Tillandsia House Air Plants Lichens

[kg5]

Watering many Tillandsia.

Am using a trays of sphagnum moss around the bush house as a tester for how dry the bush house is and it works very well.

Very much wonder how much water gets to the Tillandsia's through the humidity & with the wind off the water & getting moisture from thunderstorms through the atmosphere when the Tillandsia is under cover?

It would be real nice to know!

[kg5]

The biggest thing to come out of this summer. Is that the watering of all the Tillandsia was reduced by 90%. Mostly because of changing totally to hand watering only. No dunking or set sprinklers.

A lot of my plant issues can be now put down to over watering.

It was a hard thing to do to just give them a quick spray with a hand held sprinkler every day or every 2nd day. But it has worked a treat.

Now as autumn sets in am watering every 3rd day to 4 days.

[kg5]

A question please?

In my sub-tropical climate I do not seem to be able to grow Tillandsia fuchsii var. gracilis & Tillandsia andreana has anyone got any idea why this is happening?

They seem to have trouble summer & winter!

[kg5]

My new bush house is nearly finished. Have enough shelf space for my needs for the next few months. Will construct the shelving as I need it.The new bush house has a redesigned shelving system. Have tried to get out as much shadow from the timber in the structure as I can and it has worked a treat. My original bush house is lit up from dawn to mid day and the new bush house is lit up from mid day to sun set. The new bush house will give me about 400% more room to grow Tillandsia when it is finished.

Image of the new shelving with no side timber holding the wire mesh in place. The plants are called T. moonlight. At the other end is T. stricta and T. aeranthos miniature. They arrived last week at a very good price especially being such large clumps. My new contact for Tillandsia is now happening and I am very happy.





The old type of shelving that I am using.





Section between the 2 bush houses that has the roof up only so far. Could not bring myself to cut down the Stringy Bark Gum Trees so they are apart of this 3rd section of the bush houses.

[kg5]

The Tillandsia's are in a strong growing stage as the weather starts to cool here.

estación seca comments about hot weather and Tillandsia not liking it is just so true. As he mentions a lot of Tillandsia grow high up on mountains with full sun but not the heat of the lower country. Critical information for growing Tillandsia inside or outside!

My new Tillandsia wholesaler contact is awesome! It is the only true Tillandsia wholesaler in Australia. To date I have had to buy my plants from their retail outlet. Will share some of my recent incoming plants from them. Truly amazing!

Ordered some T. bulbosa expecting the normal mature 125mm to 160mm or 5" to 6" tall plants. But have been sent the miniature form in clumps. Have not seen this plant for sale anywhere in Australia before. It really is something to me! The miniature forms seem to be a lot more forgiving and have heaps of pups than there large growing types.

T. bulbosa miniature form.







Look at how T. houston arrived to Tillandsia House. With them flowering they will now grow pups from 1 to 5 plants each new plant. T. houston is a target plant for us. They just grow so well here.



They love the hottest place in the bush house with as much sun as you can give them. They live hard up against the 50% shade cloth on the sunny side of the bush house.



These plants have been positioned in the roof shelving to get the most sun as possible!

[kg5]

Have been watching Tillandsia aeranthos miniature since they arrived a couple of months ago.

There are clearly 3 different sizes at present and have been since they arrived. Have them isolated to see if any size changing occurs.

So what I believe is the 3 different miniature sizes.

Tillandsia aeranthos mini & mini me & mini mini me.

[wisdomseeker]

You can clearly see the size difference in your photos, and they are some nice healthy plants. What are the diameters (presently) of each plant in your 3 groups?

I've been growing the 'Miniminime' for awhile (they have never flowered thus far, but they have produced many pups over the course of time). This particular cultivar truly does have a very miniature form. Diameters of mature plants are around 1 inch (about 2.5cm).

Maybe you have already seen the following already... if not, here is a link that may be of interest Bromeliads in Australia - Tillandsia Miniata

[Leafmite]

Wow! How wonderful to see all your beautiful air plants! I have a much smaller collection of these wonderful plants and I just love all the different forms. Thank you for sharing the photos. It was really great to see all of them.

[kg5]

Thank you for the kind words Leafmite. Have really fallen head over heels with Tillandsia. But a new comer to us here are water lilies and have a nursery for them at ground shelf level in my new bush house. Big move to give ground from my Tillandsia areas.They are hard up against the western wall in 100ltr or 26.5 gallon tubs. After getting lotus to flower from seed this year it opened that door. Plus water lilies are so good for Australian native stingless bees. The miniature water lilies really fit where we are at.

Our lotus in flower.




Thank you for your comments wisdomseeker.

Just been out measuring the Tillandsia aeranthos miniatures. The largest leaf rosette measures around 60mm or 2.4". The 2nd smallest is around 35mm or 1.4" and the smallest is around 20mm or .79". These measurements are from the mature looking rosettes.

Interesting that you posted that link as that is the search I got up some years ago when searching for Tillandsia miniatures and also in very recent times. Chris who makes the comments on that link is the nursery person who has handled about 90% of my incoming plants.He works in the only wholesale Tillandsia nursery in Australia plus he also works in their retail outlet as well. His comments on that 2013 link I believe is about the Tillandsia aeranthos miniatures I have just received.
Chris's boss was the man who imported 2 or 3 containers of Tillandsia into Australia at one time. His business tumbled when his imports were banned.
It took me 5 years to be accepted as a wholesales buyer from them. Hoping in the future I will get to know them better. Another person in that Tillandsia working group is a man called Bik. For 2 years after the Tillandsia ban I was basically the only person buying larger amounts so I got good contact with Chris & Bik. Now so many people are trying contacting them by phone trying to be the only ones to get those different plants they had to stop all this form of contact in their work environment.
The wholesale & retail outlets are about 2,000km or 1,250m away from where I am.

[wisdomseeker]

Thanks for the follow-up!

Your miniature water lily venture sounds like an interesting project. You briefly mentioned the Aussie bees... Austroplebeia & Tetragonula? Are the natural populations of these bees strong & is there anything affecting those natural populations?

Honey bees have really taken a hit over here throughout the years... parasites, disease, colony collapse disorder (along with pesticide damage and habitat loss). Bees are often taken for granted, but they are of vital importance, especially for agriculture.