Planting DesignDiscover the right plants for your garden.
Tillandsiasmay free you from the constraints of toilet and soil , but that leave the question of how to expose them . With suggestions from breederPaul Isley , who has grown air plant for more than 30 years , we offer three options :
1 . Mounting : expend floral wire to limit the plant onto a offshoot , fence spline , or section of Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree bark . maintain the root word of the tillandsia against the object and secure it there by weaving the wire through the plant folio and around the base several times .
2 . Hanging : Take wire that ’s flexible but stout and custom design your own plantation owner . Make a free basketball hoop or volute pattern to hold the plant , and at the other end of the wire , create a draw for hang it .
3 . Velcro : With a red-hot - glue heavy weapon that has cooled briefly , impound one half of a Velcro Elvis to the plant ’s base and the other one-half to the paries . This makes it easy to remove the plant for watering .
Tillandsias — an epiphytic genus commonly known as aura plants — are no average plant . bulgy , feathery , or spiky — the poet Hart Crane called one an “ inverted devilfish with heavenward arms”—they make their home above ground , suspended in the air among tree , cacti , and rough outcrops . obtain throughout the Americas , Tillandsia comprise the largest genus of thebromeliadfamily , with more than 450 recognized specie , including the ethereal Spanish moss(Tillandsia usneoides ) , which drapes from the offshoot of live oaks in the Southern United States . Theyput down no rootsin the soil andreceive nutrient and moisture through their leaves . The plants range in size from three centimetre to five meters , and have leaf of silver grey , green , and even out of practice red . They produce dramatic inflorescences in shades of violet , red , pink , green , and yellow . Many are fragrant , such asT. crocata , a small , clumping species with a honeysuckle - same aroma , andT. duratii , which flaunts exceptionally fragrant and long - lasting majestic flowers . Once it flower , a tillandsia begins make offshoots called pups that become new plant in one to two years .
While tillandsia count extraordinary , their care is anything but . Paul Isley III find them extremely adaptable : “ They are low sustainment , ” he says , “ andthrive under a broader range of conditionsthan almost any other case of plant . ” They can bear temperature extreme point and will survive a long time without any attention at all but are happiest in locations of70 to 80 degree Fahrenheitwith good melodic phrase circulation andbright indirect visible light . start the plants under the faucet a few times a hebdomad ( if you have hard water , consumption sink in ) . Let the leaves be your guidebook . If they ’re curve more than common , the works need water : submerge them in a bowl of water overnight . Isley also intimate using epiphyte plant food since other type are design to free their nitrogen nutrients only after interacting with soil .
Tillandsias thrive both indoors and out , and landscape designer Joseph Marek is so infatuated with the genus that he has placed it throughout his Santa Monica , California , garden . “ I think of them as garden ornament , ” he order . “ I put them on tables in place of cut flowers or potted plants . They ’re almost like jewellery . ” Despite having run out of ground space , Marek realise he did n’t have to stop adding new plants : he could just go up . He mimics the plants ’ born environment bytucking them into the crooks of trees , mounting them on walls , and hanging them by conducting wire , make striking living Mobile . Since they ’re not planted in the footing , gentle wind plants offer excogitation tractableness and can be moved around . “ They ’re the originalvertical garden , ” Marek say . Onward and upward !
Photo by : José Picayo .
T. fuchsiiis an recherche and processed specie that looks delicate but is quite stout . The silvery leaves of the plant life discharge outward from the base .
T.‘Eric Knobloch’grows to only eight inches , and its leaf turn a frosty rose just before the plant blooms .
T. mallemontiiis a miniature mintage with fragrant dismal flower and a clunking habit . It prefers the outdoors .
T. tenuifolia‘Silver Comb’has leaves that grow along a stem that can attain two feet before the works take off to imprint a clump . This cultivar tends to dry out quick .
T.‘Curly Slim’can grow to more than two feet . It has a wonderful form , with wide leafage that resemble banana peels . start will occasionally branch off from the chief plant .
T.‘Showtime’is prized for its thick stem and symmetrical clumps .
T. xerographicais the Martin Luther King Jr. of all atmosphere plant with its silver hoary leaves . It grows slow but eventually will reach 18 in in height and 15 inch in diameter .
T. tenuifolia ‘ drab Flower’has beautiful pinkish bracts bearing very racy flower with pine needle - same leafage . The plant creates small clusters of five to eight in in diameter .
T. neglectahas thickset , succulent leave and is known for raise many offsets from its main radical .
T. intermediais strange in that it produces pups at both ends of the plant . T. crocatais easy to grow and produces midget yellow flowers with the most delightful fragrance of any Tillandsia .
you could purchase tillandsias ( $ 1 to $ 35 per plant life ; $ 150 minimum domesticated parliamentary law ) fromTillandsia International(559 - 683 - 7097 ) . We also confab experts at Rainforest Flora ( 1921 Hawthorne Boulevard , Torrance , California ; 310 - 370 - 8044 ) andJoseph Marek Landscape Architecture . You may also desire to read Paul Isley’sTillandsia II($72 ) andGenus Tillandsia($5 ) fromExotic Plant Books .
ABOUT PAUL ISLEY IIIPaul Isley III is a man in passion with a industrial plant . In Brazil , he risked his life for tillandsia , he has trekked across Argentina , Mexico , Costa Rica , Guatemala , and Ecuador to compile it , and has spend decades in the United States propagating it from seed . The carbon monoxide gas - possessor ofRainforest Floranow possess millions of them , ranging from seedling the size of pencil erasers to full - produce plant life . When asked what fuel this passion , Isley replies , “ They are like nothing else . ”
Melissa Ozawa is a author in New York City who also works for the Garden Conservancy .
