I live in Australia

I use a safe contact (recommended by an aussie grower)

As the plant ages it gets bigger and covers the glue any way.

You can drape Spanish Moss around the plant if you are worried about seeing the glue.

All mine are in a Terrarium and are misted twice a week.

Keith

E6000 is the only adhesive I use as it dries clear and lasts a long time. make sure your driftwood has been thoroughly washed of any residual salts if you found it at the beach.

How about... continuing the "drift" theme (drift wood) with, say, a shot glass with a pirate logo (or something similar), maybe a broken cup (without sharp corners) or something else that can hold the tilly(s) (even nests of moss and Spanish Moss), then glue that onto the driftwood. Or take chips of drift wood or sandstone or some other nautical-themed decoration, and form them into a holder or shelf. That holder can hold the tilly where you want it until it outgrows the container (maybe it flowers and pups and needs re-homing) or you want to change out plants. If you get other driftwood, you can go with a lake theme or a desert (dry) theme. Post pics of what you decide to do to inspire us.

Thanks for the responses!

Once I get my Tillandsias (hopefully today) I'll try to see if I like the shot glass idea. If not I guess I'll go with the E6000.

I also like the idea of attaching smaller peices and making forks where they can rest. Also the idea of wrapping moss around the E6000.

Have to test all the ideas out once I get em!

Me, I just don't like the glue idea (either E6000 or Tilly Tacker). They are probably fine products, but I'd rather use a holder or wire. You can find a variety of shapes and sizes of shot glasses, cups, wine glasses, saki cups, and more in places like shops that sell recycled donations (Salvation Army, Goodwill, Savers, etc., and yard and garage sales). Here in Albuquerque, I can find Mexico-influenced pottery that I sometimes use to hold Tillandias, which is appropriate since Mexico is where a lot of Tillies are found in the wild. Such products tend to use bright colors -- reds, greens, yellows -- sunny colors that can compliment the color of the plant. And, since I don't use glue, I can move plants and holders around to make different arrangements.

Here's a little mounting trick I learned from one of the guys at Rainforest Flora. All you need is some tilly wire, 3/32"-3/64" heat shrink tubing (optional), a hot glue gun, and a drill.

Splinter,

Thanks for the link to the article. I'll read it tonight when I have more time.

Your website, http://www.bromeliad.org.au/,
under "photo index" (in the list on the left),
under Genera, has a lot of Broms, but then I see:

"Tillandsia"

and a huge list of plants -- with pictures! Very, very good, helpful, educational. It's easy to see that the same would go for the Bromeliad pictures, too, should I ever get into collecting them.

Lately I've also been finding clubs that have posted their newsletters on line in PDF format. For example,

http://bromeliadsocietyhouston.org/bulletin/

I'm hoping there will be Tillandsias mentioned in that bulletin as well. There may be other, similar newsletters online that could be helpful.

I really like that method exeucf10! Will definitely try this!

Thanks for the link Nev! Very informative! Just what I was trying to find; a step by step guide. Thanks!

Haven't got my plants yet, but when I do I'll try out all of these and see how I like them. I think I'll only use the E6000 as a last resort. I'd definitely use the E6000 if somewhere down the line I get a smaller peice of Driftwood and attach a single Tillandsia to it. That way it's still technically portable.

Thanks for all the ideas! Can't wait to test them all out.

In one of the Rainforest Flora videos (available via their site or YouTube), they show a little old lady making centerpieces and the like with Tillandsias and driftwood. She grabs a piece of wood, 2-3 plants, dabs white Tilly Tacker (which they sell) near the bottom of a plant, then sticks it to the wood in an attractive spot. She adds more plants, then sets the art aside to wait for the glue to dry (maybe 1/2 hour or so, depending on atmospheric conditions probably). In another video, they had a fellow with long (maybe 18"?) pieces of flexible wire (which they sell, too; I think it's called memory wire). He'd pull up a plant, like a Caput or some similarly long-shaped larger plant, and wrap the wire around it loosely, turn a hook at the other end, and put it aside and do another one. They probably also add a tag identifying the plant, then they sell them.

I forgot to add (since I was interrupted by the phone), that the woman making the driftwood pieces, after sticking a plant in place, also wrapped some moss around the base of the plant where the glue was. I don't know if this was simply artistic or to hide the glue or what.

I think I found the one your talking about... It's the one with the lady who doesn't seem too impressed right?

I don't know how I didn't find any of these... I must suck at researching!

Do not wrap Tillandsias with moss.

I don't use glue on mine because when the wood gets wet the glue turns loose. I grow all of mine outdoors year around. I also don't use driftwood that has been in saltwater....it will leach out in the rainy season and kill the plants. Grapewood and river drift wood easy for me to obtain.

HD, what's a "river"? ;^)

Agreed, Gonzer, but I think they were doing it for decoration, and it was just a small bit at the bottom of the plant. When I first saw that action, I thought the moss will likely die and fall off anyhow... I wonder though if it wasn't clay... but that seems odd, too. I'm going to check PetCo and a local pet store tomorrow for grape wood and/or drift wood, as both stores have reptile and aquarium sections and lizards and some fish like wood. What I'd like to do is walk near the Rio Grande (the part that isn't swampy) and look for wood that has washed up and dried out. It should also be easy to find dried up cholla cactus around here, too, I just need to get out in the wilderness to look for these things. Or unpack the petrified wood I've bought at gem and mineral shows recently. Petrified wood doesn't rot...

Oh, one more thing, I was at Walmart over the weekend, and in their home décor section (where they sell fancy jars, small bags of rocks and shells, picture frames, etc.) they had 3 sizes of grapewood wreathes for cheap. Made in China (bah!), but I bought the smallest size ($2.47), thinking maybe I can make a ionantha wreath

I found mine on the shore of a lake. The I boiled it, scrubbed it, cut it, boiled it then Left it out in the sun outside for 2 months.

So I hope it's cured!

Share pics if you make the wreath :)

Gonz a river is a natural stream of water of fairly large size flowing in a definite course or channel or series of diverging and converging channels unless you live in Calif.

Southern Cal to be exact.

***snicker*** :)

Finally got my Tillandsias!

Didn't have much of a selection like they did last time but I got a few. I had a thirty dollar limit which I exceed... Only by a bit!

Got 3 Ionanthas, a medusae iI'm assuming, and unsure of the other two. Also there's my Sad Juncea in the photo

too.

I think I'll actually be able to tie some of them down as they actually have alot of roots.

Now all I have to do is figure out where they're going, which method to attach them, and make sure my drift wood can actually be attached to the wall.

Left looks like T. Bergeri and middle looks like it could be T. Neglecta?

Great thank you!

That ones defently bergeri but I'm not too sold on neglecta. Others that were in with it (assuming they're all the same, looked the same) where starting to turn red at the leaves.

Though I'm defently happy if it is neglecta

Definitely not neglecta then. Now that I look closer, it's leaves are too few and too large to be neglecta.

The top three look like ionanthas, and the one at 4 o'clock looks like a juncea. At 6 o'clock, likely bulbosa. I'm pretty sure I have samples of the other two, but can't think of the names. If the labels were put on by the grower (though that may be the same outfit as the seller), you could write to them and ask what #s xxxxxxx are, or hunt through the various online picture sources, like the one from Australia posted elsewhere. And congratulations on the arrival! It's a good thing the tillies can wait in an appropriate environment until you are ready to put them in their new home (which will also be an appropriate environment, of course!).

...and if I'd read further up, I would have seen you already identified everything I did <palm to my face>.

Thanks for the clarity! Haha! That's funny.

I'll guess I'll go searching after this for the little one.

It's funny as all this week I've been saying to myself to get the Tillandsias and then that way I could hang the drift wood and blah blah blah. Since I've got the Tillandsias I've done nothing! I don't know why. I guess I'm being a bit lazy! Maybe later today or tomorrow....

Then I can get rid of the bag of moss and lichen that's just sitting in my room. I bet though in like a month or so they'll all fall off. Oh well gives me stuff to do. Just have to do it!

I think I've found where I want to put them. Though I think I need more! To many unfulfilled spots.

How's this? In this way the one Ionantha and the bergeri fit perfectly in the wood notches and I think I can tie down the other Ionanthas. The medusae would be attached by the rainforest flora method and idk about the unidentified. Trying to find a place for him

Any suggestions on if this looks good or if I shoukd move some of them around?

Dont over do it or there will be no place for the offsets to grow. Some of mine are so old you can no longer see the wood and I had holes when I built them.

Thanks for the warning! It's just that the vertical part of the wood with the cut end doesn't have any at all nor to the bottoms and the sides and stuff....

It's fun to overdo it! If the ionanthas are happy, they'll flower and pup (unless they are scared and trying to reproduce before The End). I had a lot of blooming over the winter (2014-15), so I have a lot of pups now, and yet I'd still like more... As you will simply be placing or tieing down plants, if they don't root, you can move them around until you find a balance you like. I'm hoping some caput medusa I have will root on a nice stick of grape wood (bought at PetCo), as the plants had put out roots and one was sticking to another! So the roots are kind of sticky.

This last Saturday I visited a local pet store, Clark's (they've been in town at least 30 years and have two stores). In their reptile section, I had the choice of: grape vine wood, cork and drift wood. I started picking and choosing through the grape, then put it back and went to the cork, then the driftwood was pointed out to me, so I wound up with four pieces of that which are still in the bag. The driftwood is dark brown and meant for aquariums so it should be clean of any chemicals and only dusty and I'll have to watch out for splinters. The good thing is, I can easily go back to the store for more! It should blend in nicely with my petrified wood. Clark's had a few tillies, too, but nothing that interested me. I did get previously two nice bunches of Spanish Moss that are still going strong. So anyone having trouble finding good wood for Tillandsia mounting, I suggest checking a well stocked pet store.

We saved grape wood from when we cut down our grape vine (never got many grapes from it), and that wood works very well for Tillies. Many of mine were mounted with Tilly glue from Rainforest Flora, but over time, the glue gave out, and the plants fell off, and so I put them back up with fishing wire, which is practically invisible.

You can see several in this photo, including one that I stuck in a hanging basket after it fell off the wood beneath the red tilly. I tied it back to the wood with fishing wire last week-end, but I also hung several other tillies with aluminum wire (colored green) that I also got from Rainforest Flora, and they were not the types that are easy to attach to wood. I have them suspended in the apple tree with other tillies. I've had to reinforce almost of the glued tillies with fishing wire, but I only have them outdoors.

You did a good job with your plants, and I especially like the wood you used, but I'm not sure what that white thing behind them is. I would put them in front of a window if I were going to keep them indoors.

Hopefully they'll pup out of happiness but I don't think it's that bad of a scenario getting more out of them being not happy! One of the Ionanthas I bought already has some of its leaves turning red so I hope I'll be able to see my first bloom in a few months!

There's on petstore in my city that is a mega petstore (not a chain one) and it sells everything and anything. They have the best assortment of Driftwood as they have it for fish, parrots, reptiles and amphibians. I've bought Driftwood for my aquarium from there before, but thats about it. I've also seen them sell Tillandsias in the past, but in recent years I haven't seen them for sale. The petstore as a whole has seemed to come way down in quality over the last year or two. Which is kinda sad, as it used to be the best.

Thanks Lars!

I like the look of grape wood but have never seen it here and the only grapes I have are 2 plants at my cabin. They give lots of grapes but they don't really taste to good... I like your arrangement!

The white thing is just a cabinet the wood is resting on. I've been very busy this week (unusual for me) So I haven't got around to hanging it yet. The spot I was going to put it was on the wall across(ish) from my South window. In this spot they'd get about 2 hours of direct morning sun then indirect light for the rest of the day. Is that enough? I'm not sure if I can move them closer or to a spot where they can get more light, but I might be able too. Once I have the time I'll fiddle around with it and see what I can do.

I wish I could keep them outdoors but I can't, at least not for most of the year. My plan was to hang the Driftwood outside in the summer months and only keep them inside in the winter. But Summer is basically from June to about now. The weather here already has lows of 3 degrees Celsius and Im thinking I'll have to bring in my schefflera and Banana this weekend before frost or snow sneaks up on me. Already have had a few frost warnings and some snow!

Your plan for how you'll hang your driftwood inside sounds good to me. You are obviously aware of the environment and what is good for your plants. I put my delicate plants out in the Spring, usually April, when the nighttime temps are not below 50F (if the days are really warm but nights cold, I pull the plants in overnight until they're safe). These days I'm watching the temps, but they don't seem to be going lower than 60F at night, so all is good for now...

Too bad about that good pet store. Maybe a rival will pop up and you'll find better material to work with. Or if you cut back your own grapes, you can save that wood.

Plants and fear: I recall reading, decades ago, perhaps in a newspaper column written by a funny guy, how he had an African Violet that refused to bloom. He took it up a few stories in a building and held it out the window. "Bloom or else!" He said it then proceeded to bloom like crazy :) More realistically (even if his story was true), annual plants for example have only one season to do everything they must--grow, bloom, set fruit, seed--so they have to be running on some kind of fear, if only fear of failing to reproduce. And people have hooked up plants to sensors to see if the plants react to threatening words, thoughts or actions, and there have been interesting results.

The red leaves on the ionantha are a good sign. I had lots of plants bloom over the winter into the early spring, before the hummingbirds could get here to enjoy most of them :( But that made me think that Tillandsias will bloom when the pollinators are there, and hummingbirds spend the winter months in Mexico and points south, where it is warm and there are flowers and bugs. So since we keep them warm, the mature Tillandsias can react as though it is okay to bloom during winter when they live with us, too.

Hummingbirds do not all go to Mexico in the winter months; we have Allen's Hummingbirds all year in Los Angeles. Here are a couple of photos from my back yard taken Feb 4 of this year:

Hummingbird on feeder in front of tillandsias - one of which just bloomed and one with flowers about to open.Blurry shot (and to get it quickly) of hummingbird sitting on epidendrum orchid (one of his favorite perches) in front of Spanish Moss. The epidendrum orchids bloom prolifically here all winter and also most of the year. I have even planted them in the ground in my front yard.

I have a clearer photo of this hummer (taken seconds later), but this one shows his red throat better. Unfortunately, he tries to chase off all other hummers, but we still have a few Anna's hummingbirds who manage to sneak in anyway. They are here in the winter as well, probably because people put feeders out for them. The Allen's are not common in other places, and coastal Los Angeles is one of the few places that they live year round. They do feed on my tillandsias and bromeliads that bloom in the winter

On my latifolia

I guess I'll attempt to attach it sometime today then! I think I read something like that too.... So I guess I have to set up 5 minute intervals everyday of me yelling at my plants?

To bad about the hummers. I don't have any that come here but we get a ton out at my cabin.

Nice pics Lars and gonzer!

Beautiful pictures! As we get snow here (not much, but it can happen) and occasional frigid temps (swings in a day from the low 30s to the high 50s are common), there would be nothing growing for hummers (or kingbirds or swallows) to eat, so they head south -- or maybe west to California when the time is right. I know southern NM and Arizona get year round hummingbirds, too (though it can snow in both areas, rarely), and likely Texas and the Gulf states. Hummers are very territorial, but this year I noticed it was just as likely to be the females who would chase away interlopers to their territory... but I also witnessed females letting other females take a drink from feeders until the visitor was judged to have drank enough, then the boss lady would chase her away (males seem to give out no favors though). This time of year hummers seem to be less territorial, as it is too late to be nesting, but it is a good time to chose traveling companions. So I get the impression that any "get out of my territory!" warnings are more likely games of tag and chase, enjoying the cooler weather and the free nectar.

I have some hummingbird pics I took on my facebook page, but maybe it's easier to look at some I took a few years ago, at: http://www.dukecityfix.com/group/burquebirding/forum/topics/mystery-hummingbird

Other bird pics by me, Debby S, at http://www.dukecityfix.com/group/burquebirding

Hmm, I should check on www.dukecityfix.com to see if there are any tilly or even brom growers...

Nice pics! Howd you get so close?

At my cabin we hang two feeders about 20 feet away from each other and Only one ever occupies them at a time. If an intruder comes he/she is immediately chased away.... But then at this guys house he has 3 feeders right next to each other and there must be at least twenty there at any given point And theyre really tame to the point where they'll land on your fingers. It's really neat to see. I'd go there more often if it wasn't so difficult to find a reason to leave... He's a talker.

Taking about snow, it snowed here last night. My poor ensete banana was outside covered but he seems to have pushed through without any damage. Pretty mad at our weather right now.

For anyone not living in the Americas, Youtube has a lot of Hummingbird videos.

I hope your banana makes it! Our nights now are getting down to around 60F, so I'm keeping watch and am ready to move everything delicate inside if needed sooner than expected. I got one area ready over the weekend. My south-facing window is almost ready to host plants for 6 months (October through March, to be safe). I'm expecting some last-minute Tillandsia shipments this week, then I'll check back on this thread for mounting ideas :)

MrB, I just realized you asked "Howd you get so close?" Telephoto lens on my 10.0 megapixel Canon PowerShot SX10 is (which is now, um, five years old or so), then crop using some old graphics program, but I take very high resolution pictures so it's harder to see the denser pixels (i.e., one can enlarge high-res pictures and get okay results). And I was about 15-20 feet away from the birds. Hummingbirds don't worry very much about humans, as you know, so if they get used to bipeds like us, we can get fairly to really close sometimes. If they don't like it, they scold us -- even as, for example, we are putting up fresh sugar water for them to enjoy: "Why didn't you move faster! I was thirsty and it wasn't there and it's all mine!!!" I'll miss them in the winter.

He seems to have survived!

Good luck trying to make a plan that can fit all your plants in that window! And hopefully your Tillandsias arrive in good condition!

The pictures are just so clear so I thought you were like right there. Very nice job!

Yeah I love hummingbirds, such characters.

I still haven't managed to hang my Driftwood yet..... This weekend for sure! Hopefully. Maybe.

My south-facing window is mostly for larger plants (some pots of lemongrass, some scented geraniums), and I also try overwintering some herbs, but usually it's better if the hardy ones (like thyme and winter savory) stay outside, but still I try. The ones that should stay out tend to attract spider mite and aphids, or did before Fukushima (so there's one good thing about that ELE disaster!) I also have set up grow lights mixed with regular fluorescent lights for smaller plants, all of those being Tillandsias so far. That has worked okay for several years. I like to think that the few visitors I have wonder if the weird plants are real or plastic... nobody has asked yet (don't want to embarrass me?), though they like my aquarium which is full of plants. It may be odd that I like plants that don't need dirt and also plants that live in water...

Yeah, I have the same struggle as you do. I have 1 south facing window where I'm allowed to put my house plants but not all fit so I usually have 4 or 5 sitting on my bed or propped up on things. Though I think my Tillandsias will be good in there position. If not it's an easy move.

I don't find it odd at all! I also have a planted aquarium, a planted pond, house plants with dirt and of course the Tillandsias!

Hi everyone.

Debbyabq - If you thinks that's odd, I know of a chap who wrote on another forum once that he removed the electric blanket from his bed and set it up in his garage to keep his plants warm over a severe winter!

All the best, Nev.

MrBlubs, I think your Tillandsias will be very happy, as they are used to surviving under unusual conditions. Just make sure the humidity is high enough to ward off spider mites and other bugs that take advantage of stressed plants.

Splinter, the man may have decided the EMP from the blanket might not be good for him, but he is warm blooded and can generate his own heat (or do so using other methods like tumbling blankets in a hot clothes dryer for a bit). The plants, like fish, are whatever the temperature of the air is (or water, for the fish). I hope they appreciated in their own way his thoughtful gesture. It was safer than trying to warm the air with candles or some other form of fire!

Late comment but ...

Deb, places like Petco tend to be way over priced on the wood they sell. You actually can find better deals, IME, hitting reptile shows, Ebay, sometimes Craig's List, sometimes craft stores like JoAnn's or Michaels (assuming one had a coupon, or orchid shows (though cork bark is typically what one will find there).

I appreciate your ideas! Petco I just happened to be near one day, and it was expensive but the one piece I bought there is nice. Clark's is a local decades-old business, and they have a huge selection of woods in comparison to Petco. Those two and a few others sell reptiles (thus they had wood for them and for aquarium use). I think there is one more reptile store that might be on the bus lines.

Ebay and Craig's list are good ideas, but I'd prefer to see and feel the wood to make sure I can use it. I don't know if we have a JoAnn's, and we had a Michael's but it closed years ago. We have at least one Hobby Lobby, but out of the way and too complex a bus ride to wind up disappointed.

I wish we had plant shows! I've been downloading bromeliad society newsletters (they are usually pdfs and easy to find), and they all have shows and sales at their meetings; I'm jealous! We'll have a harvest fair/garden market at our Garden Center early in October (on the same weekend as the free Gem & Mineral Show, where one can get cool rocks and petrified wood). Maybe they'll have something I can use.

Also two weeks ago I walked down near the Rio Grande and found a few nice pieces of old wood probably dumped there by the City because they trim or cut down trees and chip them. A fellow might bring me some dried ocotillo branches, too, since he uses them in craft projects he sells. We just have to keep our eyes open for opportunities :)