T cyanea being an air plant should have no trouble being treated like one -- hang it up, place it in a cup, attach it to drift wood, etc. Spritz it maybe daily with water (filtered or fresh-water aquarium or rain water if you can get it), and soak it maybe weekly. It should not actually need any soil at all, I think they are just sold that way because seeing a happy bare-root plant might scare away potential customers.

Hi everyone.

As I've said before, I'm not a Tillandsia grower, but I have a friend who is, and he has an enormous clump growing in his garden mounted on a tree.

You will find that most types of bromeliads we have in pots were originally epiphytes and the move to cultivate them in a pot was purely for convenience and so they could be moved around easily.

I haven't seen any growing by Debby's method but would be interested to hear how it goes. If you don't try it you won't know.

In fact I've never thought of growing them this way, I guess I have to "learn to think outside the square".

I agree Debby, most customers tend to shy away from bare rooted plants; yet if they only knew, that's the best way to buy them as you can view the whole plant and know exactly what you're buying, unlike one in a pot where you can only see what's on top of the potting mix.

All the best, Nev

Brad of "Brads Greenhouse" on YouTube has a video about this...

TILLANDSIA AIR PLANT UPDATE TOUR: LETS UNPOT THIS PINK QUILL AIR PLANT Tillandsia Cyanea

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FP0gu_fZO14

Brad has a little trouble with plant names, but he seems sweet and sincere, and has a good looking greenhouse.

Also, the Bromeliad Society International is offering the first 60 years or so of their journal for free download (as pdfs), and I downloaded all I could and am up to 1957 or so reading them. I can hardly wait until Paul Isley (Rainforest Flora) comes on the scene! (the 1970s maybe).

There has been a lot of mention of cyanea (under early names for it), with some pictures of it growing in its natural habitat (not many pictures at first as they couldn't afford to print pictures in the early years of the publication). Members from all over the world have a lot of fun talking about Bromeliads and Tillandsias of all kinds, about feeling so good about their unusual hobby and traveling to collect specimens or at least see them, and the current, full-color issues are available to members. I may join...

see: http://journal.bsi.org/ (for the back issues)
and
http://www.bsi.org/new/ (for the society in general)

Hi everyone.

Debby - That's an interesting video, I had never thought of growing Tillandsia cyanea that way as we only ever see them growing in pots here in Australia.

I guess it's like many of our bromeliads which are naturally epiphytes, we grow them in pots for our own convenience and not because it's necessarily the best method of culture.

The FCBS Photo Index (http://www.fcbs.org/pictures.htm) has a picture of Till. cyanea in habitat growing on rocks so that's another option for anyone to try if they want something different to using pots.

Thanks for the links you provided Debby.

All the best, Nev.