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Aug 11, 2015 9:11 AM CST
Thread OP
Name: Dnd
SE Michigan (Zone 6a)
Daylilies Dog Lover Houseplants Organic Gardener I helped beta test the first seed swap Celebrating Gardening: 2015
Garden Ideas: Level 2
I purchased this about a year ago from either Home Depot or Lowe's--probably Lowe's, but I don't know at the moment. The description on the sticker label was rather non-descript. Now that she has gotten older and has made two pups and also now that she has been suffering from lack of watering because I didn't realize how dry the soil was and that she was nourishing a pup...she is much more muted in color. It is not normally pink like this! When I first got this, it was MUCH more red at the top...close to a true red, but perhaps with a bit of an orange hue. It appears to be a Bromelia Guzmania of some sort, but I'm definitely not an expert and that assessment could be wrong.

(Just a reminder, this was purchased at a Home Depot or Lowe's, so it's not likely to be some newer and/or obscure variety. There were lots of these there and I'm sure a big-box store like Lowe's or Home Depot purchased this in bulk.)

Side View (you can sort of see her 2nd pup growing at the base)
Thumb of 2015-08-11/DogsNDaylilies/c275d1

Top-Down View
Thumb of 2015-08-11/DogsNDaylilies/312058

Original Pot/Container (with her first pup in it)
Thumb of 2015-08-11/DogsNDaylilies/b73aff

Sticker on bottom of original Pot/Container
Thumb of 2015-08-11/DogsNDaylilies/631503
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Aug 11, 2015 9:33 AM CST
Name: greene
Savannah, GA (Sunset 28) (Zone 8b)
I have no use for internet bullies!
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The label is from Green Circle Growers; they wholesale to Home Depot and many other stores:
http://www.greencirclegrowers....
Sunset Zone 28, AHS Heat Zone 9, USDA zone 8b~"Leaf of Faith"
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Aug 11, 2015 11:16 AM CST
Name: Lin Vosbury
Sebastian, Florida (Zone 10a)

Region: Ukraine Region: United States of America Bird Bath, Fountain and Waterfall Region: Florida Charter ATP Member I was one of the first 300 contributors to the plant database!
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Your lovely plant is probably Scarlet Star (Guzmania lingulata) which has bracts in colors of red, orange, pink or yellow. Sadly, the fading color of the flower bracts is because the "mother" plant is dying which is common for many Bromeliads. The pups can be removed from the mother plant and potted up individually to continue the cycle, they will get to blooming stage, produce pups and die. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

Green Circle Growers: http://www.greencirclegrowers.... shows a plant listed as Common Name: Bromeliad which is correct but Genus: Bromeliad is incorrect. The correct listing should read:

Common Name: Bromeliad
Family: Bromeliaceae
Genus: Guzmania
~ I'm an old gal who still loves playing in the dirt!
~ Playing in the dirt is my therapy ... and I'm in therapy a lot!


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Aug 11, 2015 3:07 PM CST
Thread OP
Name: Dnd
SE Michigan (Zone 6a)
Daylilies Dog Lover Houseplants Organic Gardener I helped beta test the first seed swap Celebrating Gardening: 2015
Garden Ideas: Level 2
@Greene - thank you. I had actually done some research on nurseries in Oberlin, OH and come to that conclusion, too, when their name matched the initials on the sticker, but their website was too generic to discern what type of bromeliad this was. They simply had a page labeled "Bromeliads", unfortunately. Glare

@plantladylin - Lin, thank you! Why do the pictures for Scarlet Star look so different? The picture you submitted is actually the closest in color to what mine originally was, although the form is different. Is the plant in the picture your own? You sort of confirmed what I suspected about the mother plant...right after I bought it, I did some research on bromeliads and I remember reading that the mother plant usually takes a couple of years to turn red and start producing pups and then, if I recall correctly, only lives about a total of 4 years, dying after it's given birth to some number of pups. Is that correct? Also, if they are epiphytic, do you know why they are potted in soil? My understanding is that epiphytic plants (like air plants, right?) grow on other plants/surfaces and don't require (often don't do well in) soil and get their nutrients from the air and the moisture from the humidity/mist in their natural, tropical environments. Why would they pot them? Confused
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Aug 11, 2015 4:57 PM CST
Name: Lin Vosbury
Sebastian, Florida (Zone 10a)

Region: Ukraine Region: United States of America Bird Bath, Fountain and Waterfall Region: Florida Charter ATP Member I was one of the first 300 contributors to the plant database!
Million Pollinator Garden Challenge Birds Butterflies Bee Lover Hummingbirder Container Gardener
I'm not a bromeliad expert and in fact, I know little about them; I get so many of them confused and I really should have stated that my ID is just a guess. As far as I know, both of these plants of mine are/were Guzmania lingulata. I still have the one on the left but the one on the right I gave to a neighbor a few years ago when I was downsizing. I'm not real sure about differences in form, I'm really bad at comparing photos. The plant in my photo on the left is crammed into the crook of a tree branch and the plant on the right (shown hanging sideways) was planted in a hollowed out coconut shell that was hanging from a tree branch.
~ I'm an old gal who still loves playing in the dirt!
~ Playing in the dirt is my therapy ... and I'm in therapy a lot!


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Aug 11, 2015 6:30 PM CST
Name: Carol
Santa Ana, ca
Sunset zone 22, USDA zone 10 A.
Bookworm Charter ATP Member Region: California Hummingbirder Orchids Plant Identifier
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From what I've read, they are very much like growing orchids. They are epiphytes, and don't really need much soil at all. Just enough to anchor them, and collect some water at the roots, but they do need humidity, and the "tanks" should always have some water in them. I mist mine while watering my mounted orchids. So far, it seems to work.
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