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publickman

Billbergia flowers

10 years ago

I think this is a Hallelujah, but the flowers should make it easier to ID

The leaves were darker when I first got it, but they quickly changed from purplish to dark green. Here's how the flowers looked last year
Much smaller.

Comments (5)

  • 10 years ago

    It looks like my 'Hallelujah' plant. It looks like that in bloom to. But my 'Pink Champagne' also looks like that plant and the bloom looks the same. I started to collect Bills. and noticed that the blooms are nearly all the same, including the very common 'Bridla Tears' variety. While its leaves are all silver/green,the blooms look like all the other Bills' flowers.

    A lot of the plants, that are closely crossed, like 'Pink Champagne' and 'Hallelujah', look the same with the dark leaves, and spots, but you get the same spray of flowers from most of them.

    Lars thanked PoohBearLvr
  • 10 years ago

    Here's how the plant looked when I first got it three years ago:

    The flowers do not last that long, but I bought it for the leaves. I think if I give it more sun, the leaves will get their purplish color back. It's in the darkest area of my pergola right now, and it would be good to open up that space for some plants that need the protection more.

  • 10 years ago

    Lars – The plant you think is Bill. Hallelujah doesn’t look the
    right colour to me. Hallelujah has much more white spotting on more of a
    purplish/burgundy background such shown in Pics 1 and 2 below.

    Now having said all of that, Hallelujah is one of those
    plants whose colour can be greatly influenced by other factors such as the
    degree of light under which it’s grown or the type and amount of fertilizer it’s
    being given.

    To get the best colour from any Billbergias I have found they
    need to be grown in good light. I grow all of mine under 75% beige shade cloth
    and hang them up about 18” below the roof except for plants too large to hang.
    These are located on a bench close to a 75% beige shade cloth wall.

    I have also found that my plants produce the best colour
    when grown “hard” and by this I mean with very little fertilizer. I only foliar
    feed during the growing season about once each two months at ¼ of the recommended strength, and I select
    a fertilizer where the Potassium content is much higher than that of the Nitrogen.

    It’s a well-known fact that feeding any bromeliads with a
    high Nitrogen fertilizer will promote great growth but at the expense of
    foliage colour, and this is most evident in the Billbergia genus as I once
    found out by accidentally using the wrong fertiliser as shown in Pic. 3 and it's hard to even recognise that plant as Bill. Hallelujah.

    As Poobear says, many of the Billbergia flowers look very
    similar, but the flowers in Pic.4 are those of Billbergia Hallelujah



    All the best, Nev.

  • 10 years ago

    Of the Billbergia photos I have been able to find, such as these, my plant resembles the Hallejah more than it does any others, and I realize that the foliage of my plant is not now what it was when I bought it and that if I give it more light, it will return to its purple color with larger white spots.

  • 10 years ago

    My 'Hallelujah, looks more like Lars had 3 years ago to start. Mine dosnt have THAT much white on it like in those other pics. I know it is 'Hallelujah' i bought it from a VERY reliable grower. But I am in south Fla. so it gets TONS of sun and heat!!! So it is dark,even under shade cloth, but it has lots of spots of color all over it. But not a TON of white, like those pics. above show. That looks more like another Billbergia I have. Sorry I dont have time right now to go look at the tag...it is something like 'Mos Piquito'? but it is shorter.

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