air plant - HELP PLEASE

[chaz]

I have an air plant, it doesnt look good to me but I am clueless on what it should be kept in, etc. Can someone help me?

chaz

[Cereus-validus]

Do a google search for tillandsia.

There are hundreds of websites with instructions on how to care for them.

Here's a clue: an "air plant" isn't kept in anything.

[Ricky]

All of the more common air plants (Epiphytes) can grow on any outdoor tree where they will get enough sun or enough shade depending on what they are and the occasional free watering from above. They will not tolerate cold so if you get frost or snow you should be able to move them indoors. Go to your local garden center and buy a piece of driftwood. Tie the air plant to the driftwood with jute or thin sisal twine. Or drill some holes in the driftwood and stuff the air plant in the hole. While you're at the garden center buy a couple more air plants. One plant will get lonely.

[chaz]

Would the air plant do ok just hanging on its own from a string near sunlight (via window)?

Mine is not growing, seems to be dying in fact. I realize its not a soil-base plant, just wanted to know anything I can about caring for it.

chaz-

[Ricky]

Probably not. Even though it's an air plant, it still needs moisture to live. You could hang it on a string but you'd need to mist it once a week and add some liquid fertilizer to the mist several times a year.

[chaz]

OK, but how does tying it to a piece of driftwood, or anything for that matter, help the plant? I have had it in a vase sort of dish for about 8 months now.

chaz

[Ricky]

You can carry the driftwood piece into the house when it gets too cold or you can place the driftwood piece in the best spot in your garden to get some rain and filtered sunlight. The driftwood won't grow any bigger so it won't wrap around the air plant and make it disappear.

Here's an example:

This one is hanging on the wall. Notice the plants in the bottom are stuffed into holes that I drilled and the orchids on the top are tied on with sisal twine. The sisal twine will rot away in a year and the roots will have wrapped around the driftwood. Since it never gets that cold in S. Florida I don't have to bring this one indoors.

[Frogleg]

Welcome, welcome Ricky! Can't beat expertise AND patience. :-) I've never kept an "air plant," but I have a feeling humidity would be a factor you might never consider mentioning in S. Florida. Misting, of course, will compensate for the lack, but many US indoor environments are positively crispy in winter with the furnace (a big box fueled by paper money) blasting.

[Ricky]

Yeah, I dealt with the big furnace for 44 years in NJ. You can get a humidifier that will keep the air moist and eventually rot away the furnace or you can move to Florida. The difference is the location of your plants. Our last house in NJ had over 100 indoor plants including a Washingtonia palm that is now in the ground here in Boca Raton. I grew Crotons in the livingroom and Habenero peppers in the kitchen up north. But the humidifier took it's toll on the furnace. We replaced the last one twice in 12 years. Here in S. Florida I only have two hanging Pothos in the bedroom, everything else is outside.

I'll put some updated pictures of the garden on my website as soon as the rain stops.