Hi
everyone.

veggie_girl
– I have found that here in Australia where I live, as well as being grown in pots
Aechmea correia-araujoi can also be successfully mounted on a tree as long as
it has rough bark which it doesn’t shed each year. It’s like the many different
types of Ae orlandianas in appearance and likes similar cultural conditions
such as a good light, abundant air circulation and if potted, a well-drained
potting mix.

Just
by looking at your plant, it’s telling you what it wants to do and it’s clear
that it was growing out of the pot in which it was originally planted the same
way as many orlandianas do and is telling you it doesn’t like being confined within
a pot and prefers to grow “on” something rather than “in” it.

This
is obvious when you look at the shape of the rhizome (the piece of woody tissue
connecting the two plants) You can visualise the plant on the right growing in
a pot and see where the plant on the left (the pup) has grown out to the edge
of the pot and then up and over the side in preference to be constrained within
it.

The
plant on the right is the Mother plant which is flowering and now and will soon start to
decline as can be seen by the quality of the leaves. The plant on the left is
the “pup” with a developing root system and is ready to separate and grow on
its own.

The
choice is yours whether you want to plant it in a pot it or mount it on a tree,
but it is at the right stage to be mounted if this is what you choose to do.
Just one word of warning though, if you decide to mount your plant it must be secured firmly to the mount so that it cannot move. If it’s able to move,
the roots will be broken before they have a chance to grow onto the mount and
it won’t grow successfully.

All
the best, Nev.