Tropical bromeliads can add color all winter long

While many of the landscape plants have settled into their winter slumber, there are some that are keeping their vibrant color.

These are bromeliads (bromm-ell-EE-ads).

They fill plant beds and patios with foliage colors ranging from green to red to purple. Some are striped, some spotted, others tipped in contrasting colors. Most are very fleshy and hard, and several have mean edges. Many will exhibit fiery-hued flowers in exotic colors, and they remain so up to several months. (Keep in mind they only bloom once in their lives, but produce a lot of babies/pups and will continue to grow foliage.) Some bromels - as they are nicknamed - grow in the ground, the others wedged in trees, and still others just hang from branches.

According to Peggy Mixon, vice president of the Gainesville Bromeliad Society, local nurseryman Al Muzzell started the local society more than 20 years ago to educate the novice gardener about the many bromeliad species and hybrids that grow well in North Central Florida.

The group meets the fourth Sunday of every month at 2 p.m. in the University of Florida's entomology/nematology building on Natural Area Drive, east of the Performing Arts Center. Programs include cultivation and discussion of growth patterns, potential diseases and problems (the big baddie recently is the "evil" weevil that is chewing down natural and cultivated bromels).

This year, there are plans to visit at least one residential landscape and perhaps a bromeliad nursery.

The Jan. 25 meeting will feature Jay Thurrott, vice president of Bromeliad Society International and former chairman of Florida Council of Bromeliad Societies. His topic is the BSI World Bromeliad Conference held last year in Australia.

As a bonus, beginning this month, new members will receive a free bromeliad at their first meeting.

According to Mixon, the local society has established a bromeliad bed near the main entrance to Kanapaha Botanical Gardens, and offspring from those plants have contributed to a taxonomy bed in the gardens. The society plans to participate in the Spring Garden Festival in March with a plant sale and opportunity for membership.

Bromeliads are a wide and diverse family. The one we mostly see in Florida is the Spanish moss, which is neither Spanish nor moss. It is an epiphyte (which means it doesn't grow in soil) that has long, scaly, gray/green (depending on exterior moisture) stems. And it does have tiny, yellow flowers.

There is a misconception that Spanish moss is parasitic. It is not. It will not suck life out of a tree. However, large aggregations can shade out leaves that need sunlight for photosynthesis, and if a tree gets heavily laden, it will begin to decline.

The other bromeliad most commonly known to the public is the pineapple, a juicy concoction that is, in reality, a cluster of red or purple flowers that mature as individual diamond-shaped fruits. All these are in the familiar succulent egg-shaped cone.

Ever wondered why Jell-O advises not to add pineapple in molds and congealed salads? The fruit contains a protein-digesting enzyme (similar to the enzyme in papaya) and can be used as a meat tenderizer. This prevents gelatin from setting.

Each pineapple can generate another plant, something that home gardeners delight in doing. Purchase a fresh pineapple - it should be golden and fragrant - and twist the top off. Remove excess "flesh" and dry for about a week. Then, after removing some of the lower "leaves," pot up in a well-drained mix. The plant will need a sunny, dryish spot and protection from frost/freeze. Beware: The eventual size could be 3 feet high and wide, so be prepared to repot each year. A new flowering/fruit event will occur in about three years. The resultant fruit will most likely be smaller than the "Dole" brand from Hawaii - where many of our pineapples come from.

Incidentally, pineapples are not native to Hawaii; they occur naturally in South America and were distributed to the tropics via explorers who used the easily stashed fruit to fend off scurvy.

For other sources of bromeliad information, visit:
Florida Council of Bromeliad Societies

The University of Florida/Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences' Electronic Data Information Service

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