tell until they bloom. But post pictures when you get the pups separated, too. There might be more than one kind in that pot, if he says there are 'all different colors'.

Thanks, Hetty, Ken and Elaine! Just the help and instruction I was looking for. Since they are epiphytes, I was thinking of mass planting these beauties in an area that I have had trouble growing. It is a small triangle bed between 3-4 large oak trees. The soil is so dry with the trees taking up the water nothing will take the soil that gets covered with pine needles eventually. Since these broms don't need soil, I think they could go there? But, the area barely gets light, however. Will I have trouble?? Except for keeping the vases filled with clean fresh water, that is all the water it needs? My others are in pots. I 've never planted in the ground before.

While I am learning and asking questions, I have the pups from a brom guzmania I was given 2, maybe 3 years ago. Some are still small but there are 3-4 that are exceptionally large and beautiful. Will they ever bloom or just keep growing larger and larger? The large ones are bigger than the mother plant ever was!

Many Bromeliads thrive in low light conditions but there are also those that like sun. So do your homework!
And yes, your Guzmania will probably bloom one day.

Often, though we think that the shade under large trees don't get a speck of light, there is actually some sunlight. All my plants, including my bromeliads (approximately 200 of them) go under large oak trees when the last frost is done. I have three area of oaks: a single oak, two oaks and a cedar, and five oaks and a cedar. All the plants will either get 2-3 hours of early morning or 2-3 hours of late afternoon sun. It just depends on where the plants are. But Hetty is correct. Some bromeliads will do better with some sunlight. By and large though, bromeliads are truly shade-loving plants.

Yes, keep water in the "urn". The excess water will simply run out onto the root area, so you will have watered that area too. Some people believe that the urns need to be emptied every so often. I don't do that. Do they get emptied in Nature? Also, I have been told that those "urns" will be a breeding ground for mosquitos. That is certainly possible. Some will go to the trouble to even put a bit of floating mosquito larva preventive in each urn. These come in (floating) wafers and can be found in the big box stores. Again, I have never done this. I just water the heck out of my bromeliads (a hose with "rain" end) and the urns get flushed out regularly.

I don't think Hetty uses fertilizer on her bromeliads, but I do. Since I have so many tropical plants and am always either watering or fertilizing, the bromeliads get some fertilizer too. I do dilute all my fertilizer at least 1/2 and during the fall/winter months I will dilute it to 1/4 the recommended rate (I use several different formulae of orchid fertilizer).

I see no reason that your Guzmania won't bloom for you. It sounds like you have healthy plants and healthy plants bloom.

If you are a coffee drinker, the spent coffee grounds can be sprinkled into the urns as a mosquito preventative. I don't know if it's the caffeine that kills off the larvae or the coffee smell that repels the adults from laying eggs in the urns, but I've never seen a wiggler in any of my broms, and I do the coffee distribution fairly regularly. DH drinks a couple of pots of coffee a day, and I am an espresso junkie.

All my broms are growing in the shade of big oak trees too. They seem to love it and get plenty of light. Don't forget even live oaks shed some leaves in the early spring. Just like Ken, I am spraying around soluble fert for my orchids regularly so the broms do get some of that fairly often.

I did not know that, Elaine. I use a big ole plastic tub to catch rain water and float a mosquito wafer in it during summer. I will try the coffee grounds. I have plenty of that and its FREE. I use my coffee grounds around all my azaleas, blue berry bush, and in the compost pile. If I have extra I just mix it in with my potting soil that I make up in a large wheelbarrow.

I still use the mosquito wafers for large quantities of water like my rain barrels etc. Trouble with the coffee thing is you don't know how much you're applying, so it's great for the small amounts of water in the bromeliads but I'm not sure how much you'd have to put in a big tub of water.

No harm in trying and seeing, however. If you start to get wigglers, add more grounds!

I'm going to try coffee grounds around the hostas at my daughter's house in Utah. I've heard it's not bad for slug/snail prevention, too. They aren't fond of the caffeine which absorbs through their slimy skin. Apart from that it's a great soil amendment anyway, as you say.

Gosh, Elaine, and I thought I was drinking coffee for the caffeine!

Yeah, we get first shot at it, then the skeeters and plants get the leftovers! Ever seen a bunch of worms in the compost that got into the coffee grounds? Talk about 'red wigglers' !!

Yes, my compost pile is loaded with worms, nice and plump, a good sign of compost health.

Here's some picture updates on my bromeliads for everyone to enjoy!

First up is some of my neighbor Jim's bromeliads. I've looked up many species to try and identify which Aechmea this is, and while there are many that look similar, none are a perfect match so maybe this is a cultivar? Anyway, we enjoy them here in the neighborhood. Seriously, my neighbor who lives across from Jim (I live next to him) put some in her tree. Here they are in bloom.



Here's one in my backyard that's about to bloom next to one in bloom. I like the little yellow flowers they get. This one has them on top but some of the others have them lower down. Maybe they bloom along the inflorescence at different times and I'm catching them at different points in the cycle?



Now, this might be one of the same or it might be one I bought that just looks like Jim's bromeliads (because I have done that, LOL)! Notice the pink is a little darker and no little yellow blooms. At any rate, this is the bromeliad the hummingbird nectared on last year.



My suspected Aechmea distichantha is still WOW!



Here's a couple more pics of what I think is a Pitcairnia xanthocalyx.



Here's those Aehcmeas I wish I knew the name of. I call them my Rainbow Aechmeas. Which made me think that the above poster who has the unknown bromeliad of "all different colors" may really have one that's all different colors. There's a few Billbergias that bloom multiple colors, as well. I guess the fun will be waiting and finding out!



Now, my Aechmea gamosepalas usually bloom all at once but I've got some outliers this year. In both the front and back yard I've got some that are just now blooming. You can see the difference in this photo. The older blooms are already that deep pink color while the new one still has those cool, little blue things on it.



Meanwhile, my small form Aechmea gamosepalas are starting to turn colors. Unfortunately, I'm still losing the battle of the ferns. I hate those things! Spreading by spore just isn't fair to gardeners who have to try and keep up with those things.



Now, the previous pictures were taken at the base of the big oak tree that also holds my Aechmea caudata "Blotches". I told you guys I was only going to get one bloom out of it this year, but I was wrong! Another one is suddenly sticking out. I took a picture where you can see the older bloom hanging down and the new bloom is that orange thing sticking out of the top. It will get bigger and stick out more and get those little yellow flowers as time progresses.



My Quesnelia quesneliana also sent up a new bloom! I meant to take a picture earlier but got distracted. It was a much lighter pink when it first came out and then it darkened. Of course, you can see the two earlier blooms in the picture for contrast.



And finally, here's some Billbergias I have blooming near the front of the house. I know they're a common one, but I can't think of the name and I'm feeling too lazy to google it right now.

I think your first picture may be a Billbergia too.
Great plants!

Great show, Melli!

Beautiful Melli! Loved the pictures.