Bromeliads

We have started to experiment with bromeliads in the landscape thanks to our friends at Far South Wholesale Nursery. As long as bromeliads have enough shade they do fine with the heat. The real issue is the cold. The Green Puya and Billergia (including Red and Hardy Tri Color) seem to withstand our normal central texas winters (withstanding temps drop to 15 degrees.


This is the impressive flower of the Hardy Tri Color. The plant itself is not very interesting but the spring blooms look like something that could only be grown in the tropics. The tri color bromeliad is hardy down to 15 degrees.

The Red Billergia,  Billbergia 'Rubra,  has a little freeze damage but you can see the red leafs with sections turning to a light green. 

The green puya, Puya spathacea, almost looks like a green sotol but the puma pups out forming a mass of plants. This type of puya sends up pink flowers in the spring 

The standard bromeliad, Aechmea recurvata,  looks like a houseplant but it will survive temperatures down to 20 degrees. 

We are going to test out the turquoise puya ,puya berteroniana. It might get too cold in central texas but this would be a great addition to the landscape if it can tolerate the cold once established. It takes several years to bloom so I am going to buy an older specimen and take inside during the winter for the first few seasons. 

I picked up this bromeliad at Natural Gardner in Austin.  

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