Description
About blooming Tillandsia fasciculata
This is the blooming Tillandsia fasciculata listing: plants from our Tillandsia fasciculata base listing, shipped while they are in spike. Stock is added when a crop flowers and is available while supplies last.
Fasciculata is called the cardinal air plant for its bloom. A tall, branched spike rises from the long, stiff leaves with flat, bright red bracts and purple flowers, and it lasts for months rather than weeks.
In bright light the whole plant blushes purple around the spike, so the display is a purple rosette under a red candelabra. It is one of the biggest blooms we sell.
We grade blooming plants from minis and seedlings through smalls, mediums and larges to extra-larges and specimens. Some plants have slimmer bases and minor leaf marks from age. The black sheaths at the base are normal for the species and not rot.
A blooming fasciculata carries a display on its own. It can be potted in orchid mix or grown bare, and after the long bloom it pups two to four times from the base.
Growing blooming Tillandsia fasciculata: Care Guide
Fasciculata wants more water than a silver plant even in bloom, because the spike lasts so long that the plant cannot go without. Keep the weekly soaks going, but invert and shake hard afterward so water does not sit in the broad leaf bases or on the bracts; potted plants can simply be watered from above. Bright light with some sun keeps the purple blush and the bract colour. Feed lightly through the bloom, because a spike this size draws on the plant for months. When it finally browns, cut it at the base and the pups follow.
- Light: Bright light with some direct sun. Sun brings the purple.
- Water: Soak 20 to 30 minutes every 7 days, or water potted plants weekly.
- Drying: Invert and shake. Broad leaf bases hold water.
- Airflow: Good airflow after each soak.
- Temperature: 40°F to 95°F. Cool nights are fine.
- Feeding: Feed monthly with diluted TillyBoost Fertilizer. A long bloom needs it.
- Mounting: Wire large plants to a solid mount, or pot in orchid bark.
- Pups: Two to four from the base after bloom.
See the base listing for year-round stock, browse more Currently in Bloom, or read our air plant care guide.
