Elaine and Melanie, maybe I will get a couple then. I didn't want the big bromeliads because they multiply fast. Glad to know that they are epiphytes, I thought or I would have put them in potting soil.

Yep, they are the same family as the Spanish Moss Spanish Moss (Tillandsia usneoides) you see in the oak trees, and the ball moss Ball Moss (Tillandsia recurvata) that grows on anything it lands on. Hardly any root system whatsoever, and collect most if not all their nutrients through their leaves.

Here's a decoration my daughter gave me years ago, made up of a whole bunch of really small Tillandsias. It blooms a couple of times a year with pretty blue flowers, and is nearly twice the size it was when she sent it to me.

Yup and they are easy peasy care.
Tillandsia stricta is blooming up a storm now. I grow this one right in with my Vanda's. So it get's watered at least once a day. Very bright light with some sun.

Elaine, that is gorgeous and so is that one your daughter gave you! Is that decorative one perhaps Air Plant (Tillandsia ionantha) ? http://florida.plantatlas.usf....

MJ and Elaine, they are gorgeous!

mj, Wow! Wow! Wow! Love that one too, really pretty! I've never grown any of those pretty Tillandsia; only the native T. utriculata that falls out of the oak trees. Two years ago I stuck a small one in an empty suet feeder and hung it in a tree and it's getting big but the blooms on this one aren't anything to write home about. When we move next year I may have to get a couple of the pretty ones to put in the trees.

2013 .................................................. 2014 ..................................................... 2015 almost completely covering the suet feeder:

I have no idea which Tillies are on the Tilly ball my daughter gave me. It was a bonus with a birthday gift of some other plants from Logee's and didn't have any tag at all. It sure does look like the Ionantha's but I don't recall mine having that much red on the leaves when they were blooming.

That's a really cool way to hang up your Tilly, Lin. Did you stuff the suet feeder with some sphagnum moss or what?

I bought a bunch of little ones at Tropiflora at their summer sale, and now I need to go find them in the jungle again. I know approximately where I left them . . . Next time you visit Sarasota, you really must make a trip to Tropiflora, especially if you want Tillandsias! They have huge shade houses filled with hundreds of varieties.

Elaine, I actually stuffed the little cages with Spanish Moss (Tillandsia usneoides) before sticking in small T. utriculata plants. The plant that has grown the largest is one that was sticking out the top. I just went out and took a few more photos ... the thing is full of black ants!! It seems like every plant I have hanging in that tree is housing those danged ants!


I still get e-mails every so often from Tropiflora and I really do hope to get back over that way again some day. I'd love to visit Selby Gardens again, it's been so long and I love that place! It would be fun to make a side trip to Tropiflora too!

One of my favorite fall displays - Privet Cassia (Senna ligustrina). Native Florida plant, host plant for Cloudless Sulphur and Orange-Barred Sulphur butterflies. Probably other Sulphurs, too, but those are the only ones I've ever found on it. I was checking them for caterpillars when a lady stopped and I ended up giving her seeds. Turns out, she's the lady who wanted a cutting of my Angel's Trumpet earlier this year! Dad talked to her that time. I'm always glad to share some seeds and this plant makes plenty! It's usually more upright but it's been raining and the seeds weigh it down, too.

That one's a beauty, Melanie. I have just the spot for one of those. Yours looks pretty big though, do you think I could prune it to keep it a little smaller?

Oh yeah, you can prune it. Dad keeps trying and I keep yelling that there are caterpillars on there! He did have to thin them out earlier this year. What started as one plant became several. It self seeds, but not too bad that you can't just pull them up. My problem is pulling them up! I want to keep everything.

And I want to come get some seedlings from you. But most likely if I look around I can find somebody closer who has some.

Is it evergreen or does it lose its leaves in winter?

It keeps its leaves in the winter. And it blooms through the winter, too. Not the first year I had it, but after that.

Back up to speed, finally after a trip to Salt Lake City, and an invasion of house guests. I have to say, the Caladiums I planted last year in the fall have come back up and are even bigger/taller than they were last year! I think I'm going to plant more next year in September (if I can stand the heat!) Florida Beauty, Florida Cardinal and White Queen:



This bouquet of cranberry hibiscus is just a bunch of cuttings I brought home from the school garden yesterday. Came out this morning and there they were with gorgeous flowers blooming in the vase!

Caladiums are always show stoppers. That hibiscus is gorgeous Elaine!!!!

Pretty, Pretty!! My Caladiums are all done for the year. Love that Hibiscus. I have two scrawny, lanky, not so great looking Red-Leaf Hibiscus (Hibiscus acetosella) that I really should try to take better care of.

My Caladiums from last year have come back.

I did save some Caladium bulbs from my spring order this year. They are all coming up in pots now, and I hope to enjoy them for a few months - or more, the way the weather's going.

Guess from now on I'm planting the new ones in both spring and fall.

Mine always returned every year. I never dug them up or anything.

Well I have a giant pink hibiscus that blooms all year round.

And for pictures I still have a few blooming plumerias and I hope this warm weather will stay a little bit more Bev I have seedlings with inflo.

My Muang Mhuang-Rat, the first is from inflo planted in March/April. The second is the frowth from the Momma plant.


A no ID red still in full bloom - 2 inflos