What type of soil is it in? It looks too peaty and if it is the soils is likely being kept too moist. I'd lift it out of the pot and check the roots. You want to have a porous soil that dries quickly. If you were to get an average bag of cacti and succulent potting soil and mix it 50-50 with perlite it would work well where I am. Water the cup/tank but don't let it overflow into the soil.

Where are you located?

tj

Hi everyone.

Danielle – I live in Australia
and can only tell you what I know about this plant and how I grow it here in my
area. This might not necessarily be like the conditions you have in your area
and for that reason I usually advise growers to preferentially seek advice from
growers in their own areas.

Your plant is a Vriesea and
looks to be Vr. 'Splenriet' or a similar hybrid from Vr. Splendens parentage. I
have found these plants to be a bit cold sensitive here where I live and
consequently don’t do very well for me, but they are such attractive plants, I
keep trying to grow them.

Now to answer your questions;
firstly, the cause of the brown leaf tips. I would say that now your plant is
in flower it’s fully mature and is just gradually declining; that’s just part
of the normal process, which is: The plant grows, it flowers, it declines and produces
a pup (new plant) or two before it eventually dies. The pups will then grow to
maturity and the cycle repeats itself. The first indication of the plant
declining is a bit of dieback on the tips of the lower leaves. It’s not
something you’ve done wrong; it’s just part of the natural life cycle. You can
make it look more attractive by trimming off these dead bits, and it won’t hurt
the plant. However when you trim them cut them to them same shape as the tips
on the other leaves, don’t just cut them straight across.

As for a suitable humidity,
that I can’t say, as I’ve never checked the humidity; I find that if the
conditions are comfortable for me then they are usually comfortable for my
plants. If I’m cold then so are these plants and I move them to a warmer area.
I always water overhead and consequently the centre tank always has water in it
which I think would keep the humidity within an acceptable range. This is what
happens in nature so why change it.

I have read where growers regularly
empty the plants of water, and the only reason I can see for this is if they
are heavily fed through the foliage, in which case you may get a build-up of
salts in the tank so in this case it would be good to empty them and flush out
occasionally, but if this isn’t the case just leave well enough alone.

Will your plant make a pup
before it dies? – The answer is yes; however these particular Vrieseas don’t
usually produce pups from the outside base of the plants like other Vrieseas do.
The pups grow from the centre of the plant beside the base of the flower spike,
and to remove them is rather difficult and requires the removal of considerable
leaves from the Mother plant to get to the base of the pup. I prefer to just
leave it “do its own thing”. The pup (or pups) will grow and as the mother declines
and dies they will take over and the life cycle will continue.

As for when to cut off the old
inflorescence (flower spike); I usually do this when the colour starts to fade,
this then leaves the Mother plant free to produce and nourish any new pups. If
you don’t remove the old inflorescence, it’s still drawing nourishment from the
Mother plant which may slow down the production of new pups..

Looking at your picture of the
roots, they look perfectly healthy to me, and I would just pot the plant on into
a slightly larger pot with some fresh potting mix around the edges without disturbing
the root system. This is how I treated the plant below and was rewarded with
three nice inflorescences which stayed in colour for several months.

All the best, Nev.

Nev, Really helpful info. Thank you! I know a little more now. :)