My hubby gave me this Aechmea fasciata a couple years ago and it has finally bloomed.
Finally in bloom
Wow, it is gorgeous!
Great bloom! Only mother nature could pair that lovely shade of pink with periwinkle blue flowers...you will soon see offsets start to form and then you will have more of these lovely plants... sue
Great Bloom! I have his/her sister blooming.
Both of your photos are stunning!! Interesting to see the difference in coloring in the blooms...could either be lighting, camera, or one of the blooms may be earlier?? This fasciata never fails to thrill!! sue
I'm not sure where Rylaff has hers but mine lives in the GH,Just inside one of the sliding doors,it gets filtered sunlight.
MIne is on my front porch and gets filtered sunlight. So, I imagine it is just the cameras we are using .
Mine is in the west window and now has 3 pups. How do I separate them?
Hopefully the pups are about one third the size of the parent, if the pups are growing close to mother plant, (as they do in this cultivar) i use a serrated steak knife and saw right between the parent plant and the offset..go straight down until they are both free of each other.. and hopefully the little fella has grown some roots..if not don't worry..pot up offset in another pot...nice mulchy soil, or commercial potting soil, i like to mix some pine bark, or orchid bark to keep the soil aerated...at this point i wouldn't water for a week...put a little water inside the "cup" instead, you don't want to rot the bottom of the plant until it grows some roots...if the pup is wobbly, i use a stick or two on each side of the pup, with the green plant tape or t wisty ties, till the new roots stabilize it...you want pup to stay stationary for root growth. Keep in shade (or same place by your window) just don't want to sunburn them, when they are growing..can gradually move to more sunny area...hope this was helpful! OR, i have been known to take pruning shears and cut the pups off as close to the base of plant as possible...i think the knife method is more gentle..i have had success with both methods..as these things grow here in Fla. no matter what you do to them!
weedsgalore-thank you very much for the input.I will let you know what happens
Good advice from weeds... I like to use an old hacksaw blade to remove the real woody pups.
Dave.
still haven't removed my pups. i'm afraid the mother will die. is this a possibility?
Hi again Jordan, i just posted to the other thread about the COT...most likely the mother will die, you can leave the pups on and eventually you will have a lovely 3 branched plant. I do this all the time and i get a nice potted bunch of broms. Keep an eye on the mother...once she reaches a certain point of decline, you can take a sharp knife and sever her at the base from the pups. Or sometimes i give a good strong twist and break it off... sue
sue, the mom still looks real good. i am afraid to disturb her, as i killed the last brom i had. didn't know about dave's back then.
Jordan, if it ain't broke, don't fix it!! lol...we are still struggling with our COT's, heehee...sue
Don't think of the mother plant "dying." Bromeliads are like many determinate plants, in that once a growing stem decides to bloom, it does so (never to grow again); then new branches farther down the stem begin to grow (these are the pups). The active growing point (the meristem) produces fairly powerful enzymes that inhibit these buds from "breaking." When the main stem blooms, it's simply time for the other branches to grow.
"Old" Bromeliads that have not bloomed often produce pups when those buds are far enough away from the main growing point. It is also specie specific. Some species produce pups readily while some almost never until flowering. And in the most extreme case, some Bromeliads do not even pup after flowering (monocarpic), relaying on seeds alone for their survival. The largest Bromeliad, Puya raimondii, is one of these.
I hope that makes you feel better about "mom" meeting her maker.
Dave
Dave, thanks for the info. i guess i better prepare for a funeral in the future
kathy