Tillandsia House Air Plants Lichens

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Originally Posted by kg5

Wow estación seca.

It looks like Tillandsia seed is not a banned import into Australia by Effective as of: 16 June 2016 import permitted seeds list.

The ban on Tillandsia's plants started Nov 2015.

Now how am I going to find the best tillys to grow from seed?

So the area under my shelving (the floor) looks to be a good place to grow from seed.

---------- Post added at 12:48 AM ---------- Previous post was at 12:14 AM ----------

Finding out very quickly Tillandsia seeds are very hard to buy.

Looking at China based seed rip offs!

Anybody got any Tillandsia seed sourcing info to buy?

Contact commercial Tillandsia growers in the US. They may be willing to sell it. They know they can't sell you plants. Most of them are very friendly, and probably glad to help set up Tillandsia commerce in Australia.

Also make contacts with gardeners and university biology students in areas where they are native.

Many enthusiasts here in the US get seed regularly, but daddy will be unknown. The bromeliad societies may have seed exchanges.

Does anybody know whether Tillandsias set seed in parts of the world without hummingbirds?

[kg5]

Thank you very much for taking the time to help estación seca. Have ordered some small cotton drawstring bags to catch my own seed. Should have them by the end of the week. Have so many different tillys in flower at present. Some that I really want in more numbers.

Can anyone tell me about a Tillandsia grower that I might get a response from when it comes to seed.

Not so many USA Tillandsia sellers showing up in my searches like I did some time ago.

Have sent an email to:

Plantaflora...........Thank you for inquiry but at this time I don’t have any seed to send over as I am short for myself.

Tillandsia International

Russell's Bromeliads.......I am sorry to say that I do not know of any sources for Tillandsia
seeds. If I come across a source I will keep you in mind.

Plant In The Air.........Replied No Seed.

Aleya Garden............. We are also looking for these seeds ! but have not found sellers yet !

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Tropiflora. Dennis Cathcart, owner, might be able to give you contacts for seed from South America.

Do you get seed without human intervention? If so, what is pollinating them?

[kg5]

Thank you estación seca.

Email sent. Tropaflora....We grow our stock from offsets. We recommend you try contacting some Guatemalan tillandsia suppliers like Zion Nursery or Toucan Exporters.
Best of luck!

They do look and sound like a very good contact. Very nice reply.

[kg5]

Do you get seed without human intervention? If so, what is pollinating them?

estación seca as for Tillandsia seed viability I have butzii growing from seed and schedeanais. EDIT to add have tricholepsis growing from seed about two years old 3/16" or 3mm about 50 plants.

Because most of the "Tillandsia world" grows tillandsia's by division and the people who are looking for that very special hybrid are the only ones who seems to have the info on seeds this is making my searches a little harder than normal.

Also believe I am one of the 1st to break into the very slow growing world of tillandsia'a by seed or cloning in Australia. Looks like most growers have just stopped their tillandsia's and moved more into the true Bromeliads or others or not at all.


Stricta seed pods look to of had seed but I have missed collecting the seed so far as for others as well but cotton bags coming very soon to fix this issue hopefully.

Am about to find out about seed with stricta, stricta amethyst, tricolour, junciea, caulescens, crocata, butzii.

Am still looking for tillandsia's that are able to get sowable seed from. Understand some are self pollinating before the flower opens and some that the male parts set a different times so a group of the same plant fertilise each other because they all flower at slightly different times. Some others that can only be cross pollinated because they have no male parts. I am a very much a beginner at all this.

Sent a email to a Cloning Laboratory in Australia and got this reply.

"Many years ago I used to clone lots of bromeliads including Tillandsias however when plants started entering Australia by the container load I could not compete with the cost. I have not done any Tillandsias for several years.

You are correct, Tillandsias can take a long time to grow by tissue culture however it is still faster than growing from seed. No one else has asked about Tillandsias recently only some other bromeliads.

I can clone some Tillandsias for you. I clone Tillandsias from immature flower spikes so you do not endanger your stock plant however culturing is not always successful.

The cost is $55.00 to set up the clone inc gst and then $2.20 per plant inc gst with a minimum order of 100 clones."

Nice reply!
This is very obtainable price wise so long as you only pay for plant that survive the cloning process.

[kg5]

Looks like a language barrier is happening with my contacting into the South Americas.

Then it comes to me that my daughter has been working with the Chilean children for 6 years now.

The man she is to marry next year is a really nice person and is very switched on when it comes to computers and has the ability to speak very good English and my daughter can write and speak Chilean quite well to boot.

So I am handing the issue of obtaining Tillandsia seed to the both of them.

Will send them a detailed email concerning Tillandsia's and Australia's needs.

Here's hoping.kg5

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It is never too late to learn a new language, especially one that will make commerce easier in the future. It helps develop all sorts of new brain cells that will also help grow orchids and Tillandsias better.

[kg5]

T. ionantha x ionantha



Reply email. Very nice one from a Australian!

Hi John,
Join the club mate. Every one is now doing similar and are chasing seeds. i do get some extra from time to time but send them to Eric in Holland as he runs a seed bank at Brom-L Seed. You could also join the Australian Bromeliad Society and get access to their seed bank or join the Bromeliad Society International and get access to their seed bank. People are reluctant to send seed by Aust Post now as it has got expensive. Members of the Queensland Bromeliad Society, and Gold Coast Society tend to share among themselves so really it is best to join a few societies and join in the fun
Regards Greg

Some T. butzii plants from seed.



Trying to catch my seed with cotton drawstring bags on T. stricta amethyst.



T. bulbosa is a tricky plant to get a seed collecting bag around it.

[kg5]

Have just got the cotton bags over the flowers of T. stricta amethyst in time. Have got some seed which is my 1st collected Tillandsia seed.

Just covered the rest of the T. stricta amethyst flowers.

Two uncovered flowers seeded last night and their seeds were still near the plants flower. In the corner of T. stricta amethyst shelf is a spiders web full of trapped seed.

This is a great new step for me. Now I am a seed collector.

[kg5]

Tillandsia. stricta amethyst is the pick of the stricta's for me. It has a bronze colour with the dark green and is a bigger plant that has great shape with larger, well shaped, showy flowers.

Tillandsia stricta is a nice plant as well but it does not have the same shape and is a much smaller plant and the flower are smaller as well but it does produce more pups and flowers more often here than the other stricta's.

No wonder it has been a popular plant for the hybrid people.