Five stars for bromeliads in general, but only four for the ones you get in Tesco (Tesco Bromeliad Pot)

Member Name: worst_trip

Product:	Tesco Bromeliad Pot
Date:	06/10/09 (66 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Easy to keep, spectacular-looking houseplants

Disadvantages: Die back after flowering (but can easily be propagated)

Guzmanias are all right I suppose, though personally I'd say the bromeliad family has so much better to offer in the way of houseplants. Still, it's Guzmanias that you see most often in garden centres and supermarkets these days, as they have showy red, orange or yellow 'flowers' and are relatively easy to keep (and presumably, as they're a shorter-lived type of bromeliad plant, quicker to grow to maturity for the commercial horticulturalists who supply this type of plant). They generally cost from about £4 - £6, largely dependent on the quality of the usually ceramic pot-holder the plant has been placed in.

Bromeliads are native to North and South America, where most species are found (though there is one group of cactus-like, spiky-leaved bromeliads called the Puyas, which can be found in South Africa.) Though there are many terrestrial types, what bromeliads are famous for is being epiphytes - plants that grow perched on tree trunks and branches. They aren't parasites, in that they don't directly damage the tree they're living on - bromeliads just use larger plants as a platform to get higher up in the forest canopy. They tend to relatively small root systems as a result - in the epiphytic types, the roots are mainly for anchoring the plant to the substrate, rather than being for absorption of water and nutrients from the soil. (Not there's much soil up a tree in any case). Instead, bromeliads grow in a rosette shape which in most species forms a central, watertight 'cup' in the middle of the plant. This collects water - and through decay of plant and animal material that falls into the central rosette - nutrients, which are absorbed through the leaves of the bromeliad by scale-like structures that are unique to this group; pineapples are a member of the bromeliad family and the greyish, dusty material that you can see on the undersides of the leaves on the crown of a pineapple is basically this type of leaf-scale material.

What this means in practice for the bromeliad grower is that if your plant is of a type that has an obvious central 'cup', then you need to keep some water - preferably rainwater or distilled water - in this at all time. It's a commonly-held misapprehension that you should water bromeliads solely through the central leaf-cup; most types benefit from being watered via the soil roots also, just as regular plants do. As these are jungle plants, regular spraying over the leaf surfaces (again, preferably with calcium-free water) to maintain humidity levels around the plant also helps keep them healthy.

Thinner-leaved / upright varieties of bromeliad such as the Tesco Guzmania don't always have such an obvious central cup into which water can be poured; it's a good idea to water the plant 'fromt the top' so that it can collect in any cavities in the plant (eg in the leaf bases) that it 'wants' to. There's a leaf problem specfic to bromeliads called 'quilling' particularly noticeable in some commercially-available Guzmanias, which results when the new leaves get too dry and don't unfurl properly.

The main problem with bromeliads you buy in the shops is that many types are sold for their large, brightly-coloured and long-lasting 'flowers' (in fact the actual flowers are often quite small and short-lived; the showy red, yellow or orange 'trumpet' that you see in the middle of a Tesco Guzmania is actually a collection of coloured leaves that surround the smaller, central flower head proper), and a feature of all bromeliads is that the main plant invariably dies sometime after flowering; it's just the way their life-cycle works. What the plants do do is to reproduce vegetatively - usually from the base of the stem - at flowering time, so you get a collection of young plants - bromeliad 'pups' coming up as the older, larger, central plant fades back. This process can take any time from weeks to months to years, depending on the type of bromeliad involved.

With a Guzmania, as the leaves are relatively thin for a bromeliad, the dying-back process is relatively quick - although a shop-bought plant should remain in presentable condition for at least a few months after purchase. Once the main rosette begins to brown and wither, the Guzmaina is likely to be a bit of an eyesore however. At this point it's best to remove the plant from its pot, and to carefully separate the pups (you should have at least a couple per plant) away from the parent plant so that each takes away a part of the old stem and root system. These should be potted up separately.

The other bromeliad regularly encountered in supermarkets is a different type called the Vriesia. This is instantly recognizable as it has the most fantastic maroon and dark-green banded, long, strap-like leaves, and a long triffid-like flower spathe (?) in vivid red or orange. In my opinion, the look better, and last better than Guzmanias. Definitely a type to look out for.

Summary: Best houseplants of all, bar none