FLlower on a Vriesea 'Mariae' FADING

rednkhuntertd · #1 (**permalink**) 09-23-2007, 02:26 PM

I got a Painter Feather Vriesea 'Mariae' about three months ago. At first I kept it in my room outside of a terrarium under a 6,500 k bulb. Room Temp stays 76-78 with weekly mists. The plant was thriving and the flower was so beautiful. BUT. I put it in my tank in the middle of August, and ever since then the flower started to fade from yellow and red to a faded green. I keep the tank temps @ 76-78 to 80, and the humidity 50% to 75%. There is a 20,000 k coralife bulb on the tank, and it gets misted when I mist the tank (twice a day lightly). What is going on? I don't have any fans on the tank so air circulation is a possible problem. Its a Exo Terra 18x18x18. I took the plant out of the tank a few days ago to see if that will do the trick. I just hope that is it not to late to save the Brom.

Any suggestions?

Frog tank setup 004.jpg
Before
Plant.jpg
After

Pavel · #2 (**permalink**) 10-18-2007, 10:07 PM

Wow, how did I miss this thread?

Red, if you haven't already done the research and found the answer out for yourself, then allow me -- you didn't necessarily do anything wrong.

That colorful portion was not the flower. It is what is refered to as a bract. [Had it been an orchid probably would call it a 'spike'

] The actual flowers are very short lived (we're talking one or 2 days) and emerge from the bract.

I'm guessing you bought the brom with the colorful bract already in full color. Yes? If you didn't happen to notice any flowers emerging from the bract during the time you had it, then it is very likely that it had already finished blooming. The bract DOESN'T retain those beautiful colors forever. They are a temporary bit of beauty. You can't change that anymore than you can keep a perfect bloom on a rose for any more than its alotted span of days.

A brom only blooms [and thus forms a bract] once in its lifetime. Then it slowly dies. The process is unstoppable. HOWEVER, and here's the silver-lining, typically before the 'mother' plant dies, it will form one or more "pups". These can eventually be separated from the mother or you can hold off separation until the mother dies. Then the process starts all over again.

rednkhuntertd · #3 (**permalink**) 10-20-2007, 09:41 AM

Thank you so much.

acpart · #4 (**permalink**) 02-17-2008, 11:47 AM

I have been through this cycle with my broms and now have healthy pups growing. One has been growing for over 2 years and one for about 9 months with lots of lovely leaves but no sign of bracht or bloom. Is this how long it takes? Is there something more I should be doing?

Aliza

Pavel · #5 (**permalink**) 02-17-2008, 09:52 PM

Some broms take years to reach blooming size. how big is your oldest brom, Aliza?

acpart · #6 (**permalink**) 02-17-2008, 10:28 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Pavel

Some broms take years to reach blooming size. how big is your oldest brom, Aliza?

I'm guessing about 8" at least (I'm not home now so I can't measure). When the original one bloomed it was smaller than this one. They sure don't tell you this at the flower store. I'm willing to wait.

Aliza