Hi Gail

Your first plant is right = Aechmea Cylindrata
Your second plant is Aechmea Bert
Your third plant is right, as I have it = Canistropsis billbergioides 'Persimmon', however there are many colour variations ??? and some are debatable if there is much difference between some of them, to me anyway, and I'm not colour blind, but I'm a lumper not a splitter.

Pinkbroms

Hi Pinkbroms and thanks. Oh well, 2 out of 3 right isn't too bad :)
I was trying to decide if the 2nd one was Bert or not but thought it fitted orlandiana better and couldn't find any good descriptions of either of them. They are so difficult to tell apart just from pictures. Just out of curiosity and so I can learn, what is the difference between the two?

Gail, the easiest way to understand the difference between Ae. orlandiana and 'Bert' is to look up Ae. fosteriana. 'Bert' is a hybrid of those two species and falls just about midway between the two in most of its characteristics. It is larger and more tubular than orlandiana, but not as long and narrow as fosteriana. The inflorescence is more elongated than orlandiana, but not as much so as fosteriana, which can tend to get floppy. The texture is somewhere between orlandiana's gloss and fosteriana's duller matte, etc.

Thanks Lisa. It is difficult trying to judge just from pictures. When I compare the orlandiana and Bert pictures on the FCBS website, Bert looks nothing like mine - it's not just the leaves and shape that are different but the flowers are even a different colour. On other websites mine does look similar to Bert but I was inclined to believe the FCBS pics would be the correct ones.

Hi Gail,

I have found that I shouldn't just look at the plant/flower colour, as the camera does in fact sometimes lie, especially when photographing red tones.

As well as this there are always cultural differences to consider such as the amount of light the plants were grown in as well as fertilizing etc. these things can all have an effect on the colour as well.

As I have previously learned, we must always check out all the other features as well when trying to ID plants.

All the best, Nev.

Thanks Nev.