Temperature and Humidity
Preserve your tillandsia in a spot with good air circulation and the place temperatures are persistently between 50 and 85°F.
Sky vegetation like just a little little bit of humidity however a a couple of times weekly spritz is sufficient to present this.
Fertilizing
Strictly talking, you don’t must fertilize your sky vegetation, however they are going to develop higher and be extra more likely to bloom and put out offsets in the event you give them some meals.
Select a Tillandsia-specific meals that’s formulated with the proper steadiness of vitamins to encourage wholesome progress in epiphytes.
Tilly Enhance is a favourite of hobbyists and consultants alike.
Tilly Enhance
You will discover it out there from the CTS Air Crops Retailer through Amazon in four-ounce packs. Observe the directions on the packet for software timing and frequency.
Cultivars to Choose
Most T. ionantha cultivars are about the identical measurement and form because the species, and there are a variety to select from.
Listed here are a collection of my favorites:
Druid
As a substitute of a pink pigmentation on the mature leaves, ‘Druid’ takes on an orange-yellow hue, as a substitute.
The flower is pristine white with yellow stamens.
This cultivar was first recognized by botanist Drew Schultz in Vera Cruz, Mexico, in 1971.
When it turned out to bloom in white and yellow reasonably than purple, he knew he had one thing particular on his fingers and named it ‘Druid’ after his personal title.
Fuego
If you have to brush up in your Spanish, “fuego” means fireplace, and burn this sky plant does.
The higher leaves might be nearly completely pink, and particularly when contrasted with the purple blossom, it appears such as you’re staring into the dancing flames of a fireplace.
For those who just like the pink of sky vegetation however need extra, extra, extra, ‘Fuego’ is probably the most blazing possibility of all of them.
Guatemala
Can all of us make a journey to ‘Guatemala?’ This cute little cultivar is like having a Guatemalan sundown proper in your own home.
It has inexperienced, pink, and pink leaves with placing purple and yellow flowers.
This cultivar wants a superb quantity of sunshine to provide this unbelievable coloration, so make sure to present loads of shiny, oblique mild for a number of hours per day.
Rubra
‘Rubra’ aka T. ionantha var. rubra, generally simply known as pink sky plant, grows a bit taller and has fewer trichomes than the species.
There are literally two types of this kind, the mushy one and the exhausting one.
The mushy tends to have a wider progress behavior due to its pliable leaves, whereas the exhausting kind is extra upright because it has stiff leaves.
Vanhyningii
T. ionantha var. vanhyningii has the thickest leaves of any sky plant. When in bloom, that chunky, spiraling foliage that grows in a star form turns pale pink.
It was first described in 1957 by botanist Mulford B. Foster, who was well-known for figuring out and gathering varied Tillandsia species.
A part of what units it aside, past the thick leaves, is its cascading progress behavior, with pups rising all alongside the curving stem.
Zebrina
Initially known as T. ionantha var. zebrina, this one was first described in 1975 when Bert Foster found the bizarre specimen in Guatemala.
It seems to have stripes on the foliage due to bands of trichomes.
The higher leaves flip blush pink when the blooming interval begins, adopted by purple and yellow flowers.
There’s a variety of debate amongst botanists as as to whether to categorise this sky plant as its personal species or reclassify it as a kind reasonably than a spread.
Wherever it finally ends up, it’s a particularly fascinating possibility.
Propagation
Most Tillandsia species put out what are known as offsets or pups that may be gently separated from the mum or dad and grown independently.
These kind after the plant has flowered, earlier than the mum or dad dies.
Wait till the brand new progress is about half the scale of the mum or dad after which gently tease them aside. That’s it!
Managing Pests and Illness
Don’t lose sleep about pests and illnesses. They’re not tremendous frequent in air vegetation.