Bromeliad

Billbergia Windii Bromeliad

This is a most beautiful bromeliad and is one of the oldest hybrids in the bromeliad family...about 1870 at the National Botanic Gardens in Belgium.  The magnificent flowers appear almost over night and take about a week to fully open and will remain looking good on the plant for several weeks.

We had the plant for several years but always had to bring it indoors for protection in the winter.  It became so large and heavy it was difficult to handle to bring indoors and one winter it did not survive. Another draw back of the plant is that the leaves had sharp edges which made it hard to work with or even to divide the plant.