Hi, just curious as to when this plant will die? I bought it in bloom late last year and found out they die afterwards, there where no pups visible so I just left it in its usual place to die! the flower has been dead for about 9 months now so I removed the dried up parts last week but left the bract intact, the plant still looks fine the leaves are still strong and the vase still gets filled! Is this normal and it'll still die or could there be pups hiding somewhere?

1st pic purchased november 2015

2nd pic today
3rd pic ...

Udate:
Ok I think I found 3 pups wish I had payed more attention earlier! After hearing they where monocarpic I didn't do anymore research.
Gave it a little clean up today and found 3 little growths like the one in the pic hiding in the debris inside the lower leaves! I didnt know the bract had to be removed either lol. Dunno if its too late or not but I'll give it a go and try salvage something!

On most broms the adult plant usually doesn't die until it has made a baby or two. I was going to suggest checking carefully under and inside the lowest leaves, but you obviously already did. Well done!

Once you turn on your heating this fall, you might think of spritzing the whole plant with a little plain water or a very dilute pinch of fertilizer in a sprayer bottle. They love humidity and the leaves will stay looking nicer for a longer time if you "rain" on it a little bit. Pups will grow a tad faster with a tiny bit of fertilizer as well. I spray my broms maybe once a month with my orchid fertilizer (just because I'm out there spraying the orchids anyway).

Thanks elaine much appreciated! I'll maybe give it a little fertilizer today I've never gave it any before. It normally sits beside a small fishtank with a few leaves resting on the lid so hopefully humidity shouldn't be a prob. It does get the odd mistin also Maybe not as much as it should! Shame really.. this plant has been neglected all year.

I learned today !!!
Never grown one before. I thought they died after they bloomed. Cool maybe i try one know. But ! Know . Do you take the babies off and start em ? Or leave em grow in same pot ?
We live in same 8a zone. You growin any veges ? 😎😎😎

:thankyou:
I don't know philip I think you leave them till their about a third the size of the mother then you can repot! Maybe someone with experience can elaborate!

Tried growin veg but my garden backs onto a forest and the slugs are unstoppable! I planted about 30 sunflowers this year and only 1 is still standing I do have a potted curly kale but I wouldn't eat it!

Yea most of the UK and Ireland are 8 or 9 but thats just min winter temps, we have lower summer temps, shorter growing season and lower light levels than the same zones in the U.S so we can't grow alot of the plants that you can! Our growing conditions are more like that of zone 4 or 5!

I feel your pain, Sy. I am originally from British Columbia, so a similar climate to yours and designated zone 8. Tells you how much the zone designations mean - very little. Here in Florida I am zone 9 and it's a whole different world.

Philip, you would leave the pups attached to the mother plant until they are a good size, or until the mother plant dies off completely. (but it gets a bit unsightly as it does this.) I haven't grow Vriesea specifically but my other broms just expand and multiply out in the garden for me, and I clean up the dead bodies of their parents as needed. For an indoor plant, you'd cut or pull off the leaves as they die to keep it looking ok. Then where you had one rosette of leaves, you will have 3 or 4 in the pot. Bromeliads are plants that feed through their leaves so as long as the pot they're in "contains" them reasonably displayed you can leave them growing in one pot for years. The roots mainly serve to hold the plant in place.

More good info elaine!
I now see that what I thought was a bloom was just the flower spike! Mine never opened and produced those beautiful plumes I see in pictures

I don't know if this is the right place to post this message, but here goes.

I have 2 bromelaids, gifts from different people and from different nurseries.
I do not know the sub-type.

One is bright yellow and the other is bright red.
Both have one center stalk with a fairly tight arrangement of leaves forming something akin to a flame or end of a spear.

I have not found any pictures of what I am seeing.
My question is this, both are developing these shoots from the tips of all the colored leaves.
Are these going to be flowers or something else?

Thanks