"Highway" It came to me.

Sorry Nev. I added the real name after going back on gardenweb. I had posted it in 2009. I had forgotten. I do still have the original pot around with Vresia and "Red" written on it.

Once again "Highway" not to be confused with "Highway Beauty" the variegated version of this plant.

btw, The topic starting first post? You can't edit that. I wonder why?

Here's more: Its a direct descendant of Vrisea bituminosa,native to Rio,Sao Paulo,and in the state of Bahia. Grows on trees or one ground. Its in association with jumping spiders also.

Is found as high as 3,000 '.but, for the tropics that still sounds tropical.

Its a keeper!

Hi evereyone.

Stan – Am I understanding you correctly that, “red” has
nothing to do with the real name of your plant which is Vr. ‘Highway’?
This is interesting as for some years I had a variegated plant called Vr. bituminosa
x Vr. Saundersii which regularly produced a non-variegated pup, which I later found should be called Vr. 'Highway'

After reading on one of the threads here called “RoRo vs
Highway Beauty” (http://forums.gardenweb.com/discussions/1773343/roro-vs-highway-beauty?n=8)
back in 2008 I decided to follow up on ‘Highway Beauty’ on the BCR.

I found
that the non-variegated (NOVAR) Highway Beauty should just be called, Vr. ‘Highway’.
I also found on the BCR that bituminosa is now treated as platynema. See: http://registry.bsi.org/?genus=VRIESEA&id=8684#8684

However I’m getting away from the main point and that is
that all of my plants of Vr. ‘Highway’ just have green foliage (a similar green tone
to the leaves in Pic.1 on the BCR) and not the beautiful red that’s shown in
your picture. My question now is: is your plant actually Vr. ‘Highway’ or possibly a red
sport from Vr. 'Highway' or perhaps even a different plant altogether?

It still doesn’t alter what I said about your plant originally
(“It is a nice one”) and it's much more attractive than the Vr. 'Highway' that
myself and many others around here grow.

All the best, Nev.

When I bought it Nev,the pot only said "Red" and the price of course. It was mostly green with some reddish color at the leaf bases. When I moved it into sun...it changed hugely. All that red came out. Its getting near full sun to the near (but not quite) scalding point. It was 90f yesterday and it stood up to our dry air and heat -for one day.

Hi everyone.

Stan - I've grown my Vr. 'Highway' and Vr. 'Highway Beauty', beneath 60% green shade cloth, 75% beige shade cloth and in an area of the garden where they get unprotected sun from about 10.00am until 3.00pm and on some of those days during January between the hours of 12.00 noon and 2.00pm, the temperature reached the high thirties to low forties (centigrade).

The only difference was with the plants in the garden where the green of the leaves were a bit bleached in colour compared to the others. This makes me think we have two different plants as there certainly wasn't any hint of red in any of them (although looking at your plant, I wish there had been).

All the best, Nev.

I found the original pot. If anybody knows how to read barcode,I guess the year is there. 2009?

Hi everyone.

Stan - It looks to me as though they have either wrongly identified your plant or put it in a recycled pot as they haven't even got the genus correct as it is definitely a Vriesea and not a Neoregelia (wrongly spelled). I still think you got the best of the deal.

All the best, Nev.

ha!,I didn't even notice that. Thanks Nev. It's nice to be a little lucky .

Now that the bloom has turned to straw color. Is there a way to find and grow seeds from it?

Nev,can they be propagated from seed? Are they self pollinators?

Hi everyone .

Stan - Stan –
You ask, “Can they be propagated from seed? Are they self-pollinators?”

To answer
your first question, the answer is probably yes, most bromeliads can be grown
from seed as long as the seed is fertile. Whether or not it’s fertile will only
be known if you try and sow a little and see if it grows.

As for you
second question, “Are they self-pollinators?” I wouldn’t know about that but although
you didn’t pollinate the plant, it doesn’t have to be a self-pollinator to
produce fertile seed. Don’t forget “Mother Nature”; the birds and the bees (and
many other insects) are constantly cross-pollinating and self-pollinating
plants whenever they flower, so it’s possible to have seed even though you’ve
had nothing to do with its pollination.

You’ll know
when the seed is ripe because the seed capsules which consist of a three sided
hard outer wall, will break open and the seed will burst out.

Vriesea capsule as it breaks open and the seed bursts forth

Vriesea seed
differs to say Neoregelia and other berry type seeds as they are what’s
commonly known as parachute seeds. Once the capsule breaks open and the seeds are
exposed to the air, the fine hair like material which is attached to the seed
will expand to take on the appearance of a tiny parachute and from that point
on they are distributed by wind dispersal. If you imagine the hair-like
material as being the parachute canopy and the seed at the bottom as being the
person, you will see why they are called “parachute seeds”.

A typical parachute seed, in this case a Dandelion seed

You can take
a few of these seeds and place them sparsely on top of some damp growing medium
such as Peat Moss or Coco-Peat in a plastic take-away food container and by
using a small hand sprayer to spray the seed, the damp (hair like filaments of
the parachute) will help them to attach to the growing medium. Place them in a
warm place (not in full sun) and mist spray them sufficiently to prevent the
medium from drying out and you should have germination any time after about
three weeks.

Just
remember though; just because the seeds came from your plant, when mature, the resulting seedlings may look
nothing like your plant at all as they will be hybrids and all will be slightly
different as they are usually the result of a mixture of genes from two
different plants.

Give it a
try Stan, it’s a very interesting exercise.

All the
best, Nev.

Thanks Nev,I will watch and wait to see if the pods open with seed. I think I can report back on results in 2022?..ha.