It's Bill!
Wednesday, July 07, 2010Billbergia Pyramidalis, native to Brazil, joined my garden about six months ago. Now its much awaited inflorescence has finally emerge from its rosette of green, smooth, hard leaves.
The cluster of bright red flowers that formed the flower head made the inflorescence look like a torch. When the three petaled flowers opened, I see blueish purple stigma and yellow stamens. The tip of the flower petals is purple as well.
It only took a few days for the whole inflorescence to grow out and flourishing its flowers. The flowers opened and spent fast as well. The whole flower head lasted only about a week.
Although this inflorescence is not so full of flowers compared with those I have seen from the Internet, I am hoping that the plant will grow lots of pups soon... its colour, red is really unusually striking!
PS: If you have any tips either on how to prolong the life span of the inflorescence or how to grow the flower head fully, please let me know. Thanks!
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14 comments
Hi Steph. It is a beautiful bromeliad. I had to get rid of mine ... it grew into such a large clump (which is nice) but, it collected so much water in its vases that it became a breeding ground for dengue fever carrying mosquitoes.
ReplyDeleteBill puts on a pretty amazing show with beautiful shapes and colors. :)
ReplyDeleteAbsolutely gorgeous. I have a few of those myself and I've been anxiously awaiting their blooms. Maybe your inflourescence is less full because its another variety of pyramidalis? There is a lot of variation.
ReplyDeleteCongrats, Stephanie.
ReplyDeleteWhen I looked again at mine, which bloomed last year, I see that my plant had a bigger head and more blooms. I kept it in a rather bright location, in fact it was in partial sun. Where do you keep yours? Could it be the light that helped the bigger head?
Also, I promptly removed each pup when it was large enough and I've noticed that the plant kept on producing new pups after that so now I have about 4 or 5 pups to share with friends already.
This plant is very pretty. I just love the purple and yellow against the striking pink. How very unique. Even the name sounds nice.
ReplyDeleteHi Steph, bromeliads like humid environment, to simulate their natural habitat in the rainforest on trunks of big trees.
ReplyDeleteThe flower is beautiful. Red as always is rich in expression... Purple at the tip is cunningly exotic. Lets wait for another bloom ~bangchik
ReplyDeleteBeautiful color!
ReplyDeleteSuzanne
That's a headturner. Such a brilliant red!
ReplyDeletereally great plant from the foliage to the red. The little inflorescence is really pretty too.
ReplyDeleteHi Stephanie; The Billbergias are wonderful plants. You have got a lovely, happy specie there. One can see the brilliant flowers shining from afar. If you give it a support, perhaps a wall it will slowly creep up. I have one happily walking up a Magnolia tree.
ReplyDeleteBill is gorgeous, Steph. I just love the little flowers ... I'm afraid I have no tips for growing these beauties, sorry.
ReplyDeleteGlad to hear the colour on your Amaranthus is coming out ... will look forward to some photos.
Bill really is beautiful :) I like the idea that it looks like a torch, with the bright red colour and the shape.
ReplyDeleteHot in Finland today... Fortenately I have students only in the mornings when it's not so very hot.
Have a great weekend!
Thanks for your advice and kind words. Sounds like Bill can be a potential giant although I hoped for the flowers only ;-)
ReplyDelete