Queen of Tears

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Encouraging the Queens tears plant to flower is not difficult. Most plants will flower without assistance in late March or early April.

Billbergia Nutans

Blooms last for six to eight weeks. If your plant is proving stubborn, add one teaspoon of Epsom salts to their water supply for one month, and the blooms should appear. Tip for a non-bloomer: For a plant that refuses to bloom, place it inside a plastic bag with an apple. Leave the bag in place for one week. The apple's ethylene gas will induce flowering 1 to 2 months after treatment. Makoyana, C Lancifolia and others. Home Bromeliads You're Here. Queens Tears Plant The Queens tears plant is a surprisingly resilient bromeliad that can withstand periods of neglect. Queens tears, friendship plant common.

Non-toxic to cats and dogs. This plant is picky about the temperature that it likes to live at.

Depending on the season, your plant will demand different temperatures in order to maintain its health. During the summer, provide partial shade to Billbergia nutans. At other times of the year, bright but indirect light is required for the plant's health.

Description

Full summer sunlight can destroy the flowers. Because of the shallow nature of the roots, the Queens tears gathers most of its moisture from the air and directly from the leaves and flowers. During the summer months, the leaves, flowers, and roots should be watered daily to keep them moist, but never soggy. Any flower cups pointing upward may be filled with water and allowed to sit. During the fall, winter, and cooler parts of spring, the plant should be misted every few days and watered enough to keep the soil just shy of dry. When grown as a house plant, this plant requires an orchid or bromeliad soil mixture.

This can be simulated with a one part gardening soil to two parts perlite or tree bark mixture. As this plant grows, it should be re-potted before flowering occurs, using a larger pot each time until the pot is 5 inches During the summer months, offer this plant a balanced fertilizer once every other week.

Do not soak base of plant, which can lead to root rot. Apply standard liquid fertiliser regularly, about every two weeks. Let the liquid not only to penetrate the potting mixture, but splash over leaves and lodge in central cups. Alternatively can be used a foliar fertiliser and spray it on the leaves.

Billbergia nutans are the least demanding of bromeliads where potting mixture is concerned; they grow well in either the standard bromeliad mixture or in an equal-parts combination of soil based mixture and leaf mould. Because their roots are not extensive, they can be accommodated in relatively small pots. A 13cm 5 inch pot will allow several rosettes producing several flowers heads to develop, but Billbergia nutans looks often best when is grown as single specimen with its tall tubular shape. It is best to plant these plants in heavy clay pots rather than plastic ones, to avoid the possibility of their being knocked over.

Young plants should be moved into pots one size larger in early spring when it appears necessary. In southern areas it will live in the garden or decorate a patio or terrace and bloom for long periods with very little attention.

The Queen of Tears

Divide the clumps every few years. Give them a spray of water every so often in summer if it is dry. This bromeliad is hardy down to freezing temperatures, but prolonged exposure to low temperatures will affect the blooming season. During summer, provide partial shade to Billbergia nutans plants.

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At other times of the year, bright but indirect light is required for the health of this plant. Full summer sunlight can destroy the flowers. Being epiphytic, Billbergia nutans can be grown in the fork of a tree, where the cascading flowers can be well displayed, but can also be grown in the ground or in a pot.

Like most bromeliads, it will survive in dry, shaded garden beds.

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The soil should be well drained and can consist from one part gardening soil to two parts perlite or tree bark mixture. Use bromeliad mix or orchid potting mixture for potted plants. Billbergia nutans gathers most of its moisture from the air through the leaves and flowers. During the summer months, the leaves, flowers, and roots should be watered daily to keep them moist, but never soggy. Any flower cups pointing upward should be filled with water.

Billbergia Nutans Care Tips

Keep the center of the plant filled with water but allow the soil to dry out between each wetting. During the fall, winter, and cooler parts of spring, the plant should be misted every few days and watered enough to keep the soil just shy of dry. During the summer months, offer this plant a balanced fertilizer once every other week.

Flower cups can be filled with the fertilised liquid, and the leaves misted, as well as the soil watered. During other times of the year, reduce fertilisation to once a month. Propagate in spring by means of offsets, but do not remove them until they are cm inch long and began to assume the characteristics of the parent plant. Very young offsets rarely root successfully.

Plant offsets shallowly, retaining any roots that may already have developed, in small pots of bromeliad mixture and place them in medium light. It may be necessary to insert a thin stake as support for an offset until it develops enough roots to anchor it down.

Make the potting mixture barely moist, allowing the top cm 0. Firm rooting is likely to occur in eight weeks. Thereafter, treat the new Billbergia nutans plants exactly the same way as mature plants.

Billbergia nutans plants tend not to attract diseases and they never need pruning. If mature Billbergia nutans do not produce blooms can be because the plant is not getting enough light.

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