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CLICK TO RETURN TO PAGE 2 OF LIST OF PAPERS CLICK TO RETURN TO PAGE 1 OF LIST OF PAPERS CLICK TO RETURN TO PAGE 3 OF LIST OF PAPERS 73. Krulik, Gerald, Free-Range Tillandsias, PUP TALK (Saddleback Valley Bromeliad Society), 18(4), p. 6-8, April, 2011. Free-Range Tillandsias By Jerry Krulik Many health enthusiasts extol the virtues of free-range chickens. They are said to be happier, healthier, longer-lived, and packed with vitamins. Cage grown chickens are said to be unhappy, poorer reproducers, sickly, with low quality eggs. If this is true for chickens, what about our favorite group of plants, Tillandsias? How many of you force your poor plants to live in stultifying pots, or worse yet, in wind and rain-free, sterile greenhouses? I have been experimenting with Free-Range grown Tillandsias for many years now. Photos 1 to 3 show some of their habitat in my yard. Photo 1 shows a fence with aluminum mesh edge forms, used for building rooms, nailed to the fence and covered with Tillandsias. Aluminum is the best metal for the plants because it is non-toxic, non-corroding, and has a long life so the plants can grow for years without disturbance. Photo 2 shows some of my long-suffering yard trees. Left is a pink flowed Plumeria acuminata; center is an African Commifera mollis with lemon scented leaves; right is Jatropha mcvaughii in its winter dormant state, with the large fuzzy maple shaped leaves dropped. Photo 3 does have a live tree under it. This is a Mexican Baobab, or Ipomea arborescens, wrapped in Fockea tugelensis asclepead vines and many Tillandsias. This is a great support tree since it only puts out leaves and flowers in winter, on stems emergent from the mass of plants. I submit that all the plants seem to be doing well, and take far less care than pot bound plants. One consequence of living free, is babies! Free range chickens may lay better eggs, but they do hide them well. Since there are bound to be roosters too (another reason why free range chickens are happier than caged ones), these hidden eggs will hatch. It is fun to watch the growing broods of chicks. My Tillandsias also show their appreciation by freely seeding and germinating throughout the yard, and possibly the neighbors’ yards and common areas. They are not necessarily easy to see among the masses of adults, especially when young, but it is fun to look for them. The discovery of an unexpected plant or cluster is always worthwhile, and shows that the habitat is really what the plants like. Some seeds germinate on other Tillandsias, as this cluster of seedlings in a leaf axil of T. latifolia. (Photo 4) Others grow any place the wind dispersed hook-tipped seeds can attach. Spines of succulents and cacti are favorites, as shown by this large Tillandsia on Pachypodium lamerei fifheriensis. The flower is Gladiolus triste, and the colored succulent is Kalenchoe orgyalis (no joke!), appropriate for this article. (Photo 5) The Tillandsia cluster had been growing on a large spiny branched Euphorbia for maybe ten years in this pot. This winter it bit the dust and I had to detach the Tillandsia from its carcass. The Tillandsia roots of course had twined and interpenetrated the root ball of the spiny host plant but were eventually teased out and potted. (Photo 6) The seeds don’t need a spiny support though, just seemingly any occasionally moist solid surface. Here is a plant grown from seeds that attached to moister area of roughened painted wood below a hanging pot. (Photo 7) CLICK HERE TO GO TO THE END OF THE ARTICLE |
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