Hi everyone.

Drich – The first thing to do when buying new bromeliads
is to try (if possible)to find out under what conditions they have previously been
grown under and to try and copy these same conditions when you take them home. You
say you bought your plants from Florida; I’m not familiar with the climate or
seasons in your country so how different is the climate where you live to the
climate in Florida where you bought the plants?

When you buy a new plant you buy it based on what you can
see; if the plant looks healthy and you like it, then you buy it. What you can’t
see is what’s below the surface of the potting mix and this is why with all new
plants that come into my collection, the first thing I do when I get them home
is to knock them out of the pot and examine the roots and the potting mix. I
remove any dead or dying roots and then re-pot into my own fresh potting mix,
give a good watering to settle the plant and put them somewhere away from other
plants for a month until I’m sure they don’t have any disease. I know this
seems extreme, but I have a couple of thousand plants and can’t take the chance
of spreading some disease through them all.

You say you bought the “silver colored urn bromeliad”, I
take it from this description you mean an Aechmea
fasciata. These plants are generally pretty easy to grow, however you
mention “frequent watering”, just what do you mean by frequent?

It’s common knowledge that more bromeliads are killed by
over-watering than under watering so this it’s the first thing you need to look
at. Too much water will cause water-logging of the potting mix which will start
rot.

The most common cause of too much
water, is plants standing in a saucer containing water as this stops any air from
passing through the pot as well as keeping the potting mix continually wet.

Always try and copy what happens in nature; these plants
grow on trees and the roots are exposed to the air and the elements; they get wet and they soon dry
out again, so you need to apply this when watering, and wait until they are almost
dry before you water again.

The other thing plants need is good light and air
circulation and maybe since moving them to the porch, the light and air
circulation is insufficient and this is something else you need to look at.

I live in Australia in a temperate area and fortunately I'm able to
grow my plants outside with shade cloth as the only protection. Personally I
would only water Aechmea fasciata once each week or even each two weeks in the cooler
weather and once each week in hot weather; as long as there’s a bit of water in
the vase and the potting mix and whole plant is watered as I describe above they’ll grow OK.

You say, “Also can't figure out why some don't seem to
like full sun, these plants live in Florida!!” - The answer is, that maybe where they were previously
grown, they weren’t grown in “full sun” and a bromeliad needs to be slowly acclimatised
to full sun, in fact not all bromeliads will tolerate full sun.

This gets back to what I said "first off" about the
importance of finding out where and how they were previously grown if possible.

There are other things to look for but let’s start with
these most common causes first. Also a photo helps a lot when trying to solve plant problems.

All the best, Nev.