Bilbergia

Family of bromeliads. The genus is bilbergia. Unpretentious epiphytes. Perennials with rosette leathery leaves. Some time after flowering, the rosette usually dies.

Natural climatic conditions: tropical( bilberry magnificent) and subtropical( bilbery wilting and sandberg of Sanders) forests of South America. The most famous species cultivated in indoor floriculture:

Bilberry is magnificent ♦ The leaves are upright, stiff, rounded at the apex, with spines on the edge and transverse strips of white small scales, assembled into a long tubular rosette that in natural conditions serves to accumulate water. Inflorescences drooping, paniculate, flowers small, blue, covering leaves of a bright pink color. Bilbery drooping( "Queen's tears") "The stem is creeping, the leaves are numerous and narrow to 70 cm long, dark grayish-green or with a bronze outflow. Inflorescences drooping, paniculate, flowers are small, bluish-greenish, bracts cover the leaves of bright pink color, the flower stem is also pink, because of them it seems pink in general and the inflorescence itself. Bilberia Sanders "A comparatively small plant( up to 35 cm tall), a rosette of 5-6 lanceolate olive-covo-bronze leaves with spots and stripes of yellowish pink color and a more reddish, also spotted, underside, narrow, elongated. The inflorescence is loose, paniculate, the flowers are small, yellow-green with blue tips or blue, flower-stem and covering leaves of red color.

Moisture requirement: in the case of soil on a land-like substrate - very mild watering, in other cases they are replaced by spraying( it can not be carried out but flowering time), during a period of active growth every 10 days, the plant is removed from the support and immersed in the saturating water of saturation CA, then return to the place.

Temperature regime: best grows at temperatures around 18 ° C, but can tolerate short-term temperature drops of up to 13 ° C.After transplantation, higher temperatures( 22-26 ° C), preferably with lower heating, are desirable.

Light mode: unpretentious, but does not like direct rays( in very bright light the color of the leaves changes).It is best felt in the eastern and western expositions, but can be used in the southern and northern.

Substrate requirement: Bilberries, like all epiphytes, can be cultivated on a piece of bark, on decorative driftwood or on a substrate, the main component of which is crushed bark mixed with peat, sheet earth and manure with the addition of pieces of charcoal, when grown inpots and similar containers, drainage is necessary. In large compositions can be placed on old hollow trees in hollows or specially made crevices. In the summer fertilizing with mineral fertilizers is necessary, in the autumn( by the time of flowering), it must be stopped.

Reproduction: offspring during transplantation( in March), less often - by seeds.

Features: after flowering unmalted rosettes should be cut. The plant does not tolerate drafts.