The Other Orchid: Bold, Brazen and Beautiful Bromeliad

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For long-lasting color, the Bromeliad is hard to surpass. Its colorful leaf-like centerpiece, made up of tiny buds, or bracts, that are waxy to the touch, can be long or short, flat or rounded, narrow or broad.

Colors range from vivid shades of red and orange to soft peach and pink. Blooms can last from six weeks to four months and are offset dramatically by cool-green, blue-green, striped burgundy and green, speckled or spotted foliage that can be broad or sword-like or thin and grass-like, smooth or, occasionally, spined.

At least one-third of Bromeliad species are air plants that grow on trees or rocks, using only their roots only to hold themselves in place. They draw their water from clouds and fog, as well as from rainwater stored in their tanks. While air, or epiphytic, Bromeliads make intriguing counterpoints in the garden, it’s the terrestrial varieties that add visual flavor and excitement to home décor. More than 100 Bromeliad varieties are available for the home and garden at retail stores.

One of the most popular Bromeliads is the fashionable Guzmania, with its soft, often shiny spiny leaves and tall scene-stealing flowers that bloom in a rainbow of luminous colors. The Aechmea group, another favorite, offers many color choices, too, with flowers that emerge from a water cup formed by upright spiny or spineless leaves.

Low-growing Neoregelias create pink, red or purple rosettes when in bloom. The Tillandsias group of typically smaller airborne Bromeliads has thin, gray-green leaves and exotic, tropical-looking flowers that come in an assortment of colors, including yellow, pink, red and orange. Vrieseas varieties feature soft, upright green or variegated leaves and sword-shaped flowers in red, purple, yellow and orange.

A naturally hardy tropical plant, Bromeliads thrive beautifully indoors, flourishing in low light and with very little maintenance. They love fresh air and do well near a window or doorway, or, placed in a shady outdoor area now and then for a dose of fresh air. Bromeliads rarely need to be fertilized, maybe just once in the spring, twice in the summer and once in the fall with about half the formula required of most house plants. Skip fertilizing altogether during the winter months.

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