I Just Planted My Bromeliads

The other day I rushed over to my parent's house to plant my new bromeliads and take some pictures of the garden.  I apologize for the low quality of the photos, as I was using my cell phone camera and it was starting to get dark.  I'll show you some pics of the garden before I go to work!

The new n. "sunshine" is to the left of the Japanese birds nest fern.  To the right of the fern is the tattered vriecantarea "inferno", which had the crap beat out of it by the Florida sun.  (you'll notice the fern is a little singed as well)  Its clear that "inferno" likes it shady, and I'll probably divide all the pups soon and try them in different places.  To the left is a photo of what each pup will look like when they flower, with the bloom period lasting for months.  I don't expect the offsets to bloom this year, but they sure will be pretty when the time comes.  I do plan on adding more white marble mulch asap, since its looking a little sloppy.

Here's a wider view of the patio, with another new neoregelia hybrid in the lower right hand corner, nestled in a concrete pot.  The chamaedorea radicalis shading it has gotten much bigger in the last year, and seems to have adapted to the bright sun admirably, especially for a chamaedorea.  I planted a stoloniferous neoregelia or two at the palm's base so they can ramble up the trunk.

The large bromeliads in the center were purchased last year, labeled as aechmea gamosepala "large form" and are a mystery to me still, since I've never seen any info about this supposed form.  It has the matchstick flowers, but the whole plant is three times as large as any gamosepala I've seen.  The other broms in this view are bilbergia pyramidalis in the front, and (what I think are) aechmea distichantha in the rear.  These are all cold hardy, and I really need to enlarge this bed so they have more room to grow and so I can plant more shade loving types.

This is the other side of the tree, with aechmea gamosepala "lucky strike" to the far left, aechmea gamosepala forming a low growing carpet in front of that, aechmea distichantha (I think) against the base of the tree, bilbergia pyramidalis "Kyoto" to the far right, Aechmea "Burgundy" in the center, and another gamosepala in the front.  The big distichantha mother plants in the center and behind the trunk to the left were planted on their sides last winter for stability since there was hardly any soil to plant it in.  Now the pups have grown and taken a vigorous hold, so I can trim back the lanky mother plant leaves to keep a tidier appearance.  I'll have to be careful, as the spines are the sharpest I've seen!  Wish me luck!

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