The Care And Feeding Of Tillandsias (revisited)

A lot of people i'm close to do not even know that my VERY favorite things in the world of flora and fauna are Tillandsias, probably because most of the people i know are not "plant" people! For those of you who have no idea what they are either, here's a fairly concise description, courtesy of Wikipedia:

The plant genus Tillandsia, a member of the Bromeliad family (Bromeliaceae), is found in the deserts, forests and mountains of Central and South America, and Mexico and the southern United States in North America.The thinner-leafed varieties grow in rainy areas and the thick-leafed varieties in areas more subject to drought. Moisture and nutrients are gathered from the air (dust, decaying leaves and insect matter) through structures on the leaves called trichomes.

Tillandsia species are epiphytes (also called aerophytes or air plants) – ie they normally grow without soil while attached to other plants). Epiphytes are not parasitic, depending on the host only for support.

 (Almost everyone is familiar with one type - Spanish Moss is actually a Tillandsia species! -nanci)

The genus Tillandsia was named by Carolus Linnaeus after the Swedish physician and botanist Dr. Elias Tillandz (originally Tillander) (1640-1693).

So there you have it. Now, living in Northwestern Ohio, Tillies (as i like to call them) will not survive our brutally cold winters outside, so if i want to keep them going during that time, i have to use a little ingenuity.( If i had the money to keep a warm tropical greenhouse going for eight months, that would be ideal, but unfortunately i need most of my money for trivial things such as food, shelter, clothing, etc)!

If you look online, you will find many sites on Tillandsia care. The problem with this is most of the info comes from nurseries currently growing and selling Tillandsias, and the care is very different. If i had a huge greenhouse in Florida, i would have no problems growing Tillies! Most information is essentially correct, but once in a while you get something like this (actually taken from a nursery's site in Pasadena, California)-

How to care for Tillandsias: Tillandsias will be happy indoors or outdoors. Keep them in indirect light and give them a mist of water two or three times a week. They must be put outdoors once a week(for 24 hours more) or a fan will be helpful to promote air circulation. A drop of mild fertilizer in mist once a month is helpful.

Well. this might work, maybe for California, but not here! First of all, most of what we see in this part of the country consists of various common Tillies hot glued to branches, shells, etc., with instructions to mist them once or twice a week. With misting, they will live for maybe 2-3 months, then die (trust me!). They need deep soaking at least once a month (submerged overnight)- the misting is NOT enough. Also, in a heated house in cold weather, it's almost impossible to supply Tillies with enough humidity. It is true that they then need air circulation, because if moisture lays too long in the base of the leaves, it will rot. In warm weather they are outdoors, so it's not a problem, but what about winter? They certainly can't go outside overnight when it's 10 degrees (F). So this was my solution:

A Tillyhouse

Oh, and did i mention that another of my very favorite things is PVC pipe? It's lightweight, inexpensive, easy to cut and fit together, waterproof, and strong. This hanging greenhouse was very easy to make, the hard part was finding the corner pieces, since, handy as they are for building boxes, they aren't utilized very much in plumbing applications!

The bottom and sides are plastic (or vinyl) sheeting, and the front has Velcro attaching it to the PVC so it can be rolled down to water. There is a plastic grid in the top (actually a nursery tray for carrying cell packs of plants) so i can hang the Tillies up in the greenhouse.

 This is hanging in my unheated Florida room (Ha! WISH it was Florida!) in front of our only South facing window. The two major things i have discovered about Tillandsias in a Northern home in wintertime are: 1) They do not need warmth that much, they just need to be kept above freezing and 2) They have to have humidity and as much light as possible. i do have a heater in that room, in case there is danger of going below freezing, but i only fire it up in the evenings and in the mornings to keep the temps up. When they are enclosed in that plastic greenhouse, though, it keeps them several degrees warmer. Once every week or two on a sunny day, i open the front of the greenhouse and mist them with warm water until they are saturated.

Gettin' steamy...

I also pour some water in the bottom, as well, for extra humidity. One more thing: while i'm misting them, i exhale on them (don't laugh!). Plants like carbon dioxide (and give off oxygen), so i give them some! Does it help? i haven't a clue- but it can't hurt!

So all of my Tillandsias make it through the winter, right?

Example of fine leaves
Well, not always ....In my experience, the Tillies with the very fine leaves just don't seem to make it, and once in a while one dries out when i'm not looking (actually, through so many months, i don't always water them as faithfully as i should, either). My bad.

But many do make it, and if i lose a few, well, that's not all bad, since then i have an excuse to re-stock!

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