Tillandsias

[Tim]

I started using them to shade my CPs from our direct Cali sun. Now the whole greenhouse looks like this

 

[RL7836]

Love it!

 

[thez_yo]

Oooh nice! Where in cali?

 

[Tim]

San Luis County, so it's perfect for them.

 

[Smitty]

That is the best looking shade cloth I have ever seen!

 

[ellisonk001]

Beats shadecloth any day...

Looks great; thanks for sharing!

 

[DragonsEye]

Nice tills! Many are surprisingly -- to me at any rate -- tough little buggers.

 

[Kyle]

How'd I miss this 'til now? That is freaking awesome! I recently picked up my first Tillies and I adore them. Have you just hung them with fishing line? SO MANY FLYING PLANTS, hahaha. Do you ever soak them, or do you just mist them, or what? They look fantastic and, as others have said, way cooler than a shade cloth. XD

 

[Tim]

They get misted by a timer about a minute per day. Wish you could see the whole set up

 

[Natalie]

Awesome tillandsias! Admittedly until I went to Costa Rica, I found them pretty boring, especially compared to other bromeliads. Spanish Moss has always been an exception though, what with me spending so much time in Louisiana throughout my life. But after going to CR and seeing the diversity of the genus and the variety of habitats in which they grow, I came to appreciate them and even started buying some of my own. They are extremely hardy for bromeliads and seem to adapt to the California climate pretty well - I even got my Spanish Moss to bloom this past summer! I grow mine outdoors year-round in a tree, and in times when there's no rain I just spray them with a hose a few times a week. This is the first time most of mine have been outdoors in the winter, but they've handled a few very mildly frosty nights with no trouble (I'm in zone 10a). I think that even though they are tropical plants, the large trichomes on their leaves give them some degree of frost hardiness, some more than others. Spanish Moss is apparently hardy down to zone 7a.

I'll have to get a picture of my tropical epiphyte tree tomorrow morning, I think it looks pretty cool.

 

[Natalie]

Took a couple days, but I got a shot of my epiphyte tree. I've never done anything like this before and can't find much information about growing plants as epiphytes online, so I'm just sort of experimenting and seeing what works. In this tree I'm growing several Tillandsia spp., Epiphyllum 'King Midas' (that's the catus near the top), and Aeschynanthus garrettii, a red-flowered epiphyte from Thailand. So far I think these plants are doing really well! I've had the A. garretii the longest (I've had it since early summer), and it's been growing and flowering well. As far as I know it comes from tropical rainforests, however it has waxy, slightly succulent leaves that give it some protection from low humidity and light frost. I have to figure out how I'm going to fertilize these plants in the spring, since I've never done it before. Do you fertilize your Tillandsias, Tim?

 

[JB_OrchidGuy]

Awesome!!! I want ti get mote if theses guys. I hit three in Fla and only have one left. They were neglected badly. Km my old self again and look forward to trying again. Awesome shade cloth and great idea!!!

---------- Post added at 03:59 PM ---------- Previous post was at 03:52 PM ----------

Being outside they shouldn't need fert. Although I'm sure a water soluble orchid fert would work sprayed with a pump sprayer.

 

[NBLD]

Beautiful. What a great idea!

 

[Maiden]

WOW that is what i call a nice wall! Congrats for the amazin fixing job.