Thursday, January 15, 2009

My beautiful tillandsias

I got a small collection of tillandsias from a member of the Greenculturesingapore forum last November. I came to love tillandsias when I suddenly realized how beautiful they looked mounted on driftwood.
Back in 2005, someone gave us a Tillandsia Bulbosa. At that time neither the giver nor us knew it was a tillandsia (air plant), so I justed treated it as an "orchid", i.e. I planted it in orchid mix and watered as I would my orchids. It did not grow well but it did not die, either. Moreover, it bloomed (I never got to see the blooms, though, because I didn't pay enough attention!) and produced two pups. Still it survived all by itself!
Then I moved it up to Tuysonvien and posted a photo of it when the two pups started blooming. I got replies from members of the GCS forum that it was a tillandsia bulbosa! And from that instant, I got more interested in this kind of plants!



Since tillandsias were not readily available in Vietnam, I had to order 10 plants from Singapore to start my collection. I also joined GCS to learn more how to take care of them properly. Now my plants are showing signs that they're happy being in my care - some of them have acquired a beautiful reddish/purplish hue for being in the sun.
Oh, how I love these little beauties! I can't help looking at them every day although my neighbor once commented: they looked so "bare"! Well, I guess, opinions are different especially when related to beauty!

2 comments:

Kris said...

Xuan - how delightfully strange, these tillandsias. They remind me of exotic undersea creatures. They make a nice addition to your collection!
Kris

Hà Xuân said...

Thanks, Kris. Yes, these tillandsias look rather surreal, don't they? I particularly like their "powdery" leaves.