Hi everyone.

Lars - You're very lucky to have several of this beautiful plant. I only have the one and it struggles to survive the cold winter here and usually suffers a bit of spotting due to the cold even in a protected corner under shade cloth. Mine flowers regularly, puts out one pup and dies. After a couple of years the pup grows and does the same so it's impossible to build up any number of plants as I can only ever seem to get the one pup from the flowering plant. As Dave says, be sure to post some pictures when it flowers.

Incidentally mine has an almost upright spike with just a slight curve and after a show judge friend told me to rotate the pot 1/4 turn each week to keep the spike straight, it didn't make any difference.

All the best, Nev.

The spike seems to be growing fairly fast not, and I will post photos when it does bloom. The blue flowers are already starting to show. I may not bother rotating this plant, as it already gets light from several directions, and the leaves are like saw blades. I think mine put out two pups at a time, but they do not bloom every year, but I did get one last year, and I think I had to wait two years for it.

The plant is in a pot, or else I would not be able to rotate it at all, but when I have enough of them, I may put some into the ground. It does not get that cold here, rarely below 44°F, and when it does get cold, it is only for a few hours at most. We do not have frost here, and so I can grow tomatoes, chilies, and herbs all winter as well as some orchids. I have a lot of chili plants this year because I started growing them from seed, in order to get more variety of chilies.

I think it may be a while before the flowers branch out on this bromeliad, but at least it is in a place where I can keep a good watch on it. I can see it from my bedroom window. I have a bunch more of these in my pergola, and I may move them to places where they can get a bit more sun, as this one seems to be thriving where it is, and it is not in that much shade.

H everyone.

Lars- You plant is really
looking good and it seems like you are having more success with the rotation of
the plant than I had with mine. Just be warned if you bring it inside you could
cause the spike to take on another direction as this often happens when a plant
is moved for any reason when the spike is developing. A bit off topic, but
interesting nevertheless, is the effect of a full moon on the direction a
flower spike will grow.

About sixty years ago when I
was a (still at school) teen and a very keen cymbidium orchid grower, I saved
up about six months’ worth of pocket money and money from odd jobs to purchase
a “back-bulb” of an orchid called Cymbidium ‘Girraween Enid’ (“Girraween” is an Aboriginal word meaning
place of flowers). At that time this was a very special orchid and was (I
think) the first Australian cymbidium to win a Royal Horticultural Society of
England “Gold Medal” award (I think the
highest award for an orchid at that time).

Cymbidium orchids at that time
were very expensive as the following excerpt from an article written by a
nurseryman of those years will testify: “During
the boom years, cymbidium plants changed hands for very large sums of money, with
prices of up to £1000 being paid for a single plant. While it is difficult to
compare prices, it would have equated to approximately $50,000.00 (Fifty thousand
Aust. dollars) or more in today’s value”.

Anyway, to fast forward the
story; the back bulb produced a new growth which eventually matured and
flowered five years later. As it grew with a beautiful slightly arching spike,
I groomed this plant in preparation for the show until eventually all of the
buds were ready to burst. When I went to my shade house to check it a couple of
mornings later, I was horrified to see
that the spike had taken on a couple of weird twists and turns which obviously
put it out of any chance it may have had at the show, and I had no idea of the
reason for this occurrence......I was devastated!

It wasn’t until later, on the day of the
show when I was chatting to the Judge (who was the father of the man who wrote
the article above which the excerpt was taken from) and I asked if he knew what
would cause my plant to suddenly (over a couple of nights), develop a twisted
flower spike. He told me it didn’t generally happen, but it was a trait with some
of the cymbidiums from the ‘Girraween” series and apparently, where all plants
will usually grow toward the direction of the sun and the brightest light,
this particular batch of orchids will also follow the bright light of a full
moon as well, hence the reason for my twisted spike.

Sorry for the "long winded" detour from your
thread, but I do get carried away some times and start to reminisce. However, this
causes me to wonder if this type of phenomenon could also occur with
bromeliads?

Next time you get a twisted bromeliad flower spike you may wish to
include this in a list of possible reasons for the occurrence.

All the best, Nev.