Don't worry about drowning the pup and don't remove the mother plant's leaves. Keep seeing to the mother plant's needs and it will nurture the pup.

tj

Hi everyone.

Hu - I personally would just leave things be and continue to water it overhead normally. Despite what's usually recommended, I prefer to let the pups get almost as large as the Mother if they have to be removed and don't take them off until they have roots of their own.

Remember when these plants are growing in habitat any water they get is always from overhead and it isn't selective, it goes on the foliage and the roots; the only difference is they are growing on trees and dry out much quicker than when grown in pots. With your plant, be careful not to over water it as too much water will start rot which can kill your plant.;

As the Mother plant declines, the pup will gradually grow and take over from it. Removing excess leaves from the Mother plant could kill it prematurely or at the very least set it back so that it can'r nourish the pup adequately.

It's hard to tell from the pictures just what your plant is. Did it look like the ones in the attached pictures? If so it's called Wallisia cyanea (Previously called Tillandsia cyanea) . With these plants I prefer to just let them clump up as they look much better this way.

Wallisia cyanea

Wallisia cyanea (Flower)

All the best, Nev.

Yes Nev, that looks like the one! I am kicking myself for not getting a good photo of the bloom before it died (though you can see the removed dead mother plant in the second photo).

I have been filling the cup once every 3 days as this is at my office desk with A/C so it's fairly dry in here, it is potted in large orchid bark so it's almost a quasi-air plant in terms of drainage. I will definitely be leaving the pup until it is nearly the same size as the mother plant, and depending on how it's looking I may just leave them together and scale up the pot.