From the elegant spikes of a flaming sword (Vriesea spp.) to the cheerful explosions of tufted air vegetation (Guzmania spp.), bromeliads have some exceptionally distinctive and thrilling flowers.
Experiencing them one time simply isn’t sufficient!
So that you’ll little doubt wish to know the right way to encourage them to flower again and again – I’ve excellent news and dangerous information.
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The dangerous information is that some sorts of bromeliads can’t bloom a second time.
These are generally known as monocarpic and the plant dies after it flowers, however don’t be too hasty to toss it out as many produce offsets that you could take away to propagate new vegetation.
Different varieties can and can rebloom with the precise care.
In our information to rising bromeliads, we give an summary of the right way to domesticate the varied species within the Bromeliaceae household.
Arising, we’ll make it easier to kind out which varieties can rebloom – and the right way to encourage it – and what to do with these that may’t.
Right here’s what I’ll cowl:
We have to all get on the identical web page with the lifecycle of vegetation within the Bromeliaceae household. That can assist us work out what to do with our vegetation and when.
Bromeliad Bloom Cycle
It’s necessary to grasp the blooming cycle of those vegetation to know the right way to encourage them to bloom or rebloom.
As talked about, many vegetation within the Bromeliaceae household are monocarpic. A monocarpic plant solely flowers as soon as in its lifetime after which the plant dies.
Many annuals that we develop in our residence gardens are monocarpic. They develop, flower, and die in a single 12 months.
Different monocarps can reside for years earlier than they bloom and die. That describes most bromeliads, as they will reside for many years earlier than they lastly flower and die.
You may also hear the sorts of vegetation that flower as soon as and die known as hapaxanth or semelparous – these phrases imply the identical as monocarpic.
So in case your plant blooms and also you’re hoping it’ll bloom once more, it’s good to first be sure that it isn’t one of many species that’s monocarpic.
Most Guzmania, Neoregelia, Tillandsia, Vriesea, and Wallisia species are monocarpic. Apparently, edible pineapples (Ananas comosus) are, too.
However there are exceptions. Tillandsia intermedia, T. pringlei, and T. sphaerocephala are polycarpic, for instance.
Polycarpic means the other of monocarpic and refers to vegetation that can bloom greater than as soon as of their lifetime.
Most Dyckia species are polycarpic.
In the event you don’t know precisely what species you might be rising, it may be laborious to inform for certain whether or not it’s monocarpic or not, however I’d all the time assume that it’s.
The probabilities are far higher that your specimen is the sort that flowers as soon as and dies than a sort that blooms repeatedly.
Terrestrial species usually tend to be polycarpic than the epiphytes are, however that’s not a given.
Can Bromeliads Rebloom?
A monocarpic sort gained’t rebloom and there’s completely nothing any of us can do to alter that.
As an alternative, you can domesticate the pups that it’s going to put out and ultimately these will flower.
After the monocarpic specimen has completed blooming, the mum or dad plant will die again and because it fades, it’ll ship out new growths known as offsets or pups.
These are child variations of the mum or dad – clones – that can develop, mature, and ultimately bloom.
It takes a number of years, however you’ll be handled to a different spherical of flowers, adopted by new offsets, and the cycle continues.
You may take away the offsets fastidiously and pot them up into particular person containers and nurture them as you probably did the mum or dad.
Study extra about the right way to care to your bromeliad after blooming in our complete information.
For polycarpic varieties – people who flower repeatedly – you’ll be able to encourage reblooming by eradicating the spent flower stalks on the base and feeding your plant with a light and balanced fertilizer.
Indoors, you’ll be able to expose the vegetation to barely cooler temperatures than they’re used to for a month or two, earlier than reintroducing them to regular temperatures to assist encourage flowering.
However the reality is that they’ll rebloom on their very own with none effort in your half.
Learn how to Encourage Blooming
In case you have a monocarpic sort that hasn’t bloomed but and also you need it to, you’ll be able to expose it to ethylene fuel to assist transfer it alongside.
That’s how skilled growers be sure their bromeliads are blooming after they hit the shop cabinets.
However how do you expose it to ethylene fuel? Place the plant in a transparent plastic bag out of direct daylight and set an apple or pear contained in the bag with it. Take care of the plant as you’ll usually.
You may open the bag throughout the day to set free a number of the humidity, however attempt to maintain the bag closed as a lot as attainable. Substitute the fruit because it begins to rot.
Maintain doing this for 2 weeks. Then, take away the bag, and the bromeliad ought to ship out blossoms inside a number of extra weeks.
Make the Most of Your Bromeliads
Whereas most vegetation within the Bromeliaceae household solely bloom one time, the vegetation will maintain including colour and curiosity to your backyard as they reproduce and ship out new offsets that can mature and bloom on their very own.
So whereas these varieties don’t “rebloom” within the conventional sense of the phrase, they will develop and bloom, for a protracted, very long time.
What sort of bromeliad are you cultivating? Are you having hassle encouraging a monocarpic sort to ship out offsets? Or possibly your polycarpic specimen is cussed about reblooming?
Tell us what’s up within the feedback part under. We’re all the time completely satisfied to troubleshoot.
And for extra details about cultivating bromeliads, add these guides to your studying checklist subsequent: