Saturday, January 26, 2013

Queen's Tears Bromaliad

About 30 years ago I gave my mom a start of this plant known as Queen's Tears. It is a Bromaliad named Billbergia Nutans. I lost my plant some time ago. After my mom passed on my sister took most of her plants. Her Queen's Tears had put on lots of babies or pups but hadn't bloomed. Last year my sister gave me one of the plants and last week it decided to bloom. Here are two photos. The pink part looks like one of the leaves but is a beautiful pink. The pink part opened up and the 'Tears' dropped down. Slowly each 'tear' opened showing the yellow stemens while the covering curled back showing the beautiful blue edges. This is a fairly common Bromaliad but still unique as all Bromaliads are. I did read that they usually bloom at this time of the year which makes it a favorite for Valentine's Day. The little blossom is small enough that it was hard for me to take photos of it with my poor camera.This plant also sometimes has nector droplets that fall off the flowers which is another reason for it's name of Queen's Tears. It seems to be very easy to grow. Seems to like to be pot bound before it will bloom and prefers to be watered sparingly. Some sites said it did well where it got some frost but mine is an inside plant so I don't know about that. I have mine in an east window and it gets lots of light and heat especially in the summer.