Bromeliads

 This week “In the Garden with UC Master Gardeners” on 88.9 FM KUCI Irvine explores the captivating world of bromeliads.  In this episode, Master Gardener Bill Brooks sits down with Cristy Brenner, President of the Saddleback Valley Bromeliad Society, who shares her deep passion and decades of experience with these unique and eye-catching plants. Brenner, who has been “addicted” to bromeliads since 1995, offers listeners an engaging look at why these plants are gaining popularity—especially among California gardeners.

Bromeliads are exceptionally well-suited for California’s climate. As waterwise plants, they thrive with minimal irrigation, making them an excellent choice for sustainable landscapes. Their long-lasting blooms provide extended color, but it is often their striking foliage—featuring bold patterns, textures, and colors—that truly steals the show.

Listeners will learn about the remarkable epiphytic nature of many bromeliads, meaning they can grow without soil by attaching themselves to surfaces like trees, walls, or mounts. Whether displayed in pots, nestled in rock gardens, or artistically mounted, bromeliads offer versatile design possibilities for any garden space.

Beyond their beauty, bromeliads are also incredibly easy to care for. They are low maintenance, have few pest problems, and require little to no fertilizer, as they absorb nutrients directly from the air. Even more appealing, bromeliads “keep on giving” by producing offsets, or “pups,” allowing gardeners to expand their collection over time.

Discover how bromeliads can transform your garden into a low-water, high-impact oasis.

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Welcome to another edition of In the Garden with your host, Phil Brooks, University of California Master Gardener. Some bromeliads flower, and some bromeliad flowers last many months, depending upon the age of the plant. Since they require such minimal care, even the most novice gardeners can enjoy these long-lasting blooms. Another thing I wanted to mention too, they're very water wise for Southern California. They don't require a lot of water, even though they're a tropical plant. So talking with us about bromeliads today is Christy Brenner of the Saddleback Valley Bromeliad Society. Welcome, Christy. Please tell us a little about yourself and a little bit about your interest in bromeliads.

SPEAKER_00 0:40

Okay. Years ago I had one or two bromeliads, but didn't really know much about them. About almost 32 years ago, I moved to Orange County to teach geography at Saddleback College. And one year later, another professor came up to me and said, Hey, would you like to go to a bromeliad meeting tonight? And I wasn't really that sure what they were very much. And I went and I have not missed a meeting since, unless I was out of the country, usually chasing bromeliads through some South American or Central American country. I've done probably about 15 uh bromeliad trips at least. It has been the most wonderful thing for my life because now I'm retired and it keeps me busy. I just love these plants so much.

SPEAKER_01 1:33

So is it pronounced bromeliad or bromelid?

SPEAKER_00 1:37

It's definitely not bromelade. Okay.

SPEAKER_01 1:41

So we're going to go with bromeliad is the correct pronunciation. Yes. And bromeliads are taxonomically classified in the family bromeliaceae. It's a huge family of plants. And what makes these plants so unique?

SPEAKER_00 1:57

Well, first of all, there are 81 different genera. Wow. Okay. And eight subfamilies. And they're not just tropical, they range from sea level in the Caribbean islands and Central America and South America on up to 14,000 feet in the Andes in Peru. Now, Peru is still in the tropics, but 14,000 feet isn't exactly warm. So they come from all different kinds of environments from tropical rainforest to extremely dry desert climates. So there's a lot of variety, and you can find plants that fit your garden, basically.

SPEAKER_01 2:40

So that works, and we have a Mediterranean climate in Southern California. So a lot of these plants will grow well here. And we're going to talk about the uniqueness of water, but you don't bromeliads don't take their water through their roots as much as they do through their cups. So that makes them a waterwise plant as well, as I understand it.

SPEAKER_00 3:02

Yes, many of them are very water wise. But again, there's so much variety. Some of them are strictly terrestrial, and some of them are what are called mesic. They actually grow on the rainforest floor in very rich soil, and they need a lot of humidity and a lot of moisture. But most of us do not grow those, and we certainly don't usually grow them outside. And I think you asked me what makes a bromeliad a bromeliad.

SPEAKER_01 3:30

Uh-huh.

SPEAKER_00 3:30

Basically, that the flower has three petals.

SPEAKER_01 3:35

I see. Okay.

SPEAKER_00 3:36

But the variety is tremendous. You have everything from the airplants, the Talansias, to the plant that grows in the Andes that is 10 feet in diameter with a flower inflorescent stalk that is 30 feet tall with thousands of flowers on it. Okay.

SPEAKER_01 3:55

And that's amazing. And again, the blooms last an awful long time. So we'll talk about some of the genera today, but I don't think we have time for all the different types of plants in this family. We'll focus on the common bromeliads that grow well inside and outside in Southern California. So let's start with goosmania, because that may be what people are familiar with. These are brightly colored bromeliads you find in just about all supermarkets and garden centers. I've seen them in red and yellow and pink and burgundy colors, just to name a few. Do gozmania live inside or outside, or both in Southern California?

SPEAKER_00 4:34

Well, first of all, it depends on where you live. If you live at the beach, close to the beach, you can grow a large variety of bromeliads, including gousmanias outside. They are usually from the supermarket, and it's usually the first plant that anybody has.

SPEAKER_01 4:52

Right.

SPEAKER_00 4:52

And it kind of gives bromeliads a bad name because they come from the tropical rainforest, and they're one plant that doesn't multiply well unless you have really good conditions. All right. So most of us do not even grow goosemanias because we grow them outside. I'm a little too far inland. I'm in Mission Viejo, although we have not gotten frost now in about the last, I don't know, eight or nine years, but still they need uh more shade. They're a wonderful houseplant. They last for months. So the ones that you get in the supermarket are really houseplants. But there are thousands, literally thousands of other bromeliads that will grow outside in your garden, some in the sun, some in the shade. And many of them, I think, as you mentioned, are water-wise.

SPEAKER_01 5:37

So the goosmanias, they're they're going to be subject to the cool more so than the heat.

SPEAKER_00 5:45

Yes, they they don't like it cold. Well, they don't like it too hot either. Hot and humid. They grow in the rainforest in the tropics.

SPEAKER_01 5:52

So keep it humid if you have them outdoors. So these the colored blooms that you found on bromeliads are actually called bracts. So what's a bract?

SPEAKER_00 6:02

Okay. The goosmanias, it's mainly the bracts that are colorful. The flowers are usually tiny little white flowers. There are other bromeliads that have um larger flowers. Even one of the airplants, a Talanzia, has uh a flower that's almost two inches across. So they're they're not all tiny. And many of them have um longer flowers, several inches long. And many of them, it's not just the flowers, it's the berries that they produce. Some of them are beautiful in your garden for nine months. Wow. They will produce flowers, say in June, and the hummingbirds love them, and then they produce the berries that will last maybe till next February.

SPEAKER_01 6:45

Yeah, and I was we were walking around your garden this morning, and we were having a mild winter, so lots bloomed. And I I love the berry phase. I just think those are gorgeous. So bromeliad flowers are varia, uh there's a huge variety, they're very diverse, as you mentioned. Uh, tell us about some of your favorite bromeliad blooms. What do you like that you would recommend that someone's starting out in my life? Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 7:10

Well, there's there's so many. But one thing I want to say first is that unlike other plants, for example, say you're in the rose society, they come in different colors, but you know, a rose is a rose, and then the bush itself is not attractive and it's got the nasty thorns on it. But with bromeliads, there are so many that have colorful leaves. You grow them for the leaves more than the flowers. They can come in any color from black to white and everything in between with polka dots and stripes and just all kinds of different things. And then the flowers themselves, the same thing. There are black flowers, white flowers. Wow. All the pinks, oranges, reds, blues, everything you can imagine. And often the bracts might be red and the flower is white, or the bracted is orange and the flower is blue. They are often contrasting colors.

SPEAKER_01 8:08

Yeah, I think my favorite flowers are the ones that are they have both purple and pink on them.

SPEAKER_00 8:13

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 8:13

And I think those are gorgeous, and a lot of them do. And walking around your yard today, we saw burgundy ones, we saw striped ones with striations, we saw some chartreuse or lime green, if you will. So it's gorgeous. So you can really, in if you use them here in Southern California, you can paint a picture with them. Yes. It's there, it's it's art. It it truly is art. So bromeliads that don't have showy uh blooms are showy and they're a foliage. So give me, maybe because we've been talking about this, one of you, one or two bromeliads that you like that for the foliage.

SPEAKER_00 8:53

Okay, for the foliage, primarily neoregelias. And some of them can go in full sun, but most of them like to be under a slated paddle patio or shade cloth or at least just morning sun, and they come in all different colors, every and spots and polka dots and stripes and all of that. And um, some of them are bright red, shocking pink, I mean every color imaginable. Um, the others, if you have a lot of shades, say you have an atrium, uh, vrisias are beautiful, and they usually have a lot of um patterns on them, and they also come in a variety of pinks and whites and so forth. Uh, gozmanias, again, if you had say an atrium, uh, gosh, so many different colors and types. For the foliage, oh, Bilbergias, especially. Bilbergias are the tubular ones, they grow tall, but the the hybridization has made so many different patterns on the leaves. They make spectacular inflorescences, but the negative on the inflorescences it only lasts for maybe a week. But for photography, they're fabulous, and then you want to buy some that have the beautiful colors, the pinks, the whites, the polka dots and stripes and so forth, then they're a very beautiful plant to have in your collection. And they're tall and slender, they're tubular.

SPEAKER_01 10:15

Oh, I like that. And I know I have one of the noriegas.

SPEAKER_00 10:20

They're a noriega.

SPEAKER_01 10:23

Nor jeans, I think you said. Yes. And the one I have is uh called the Hannibal Lecter.

SPEAKER_00 10:29

Oh, yes.

SPEAKER_01 10:30

And uh it has kind of an olive green foliage with brown modeling energy. And then there's some creams, and the other thing, too, to tell people is that if you if they have too much deep shade, sometimes they'll lose the coloration. So you you have to find the right spot where they're getting that right amount of sunshine to have those colors. Is that correct?

SPEAKER_00 10:56

Yes, and the plants will actually tell you what they want. If you buy a plant, say you buy a neargelia and it, you know, it has the perfect shape and all that, and you put it somewhere, and all of a sudden the leaves are getting long and skinny. We call it lanky. They're reaching for the sun. So they're in too much of a shady area. On the other hand, if you take a Neo and you put it in full sun and it shouldn't be in full sun, it will actually get sunburned spots just like you would. You they'll get a sunburn. Uh, so they'll they'll let you know. And I another thing I want to point out is some of the plants are spiny, not as bad as a rose bush, but but well, some are actually. But um the for example, the neoregelias generally have some spines, and the Hannibal lector that you mentioned is, we call it kind of a mean plant. And men love these mean plants. They go for something like Hannibal lector. Um, but if you are some ladies say, oh, I don't want bromeliads, they scratch me. There's a huge family of bromeliads that has hundreds and hundreds of species and thousands of hybrids that have no spines at all. None. So there are plenty of bromeliads for people that don't want to get scratched.

SPEAKER_01 12:13

So look around. What Christy's talking about is they have like a serration on the edges of their leaves. So if you're walking by it in short pants or bare arms, it'll it'll give you scratch. Yes. And so if you have those plants, you can buy sleeve protectors that you can wear or wear long sleeves and wear long pants when you're working with them, and you'll be just fine. Because they are, they are very beautiful. So, one of the characteristics of bromeliads is that after they bloom, they die. However, they also pup. And a pup can be re-repotted. So tell us what a pup is and about how that works.

SPEAKER_00 12:53

Okay. Well, not 100% of the bromeliads do that. Some of them only produce seeds, but usually those are not the ones that we grow. Um, they generally will produce, they we call them offsets or pups, uh, one offset to maybe five or six. And I call bromeliads the plants of friendship because when you have them, you're going to be giving them to your friends and relatives. There's they really do multiply wonderfully. And um, I was telling Bill that I showed him a plant that was given to me even before I was really into bromeliads, maybe 35 years ago. And I put it here in Mission Viejo along a wall, and there are hundreds of them now. It has covered the wall, and it's great to keep the coyotes out and the people aren't going to go over the wall because it does have some little spines on it. So it's a great plant.

SPEAKER_01 13:44

And I and I've seen it, and it literally is gone along the whole wall in both directions as it just continually pups. So if you want to divide one of these pups uh about in relationship, how big does it need to be?

SPEAKER_00 13:56

They should be one-third to one-half the size of the mother plant.

SPEAKER_01 14:01

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 14:02

And so the mother plant might produce, say, three or four pups, and after these plants are a pretty good size, she will actually die off. And that's about the only maintenance to bromeliads is you go around once in a while and you can just pull out these brown mothers, and that's it. And I don't even fertilize most of them. Uh, some people fertilize more, but I have too many plants. I have thousands. And uh and yes, and uh and many of them are still in their original pot from maybe 30 years ago. They're still in the original soil with no fertilizer, and they do just fine because in nature they don't grow in the soil, they grow in a tree. They just the purpose of the roots is to hang on to the tree, not to take in nutrients. And they amaze me. I showed Bill this giant telanzia that's down in my backyard, and it has an inflorescence about five or six feet tall, and it is just sitting on the ground. It is not in soil, it's never been fertilized, and how it can produce this giant plant and inflorescence with nothing but sunlight and water is amazing.

SPEAKER_01 15:11

Yeah, it and that's again, you don't want to care for your garden, you want something water-wise. This is this is something to think about. And so you you if you are going to divide them and say, give give a plant to a friend, you you get in with a knife and cut off that putt from the mother plant?

SPEAKER_00 15:30

Yes, usually. Or a clipper, usually just a clipper, or sometimes you can even just pull it off.

SPEAKER_01 15:35

And um, and I would imagine you keep your tools uh clean. You can use like um you're supposed to. You could use like an alcohol or something like that. Right. Right. Okay. And the the potting the potting mix that you like to use.

SPEAKER_00 15:49

Yes, that's important. Uh the main thing is that you want to have a loose mix, that a well-draining mix. And it varies what people they all have their favorite mix, but what I use is one-third potting soil, one-third uh perlite or pumice, and one-third orchid bark. So it's basically if you had just one bromeliad, you could just buy a bag of orchid mix. It's like an orchid mix. So it must be well draining, otherwise, you will rot the roots. And especially in a wet winter, if it's cold and wet, you might rot some roots.

SPEAKER_01 16:26

And this is true with a lot of plants, and bromeliads in particular, they don't like to get their feet wet. So we we make sure we've got that uh that loose uh soil for them. Now, using them outdoors, and I've done this too, you can sink the pot so that it's soil level, or you can just put it in its pot, and if the plants get thick enough, you don't even see the pots. Or you can create a raised bed, if you will, and plant your bromeliads in like in the soil. And what's your favorite way to do it?

SPEAKER_00 17:01

Well, um, we like to take the plants into the meetings for show and tell when they're blooming. And so I certain ones I do that are in the landscape, I might dig a hole, put the pot in, and then cover it with some orchid bark or something like that. And then if I want to take it to a meeting, it's easy to take out. Okay. Uh, we also have a lot of the air plants, of course, and you can put those in the trees. And um, one thing I was showing Bill is that you can buy those panels, those uh screen panels at uh Costco in the springtime that stand up. You can attach three together and they'll stand independently. And you can take the Talansias and just stick them in there, and they do just great. Um, and you can make if you wanted to, I was showing Bill that I hide my area that is my work area, so I don't have to look at it. I made this whole screen just full of all kinds of plants. There are Neos in there, Talansias, uh, even I'm just all kinds of Bilbergias in that screen. And then you can put Spanish moss too. Spanish moss is a bromeliad. And one thing I didn't mention was how tiny bromeliads can be. I mentioned the 30-foot-tall one, but the smallest bromeliad is the size of your pinky nail, okay? And it will bloom. It's that small. And Spanish moss is a bromeliad, and it um each little piece is an individual plant. And Spanish moss actually blooms, it gets little tiny scented green flowers.

SPEAKER_01 18:38

That's amazing. Yeah, a lot of people call it Spanish moss. We think of it as moss, but it's not. It's at the lands here. And it does, it just grows and grows and grows. So if I were a beginner and I wanted something to grow outdoors, what are your top recommendations that someone should start with?

SPEAKER_00 18:56

First of all, don't get plants from Home Depot or the supermarket because those are the house plants. Right. So the best place to get them is from a club like the Saddleback Valley Bromeliad Society, but there are other clubs around the Southern California area. And I don't know if you want to mention my conference that's coming up in April now.

SPEAKER_01 19:17

We do. So every April, this is a good thing to know. Every April, uh there's a bromeliad plant show in sale. Uh this year in 2026, it's a convention, and it's going to be at the Hilton uh in Costa Mesa. Ordinarily, it's at Sherman Gardens, and it's around the first weekend or two of April. And this is a great thing is to visit a show, then you can buy the bromeliad July.

SPEAKER_00 19:42

And there's a second show at Sherman Gardens that occurs in July that's called Plantorama. And we also sell plants then. We don't have a show, it's just a sale. Uh, once you get in a bromeliad club, people give you plants. You trade with each other. You just, I mean, there's so many pups, but your collection will grow very quickly. And the one, the plants that you want to get as a beginner are the neoregelias for putting in in, say, around the patio for lots of color, and the Bilbergias and the air plants, the Talansias. Uh, those are the most popular ones. Then there's a lot of landscape plants. Oh, we haven't mentioned ekmias. They are great. They provide berries that last for months and months. Some of them get very large. The the uh plants might be five feet tall. The leaves come in different colors, red and orange, and they're great in the landscape up against the house. Yeah, beautiful plants.

SPEAKER_01 20:38

So, so those things, and again, if you're buying them from a bromilid show and sale, beauty is whoever you're buying it from, they're gonna tell you exactly what to do, exactly. And they'll answer all your questions. And a lot of them even give you a handout, if you will, that's got uh the directions on it. So, because they want you to be successful, and that's a good way to start getting into the hobby and to try these unique plants. And uh vermillions, you go on vacation for a week or two and not really have to worry about watering them.

SPEAKER_00 21:10

Oh, definitely. I mean, it well, again, it depends on the kind of plant. You know, but um I've gone away for for several weeks, and normally I water my garden just once a week with the hose. Okay, just hose them up and and um if there's Santa Anna's blowing, you might do twice a week, right?

SPEAKER_01 21:29

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 21:30

In the winter, of course, you don't have to water them at all sometimes.

SPEAKER_01 21:33

Yeah, and so that makes it easy. If you're gonna put if you're gonna put your bromeliad in the soil, have you do you have you done that where you mend your soil at all?

SPEAKER_00 21:42

Or no, in fact, often depends what it is. If it's an etnia or a portilla is another good landscape plant, I will just throw it on the ground and if have it, if it's standing up, it's gonna root. I mean, just you don't even have to plant it. It's great, you know. But you you do need to probably It up so that it will be able to catch water in the cup. But I remember somebody telling a story. He had sort of a shade house and he had a needle that had fallen over, all right, near Regilia, and it had been upside down for about a year before he found it. Now, how many pots, if you drop them upside down, are you going to still have a plant in a year? And what he had when he found it were three pups that had grown straight down and then out and up around the edge of the pup, and they're standing. So these plants, they want to live no matter what. So they still I have plants in my yard, they're on my on their side, and I didn't see it. And now you can't stand them up because they're growing crooked, but they're growing straight up to the sun.

SPEAKER_01 22:44

So we talked a little bit about watering. So bromeliads get, they they have this cup, and that's where they get their water.

SPEAKER_00 22:51

Some do, yeah. The neos do. The ne the neos, ecmias, portillas have a cup. They will hold water.

SPEAKER_01 22:57

And the thalanzias, they get their uh water from the moisture. So if you if you miss them, that's how you water them. So it's not like the traditional plants in your garden where you have to soak the soil. And that's what makes a bromeliad more water-wise. Through the air, or it's these cups that they're obtaining their water. So that works for us.

SPEAKER_00 23:19

Right. You're not wasting water in the ground. Yeah. And the Talansi is you can just spray them with a hose. You don't, you know, need to even mist them. And and you can actually water them too much, you know. I water them again, usually once, once or twice a week, is all.

SPEAKER_01 23:35

And that's all you need to worry about unless we have those Santa Ana conditions. Uh, so that's that's a wonderful thing to go. I've seen bromeliads growing on palm trees. Does that work?

SPEAKER_00 23:46

Perfect. If you have leaf axles where you've cut off the palm leaves, you just stick them in there and they do great. I've seen people put bromeliads in their um staghorn ferns too. They'll grow in in the top of the staghorn fern. Um, any tree, if you have a fruit tree, you can put them in. And the way to attach, you can also put neoregelias in in the trees. And the way to attach them is with uh little strips of nylon stocking, because that will not girdle the tree. It will stretch as the tree branch grows. Yeah. Because if you use wire, you'll eventually, or other string. Yeah, that will girdle the tree, but the nylon will grow and it'll last 10 years. And by then the trees root uh the plants rooted to the tree anyway. Yes. Yes.

SPEAKER_01 24:32

Yeah, so that's a good thing to go because you've got that that flexibility.

SPEAKER_00 24:36

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 24:36

So that gets another use for nylon stockings. So if I'm on a palm trim, it'd be more likely in the direct sun. So is there um types or families that you would many of the Talansias?

SPEAKER_00 24:49

The way you know if it can go in the sun is is it silver or is it dark green? If it's dark green, it's a shade Talanzia. If it's silver, it can take a lot of sun. That is like sunscreen for them, okay? And uh it also collects water.

SPEAKER_01 25:04

Yeah, if you look at those closely, I've noticed they're just little fine hairs.

SPEAKER_00 25:08

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 25:09

And so even uh the beauty is when we got our June bloom and our May gray, those talansias will take the moisture right out of that fog.

SPEAKER_00 25:17

They can. If that's why if you live closer to the coast, you're you're just you're in Talanzia heaven because they will grow like weeds there. They there will be so many talansias because they collect that fog. In nature, in Peru, you have a cold ocean current like we do, and the fog, say in Lima, lasts for more than six months constantly. And there are plants that grow on the desert. They never get rain. Lima gets one inch of rain a year. So these plants they're thriving on the sand dunes, but they're collecting the fog every day. And then the fog goes up the valleys and bathes the Talansias in moisture every night. They hardly ever get any rain.

SPEAKER_01 25:59

And so that's how the plants have adapted, and and that's amazing. And I know that there's even some uh bromeliads that will grow in in Texas in full sun in the heat. So there are some very heat tolerant full sun.

SPEAKER_00 26:14

Those are those are hectias, and they grow in the deserts. They grow in Texas and Mexico, Guatemala. It's a it's a a North American plant. It's it's not a South American plant. And um there are other talanzias that grow in Florida, in the more humid areas, and of course the Spanish moss grows all over the south. But there are no native bromeliads to California.

SPEAKER_01 26:37

Okay, that's interesting. So, but there are to North there are to the U.S. and North America, just not California.

SPEAKER_00 26:43

A few Talansias in Texas again.

SPEAKER_01 26:46

So the light requirements, it again, it depends. I'm looking at my plant, I'm looking at the leaf structure and the color, and I may have to play around with it, which is why I want to keep it in the pot, because if it's getting leggy, I'm gonna need to move it and so on and so forth. So the light requirement varies. So let's talk about if I have bromeliads indoors, where do I want to keep them close to a window wise and and indoors, bright light, but not direct sun, of course.

SPEAKER_00 27:14

And then they sell things like refrigerator magnets with telansias in them. Not a good idea. They're called airplants, they want airflow, they love air. So um, but people do keep them on their windowsills. You can open the window, and uh, if they're in the house, they uh suggest when you buy it with the tag, it'll say uh put it in water, soak it in water once a week. That would work, or you can spray it.

SPEAKER_01 27:41

Okay, so just kind of watch it that bright light. So that's nice because it'll kind of the bromeliad will live a little bit more indoor in a darker area.

SPEAKER_00 27:52

And I had a friend who also made pottery and he had lots of bromeliads, and he would just when it was in bloom, he would bring it into his coffee table in one of his beautiful pots and have it on display for a month or two, however long it lasted, and then it went outside again and he'd rotate them.

SPEAKER_01 28:09

So you can rotate them, and that's that is and that's the way to do it. And so watering them again once a week that works. Uh, people are probably going to have a question do mosquitoes breed in that cup?

SPEAKER_00 28:24

They can. They can also breed in a bottle cap of water, then these new ones that we have. And um, in my area, they studied mosquitoes, and there was a man up the hill from me, me somewhere, that they found the most mosquitoes, he would drink beer in the backyard and just throw his bottle caps on the ground, and they were in all the bottle caps. Wow. Yes. Um, I check my mosquitoes. I check my plants regularly for mosquitoes in the summer. I use uh an oven baster and I have a cup with a turkey baster, yeah. And uh I'll collect water. And what I find is if you this is in the big tank bromeliads, the big uh ekmios, for example, that holds they hold more than a cup of water. And so I'll suck out the water and I find that if you let them go natural, there apparently are at least two species of tiny little flies. You know, the ones they call drain flies. Yes. The little black ones, they don't bother people, but they lay their eggs in your drain and then the larva eat the goo in your drain. Okay, if they're in the water, there's no mosquito larva. And I think that those larvae feed on the mosquito larva. Um, if you do happen to find some, you just buy mosquito bits and you just put a few mosquito bits in, and that takes care of the problem.

SPEAKER_01 29:42

And then I've also heard if we are going to get a winter where we're getting a frost, it's a good idea to lower the water level in the flowerets again with your turkey baster. Does that help at all?

SPEAKER_00 29:53

You know, I I have so many plants that I don't even think about that. Uh I I I when we used to get frost, I used to uh cover some of my plant areas that were out farther away from the house uh with uh whatever they call these frost cloths. But I haven't done that in years, so I haven't thought about it much.

SPEAKER_01 30:14

Uh so that so that does work. Now, there's one edible bromeliad, which is the pineapple. Yes. Can we grow pineapples in Southern California?

SPEAKER_00 30:22

Yeah, well, it's a little, it depends again where you live. It's a little bit cold. They like Hawaii, for example. So um a little cold and they need a lot of water. But I did try it once and uh took a few years. You know, I just took the cut the top of a pineapple that I ate and put it in some very loose mix again. You don't want to rot it. And um, it grew and then it produced a pineapple, and it was small. It was about the size of a fist. And I thought, oh, this thing's gonna be sour. It was the best pineapple I have ever tasted. It was so sweet. I took it to work and cheered it with people.

SPEAKER_01 30:59

And I've heard people say that, that what happens when we tend to grow them here, because it's obviously not the right climate, they are smaller, usually the size of a fist or a baseball, but they're really tasty.

SPEAKER_00 31:11

Yes, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 31:12

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 31:13

You can do it for fun once, you know, you're not gonna grow it as a crop.

SPEAKER_01 31:18

So if I wanted to see vermilads and wanted to look at them, where would be in Southern California, where would be a good place to go?

SPEAKER_00 31:27

Ooh, well, right now Sherman Gardens is under construction, and so only part of the garden is open. They're gonna be redoing their conservatory. So they will have tropical plants in the conservatory. They also have a cactus garden that has a lot of bromeliads, terrestrial bromeliads, uh, deuteraconias and dicchias and heckias hectias and things like that. And um, that I believe is open to the public now. They will have some bromeliads. Uh, you can go to Huntington Gardens in the springtime. They have the large bromeliads, the puyas mainly, and the dicchias that bloom. It is spectacular if you can go in in April, usually. We we did a bus trip there last spring, I think April, early May, we went.

SPEAKER_01 32:15

And and saw them. So I would say any any uh garden, any public garden that has a tropical display, usually indoors.

SPEAKER_00 32:25

Perhaps, right. They have they have some at the San Diego Botanical Garden. Uh, but if people want to see a lot of bromeliads, they should go to one of the two big nurseries. One of them is Rainforest Flora in Torrance, and the other one is Bird Rock Tropicals in Encinitas.

SPEAKER_01 32:42

I've been to Bird Rock Tropicals.

SPEAKER_00 32:43

Yeah, and you do have to call for an appointment, but you can look at their website.

SPEAKER_01 32:47

But it's pretty amazing.

SPEAKER_00 32:48

Yes, yes. Uh, you can't even believe how beautiful they all are.

SPEAKER_01 32:52

So if I were going to travel to another place, where would be tell me about traveling to see vermilia?

SPEAKER_00 33:00

Uh in nature or nature. In nature, Ecuador is the best. Ecuador. I'm about to do my eighth plant trip to Ecuador. That's how good it is.

SPEAKER_01 33:10

Apparently, you can take uh some uh eco tours or plant tour base to take you into the rainforest. Yes.

SPEAKER_00 33:18

Although the the man who's currently doing them is going to ease into retirement. So I don't know how many more years he's going to do them, but there might be other companies.

SPEAKER_01 33:28

So you need to look at that. And so uh, you know, a trip to Ecuador, that would be a great place to go see them.

SPEAKER_00 33:33

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 33:34

If you were to travel and wanted to see them in nature. So let's talk about you said a little bit about fertilizing. So what do you how would you fertilize?

SPEAKER_00 33:43

All right. First of all, don't use regular fertilizer. They do make bromeliad fertilizers because this the middle number on the fertilizer needs to be low. Okay. And so um, and you don't over-fertilize, uh, they need very little. Often you use like half strength or something like that.

SPEAKER_01 34:02

So I'm trusting this is all liquid fertilizer.

SPEAKER_00 34:05

Uh, it comes as a powder, usually, and you put it in in a spray bottle or whatever. If you do fertilize, say, talansias, you'll certainly get more robust plants and and um more blooms, perhaps.

SPEAKER_01 34:18

So to do that, I'm gonna do it with a mister?

SPEAKER_00 34:20

For talansias, you can, a spray bottle. Yes. That was work. And the others you people put osmocode in the pots and so forth. They say you shouldn't fertilize neoregelias because it makes the the leaves go more green. You you they, I don't know. Yeah. Yeah, you lose the color.

SPEAKER_01 34:38

It's the boost of nitrogen.

SPEAKER_00 34:40

Yeah, you lose the color.

SPEAKER_01 34:41

That you're getting when you fertilize them. So uh the nice thing is uh fertilizing is uh something I don't need to worry about. Right. And phalanzias, they're they're one of my favorite genus of bromeliads. They don't need soil, they're often referred to as air plants. Let's talk about the different ways we talked a little bit about growing them, but you can do art with them if you want to talk a little bit about absolutely.

SPEAKER_00 35:04

We have a lady in our club that does the the most amazing art with bromeliads. She makes all kinds of, oh my gosh, I can't even describe them. And then we have another man who makes birds, and and we will be they'll probably be selling them, I guess, at at the shows and at the conference. Um, but you can do all kinds of things. She took an old uh tree root that the neighbor was throwing out once. So it had a lot of little different branches on it, and she glued on literally hundreds of different telansias, and it is the most spectacular thing. It's just amazing. And so you can do all kinds of artwork. We have a lot of people who make different ceramic things, that's their other hobby, and they'll make them so that they'll hold telansias.

SPEAKER_01 35:50

Talansias and metalwork works out fabulously to uh mount your bromeliads. We talked about gluing them because I've seen them glued on driftwood or other pieces. What kind of glue am I going to use?

SPEAKER_00 36:05

Um, well, they make something called Tilly Tacker, but E6000 is perfect. It's a little like silicone glue, and you just put a little tiny dab of glue and then put the telansia, and we use hair clips to hold them in place for an hour until they dry. So they don't fall.

SPEAKER_01 36:21

Glue dries pretty fast. And once it does, and then the and then the telansia is is going to grow there. Eventually, there will get to be some uh dead growth at the bottom of your mount. So all you do is you just pull the talanzias off, pull off the brown leaves. Uh, you may need to redrill your holes, and you can you can mount them again a second time.

SPEAKER_00 36:44

Yeah, yes.

SPEAKER_01 36:46

Which is uh it's also beautiful. So it's it's nice that you can redo them, reuse them and and remake your art. And you can also glue on again with your glue, beach glass, shells. Yes. Uh I've seen Talansias growing in shells. Uh, if you do metalwork, that's another uh great medium because uh, you know, you were talking, Christine was talking about these uh metal frameworks that you can buy, especially in the spring season at stores like Costco, where and you just stick them in in the little pieces of metal. You could find probably an old bed frame. I mean, it's just endless, which you could do.

SPEAKER_00 37:30

Another thing, lattice work. You can put lattice work along a fence and just fill them with bromeliads or even just a wooden fence. You can attach them on there and you can hang pots of them on there. And it you can really make your yard beautiful with the bromeliads.

SPEAKER_01 37:46

A lot of interest, and you know, and it is it that's what makes a yard. It's the visual interest that we want to uh concentrate on as we talk about these unique plants. And I've seen people use macrame too. Yes, it's another uh way they do, they make macrame holders for these. Have you ever seen the thalanzias and the little blowing glass uh vessels where they stick the thalanzia in the blowing glass round vessel and they've got some sand in there and maybe some rock that looks kind of but again, there should be air movement.

SPEAKER_00 38:21

I've seen the like a little goldfish bowl thing, and I wonder how long are they going to live in there? I don't know.

SPEAKER_01 38:26

Yeah, so you want to make sure that if you're using that, that it has a huge uh opening to it. So are there diseases or things that I should look for that might be problematic with my um there are really very few problems.

SPEAKER_00 38:43

There is one type of uh black scale that you should look out for, but it you'd have to get it on a plant. You know, it would, it's not something that is just floating around Southern California. It would be it would be on a bromeliad and you might bring it into your garden. So we usually we suggest really uh maybe possibly quarantine a plant. Don't put it right in with the others. Um, sometimes I spray mine with rubbing alcohol, they don't mind it at all, and it it kills any insects.

SPEAKER_01 39:12

That would work. And and it and this is a good tip just for anyone buying a plant. You really want to inspect it.

SPEAKER_00 39:19

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 39:20

Uh, because I know that's I've brought snails in my yard by buying a nursery stock plant and it's had the eggs on it. So, and maybe even hosing it off well too, before you bring it in and with your other uh with your other plants.

SPEAKER_00 39:34

If I'm going to usually I donate a bunch of plants to a sale, I'll fill a tub with water and put ammonia in it, a tub of ammonia, and then I'll I'll shake the plants and the water, rinse them, and out come the snails and the spiders and all those kinds of things. And it would also kill any scale or anything that you had. So that's a good thing to do. But that's because I'm giving away a whole bunch of plants and I want to make sure they're clean.

SPEAKER_01 40:01

Yeah, and that's a smart way to do it. And you can do that in reverse when you bring it in.

SPEAKER_00 40:05

Right, exactly.

SPEAKER_01 40:06

And if you get the black scale, the the difficult thing is that it's a very hard thing to treat.

SPEAKER_00 40:13

Um part of the problem is a lot of people don't even see it because they wear glasses to read and they don't wear them in the garden, and they don't even see it. They call it fly spec scale. It's a tiny, it's like little grains of pepper. And um, but if you really look at your plants, just look them over well, you would see it. And it's generally not a problem. Uh, but somebody did bring it from Florida once and it did get in some plants, and hopefully it's not going to be a problem. It wouldn't be if you bought a plant from a nursery. They those are all those are all those are all Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 40:46

So just pay attention to what you're doing. And if you want to do insect control with a plant like a bromeliad, a lot of times it's best to eliminate the plant rather than try to treat it and start over again, I think. Unless it's unless it's a really special plant to you. But yeah.

SPEAKER_00 41:05

But they they get very few pests. I mean, they don't get aphids. Um I don't know if I don't see grasshoppers around or anything, but not there's not much that eats them. A slug would eat the flowers usually.

SPEAKER_01 41:17

Yeah, and if it's one of those that has a serrated edges on the leaves, the slux and snails stay away from the serration because it cuts them too. If they it they have to get around it. So it makes it.

SPEAKER_00 41:28

I mean, you if you have snails, they will go down in the tubes for the water that's in there and that they'll stay there. So if you want to eliminate snails, just look down in the tubes, you'll be able to get the snails out.

SPEAKER_01 41:41

Yeah, that's where they hide. And I also find them underneath the pots, too.

SPEAKER_00 41:46

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 41:47

So the snails is the other critter that we would want to look out for. Um, I find that if I go out at night or in the evening when the sun has gone down and I take a flashlight, I can find the snails.

SPEAKER_00 42:01

Oh, yes.

SPEAKER_01 42:02

And I can sniff them in two. Some people gather them. There are a number of pet and child-friendly treatments that you can use for snails that that don't hurt, and it's a chemical that goes into the soil when it uh I like to shoot them with rubbing alcohol.

SPEAKER_00 42:19

Oh, they turn into yellow jello.

unknown 42:23

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 42:24

So that so that would so that those are methods to do, and again, that's not gonna hurt the environment. That's not gonna hurt your plants. In Southern California, we do unfortunately have a snail problem. So other plants in the landscape, because I've seen you you've mixed some other plants with your bromeliads. Talk about that a little bit.

SPEAKER_00 42:46

Well, there are many bromeliads that will grow in full sun, they tend to be the spiny ones. There are a lot of, they're sort of succulent bromeliads, and they grow well with succulents, the same water requirements. And um, also people who grow orchids tend to grow bromeliads because in nature they grow together on the trees. So that's another good mix. And they they just look beautiful with lots of other plants, and they add a lot of color, and they also have interesting shapes. Many of them have oddball shapes. I mean, I can't describe them all to you. For example, we uh looked at the quisinalia that gets curly cues. So the uh, you know, on the radio, I can't describe this very well.

SPEAKER_01 43:27

Yeah, no, I get what you mean, but the curly cues. So again, this is a if you're into designing and you want to design this landscape, then this is something to look for, to look for what would go together. And again, designers look for it for the texture, they look for the shade of green in the leaves. If you're doing if you want to do a whole silver green and that uh family of colors, you can mix those plants. Succulents, as many listeners know, store their water in their in their leaves and Bromeliads have the little the flower at cups. So that's why the two grow so well together is because they have about the same water requirements.

SPEAKER_00 44:10

And the ones that don't have the cups, the ones that can go out in the full sun, are succulent. They they store the water in the leaves. Oh, and by the way, the bromeliads not only do they they say store the water in the cups, but they take the water in through the leaves. They have uh stomata, they have they have like little funnels, if you were to look under the microscope, little openings that take in water directly through the leaves.

SPEAKER_01 44:39

Yeah, and they have to do this again. This is one of the adaptations of where they come from, which is primarily a rainforest. But not always, but uh again, a lot of them, as you said, are on a place like Peru where they're getting their moisture from the fog. Yeah. And they have these little cups and they open their stomatas at night and close them during the day. And uh they they get their they get their water uh that way. So if you want to learn more, the bromilian, when do you meet?

SPEAKER_00 45:10

When does the Okay, we meet the first Thursday of the month at the Norman Murray Senior Center in Mission Viejo. So that's near La Paz and Marguerite. And we meet at 7. Uh it's basically 7 to 10. We have show and tell.

SPEAKER_01 45:26

7 to 10 p.m.

SPEAKER_00 45:27

Yes, p.m. And uh we have show and tell, and we have uh question and answer period, and we usually have some sort of a slide presentation. We also have a raffle and silent auction, and we're always happy to answer questions. And that's what when you say you win a plant on the raffle table, you ask one of the experts how much sun, how much water, and so forth.

SPEAKER_01 45:50

And they'll tell you within. And so if you want to get into this, what I would recommend that you do is go to a club. And this is right here in Orange County.

SPEAKER_00 45:59

For do you have a website where we can Yes, we do, and it's a real easy one to remember. It's bromeliadsociety.org. It's all one word, bromeliadsociety.orgorg.

SPEAKER_01 46:13

And again, this is a good source for information and things that you would be able to find out. What about the uh garden show in May at uh South Coast Plaza?

SPEAKER_00 46:23

Oh, it's in April, end of April.

SPEAKER_01 46:25

End of April.

SPEAKER_00 46:26

Yeah, it's the weekend after our uh conference.

SPEAKER_01 46:28

That's another place to go.

SPEAKER_00 46:30

And I'm not sure if we will have an information table there. We did last year, we're not selling plants there because we're selling them at this big uh conference. But last year we did have an information table where we're giving out we have a club brochure that tells you how to grow bromeliants. If you join the club, you will be given a packet of information and that will be in there, information about the club and how to grow them. Basically, Sherman Gardens will be the place to go in the future. You know, next year. Um, I don't know how long they're constructing, but the they are still having plant shows, is my understanding.

SPEAKER_01 47:05

Yeah, and that is a good place. And of course, uh, master gardeners is another thing. If you have a question on any of your plants, that's another uh place for you to go. Any final words of wisdom, any other tips on things that we want to share with people?

SPEAKER_00 47:21

Well, I'm so happy that bromeliads came into my life because they changed my life. I mean, I am so enthusiastic about these plants, and it's been through 30 years. You don't lose your enthusiasm because there's always something new, there's new hybrids and new discoveries of plants in nature, and they're just spectacular. They're just if you run out of space, say you have a small apartment, and all you have is a tiny balcony. You can attach them to the posts on the side of your balcony, you can hang them from fishing line, you can attach them to the railing, you can put them if you have a yard with just fruit trees, you can put them in the fruit trees. There's always a place for more bromeliads. And um, I just love them so much. They're really wonderful. Wonderful.

SPEAKER_01 48:07

So you said changed. Tell me what you mean by changed.

SPEAKER_00 48:11

Changed my life? Well, when you retire, you have to have something that you're excited about. If you sit around and watch TV, you're not gonna live long. And uh so this keeps my mind and my body active. And I am I was the president of the society. Now I'm the newsletter editor. So I put out a 10-page newsletter every month. And um, those newsletters are all at our website. So you can look at the old newsletters. They have a lot of photos of bromeliads and they have um a lot of information. And the other uh website to go to is BSI.org. That's Bromeliad Society International, BSI.org. And they have all kinds of information there, also. Okay.

SPEAKER_01 48:55

And that would do it. So you went from a, and I know looking at Christy's house, she went from a traditional landscape property with lawn in the front, and there's no lawn, it's it's a bromiliad paradise.

SPEAKER_00 49:08

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 49:09

And that's the way that we want to live in Southern California, especially with our climate.

SPEAKER_00 49:14

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_01 49:16

So I know we've just scratched the surface of this family of plants, and we hope this motivates you to try a bromeliad or two in your house or garden. And thank you for Christy for being on In the Garden with us. Be sure to tune in next week for another edition of In the Garden.