Tillandsia House Air Plants Lichens
 

Believe it is best to put all my tillandsia questions & info into 1 thread.

My plants at present that have adapted to my growing area will be listed below. Am on a salt water, waterfront block in the sub-tropics.

The Tillandsia's that have been chosen to grow-on in some numbers. Tillandsia's are hard to come by in Australia. They are not native for us here.

T. bergeri

T. bulbosa

T. butzii

T. caerulea

T. cotton candy

T. crocata

T. dura

T. funcikana (both a small form and large form)

T. ionantha V ionantha, ruba, califano, mexicana

T. mallemontii

T. plagiotropica

T.paleace (small form & large form)

T. streptophylla

T. stricta

T. tenuifolla

T. tricoholepsis

T. usneoides ( have found 5 plants that will grow here. They are thick stems type. Many types have failed living here.)

There are plenty of other tilly's that are growing nicely in the Tillandsia House.

Nice list!

Some images inside tillandsia house.

The middle shelving and roof mesh for hanging.

http://i.imgur.com/lUBl4OX.jpg

Side shelving

http://i.imgur.com/4FRtnjg.jpg?1

What I am using to position cuttings and divisions that I am wanting to grow-on by hanging them.

The small peg are from China the sizes are 25mm or 1" and 35mm or 1" 3/8"

The wire is stainless steel and is found in cake decorating.

Also using a stainless steel swivel also from China. So as to stop the plant growing into a sun bias shaped plant.

http://i.imgur.com/DN4h3FL.jpg

Looks really good. The biggest clump I ever saw was T. paleacea at The Plant Man in Old Town San Diego. It was at least six feet high and three feet across, swinging on a chain with three inch links. (1.82 meters x 0.9 meters, 7.6cm links)

Really like the T. paleacea . My large form is still very small. Amazing that these plants, in the right place, grow so big.

Am so pleased I got my T. paleacea plants before the Aus boarders got shut down to Tillandsia's. They are expensive now. A small cutting from the large form selling for $10 sadly.

This is my last harvest from a largish ball of T.bergeri. The cuttings were a small size and they were cut last OCT 2016 and they grown strongly. This is 3rd T.bergeri harvest.

http://i.imgur.com/IZTk7ux.jpg

This is a T.ionantha mexicana harvested. Started with separating some pups a month ago with no hassles over the last 3 to 4 weeks. So 5 days ago took over 100 pups from 25 plants. The top left is the parent plants. Am hoping some will pup again. Their is still a strong 4 months more of the growing season to come. So if they are going to pup again I figure now's the time to find out. The bottom left is same plants that are still in pup just to see what happens to plant heath and happiness by leaving them to clump up . This is my 1st harvest of this plant.

http://i.imgur.com/203q5lC.jpg

Tillandsia incarnata is the one plant I have had heaps of trouble with when it comes to the so called easy growers.

Have google searched for the symptoms. They are the stem dies back from the base up and totally kills the whole plant. Can not find anything about this at all. Hoping someone can help me here.

Have had to water once a day. They are separated from all my other plants. Possibly got sun burnt and the damage has taken some time to show up. It was a really tough 3 months never at night went under 26c or 80f to day time constantly not under 36c or 98f with total humidity.

Tillandsias have CAM metabolism, and open their pores to breathe at night. If nights are too hot they can't breathe and collapse. The same thing happens with other CAM plants like Crassula and Echeveria. My experience has been they won't survive more than a night or two of 85 F / 28C.

Interesting about tilly's need to breath at night. Sounds like you have an answer for the T. incarnata losses.

All others tilly's have coped very well. Most hot nights have a cooling breeze or cooling takes place some hour before dawn and some hours after dawn.

A temp difference of 10c or 18f from night to day makes us more the sub-tropics with cooling coastal winds from the N/E & S/E is more the norm. It is a warmer place through the colder months which is very nice as well. The growth in the tilly's has been amazing over this hot time. The tilly.s are loving it now having two wall being open to the cooling breezes blowing straight onto them.

The Tillandsia flexuosa var vivipara arrived last week.

My 1st attempt to grow this shape type plant. The type that need a pot to stand up straight.

Holding the plants in position we have two lines (braided) next to each other and using them to hold up rows of plants and it seems to be working very well.
There will be 3 different rows of line.

T. flexuosa var vivipara

http://i.imgur.com/0SoCO9h.jpg

Tillandsia & orchids seem to grow better in groups of the same plants.

Makes them great for landscaping.

Image 4th March 2017

http://i.imgur.com/5wCPC7l.jpg


Image today 1st May 2017. Basically the above plants in the image are 2 months and below is the currant way they look today. The parent plants are all growing more pups and looks to be the winner out of taking the pups off early or just keep letting them grow on ,on the parent plants.

http://i.imgur.com/KXxZfTJ.jpg

Got a 18 month update from the only commercial Tillandsia grower in Australia. Some of my email.

Questions: Are we any closer to getting Tillandsia imports back into Australia? How is the process to getting Tillandsia's back into an importable position again?Is it possible for me to have a reasonable plan(next couple of years) to buy Tillandsia imported pups again at wholesale prices?

Part of the email reply.

The only person that is across this situation in detail, other than the owner, is me – and I work at both locations.

Sorry, but DAFF will not answer obvious anomalies in their interpretation that Tillandsias have been infected by xylella when in fact no infected plants have been found. It does not look as though DAFF are going to address this, and the question on when & if is not possible to answer. But my guess is that they will not bend. So I think this current situation will continue into the future – with no end in sight.

My personal approach update.

Tillandsia's (air plants) had 95% of the market in Australia came out of the Americas. A bacteria called xylella has stopped this import in Australia indefinitely. No sign of the government ban ever lifting.

There is only one commercial grower of these plants in Australia and the price has basically only gone up by 50% but this has stopped the traditional sellers from buying these plants. It looks like I am the only person buying commercial amounts from this only one selling source. I can see this situation is holding the price of these plants down because others are no longer in the market. So the sellers that were use to buying at the lower prices have just stopped buying and selling them.

My angle is to grow on Tillandsia pups into mature Tillandsia plants. In all my focused plant growing areas are where there is a shortage of mature plants but there are some tillys that suit me to sell as pups. Have picked out some of the best growers here and am focusing on them as being my targeted mature plants.

I need to repeat the stock I have grown on and broken them down and the pups purchased this year. I need to keep the same amount of stock plants rolling on for the next 2 years.

Tillandsia funckiana the small form is a very strong health easy to grow plant here. The large form grows strongly here but is prone to die back from the base of the plant. This is common and does not lead to the plants death. Still growing these plant but not in large numbers.

In the mostly colder areas of Australia this small form plant is very slow growing but not here.

The small form has been selected as one of the target tillandsia's of great growing importance for me here with my climate.

After much experimenting the best way for cost of getting as many plants to grow on as possible is to take a 2 1/2" or 6.5cm cutting and by twisting it in a around direction around the stem I can get 5 to 6 health small plants from a single cutting.

If you cut the same size cutting and divide it with secateurs it is only possible to get 2 healthy cuttings.

Now that I have more experience with growing Tillandsia's and knowing for a fact that the Tillandsia import ban into Australia has no end in sight makes the decision to add 50% more shelving to Tillandsia House upper most in my mind. The timber ordered materials are due to arrived very soon. Still have shade cloth and aged gal wire netting on hand as left overs from the original project that will finish this extension.

The extra shelving with increase better growing areas for the very different growing needs for the many Tillandsia's that are being growing on.

The top rated Tillandsia's for growing on is the small form funckiana and equal top place is ionantha mexicana. Two extremely vigorous grower here. Next group is bergeri, caulescens, cotton candy, houston, mallemonti, ionantha ionantha, paleacea small form, plagiotropica, stricta, stricta amethyst, tenufolia emerald forest, tricholepsis and the last group has many in it but getting numbers is hard thing to do but I will mention one that I very much like and am really hoping the 20 plants will give me some numbers in time is Tillandsia crocata a lovely little silvery plant with yellow flowers that are highly fragrant with a cinnamon scent.

Learn how to grow them from seed... maybe sometime in the future it will be possible to import seed, if not plants.

Very interesting estación seca. Thank you! Seeds have slipped my mind. I will now be collecting seed. Need to start researching seeds and clones being the how and why.

Have had some success with the seed from butzii but after 3 years they are about 3/16" or 3mm. Have about 200 to 300 of them. Hard to count them they are in a large bright green ball type shape.

Am going to make contact with the ex wholesale nursery that still has a huge variety of Tillandsia's at hand to see what they are doing with seed and flasks plus possible obtain their help and guidance.

Got some flask size clones of fasciculata with orange yellow flowers about 3 years ago and lost half. Extremely hard to grow from flasks size here but have 200 or so plants that are about 4" or 100mm in size.

Time to get some clones happening as well. 3 to 5 years is now a senseable time frame to be working in for Tillandsia stock in Australia now.

In the back of my mind I really thought that in 2 more years I would be buying Tillandsia pups at wholesale prices again. Just have to accept the now situation.

Flasks? People I know sow them on moss-wrapped branches and keep them moist.

By the way, I've looked at a lot of Tillandsia seedlings in habitat. Almost all sprout on the undersides of branches. Then they grow around and up. This lets them sprout and grow in shade for a while, even in hot, sunny areas.

I suspect they blow to a damp branch on their parachute, stick because of water surface tension, and slide around to the underside when more dew or rain falls. Then they sprout.

Wow estación seca.

It looks like Tillandsia seed is not a banned import into Australia by Effective as of: 16 June 2016 import permitted seeds list.

The ban on Tillandsia's plants started Nov 2015.

Now how am I going to find the best tillys to grow from seed?

So the area under my shelving (the floor) looks to be a good place to grow from seed.

---------- Post added at 12:48 AM ---------- Previous post was at 12:14 AM ----------

Finding out very quickly Tillandsia seeds are very hard to buy.

Looking at China based seed rip offs!

Anybody got any Tillandsia seed sourcing info to buy?

Contact commercial Tillandsia growers in the US. They may be willing to sell it. They know they can't sell you plants. Most of them are very friendly, and probably glad to help set up Tillandsia commerce in Australia.

Also make contacts with gardeners and university biology students in areas where they are native.

Many enthusiasts here in the US get seed regularly, but daddy will be unknown. The bromeliad societies may have seed exchanges.

Does anybody know whether Tillandsias set seed in parts of the world without hummingbirds?

Thank you very much for taking the time to help estación seca. Have ordered some small cotton drawstring bags to catch my own seed. Should have them by the end of the week. Have so many different tillys in flower at present. Some that I really want in more numbers.

Can anyone tell me about a Tillandsia grower that I might get a response from when it comes to seed.

Not so many USA Tillandsia sellers showing up in my searches like I did some time ago.

Have sent an email to:

Plantaflora...........Thank you for inquiry but at this time I don’t have any seed to send over as I am short for myself.

Tillandsia International

Russell's Bromeliads.......I am sorry to say that I do not know of any sources for Tillandsia
seeds. If I come across a source I will keep you in mind.

Plant In The Air.........Replied No Seed.

Aleya Garden............. We are also looking for these seeds ! but have not found sellers yet !

Tropiflora. Dennis Cathcart, owner, might be able to give you contacts for seed from South America.

Do you get seed without human intervention? If so, what is pollinating them?

Thank you estación seca.

Email sent. Tropaflora....We grow our stock from offsets. We recommend you try contacting some Guatemalan tillandsia suppliers like Zion Nursery or Toucan Exporters.
Best of luck!

They do look and sound like a very good contact. Very nice reply.

estación seca as for Tillandsia seed viability I have butzii growing from seed and schedeanais. EDIT to add have tricholepsis growing from seed about two years old 3/16" or 3mm about 50 plants.

Because most of the "Tillandsia world" grows tillandsia's by division and the people who are looking for that very special hybrid are the only ones who seems to have the info on seeds this is making my searches a little harder than normal.

Also believe I am one of the 1st to break into the very slow growing world of tillandsia'a by seed or cloning in Australia. Looks like most growers have just stopped their tillandsia's and moved more into the true Bromeliads or others or not at all.


Stricta seed pods look to of had seed but I have missed collecting the seed so far as for others as well but cotton bags coming very soon to fix this issue hopefully.

Am about to find out about seed with stricta, stricta amethyst, tricolour, junciea, caulescens, crocata, butzii.

Am still looking for tillandsia's that are able to get sowable seed from. Understand some are self pollinating before the flower opens and some that the male parts set a different times so a group of the same plant fertilise each other because they all flower at slightly different times. Some others that can only be cross pollinated because they have no male parts. I am a very much a beginner at all this.

Sent a email to a Cloning Laboratory in Australia and got this reply.

"Many years ago I used to clone lots of bromeliads including Tillandsias however when plants started entering Australia by the container load I could not compete with the cost. I have not done any Tillandsias for several years.

You are correct, Tillandsias can take a long time to grow by tissue culture however it is still faster than growing from seed. No one else has asked about Tillandsias recently only some other bromeliads.

I can clone some Tillandsias for you. I clone Tillandsias from immature flower spikes so you do not endanger your stock plant however culturing is not always successful.

The cost is $55.00 to set up the clone inc gst and then $2.20 per plant inc gst with a minimum order of 100 clones."

Nice reply!
This is very obtainable price wise so long as you only pay for plant that survive the cloning process.

Looks like a language barrier is happening with my contacting into the South Americas.

Then it comes to me that my daughter has been working with the Chilean children for 6 years now.

The man she is to marry next year is a really nice person and is very switched on when it comes to computers and has the ability to speak very good English and my daughter can write and speak Chilean quite well to boot.

So I am handing the issue of obtaining Tillandsia seed to the both of them.

Will send them a detailed email concerning Tillandsia's and Australia's needs.

Here's hoping.kg5

It is never too late to learn a new language, especially one that will make commerce easier in the future. It helps develop all sorts of new brain cells that will also help grow orchids and Tillandsias better.

T. ionantha x ionantha

http://i.imgur.com/ebeLd5u.jpg

Reply email. Very nice one from a Australian!

Hi John,
Join the club mate. Every one is now doing similar and are chasing seeds. i do get some extra from time to time but send them to Eric in Holland as he runs a seed bank at Brom-L Seed. You could also join the Australian Bromeliad Society and get access to their seed bank or join the Bromeliad Society International and get access to their seed bank. People are reluctant to send seed by Aust Post now as it has got expensive. Members of the Queensland Bromeliad Society, and Gold Coast Society tend to share among themselves so really it is best to join a few societies and join in the fun
Regards Greg

Some T. butzii plants from seed.

http://i.imgur.com/4vB6cNI.jpg

Trying to catch my seed with cotton drawstring bags on T. stricta amethyst.

http://i.imgur.com/SbpIzD3.jpg

T. bulbosa is a tricky plant to get a seed collecting bag around it.

http://i.imgur.com/WmSO0XH.jpg

Have just got the cotton bags over the flowers of T. stricta amethyst in time. Have got some seed which is my 1st collected Tillandsia seed.

Just covered the rest of the T. stricta amethyst flowers.

Two uncovered flowers seeded last night and their seeds were still near the plants flower. In the corner of T. stricta amethyst shelf is a spiders web full of trapped seed.

This is a great new step for me. Now I am a seed collector.

Tillandsia. stricta amethyst is the pick of the stricta's for me. It has a bronze colour with the dark green and is a bigger plant that has great shape with larger, well shaped, showy flowers.

Tillandsia stricta is a nice plant as well but it does not have the same shape and is a much smaller plant and the flower are smaller as well but it does produce more pups and flowers more often here than the other stricta's.

No wonder it has been a popular plant for the hybrid people.

The T. ionantha's image as in full flower before taking the seed from them.

http://i.imgur.com/D3MdL9V.jpg


As the flowers began to wilt could see the seed starting to come away so I pulled all the flowers out and have put them into a cotton bag to dry out. Just to see how well this works for seed collecting. Afterwards my fingers were peppery as I touched my mouth with them and found out. It quickly spread into my whole mouth.

http://i.imgur.com/oqwjrEa.jpg

I didn't know the flowers had a bite. Good predator protection.

I'm confused by your last post... are you harvesting seed or pollen?

It takes the seed pod months to ripen after the flowers fade. Next time let the flowers fall off on their own. If the flower was pollinated, a small, narrow and pointed tubular structure will gradually grow from the center of the calyx. This is the developing fruit. When it is ripe it will turn very dark brown or black, and be very shiny. As the color changes you can cover with the bags. The fruit splits into three parts, exposing the seeds and their parachutes.

Thank you estación seca.

The flowers showed black/grey parachutes already on some flowers that is why I thought I was on track but not so.

Have broken open the wilted flowers to find the seed as described but a lot of immature looking seeds that have white deformed looking parachutes.

We live and learn. Picked a seed that I would not be upset experimenting with so as to get the idea of collecting seed.

Am reading that some seeds loose the viability when the pod bursts. So they cut the immature seed pod opened and this seed was viable for some Tillandsia's.

Very confusing, reading heaps. Will get it to work but time is need.And a helping hand as well thank you.

Finally found a search that opened up the whole world of Tillandsia seeds.

Mr Google Search : "Tillandsia Seed Storage". Simple as that!

This is T. plagiotropica and they flowered maybe as much as 4 months ago. The seed pods appear to be full, hard as, and not opened at all.

How do I harvest the seed from this type of seed pod?


http://i.imgur.com/kk9DogJ.jpg

This is my growing stock of T. plagiotropica and almost all have swollen seed pods attached. So there are enough plants for some experimenting to take place any ideas?

http://i.imgur.com/eEBrpk0.jpg

When they're close to opening they turn from green to brown or near black. They open during dry spells. I think the three fruit valves come under tension as they dry out, then pop open suddenly. This leads to the parachutes being as dry and fluffy as possible when the fruits open.

I don't know how far before natural capsule opening the seeds are viable. In some kinds of plants the seeds are viable long before fruits open (orchids), and in others they are not viable until the last second (Burseraceae: Boswellia, Bursera, Commiphora.)

We are at our coldest now. With temps around 50f or 10c & 72f or 22c.

Have not watered the Tillandsia's or Staghorns for 3 weeks now.

Lots of different swollen seed pods but still have not collected any seed.

All the plants are still growing. The Stags are really enjoying having no water. Lots of grow leaves budding. The Tillandsia's are all looking great also.

We had some very unseasonable rain. The Tillandsia's have a hard roof so no worries. The Stag really did not like the cold wet as they are in the open but now all is good.

The Tillandsias at my mom's house get those temperatures all winter. Sometimes colder at night. They don't mind the (some years) substantial winter rain. If you have a warm spell I think it would be good to water the Tillandsias in the winter, if you know they will dry in a day or so.

Many get a long dry winter in habitat but I don't think they need that. The ones from Florida and the Caribbean get rain all year.

Thank you estación seca.

Today was a hotter day so I have watered the Tillandsia's at 12pm, 1pm & 1.30pm. They were dryish again at 5pm so tonight's temps will not be in the wet cold zone.

There is a storm coming it's 7pm so watering the Tillandsia's turns out to be perfect timing. They are soaking up the nitrogen's etc in the storm air & the dampness in the air as well.

Winter storms are not common here!

So now after using photobucket for over 12 years for no cost but to put up with their adds they now want $400 per year to support my forum image postings. I belong to a lot of forums......

Not happy!