Sun,warm= Red. That's all you have to do.

Hi everyone.

Dirtygardener - I find it strange that your 'Fireball' isn't colouring up in full sun; where are you growing your plant when it's outside? I'm in Australia and grow mine beneath 75% beige shade cloth and they colour up fine.

I think there has to be another reason other than light, and the first that comes to mind is fertiliser, or more accurately, fertiliser that's high in nitrogen. Do you fertilise your plants and if so, what is the NPK of the fertiliser you use?

If you are growing it in a commercial potting mix, it's still possible fertiliser could be the cause as many of these potting mixes have fertiliser added to them as well. I don't know about the U.S., but here in Australia the producers state that there is fertiliser added to the potting mix but rarely (if ever) do they say what the NPK of that fertiliser is, so you're dealing with and unknown part of the equation and it's a known fact that high nitrogen will give good growth at the expense of good colour.

All the best, Nev.

4 hours isnt enough sun. Even in Florida. To grow it,fine. Bur for deepest reds..you need sun AND warm with water. In California,low spring temps and loads of sun don't get it done like May- rest of Summer's for real red. So 4 hours in Florida is not enough.

Funny thing is,in Summer they wont take over 90F and full sun in California..they burn. I have them go from deep red to..burn brown. They recovered but what a waste of most of summer.

Goldilocks effect again.

Good luck...They are top three of must have Broms.

Sorry it took so long to get back to this, but I wanted to wait to see what it did this summer. It's in the sunniest spot in my yard that gets full southern sun 6-8 hours a day ( I haven't really measured) and has very little color just coming up on it.

As for fertilizer, I don't fertilize it at all. It's in a tiny pot and has two new pups, both bright green. It's in pine bark, not soil, so no fertilizer there. This is the most sun I can give it here, but in my previous house, it was in direct full sun for 8 hours a day and barely turned red at all. There is something else going on here besides fertilizer or soil.

I'm going to put it into a hanging basket with a fiber lining and orchid mix and see what happens. If it doesn't turn red this summer, I'm going to give it away. I don't want a green one. I'll give it to someone with a sunny yard.

On another note, I have another neo with striped leaves that had reverted to green, but I got a piece to go back to striped. It's in the same sun and is coloring fine. Go figure.

The green probably is a weak pup. Until it gets more mass it struggles in green. The second was already grown..more sun did it good.

The green ones grew and pupped like mad, and they now have red throats, so not really a wasted plant. It's rather pretty when it blooms and the vases turn bright red.

I dont know if you still have the Fireball or not, but, it really is as easy as A LOT of sun, direct sun, all day, if it doesnt burn, then you really are in a low light area. Is your area blocked by trees or buildings, and it blocks the sun during the day?

I read that you dont feed it. I was going to say you might be over feeding it. That would give you green plants, and the red would not be showing up as much. The fact that you have another Neo. that is striped, and it went back to solid, but 'part of it' went back to stripes, it sounds like you just dont have enough sun,esp. if only PART of that striped one turned back to stripes.

I noticed in your last posting that it 'bloomed'? I have been growing Fireball for like 30 years, It has NEVER bloomed for me ,EVER. Are you sure it is a pure 'FireBall'? It could be some kind of cross that doesnt get totally red. I have so much of it all over my yard, and it has never put out a single 'bloom', its red color varies from each area of my yard. I also grow the Giant FireBall,it is VERY VERY red, and about double the size of the regular FireBall plant. 1 plant has turned into about 300 now, in less than 3 years! Now it 'blooms' way down in the cup,nothing to notice at all, but it puts out pus like weeds! Maybe you dont have a PURE FireBall. They are so inexpensive, on EBay, why not buy one, or a giant one, thats where I got mine, and try another plant, that is 99.9% a real FireBall,for maybe $8?, and see if you get the hot red color you want.

Thats my 5 cents of advise...since I babble so much:)...try a new FireBall, to make sure you have a REAL FireBall. And give it all the direct sun you possibly can. Maybe you have a friend that has a yard that gets more sun??? You could leave it there for a few weeks, and see if it gets redder? FireBall is the first bromeliad I got, and it got me hooked on them. Then I found this Giant FireBall a few years ago, on EBay, and it is darker Red,and much bigger. Maybe you should try that one to.

He said it was red when his friend had it,so I went with that. But,I think poohbear you got it. Its just not a fireball,but some midway hybrid that possibly turns almost all red when in hot sun or stressed..otherwise its not a pure red brom.

Hard to guess with no photos or more to go on.

Hi everyone - Getting back to the original post where it
was said this plant was red when they got
it. They also say they got it because they liked the colour not because it was
a Fireball. The thing is it doesn't matter whether it was a true Fireball or
not, the facts are it was red initially and now it's no longer red.

Poohbear and Stan may well be correct when they say it may
not be a true 'Fireball' at all as there have been thousands of
"look-alike" hybrids made using Fireball as a parent and you only
have to look at the entry for Fireball on the B.C.R. and you'll see there are
185 hybrids registered to its name and no doubt there are thousands more that
aren't registered.

There has been much written about Fireball over the years
and if you go to http://registry.bsi.org/?fields=&id=4351&search=fireball
you will find one of the most comprehensive entries in the B.C.R. with 7
different pictures and the following four separate articles:

SOLVING THE FIREBALL MYSTERY By: Nat DeLeon in 1987 FCBS
newsletter

Neoregelia ‘Fireball’ by Bromeliad Cultivar Registrar

FIREBALL /RED OF RIO
by Derek Butcher. in Bromeletter 29(1): 10. 1991.

Neoregelia ‘Fireball’ hybrids by D Butcher in Bromeletter
31(4):13. 1993

If you care to read through all of this information, you
may just find a clue as to why your plant won’t colour up. Personally I’m
backing insufficient light as the cause.

All the best, Nev

It is ...just not enough light, like you said. It really needs to cook in the sun to get red.

As long as you know it is a FireBall, it should get red, even if you dont give it 'Enough' light.....but a lot of light.....I think yuo said it does turn some red....so it must be it just isnt hot enough or sunny enough/long enough to make it as red as you want. IF yuo would like to try the Giant FireBall I have, let em know. If you want to trade some other Neo. or some bromeliad,maybe we can do a swap? It gets RED very easily,and pups like a weed. Stan

The person who sent it to me is an expert horticulturist in SW FL and collects broms, so I assume if he says it's a fireball, it is. It came from his yard. I put it into the sunniest spot outside my courtyard and it is finally starting to show a little color. I doubt it will ever turn completely red where I am, because I just don't have enough sun. Doesn't matter. I'll give it away and not worry about it anymore. Sort of tired of broms anyway. There are very few really nice ones up here in N. FL. I miss my giant Aechmeas so much. At least my Queen's Tears will grow up here and is cold hardy enough to survive the winters.

9a is hard on Broms. You might try the related various wild species of Broms from cold Chile. But- how they take hot northern Florida summers. I dont know.