Bromeliaceae

Scientific Name - Neoregelia ‘Marble Throat’
Common Name - None
Place of Origin - Unknown
Status - Not Threatened

This is a great small neo that I received about a year ago, since then it has put out a pup and is now flowering. Around six inches tall, it’s a small cultivar of Neoregelia chlorosticta with white flowers and interesting white “marbling” towards the center of the plant. In more sun it should get some pink coloring as well, but this one is under a Florida Sugar Maple and gets mostly shade, with only light sun in the morning and later in the day. It has fragrant flowers in spring. 

It made it through our last (mild) winter without any damage, so it’s relatively cold hardy. It’s also supposed to be very prolific, so I hope to have a large clump in no time. 

I recently bought another small clump of these, which are going to planted in the Rock Garden, where they might get a little more sun and hopefully some pink coloring. 

Scientific Name - Aechmea ‘Red Dragon’ 
Common Name - None
Place of Origin - Unknown 
Status - Not threatened 

This is one of my favorite plants, and I think the pictures speak for themselves! However, I’m still going to talk a little bit about this plant. 

I couldn’t find much info on this plant, but it definitely has Aechmea recurvata in its blood, and is possibly a cultivar of A. recurvata or a hybrid. It has the typical recurvata shape, inflorescence, and blushing characteristic that many of them do. 

Very easy to care for, they take full to part sun, tolerate my cold weather with ease. They flower in early spring and stand out in the garden, despite their small size. An individual plant is around 6 to 8 inches tall, and maybe 4 to 6 inches wide when grown hard. 

Scientific Name - Dyckia ‘Cherry Coke’
Common Name - None
Place of Origin - Florida
Status - Not threatened 

This is the first dyckia I ever bought, and is just now flowering for the first time. I bought it as a single pup in late 2009, and it got planted in the Rock Garden in late March of 2010. So it took almost exactly three years for it to flower!

But it’s well worth the wait. I originally planted it in the middle of these rocks to help give the plant some extra warmth in the winter, and better drainage in the summer. It would probably do better unconstrained, but it will have to stay like this for now. 

It’s a great dyckia hybrid, and well worth a place in your garden if you have a spot for it! Takes full sun and cold without a problem. 

Bromélias em profusão by Márcia Valle on Flickr.

Deuterocohnia longipetala, Peru by Artem Goncharyuk on Flickr.