The masterpieces of color at sunset on the first of March.

A few more shots...

Wow, those are all gorgeous, Scott!

All just beautiful, Scott, all so clean, I'm still fighting leaves here, now the live oaks are filling my bromeliads, they're the hardest to get out of the centers.

Lots of blooming bromeliads in my garden right now...

I'm just curious @ScotTi, estimate how many individual bromeliad plants that you think you have?

Gina, I estimate named and unidentified Bromeliads 150-200.
Is there a 5 step addiction program?
Here is a peek at the 3 new named Neo. pups added to the collection yesterday.

Here is a update on the solid color offspring removed from Neo 'Yang'. It has produced its first pup and has held the coloration of mom.

Mine are not as pretty as yours at this time of the year...I have yet to start the bed cleanup, but here are a few that have been out in the flowerbeds for years
This is Bil Georgia (I think), its some lady's name, it may be 'Louise', but this is one of the hardiest Bils I have ever seen. Its growing against a 3 ft retaining wall with one of my many 'probably an Ae Blanchietta' plants


And this is a nearby clump of said unknown. I have them everywhere. Front, back, by the pool....you can see how large they can get, well on the scale of a normal blanchettiana

And a few high color Neos by the walkway



Bil rosea blooming by the back door



And a stand of them under the azaleas by the pool

ScotTi said:Gina, I estimate named and unidentified Bromeliads 150-200.
Is there a 5 step addiction program?

Please keep me posted if you have any success with intervention

Everyboy's broms look fabulous and Scott, yours really do look so clean all the time. I am envious.

Not that I can ever be accused of using one often enough but a large Kelly Clamp is great for getting the tiny Live Oak leaves out of the thorny deep throats of bromeliads. This one is about 12"long.

I've got some of those, and they do work well. I pick things out of my cactus with them.

I use those in my beadwork. But I use a leaf blower to clean up the broms LOL

Waykoolplantz said:

Please keep me posted if you have any success with intervention

I was tempted today when I went to get paint for the house.
I went to check out the garden center and this one caught my eye.
If it is a Neoregelia it's a new one to me, but my thoughts went to it actually being Aechmea 'Mend'.



I do know the label is wrong.



If I really believed it was a Neoregelia it would have joined the cart of paint. 😂

I think you need to go back. It is a pretty one!

plantmanager said:I think you need to go back. It is a pretty one!

Here is A. 'Mend' in the garden for comparison.

Yeah, you don't need to go back, you already have that one and it is chock full of pups.

ScotTi said:Gina, I estimate named and unidentified Bromeliads 150-200.
Is there a 5 step addiction program?
Here is a peek at the 3 new named Neo. pups added to the collection yesterday.

Scott, what is the far left Neo. with the dark spotches?

Scott, I agree that isn't 'Tricolor Perfecta' I do think Mend, and price is way too high.

I use the leaf blower for my large in ground and potted bromeliads, agaves, and aloes, works pretty good. The smaller potted plants I use a little set of tongs, kind of in my back pocket all the time...on going job this time of year. Sometimes I just take the hose to a plant and wash all the tree debris out of it, in fact that is one of my Spring day projects once the last leaves fall from the trees....Then the dog gets a bath. LOL.

I'm surely a bromeliad addict, I've been trying really hard to walk on by a new bromeliad...it's hard...really hard.


My three year old Neo. 'Zoe'

I tend to be a lot more apt to buy them when I am at either Tropiflora or a garden festival that has some nice and unusual ones. The box stores here do have them (as does every other grocery store, Trader Joe, Freshmarket, Publix, etc they have the mass produced Guzmanias and Neos) none of them have anything I want.
I don't tend to buy by 'cultivar' or species name, I buy by the looks of the plant, but the ones available here are a far cry from what ScotTi seems to see everyday just sitting around. I Have Ae Mend somewhere, bought it years ago, its floating around the yard in some nook or cranny.

Sherri, I used to have a 'Zoe' that looked just like yours. Sadly, like me, it got old and woody so I am starting over with some young pups.