It could be Neoregelia Tomasito, if it turns very magenta.

I looked at the Tropiflora site and the only one that looks anything like it is N. Wolfgang, which has more of the pink down the middle of the leaf.

They're both beautiful! I'm going to try giving it more sun next year and see what happens.

HI everyone.

Dirtygardener - I'm sorry but I can't ID your variegated Neoregelia as there are just so many that look similar, but I would like to share with you some knowledge I have about variegated plants in general.

Personally, although there are many beautiful variegated plants, I gave up growing these some years back due to many of them being unstable and the variegated pattern on the leaves being mostly different on each leaf (such as seen in your plant). This doesn't take away from the fact they are still attractive plants which are still very popular with many growers.

By "unstable" I mean that as well as the new pups often having a different variegated leaf pattern to the Mother plant, they also have a habit of sometimes producing "NOVARS" (Such as the plain green pups you describe as being produced by your plant).

NOVAR is a term used to describe a plant produced from a variegated plant but not having the variegation; (NO VARiegation). This is often written on the name label following the plant's name to inform people that this plant came from a variegated plant but is not showing the variegation. Sometimes dishonest sellers will tell the customer that these NOVARs will become variegated as they age, but this has never been the case in my experience.

It has been written many times that these NOVARs will always remain plain and never again show any variegation themselves or produce any variegated pups., however on several occasions I have had NOVARs which produced a variegated pup themselves (One plant in my collection that has done it on several is Neoregelia 'Perfection' NOVAR).

Neoregelia 'Perfection'

It doesn't happen all the time but it has happened nevertheless; that's why I tell people not to "toss" the plain pups out, as there is a always a slim chance they could produce a variegated pup themselves.

To try and get more variegated pups, the plain pups are generally removed as soon as it's obvious they aren't variegated. This saves them sucking the nourishment from the Mother plant and leaving her a better chance to produce more pups; (Hopefully variegated).

Often the variegated pups will come from one side of the plant and the plain ones from the other side. I have a plant called Neoregelia 'Orange Flush' which each year produces two pups, one from each side. One of them is variegated and the other is a NOVAR. All of the variegated pups originally from this plant do the same thing and when mature and produce one variegated and one NOVAR; however the NOVARs have only have ever produced more plain (NOVAR) pups.

Neoregelia 'Orange Flush' (R) and Neoregelia 'Orange Flush' NOVAR (L) (The old Mother plant from the centre has been removed)

Neoregelia 'Orange Flush'

Neoregelia 'Orange Flush' NOVAR

What you say about your Neoregelia 'Fireball' reverting to green for the winter is from a completely different cause. Whereas the NOVAR plants are caused by a genetic "mix-up"; your Fireball's change of colour is purely due to lower light and temperature, and when the light becomes stronger and the temperature rises the colour will once again return.

That's about it for now.

All the best, Nev

I kept the green pups, because they seemed to pup and spread a lot faster. They had a habit that I thought might allow them to climb up some trees, but unfortunately, they all died last winter. There is one small green brom that is wonderful at climbing trees, but it's not cold hardy. I forget the name. I think this one may have been a hybrid or sport of it. When I bought it, it was a group of three variegated pups, but every pup but this one came out green.

I never throw broms away. I've had some almost die, and I still kept them and let them come back from tiny little pups. I just love broms.

Here are some striped ones that I have:

This one varies in color, depending on where I put it.I think this is the same plant, but kept in the shade.

Neoregelia Morado - pups look just like the mother plant.

Aechmea Friederike variegated - bought at the World Bromeliad Conference in San Diego this year.

Here's another neoregelia in San Diego (not mine):

I did not see any of these for sale, or if I did, they were too expensive.

Here's a striped Vriesea in San Diego:

I cannot read the name on the card, but it's on the Vriesea table.

We threw out a lot of bromeliads this year because some of them are huge, and some of them make way too many pups and would take over if we did not thin them out.

Those are all beautiful! I had many beautiful broms in SW FL, but up here, I have to stick to cold hardy ones because I don't have a lot of room to keep them indoors in the winter.

Yes, I know about the Fireball. It's really gorgeous in the summer when it's deeper red. I had a brom once that was green under my oak tree, but when I put it into the sun at another house, it turned deep purple .I miss that one. I forgot it when I left.

Oh - just wanted to say that I found some bromeliad pups on a trash pile the other day and a couple were a deep burgundy. They look like they may be aechmeas. I got quite a few, green and burgundy, so we'll see what happens with those.

Here are some more striped bromeliads - in San Diego. This guzmania was at Balboa Park:

All of the following one were one of the houses we toured where a member of the San Diego Bromeliad Society lives:One of the owners of this house told me that he is a landscape architect.

N. compacta is the one I had that climbed the tree! It showed a blush of color in the summer, but was also green in the winter. I sort of liked it better It's also what the green version of this one looked like, so if it sends out another green pup, I'll find some way to grow it.

Yes, I love the neos for that very reason, the changing colors. It's so exciting to watch them change color as the sun grows stronger.