Hi everyone.

Stan – Ae. caudata
is one of the most popular and widely grown Aechmea species here where I live. It is easy to grow in pots as well as
making an excellent garden plant.

The one you show in your picture is the original form and
one of four different species with the others being Ae.caudata var. caudata forma albiflora (which as the name implies
is a white flowered form); a variegated
form called caudata v. variegata and another (which I grow) called Ae. caudata var. eipperi.

Ae. caudata var. eipperi. Is a larger growing form and
mine reaches a height of about three feet or more. Although the inflorescence
and flower formation is similar in size to the usual Aechmea caudata the colours are totally different as you can see by pictures 1 and 2 below.

Ae. caudata var. eipperi.

Ae. caudata var. eipperi flowers

Ae. caudata has been successfully used as a parent and has produced 23 registered hybrids to date as well as many more which aren’t registered.

See: http://registry.bsi.org/?fields=Parents&id=17&search=caudata

I have used it in a cross with Aechmea recurvata which surprisingly produced several very different looking plants mostly leaning toward the recurvata parent in appearance. (See pictures below)

Your garden plants all look healthy and well grown and brom’s in general always seem to grow stronger in the garden than they do in pots. Maybe this is because the roots are free to roam and can seek out the nourishment they require whereas in pot grown plants they are restricted to what’s in the pot.

I have found that Vrieseas seem to handle the extremes of temperatures better than Aechmeas or Neoregelias which surprised me, as they always appeared to have softer and thinner leaves which I thought would have suffered more from temperature extremes than the other two species, but in my experience this isn't the case.

'Little Surprise' (Ae recurvata x caudata)

Aechmea 'Rocklow Gold' (Ae. recurvata x caudata)

Aechmea 'Apricot Torch' (Ae. recurvata x caudata)

All the best, Nev

That first photo looks like one of the hardy broms Fascicularia. That last is something like what was posted on Daves Garden as A.caudata. I knew something was wrong when something has a flower that looks like a raspberry.

I know Nev,I got some real oldies...none has zebra leaves or especially giant inflorescence's ( spell right?) for the size of the brom.

Although,I would kill for a Aechmea blanchetiana. Never seem to get one when I always want one!..lol.

Hi everyone.

Stan - I used to be a member on Dave's Garden and may have posted that picture on there, but at that time it would have only had the formula name of recurvata x caudata as it wasn't registered then. I also posted some others which were the reverse cross of caudata x recurvata.

You say you have trouble getting Ae blanchetiana, have you thought of growing some from seed? They grow easily and are flowering size here in our climate in about seven years.

All the best, Nev

This is called A.caudata too- What is it?

Thanks Nev- you are the splendid splinter! ( old American baseball term for a big hitter!)

Hi Everyone.

Stan - Always pleased to help where I can.

All the best, Nev.