Have not been ignoring you @drdawg, things are busy here just now. Family stuff, you know the drill. Plus the weather does not help the old bones.

I must get out in the barn and take a picture of the spag. forms I got that I hate because they are not what I expected, but I have still been doing some research on Tillandsias and I found this article on NGAs Learning Library written by Michael MacCaskey June 23, 2008. He said if not mounted, "immerse the entire plant in water for up to 12 hours every other week or so."
I found that very interesting because many of the growers I have talked to do not leave them soaking that long. I have left new plants, just shipped soak over night, but once they have settled in, I do not soak them that long. It is so difficult for a new grower to know what to do and finally I throw up my hands and as I always told people who bought my plants, "this is the way I do it and it worked for me, but you need to find a way that it works for you"....therefore, I am going to do what I think is making my plants happier. Done. Have a great day!

I have never left a plant, regardless of the plant, soaking for 12 hrs. Not even an hour. There are all kinds of "experts", but for me at least, I try to mimic the conditions that my plants live in when out in nature. I know of no tillandsia, staghorn fern, orchid, or bromeliad that has any growing condition that mimics a 12 hour emersion under water. All of these plants are epiphytic, the so called "Air Plants" (actually, the tillandsia is a bromeliad). You know I have grown epiphytic plants by the thousands and you probably know that I have a good deal of success growing them.

I do try to water my epiphytes that are inside at least once a week (more frequently when they are outside during the spring and summer months), but that's either a drenching from a sprinkler-hose or in a sink. I might immerse them in a sink for 5-10 minutes, but because I have so many plants to get watered, 5 minutes is more likely the maximum time of immersion. I can only tell you what I do and what I do is generally not based on anyone else's recommendations, only my own experiences. That's not to say I don't ask about growing new varieties (particularly those that require a dormant period), but even then, I develop my own way of growing.

My mom's friend gave me a 4 ft tall snowman decoration. It was falling apart so I took off all the fabric and I'm thinking of using at least one of them for air plants.
Here's the head of the snowman, which will probably be the only part I use since the others are 1 and 2 ft. tall.

Folks grow tillandsia on all sorts of material, Cameron. Even though I have tillandsia that are well-rooted to their wood mounts, the mounting material is only there for anchorage. In the case of metal or glass, the roots won't anchor (or at least minimally) but the plant will still live. It simply has to be tied to the mount long-term.

I'll probably use the cage just as a way to hold larger tillandsias even if they don't root into the wire. I just thought they looked decorative and I wanted to recycle the metal.

I just bought some e6000 so I'm going to use that to attach a couple of tillandsias to the cholla log they're currently attached too by wire. The Liquid Nails was a failure so hopefully the e6000 will work?

The 6000 will work. When it dries, it is really tough as nails.

OK great. I can't wait to try it.

I survived the 5 days of rain which included the nor'easter and I am pleased to announce that my air plants are showing signs of growing and looking really great. I have not soaked them during the past two weeks because of lack of sunshine. I felt maybe they would not be happy without good light for so long. I did however, mist them a few times when they showed signs of possible need. I am so pleased to be able to see signs of progress.

Jacquie

I think Tillies are sensitive to a certain metal, but I can't remember which one. Unless I'm thinking of another plant.

You don't want to use copper with plants.

Ken,
That's it!

We were quite windy yesterday and this afternoon I was walking around the yard and found this Tillie on the ground beneath an oak tree ... don't know if it blew out or if an animal knocked it out.

I think it's Tillandsia setacea (Southern Needleleaf)

Yep.

plantladylin said:We were quite windy yesterday and this afternoon I was walking around the yard and found this Tillie on the ground beneath an oak tree ... don't know if it blew out or if an animal knocked it out.

I think it's Tillandsia setacea (Southern Needleleaf)

Wow that's so neat Lin. I'm getting a Southern Needleleaf next week. I found more pieces of cedar branches so I'll use those for mounts.

As far as I know, this one is fairly common here in Florida. When we had our trees trimmed last summer there were tons of them on the ground that went out with other yard debris.