Tillandsia fuchsii v. gracilis
 

Tillandsia fuchsii v. gracilis

This is an adorable little Tillandsia species. Each growth is a lovely little light silvery green cushion of soft needle-like leaves. It reminds me of pine trees, the way the saplings start out.

I grow this one mounted to some cork bark, which I place down into a pot with a tiny bit of moss. I mist the plant almost every day and water heavily once a week, pretty much year round. It doesn't seem to go dormant.

This gets about as bright of light as I can muster under T8 fluorescent shop lights. The plant is grown very close to the bulbs.

The lovely foliage and appearance of the growths, combined with the small size, is why I grow this. The short lived flowers and spike aren't that impressive. Some clones are bright red, but this one seems to be lacking in coloration.

http://i.imgur.com/xH8catil.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/m4p9iqal.jpg

These spiky Tillies are growing on me. Grouped together they look a bit like friendly Chollas.

Really cool!

Have you tried summering it outside? With higher light levels it would probably develope the red coloration in the foliage.

I summered my Till. tectorum outside this summer and it is the first time it has ever bloomed for me. Just a coincidence? All the other Tillies seem to develope more color too, even if they're not in bloom.

I've probably had these outside in past summers (don't recall) but it's been under lights & indoors for at least the past year. I tend to avoid putting plants outside. We get sudden & severe storms, sometimes hail, and an army of critters that all seem to be hell bent on destroying house plants.

In fact, I have a T. cyanea in bloom right now, and I did opt to set it outside while it was in flower, since it helps keep the spikes bright pink and intensifies the wonderful scent. Last week, I went outside to give it a whiff, and it was gone. Looked down, and it had been knocked down, with the lovely decorative pot shattered. Fortunately the plant didn't seem to suffer any damage, but it was reassurance as to why I don't put a lot of stuff outside anymore.

Few of my tillandsias in flower last winter. All out mar-nov each year.

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You should create a new thread in the off topic section and post these photos (and names). They're lovely and they'll get more attention that way.

I see ixioides, ionantha, and a couple others I recognize in that list.

Very nice! I have thought about growing some of these but, right now, the closest thing in my collection are the pineapples. :|

They are great. My mom in southern California grows them like weeds, hanging from her trees.

I think they merit their own thread in the Terrarium or Off-Topic forum.