Bromeliad Delight

We have thousands of bromeliads in our garden and a lot of the time, I have to admit, I simply do not like them. They gather copious fallen leaves and can be painful and bloody to weed as their skin-tearing serrated leaves often cause injury. Many have pools of water at their centre which will no doubt provide mosquitoes with perfect breeding sites come summer. And finally, given that all our bromeliads are entirely unproductive - beyond their aesthetics - I resent the time required to weed them and am planning a Dig Your Own Bromeliad sale to lessen their numbers and bring in some $$$.

However, when bromeliads come into flower, it is a different story - they can be absolutely delightful. And there is huge variation amongst the flowers. Here's a sequence of one particular Billbergia coming into flower. These photos don't do it justice of course, but you get the idea.

There are thousands of different species of bromeliads; they evolved in South America and have recently been enthusiastically incorporated into Aussie gardens. They produce 'pups' regularly and are therefore relatively easy to propagate, hence we have thousands - the previous owner must have loved them. Many species are epiphytes (can grow on trees) which allows for quite creative gardening.

My favourite bromeliad flower so far is the one on the left below which measures a mere 2 inches with tiny blue flowers. I have no idea which particular species this is, it is no doubt related to the pineapple, another bromeliad flower! We've got 3 of these flowering at the moment.

So whilst we will reduce the numbers of bromeliads in our garden dramatically, we'll keep a small selection to provide different delightful flowers throughout the year. And then there's the pineapple plantation....