Are any of these plants labeled, Cameron?

I still haven't had time to photograph. I decided to take all my plumeria out of their temporary (garage) greenhouse and let them get some sun and water. While the space was empty, I added another 4-tube. T5H fixture so that I would have double the light. Each light produces 20,000 lumens and I'm using 6500K tubes. Those two fixtures are on a timer and the lights are on from 6 AM till 9 PM.

Sadly they aren't Ken. Someone on another forum said my first two are probably caput medusae and ionantha. My plumerias are jealous of yours. I have to crowd them into a dark bedroom and they'll remain there until April or May. We had a warmer than normal November but now it's chilly again and we had some arctic air move in last Friday. I wish I had a nice light setup.

I have plumeria all over the place, Cameron. My seedlings and newly rooted cuttings are in one of the greenhouses and potted plumeria, both large and small, are in that garage greenhouse. Those in flower, have flowers stalk, and/or have seed pods are in the solarium. 3 dozen really large plumeria are bagged up, no soil, no water, and no light Those bags are in a guest bedroom closet.

Wow you definitely have plumerias all over the place. I used to have several seedlings but I ended up selling a majority of them. Now I have 5 plumerias.

I think my newest one is juncifolia?

Yep, lots of plumeria.

I had two bloom this year, and one of my seedlings developed an inflo late in the season but it probably won't develop properly since I brought it indoors? I think I'm going to get some liquid nails and mount the juncifolia onto a cholla log.

Here's the juncifolia on the cholla log. I hope I didn't use too much liquid nails? I'll also hang the log vertically so the water won't collect around the crown. I just need to let it set for 24 hours but so far it hasn't moved and has remained stationary.

I have never used Liquid Nails for this, Cameron, but lots of folks seem to. I use a silicone specifically marketed for use bonding Tillandsia to mounts. I purchased this silicone before I ever heard of using Liquid Nails and simply stayed with it since it works so well.

I wish the big box stores would carry glue specifically for tillandsias. I had to put more on because it started to come off. Hopefully the plant will still be OK?

Apparently, since so many people use Liquid Nails, the tillandsia do fine. Their roots are mainly for anchorage, not nourishment, so covering up their base with the glue/silicone doesn't seem to faze them. If you have concern about using Liquid Nails in the future, I feel sure you can purchase that silicone on Amazon and/or eBay. This is called E6000 silicone adhesive. It is inexpensive and the 3.7 oz. tube goes a long way.

Thanks for telling me that. I was so nervous about covering the base with more glue, because I thought the glue would prevent the roots from anchoring. I'll write down the E6000 silicone for future refrences. Eventually I want to put another tillandsia on the log since the juncifolia looks lonely.

@drdawg could you please tell me if it is normal for these little ones to look like this at their bottoms? None are in soil, they are on wood, in shells and on pebbles. They are now drying from their soaking, which happens about every two or three weeks...depending on when I remember.







OMG I think they are dying?

Also I noticed some browning of the leaves of this orchid. It has a new growth you can see in the very back of the picture sticking straight up. They just got their soaking. I do mist them but I do not mist my Air Plants. What am I doing wrong?



I fed them all two weeks ago. Used Air Plant fertilizer on APs and Miracle Grow on Orchids.
Other than that they are ignored.

Jacquie, I am no expert here, particularly when it comes to tillandsia. Tillandsia are like any other bromeliad, losing lower leaves as they age and when they go semi-dormant. So those lower leaves don't cause me any alarm. I have a feeling that unless you mount your tillandsia (like I do all of mine), they don't have a way to grow roots. Root growth is simply a way for them to attach to whatever porous material they might be mounted on, just like they do in nature, growing in trees. I have 8-10 varieties mounted on that large slab of cork, and some varieties show root growth and some show little if any. Roots can be awfully fine though, the size of a human hair. The yellowing orchid leaves are perhaps older leaves. If you are seeing new growth, particularly this time of year, your orchid is probably doing fine. Have you noticed any new root growth? Many orchid varieties will be semi-dormant this time of year, and yellowing leaves will begin to be evident. Only when my orchid is a semi-deciduous or deciduous grower, and fall/winter is its dormant period, will I withhold water. Sometimes I will mist the plants occasionally, but some plants won't even get a misting. Without leaves, with few leaves, and in dormancy, the need for water is reduced.

That being said, I would water your plants more often. Your orchid is nothing like a deciduous grower. The orchid is growing in a mesh-pot, and the media would thus dry out more quickly than if growing in solid plastic. I love mesh-pots, believing that this is closer to how they grow in nature, with air movement over the roots and media. Solid plastic does afford them this air-movement but it does hold water longer. The tillandsia have no media/pots whatsoever, so these plants dry really fast, particularly in our heated homes during the fall and winter months. There is not much humidity in our homes. In my opinion, misting every few days would help raise that humidity around individual plants. I would water all your air plants (remember, orchids, staghorn ferns, "typical" bromeliads, and tillandsia are all air-plants) at least weekly, unless they don't look dry (they all should).

In my opinion, Tillandsia fertilizer and orchid fertilizer can be interchangeably used on all your plants. These fertilizers for the most part are very similar to our "regular" water-soluble fertilizers, but should have some micronutrients that are beneficial to air-plants. I basically never quit fertilization unless the plant gets no watering. I do reduce my ratio of 1 tsp. per gallon to 1/2-1/4 tsp. per gallon in the fall and winter months.

JB, if those tillies are mine, I would quite soaking them at this time of the year, and do just some light misting, but with good intervals.

Something I learned with the few orchids I have, during winter, longer dry out periods, except if they are of the Oncidium alliance. I don't have a greenhouse for them, but I just keep them comfy warm with whatever heat we have at home, and water the media directly not the leaves. So easy to invite rotting, if there is no good air movement.

Thank you all for your information. I am not going to worry now. All are fine at this time if your comments are correct. I just did not want to over water this time of year.

@drdawg I have purchased some spagnum moss forms to put the air plants on so they can root, but with this being my busy time here on the farm, I just have not put them on. I also have to find a place to put these spagnum forms since they are larger than I had anticipated. Nothing is easy. I am hoping in another few weeks, after Christmas, I will be able to put them on a more permanent fixture. Then you just soak the form they are attached to. In fact they need to be soaked before they are planted. The orchids are fine. The only thing that had me worried is that one of them has had a change in the leaf, it has gotten like wrinkled and I thought it was not enough water, but that did not change it. The others are smooth leaves.
The plant you see the brown on you can also see the new leaf in the very back growing straight up. That is a new one since it is here. All have new growth coming.


I am out of here now. Have a very Merry Christmas and I will talk again as soon as possible.

Jacquie, I am not sure about those sphagnum moss forms. I mount all my tillandsia straight to the wood mounts without moss. I do use sphagnum moss when I mount orchids and staghorn ferns though. Maybe when you have a break, you can take a photo or two of those moss forms so that I better understand what they are. Another idea for mounting tillandsia (or any other air-plant) is using tree fern plaques. This stuff holds very little water, is light, and doesn't tend to break down. Because of the nature of tree fern, roots attach very quickly and very securely to it. You can hang these plaques or sit them on a flat surface. I typically use cork or other (wild) woods, but occasionally will use tree fern.

drdawg said:Jacquie, I am not sure about those sphagnum moss forms. I mount all my tillandsia straight to the wood mounts without moss. I do use sphagnum moss when I mount orchids and staghorn ferns though. Maybe when you have a break, you can take a photo or two of those moss forms so that I better understand what they are. Another idea for mounting tillandsia (or any other air-plant) is using tree fern plaques. This stuff holds very little water, is light, and doesn't tend to break down. Because of the nature of tree fern, roots attach very quickly and very securely to it. You can hang these plaques or sit them on a flat surface. I typically use cork or other (wild) woods, but occasionally will use tree fern.

I was really upset when I saw the moss forms. They were so much bigger than I expected. I have to have something smaller so if you have a place where I can look at the tree fern plaques or the wood mounts please let me know. I will not be doing anything until after we close and have our Christmas. We are really busy this year. Trees are selling like crazy. We sold over 200 trees in 7 days. Facebook has been a real help in promoting the business. You may want to make a page if you do not have one already. I keep our page going all year with just little posts and it really took off this year. They also offer stores on Facebook. It does not cost anything either. I did very well with the plants on FB too. Talk later. You may want to Tmail me with the info so we do not take up time and space not of any interest to others.

I will send you a T-Mail, Jacquie.

Here are my two newest ones, tenuifolia Emerald Forest and abdita.