A flower worth the long wait!

This bromeliad has been sitting on my office window for almost 2 years. There are 2 plants in the pot. I bought it when about to flower. The narrow green leaves grow in a rosette with bright pink bracts densely overlapping, where the violet-blue flowers emerge. The bright colors stayed for a few weeks. The pink bracts are still there many more days after the flowers die. It only receives morning sun seeping through the closed glass window, plus water which i put directly to the apex.

Later on i cut the drying mother plants leaving 2 growing plantlets calle pups. It's been almost 2 years now and the pink bracts are not arriving just yet. I am getting impatient, so tried to learn from literatures, which i hadn't thought of earlier on. Just watering them seems to be fine. It says this is the only Tillandsia known to be grown in a pot, and really takes 2-3 years to bloom.

Maybe i have not been treating it rightly. Since it is from the forest of Ecuador it has to receive moisture just enough directly through the leaves, and not direct to the roots. Whew, at least it did not die of drowning. Further, it has to be fed once a month with foliar fertilizer, but i dont have it. So starting from now, i dilute complete fertilizer (15-15-30) and sprayed it. Now i am at peace, maybe 6 more months and my waiting will be over.

For a very profuse growth please look at this  photo, and for plant care try   this.

Tillandsia cyanea 'Pink Quill'

I would also like to enter this for Blooming Friday hosted by Katarina of Roses and Stuff. Thank you very much Katarina, as there are now a few souls who visit my posts. I hope i have given you some vivid colors of the tropics, which can warm you a little during these cold months.

Back to the Galore, Bromeliads

I am posting foliages today! You might already be saturated with flowers, especially my hedges, Vanda orchids,  Cattleya orchids and   unusual orchid species. So here are the leaves...Bromeliads.

The Bromeliad Family is composed of several genera, including the moss, Tillandsia  and the pineapple, Ananas. Color of the leaves are so varied that gives spectacular designs, which make them very good accents in the garden. The flowers are also colorful that vary greatly from the colors of the leaves.

Since most of the bromeliads originated from the dense forests in Latin America, they need to be moist most of the time. They are normally seen with water at the shoot apex to keep them moist. Maybe it is designed like that to really keep more water even if the environment is already dry.

I am just showing a little sample here because i still cannot make collages to accomodate more species. How i wish i can learn fast as Jacqui already put in her blog tutorials. I am sorry i still cannot just sit and learn the art of making collages.
 

 I still have a lot of Bromeliad photos of different colors, but maybe i will put them in part II, because cannot be accomodated here.