On 4/10/10 7:07 PM, Higgs Boson wrote:
With fear & trembling, I just bought a little bromeliad to place
on the East side of the dining room. The strong light
from the West windows is fairly reasonable. Plant will also get
some indirect light from the kitchen around the corner.

Having bought blah indoor plants for years, I hope my daring
venture will succeed g.

Any experience out there?

TIA

Persephone

Someone gave us a flowering bromeliad about 5 years ago. It's possibly
a Guzmania. After a long time, the flower died. The plant put out a
side shoot, and then the main plant died.

I potted up the side shoot, which is doing quite nicely. It's in my
dining room, at a north window (almost north with some early morning
sun). I water it once a week (sometimes twice a week in the summer).
When I feed my orchids, I dilute what runs out of their pots to feed the
bromeliad. Both the watering and feeding are in the whorl of leaves
plus a little in the potting mix. However, there is no sign of a new
flower.

I have another bromeliad in my greenhouse window, in my breakfast room
and also north-facing. This one is the top of a pineapple that I
successfully rooted. It gets the same care as the Guzmania.

--
David E. Ross
Climate: California Mediterranean
Sunset Zone: 21 -- interior Santa Monica Mountains with some ocean
influence (USDA 10a, very close to Sunset Zone 19)
Gardening diary at http://www.rossde.com/garden/diary