Hi Paul ,well you are not alone , I have a plant i named ' Supernova ' ( not reg yet ) when it flowered the first time none of the flowers opened up but pushed the petals past the sepals,now this year the first 7-8 flowers opened normal ,the rest did not ,some of my " aussie Beauties " have done this as well , its not moving the plants that does it ,genetic ? doubt it , more likely to be climatic/ cultural ,some times flowers just are not perfect ( you get this in orchids a lot ) sometimes they wont open if there is a lot of glutinous materail on the flowers and the air is very dry than it simply ' glues ' the flowers shut ,misting the spike(s) over can prevent this , thats about all i can say ,
cheers . Jack

Hi Jack,

Thanks for your info. At least now I don't feel guilty for moving them and I guess I'll just have to keep trying and see what happens. There are still quite a few flowers yet to open on the SoMK F2 so I'll keep my fingers crossed with those and if that fails, there are three pups just becoming visible, so a few years down the track I'll get a chance to try again. Maybe if they are grown in different locations they might flower at slightly different times during the year and that might make a difference.

It is such a spectacular plant that I really had been busting to do something with it NOW. Ah well, on a positive note, I guess that now it is something to look forward to ..... again .... :)

I'll let you know what happens, and since I can't resist posting a picture, here is 'Snows of Mauna Kea F2' again, taken a week or so before the flower spike started emerging.
{{gwi:438876}}

Cheers, Paul

I had the same problem and 2 times a day light misting solved it

Hi HDD,

Thanks for the info. The petals don't seem to be glued together, they're just not opening and the anthers aren't maturing, but I'll certainly give the misting a try. Who knows what sorts of mechanisms and triggers are involved, so it will be interesting to see what happens.

Cheers, Paul

Hi Paul,

That's a nice looking plant you have there so it's worthwhile waiting for another year to get a flower.

You're not the only one with Vriesea problems, I had a Kiwi Cream with a nice big spike but the grasshoppers liked it also and chewed right through it at the first flower. Now there's just a bare spike to remind me of what may have been.

All the best, Nev.

Paul
I was told this when I asked someone that grows alot of Vriesea's. They like their leaves cool and moist and their feet evenly moist but not wet. The first few I grew I had to battle extreme heat which most of them didn't like. That's why the misting, it helps control my heat problems and I have bloomed every one I now grow. Before they spiked but only had deformed flowers. Misters are 8 feet above the plants and it is a micro mist. I can stand under the mist and it barely gets my glasses wet.

Hi HDD,

That is really interesting info and you may have hit the nail on the head. Thinking back over the four or five months in question, the combination of plant surface temperature and moisture has probably been more consistently to the hot and dry side recently and could very well be a factor, even though the ambient temperature and humidity ranges outdoors have been similar and highly variable over the whole period.

The twice daily misting is starting as of today. I'll let you know how it goes.

Thanks again, Paul

Woops, Nev - I meant to offer my commiserations re your 'Kiwi Cream'. I don't have any luck with my one either. It grows quite vigorously and looks perfectly healthy apart from the fact that the leaves die right back after they have matured. All of the other foliage Vrieseas around it are bursting with health, including its relo 'Kiwi Sunset', so I've no idea what is going on there. Cheers, Paul

Hi Paul,
I have had a problem with flowers not producing pollen.Does anyone know why this happens?They produced pollen to start with and then stopped.
Hi Nev,
I had the same thing happen with a grasshopper attack but it happened after I had pollinated most of the flowers on one and before I had a chance to on another.

Hi Paul ,in regards that nice 'Snows of M.K ' if you get a pup to spare ,i may have something you would like to swap it for ? its very nice and i could use it for breeding ,Mine is getting a spike ,its a bit ahead of yours ,are you interested in me sending you some pollen to put on it so we both can have some seed ? see photo attached of mine ,( photo is before plant made spike ) cheers, Jack

{{gwi:438878}}

Hi Jack,

That 'Snows of Mauna Kea F2' in the pic actually belongs to a mate who is kindly allowing me to play around with it. It took a couple of days to catch up with him, so sorry about the delay in getting back to you.

That plant in the pic is the one that I'm currently having the flowering problems with. The pic of the whole plant was taken a few months ago, but here is a pic taken a couple of days ago showing the flowers not doing their thing:
{{gwi:438879}}

This pic is taken in the evening with not much light so it is a bit grainy, but you can see the pair of flowers in the middle (about half way up the spike now) - the sepals have opened but the petals remain firmly closed and when I dissect the flowers, the anthers are closed and do not contain any pollen. So, unfortunately no pollen as yet, but the plants are now getting the twice daily misting as per HDD's suggestion and there are another twelve or so flowers to go, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed that there may be some pollen yet to come.

I've asked my mate about the possibility of a pup swap and he'd be very happy to do that. Thanks a lot for your suggestion. The pups are still very small - still under the water in the leaf bases - so they will probably be ready in several months. I'll keep you posted.

Cheers, Paul

Hi Paul , yes i knew the plant was your mates ,i thought you may have got it from him ,still am happy to swap a pup, your flowers are doing exactly what some of mine did , and yes when i opened the flowers to let the air in it did not mature the pollen, there just was none ,bummer is int it ?
Jack