They die after they bloom. The dead ones might have bloomed. Especially in your last photo, it looks like a bloom stem there.

There are quite a few types that are yellow and yellow/orange, and that is their normal color. The ones in your photos that are not dead look pretty good.

Is that a lizard on one of the plants in the top picture?

Hi everyone.

Samantha – Everything hoovb says is correct but let me expand a bit more on it. Let me first say that what you show in your
picture is the natural life cycle of a bromeliad; there is nothing wrong with
your plant! It just needs a bit of a “tidy up”.

Bromeliads grow, flower, decline and die; that’s the natural
life cycle. However during the journey from declining to dying, they usually reproduce
themselves in the form of new plants called “pups” (offsets).

A good example of a new pup can be seen in the
first picture at bottom lower left immediately above the bottom damaged leaf (It
appears about 6” high with leaves still not fully opened). These pups are best
removed when about three quarters the size of the Mother plant, however this
pup is far too small to yet be removed. These pups are identical copies of the Mother
plant and will themselves grow, flower, decline and die as the life cycle goes
on.

You say, “Firstly, they aren't green” - As for the foliage colour, not all bromeliads
have green foliage; while many others have changing foliage colour; it often
starts as green when the plant is small and as it matures and gets near
flowering, the foliage colour will often change on some types.

Neoregelias are a good example as the foliage colour changes
many times on their journey toward maturity. I don’t know what your plant is,
but it could be a type of Aechmea similar to an Aechmea blanchetiana; these
come with different coloured foliage which intensifies in colour as they
approach maturity.

You also say, “Secondly they seem to be expanding, but some
of the under ones look dead” – The “under ones” that look dead are the old
Mother plants which are “dead” and the ones that seem to be expanding are the
new plants which were produced by the now dead Mother plants. In this case they are
almost mature, (except for the small pup I mentioned above).

As you say, “everything
is connected” – This is because it’s all one “total” plant and although they appear
to be several plants, they are all joined to make one “total” plant. Each of these can be separated to make a single separate plant
or you can leave them as a clump and just cut away the old dead plants, very
soon the new pups will grow and spread to take over the space the dead plants
once occupied.

What should you do? That’s entirely up to you, as I said
above you can divide the clump and make it into single plants or you can just
cut away the old dead plants and trim any broken leaves and keep it as one
large specimen plant. Also keep in mind that many bromeliads like to “clump up”
before they’ll flower and dividing them will often stop some types from
flowering.

I hope this helps you to understand your bromeliad plant better
and let me say it is quite an attractive looking plant whatever it is. I would
encourage you to post a picture when it eventually flowers and perhaps one of us can
identify it for you.

All the best, Nev.

Thank you for the responses. They helped a lot! And yes that is a lizard in the picture, lots of then live there!

Samantha - That lizard is great sign of a "healthy yard".