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!

.

My Garden Interview - Part 2

...A continuation of my hypothetical interview...

***i'm currently reading an older garden book titled, "Gardening From The Heart - Why Gardeners Garden" by Carol Olwell. The reason for this book is interesting, because, as she points out, gardening is hard work,

considered pretty much low grade manual labor, and is rarely lucrative -

so why do we do it? She compiles the story of many gardeners who were interviewed for this book. i am barely past the introduction, but i feel compelled to put into words how i myself came to be a gardener, and why....***

Q: Did anyone inspire you?

After living in an apartment for several years, surrounded by houseplants, we moved into a little house with a little yard, and i began to think beyond only houseplants and veggies. Flower boxes, hanging baskets, perennials...Around that time i met Adrian, my new boss at work. She wasn't a typical boss, she was full of fun and had a great laugh, as if she had just heard a dirty joke! She was fairly spiritual, believed in the paranormal,.. and gardened. When she talked about some of her plants, she would describe them in detail and with such excitement that i started to realize that i had that same passion, too, but had kept it inside because i hadn't realized that anyone else felt that way, and, evidently it released my inner "Plant Maniac"! i eventually acquired several plants from her, and still have them today, almost 20 years later. We lost touch, and i don't think Adrian ever knew what an influence she had on me - i didn't even know at the time,either! But i think of her -every year - when her Festiva Maxima Peony blooms in my yard.

Also, my husband's grandparents lived on a farm (a REAL one), and they were also a big inspiration to me during all of the years i was fortunate enough to share with them.

A start was all i needed, and soon the yard was filled with hundreds of plants, many grown from seed, and many shade loving plants (Our yard was 80% shade). i built a coldframe and an arbor using PVC pipe, we attached white vinyl lattice (when it was first available around here and pretty expensive!) to the chain link fence around the backyard, making it more

private, and ringed the beds in red and grey bricks.

My coldframe

It was a tiny yard, but a wonderful sanctuary, much more than i realized at the time.... When my husband was diagnosed one June with cancer at the age of 40, i think i was devastated even more than he was - we knew nothing about cancer, i just assumed i would be a widow in a short time! Having that garden to retreat to was the only thing that kept me sane! (By the way, we know a lot more about cancer these days -plus he is now 56 and is, i'm happy to say, still around to bother me!).

***plAnt dAy!***(a running commentary on the most interesting collector's plants I own) *JEWEL ORCHID*

i initially ended up with a Jewel Orchid (Ludisia discolor) years ago when i was in the first Master Gardener class in my area. i may have traded someone at one of the plant swaps our Extension Service (that hosted the MG classes) had a couple of times a year - however, they didn't know what it was. i, of course, wanted it anyway - i love leaves with PINK stripes or spots on them, just because it's so unusual. It was planted in heavy potting soil at the time, definitely not great for Orchids, but since i couldn't find out what it was, that's where it stayed (again, this was long before many humans regularly went online to research things - actually, before anyone knew what "online" was!). It grew okay for a while, then it languished, and finally started to decline, no matter what i tried to do for it.

My Jewel orchid in my work office, just starting to bloom

My Master Gardener class visited the greenhouse at the Toledo Zoo during that time, and i took my plant to show the people who were giving a class for us that day. Well, they knew what it was, even repotted it for me in Orchid mix, but by that time it was too late for the poor thing....

A cutting off the same plant, showing the dark purplish green leaves with those remarkable pink stripes and unique texture.

BUT, about a year ago, i found another one, and, hey, once you know what the heck the plant is, it's real easy to grow! What a concept! There is one drawback- the flowers are numerous, but white, scentless and tiny - definitely not what one would picture an "Orchid" blossom would be. That's the way it goes sometimes in the plant world - beautiful plant; obscure flowers, or beautiful blossoms; ugly plant! Nonetheless, i'm happy with my "jewel"!