Hi there!

I'm usually an "orchid person". However, I feel responsible for any plant that I receive as a gift.

So, I was given this guzmania lingulata last year. The "rosette" thing was beautiful and lasted a long time.

The plant has produced four keikis which are now almost the size of the mother plant. The mother plant is shedding some of its outer leaves.

Recently I tried to get the keikis to bloom. I placed some ripe apple on the surface of the medium and cover the whole plant with transparent plastic wrap. After a week I opened the plastic. The result was awful -the apple was a stinking mess and there was a myriad of tiny fruit flies that took me a week to get rid of. No sign of blooms, of course.

Any suggestions? Or should I just forget about blooms and "enjoy" the leaves?

Judy