Hi everyone.

Jane you are quite right, your plant is a bromeliad, in this case it's a Neoregelia. As for a cultivar name, I'm sorry I can't help as there are many thousands of different hybrids which come in just as many different colours.

I can see though that your plant is of the stoloniferous type (New plants are formed on stolons [like a stalk] which grows away from the central Mother plant and for that reason they make good specimens when grown in baskets.

They are easy to grow either mounted on a tree or grown in a pot or basket using a bark based orchid potting mix.

They don't require a lot of care, and here in temperate Australia I grow them outside under shade cloth or beneath a tree. I find if I just keep a bit of water in the central vase and water them once each two weeks in winter and weekly in summer they seem to grow quite happily.

The two main things to provide are: Firstly a potting mix that is open and free draining as they don't like "wet feet". Secondly room to grow with plenty of circulating air, they don't like to be over-crowded, after all they grow naturally on trees in habitat.

If you have any other questions please feel free to ask and we'll try to provide answers. Remember it's not just you who learns when you ask a question; we all learn from the answers that come up in discussions.

A group of Neoregelias show the variety of colours available.

All the best, Nev.

Fireball?