Potted Plants: Bromeliad

Ok, so, some time ago, I raided Home Depot's clearance plants and ended up with a cool little plant that I new nothing about. It turns out that it is a Bromeliad, which are pretty unique little things.

Bromeliads only flower once in their life time. Their flower does not look much like a flower, though, it looks more like a long colorful shoot of funny leaves coming straight up from the center of the plant. Anyway, I got this Bromeliad on clearance because it has already flowered. Nice, right?

Well, after a Bromeliad flowers, then, if it is happy with life, it will start to produce little baby plants, called pups. These pups grow right out of the side of the plant. Like this:

Can you see those? Those are two different pups, currently growing on the side of my Bromeliad. You see how they are tucked in behind one of the mother plant's leaves? They will continue to grow there as long as you let them. But if you would like, once they get to be 1/3 or 1/2 the size of the mother plant, you can transplant them and grow them as their own separate plant. The Pups there are actually the 3rd and 4th pups that my plant has produced. Back in June, I pulled the first two away and planted them in their own pot. I found instructions online that talked about pealing the mother plants' leaf away to reveal the pup's own root system. I found no such root system. The roots on my pups were basically non-existent. But I went ahead and planted them, anyway. And it turned out totally fine. Bromeliads get most of their water and nutrition from their leaves. Their roots are basically only there for an anchor support. This is, obviously, pretty unique. Absorbing water through their leaves means two important things: 1) Allowing the dirt to get too wet, or planting a Bromeliad in too large of a pot, can cause root rot. 2) When you water a Bromeliad, you simply pour the water right into the center of the plant, instead of into the dirt around it:

Here are my two older pup's transplanted in June:

 I used too large of a pot, I think, but I am careful not to let the dirt get too wet, and they seem to be doing fine!

More info on Bromeliads and their Care HERE!