Wednesday, March 12, 2014

Nothing Fishy Here

I just completed one of the easiest gardening projects ever! There's nothing fishy about it, but it does involve an old fish bowl.


For this project, I used a very cool plant called tillandsia. These plants are sometimes called air plants because they are epiphytes and absorb their nutrients through their leaves instead of through their roots.

There are 100's of different tillandsia plants, but I decided to limit myself to just three for starters. I purchased my tillandsia at The Great Outdoors for $4.49 per plant.  They had an excellent selection, so I selected three plants that looked very different from each other for the greatest variety.


Here's a closeup of the first one I selected called tillandsia abdita. Tillandsia are bromeliads, which is most apparent in this particular plant.


This tillandsia with the grayish, white foliage is called tillandsia harrisii. The ghostly foliage is a nice contrast to the red foliage of the abdita.


The final plant I selected is called tillandsia x'floridana'. I love the grassy nature of this particular specimen. I think this one would look very cool in a beach themed terrarium.


Once I gathered all of my supplies, this project literally took less than 5 minutes and that was only because I paused to wash the dusty fish bowl first. I used some old tumbled glass with marbles for the base and gently pressed the tillandsia into them so they would stand up on their own, and that was that. Project complete.




The tillandsia plants need to be run under water twice a week and set in bright indirect light. How easy is that!







4 comments:

  1. How cute! I've recently become obsessed with these plants. The Great Outdoors has such a wonderful selection. I think they would make a cute centerpiece for an outdoor table. I noticed you said they do well in indirect light. I guess they would have to be under a porch or a covered patio.

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    1. Yes, I would definitely keep these out of direct sun. A covered porch or patio should work well, but they made need more frequent water baths in the heat.

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  2. I just bought a bunch of Tillandsias this year too, and I love them! I have them in various settings all over the house.

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    1. I have seen some very creative ways to display these plants. They're very versatile. I wouldn't hesitate to add more.

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