And we're live. This is Point Ditty Podcast. I'm Matthew and I'm Stephen.
This week we're excited to bring a guest from the Volunteer Park Conservatory to
talk about air plants. This is particularly fun for us and timely because,
as you may have heard, we're thrilled to be hosting a live fundraising event
at and for the Volunteer Park Conservatory. It's our first live event and truly
an honor to be volunteering our time to support this fantastic organization and local destination.
Tucked in a beautiful old glasshouse in Volunteer Park and the Capitol Hill neighborhood
of Seattle, this garden is the one for indoor plant cultivation inspiration. You
might even have to spend some time in the conservatory to even appreciate just how
true that is. You can visit any time of year and have a completely
different experience, as pott and tropicals are rotated seasonally and different parts of the
permanent planted displays are in bloom or growing fresh foliage. Or you can just
marvel at several century old specimens growing into the structure itself. Check out the
Desert House in particular, I genuinely have a list of plants that I fell
in love with just by seeing them at the conservatory. So we're really excited
to be hosting this Pride Plant Parenthood panel with Emily Alsup, with whom we
actually chat in today's episode, and we'll be sharing plant parenthood stories and answering
houseplant questions. So get your tickets now. Links are in our social media
bios, show notes and our live events story highlights on Instagram. So even
if you're not a dedicated houseplant hobbyist, you're probably aware of air plans.
Yeah, we weren't able to pin down when their popularity exploded, but it
was at least a decade ago, and probably not before the nineteen seventies.
They weren't mentioned in the LASSA Crusoe's book from that time I just checked.
But now that they're available at most gift shops, they're considered quote easy plants
in populariousness, at least around here in Seattle, And they come in so
many shapes and colors that they're collectible like Pokemon fun as decor elements, and
I swear there is a whole separate scene for airplant specific pots and mounts and
other decor tools like that. Yeah, yeah, so I think it's easy
to forget that. They're also a focus for dedicated plant parents too, when
there's even jokes online about how can you even tell if they're dead because the
homes, they're often slow growing and they're not terribly responsive plants, so sometimes
people will go to move their airplants one day and just how it fall apart
because it's all dead and dried out. I may or may not have had
that experience myself personally. Yeah, that does remind me of my Spanish moss
experience. Rest in peace anyway. The common vernacular name air plants is essentially
synonymous with the genus to Lanzia, which has more than six hundred species more
than I realized, which also includes Spanish moss. Yeah. They're found in
the wild as far north as the southeast US and all the way to Argentina.
There are species of all sizes, and like other bromeliads, most are
rosette forming with leaves that create a funnel that collects water on the crown of
the plant, and some species are quite small while others are quite large.
So there's kind of an air plant out there to fit any collection. Almost
all of them are sold as individual, loose plants without any sort of potting,
and this is because one of the most obvious things that sets them apart
from other plants is that the roots basically just serve the function of holding a
plant in place, and its foliage takes in the moisture the plant needs,
though, just to be a stickler. A fairly common species, often called
Flanzia cyanea, is sold as a potted plant. It's actually been moved into
the Willisia genus though, so it still has a lot of the characteristics and
attributes of the Tlanza air plants that we're going to be talking about today.
But these are fantastic plants. Okay, let's say you've never had an air
plants or you've never successfully kept one. How does one care for these?
Well, generally they like bright light, frequent misting and or weekly soaking,
regular fertilizing, and high humidity will go a long way if you can swing
that too. Yeah. The foliage is covered in tricombs, which are specialized
cells that absorb water and nutrients, and there would give the air plants their
silvery sheen. Yeah, Like staghorn ferns have that gives them that fuzzy look.
Carnivorous sundews have dewey tricombs, and many other plants that are fuzzy and
described as pubescent to do too. Yeah, and given how diverse their habitats
are, from dry deserts to consistently moist jungles, there is a pretty impressive
range of morphology and tricombe density based on what environmental conditions a species has adapted
for, and this gives you some clues to look for in their care.
Yeah. Generally speaking, the more silver or fuzzy looking your air plant is,
the higher light you should give it, and the greener and smoother the
foliage, the lower the light. In cultivation, the silver ones are referred
to as xeric and the greener ones are mesic. Yeah. Xeric de Lanzia
are from desert like dry climates and they can tolerate full sun a lot of
the time. Mesic to Lanzia come from areas with more moderate amounts of moisture
and they want bright indirect lights. So knowing this, you can often just
get an adequate visual queue from a plant without knowing its species, and this
helps you be able to give it the correct light intensity and watering frequency,
and that really helps you keep them happy. Right. So truth time,
Matthew, what are our care experiences? This will be an interesting section,
I think. If I'm honest, I've had mixed results. Yeah, airplants
and I do have a history. I got one as a gift years ago,
in one of those hanging glass globes. I was not yet a plant
person, and it swiftly died. I remember missing it maybe once a week,
something cruelly rare like that, Like it definitely needed more more moisture.
But I left that experience confused and mildly angry, wondering what to do with
this hanging glass globe that's clearly meant for an airplant that did not contain one,
which made it obvious that I killed mind standard gift shop thing. Yeah,
then I had a long airplant break. I got into plants otherwise.
I then got one from a friend again about a year ago. It was
a silvery xeric one. He is a serious airplant person, so his collection
was constantly overflowing. I just got you know, a pup from there.
I halfheartedly tried to match his bright you know, shower conditions, like in
a bathroom I put it near my orchids. It got frequent missing. It
was right in a window, and that plant has done well. Like I've
had flowers, I've had more pups, but if I'm honest, I don't
really notice it very much. Like I'll see the flower, I'll enjoy it
for a moment, then I'll pick off the dead pieces periodically. That's kind
of our relationship. So around the same time, I then got an impulse
purchase one at a checkout at a garden shop. It was tiny, and
it's still doing well enough, like it has grown slowly, but it has
grown, but there are always some dry bits on it. This is a
messic one, which is the greener type, so it probably needs a less
bright spot. But yeah, I feel like I will have an airplant phase
at some points, maybe when I have that brightly lit bathroom, or maybe
when I find a species or get like a big specimen plant that I really
love. Also, a botanist with my same last name described many to Lanzia
species, so maybe it's like my duty on some level, but more about
that in or after show. So that's like my airplant life story, I
guess, how about you. Yeah, my own results have been mixed too,
And to be honest, I know how to care for them, but
I've just not been terribly invested in tolanzy and airplants in general compared to the
other plants that I grow. So to me, the Tlansia kind of fit
this place of being more decorative, which that can often be a death sentence
to a lot of plants if their specific needs aren't being prioritized in how you
display them in your home. And I've had about eight or ten of them
for four or five years now. They're doing well enough, like I'm happy
with them. They're still alive. But they were originally bought to be used
as decoration on a holiday wreath that I made with eucalyptus foliage, and they
were just kind of peppered throughout it. It was a cute little display.
And then after the holidays, I unwired them from the wreath and I set
them on a shallow dish of lecca and I would spray them down regularly.
There would often be water sitting in the lecca, so that the airplants themselves
were never sitting in water. But they've been happy to grow like this,
just you know, ever since, and for a while now they've been under
pretty bright grow lights. They've gotten bigger, they've grown some pups, but
I've not really had them flour then they're just I'm sure you've all seen this
one. It's an enormous kind of curling silvery species called the Lanza zero graphica.
Yeah, that's probably one of my favorites. I think it's extremely ornamental.
But I've definitely treated those like walart on like a really beautiful kind of
wood plaque with wood burning design on it that I got from our friend James,
one of the friends of the show. But I've treated this one not
as much like a living thing as I should, and I attest that they
do not tolerate low light levels, that afoulinopsis are happy, and I've also
not watered them as often as I should. But I'm determined not to just
buy and kill another one of these because I haven't prioritized their needs. And
after we worked on outlining this episode, and especially after the interview that we
have coming up, I feel inspired to do something better with all of my
Tolanzia, which includes fertilizing them periodically and making sure that they all have pretty
consistent water and that they definitely get the light that they need, because I
really want to see them flower. There are some really impressive and dramatic blooms
to be had in the Tlanzia genus. And so if I start caring for
them better and get some of those goals specimen plant vibes, I think that
they're going to be more rewarding and that's going to encourage to treat them better.
Yeah, okay, you know what you've heard it here, Like this
show, it's for others, but this is also for us, okay,
in our intention setting. So yeah, those are some good goals. Matthew.
Thanks anyway, if you couldn't tell, this is us owning that we
are casual airplant people, but then we step into volunteer park conservatory near us
and we're blown away by what they can be when they're grown. Well yeah,
and not just as some afterthought impulse by plant that's quote easy, and
then it gets treated like some nonliving trinket on a coffee table or something.
I think there's this very prevalent notion among people who would buy an airplant,
even those of us who are houseplant people, but for people who just like
the idea of it, that These are easy. They live off the air,
they don't need much care. Yeah, so we thought we'd bring in
an expert from the conservatory. Here she is. We are so excited today
to be joined by Emily Alsop, the resident romeliad expert at Volunteer Park Conservator,
to here in Seattle, where she focuses on bromeliads, and to Lanzia's
ferns plant propagation and the Conservatory's autumn chrysanthemum exhibit. A lifelong plant parent,
she grew up helping with the family vegetable garden and then at one point owned
more than three hundred house plants. That should sound familiar to some of our
listeners and some of our podcast hosts. Yeah, we had an opportunity recently
to visit her at the office in quotes behind the scenes at the conservatory,
and let's just say we were equally impressed by what she's accomplished and jealous of
what she gets to do every day. Thanks so much for taking the time,
Emily, and welcome. Oh, thank you. It's my pleasure to
be here. It's so nice to have you. It's really nice to meet
you in person. After some of our recent video chats. Yeah. I
was so happy that you were able to come to visit the Conservatory because it
is a gem in Seattle that a lot of people don't know about. But
we are so proud and happy to be working here. It's a dream job,
I believe it. And the Conservatory is one of those local Seattle gems
that I was born here and it really was not on my radar until Stephen
introduced it to me quite a while ago. But it is something that more
people need to go visit and check out. And there are so many amazing
plants to both see and discover in the Conservatory. I have a lot of
wish list plants that I have added to my plant collection because I've seen them
at the Conservatory. I want to grow them myself. And we specifically have
you here today because you're their resident expert in Tlanzia. Like Stephen said,
and air plants are I think they're just always popular. They are a plant
that appeal both to plant parents as well as people who just like having plants
in their home, both for the design element that they offer they're so decorative,
but also for people who like a fairly low maintenance plant. And all
that said, Stephen and I are not terribly familiar with the cultivation and growing
lands. Yet I have a few, Stephen has a few. We have
had a few past tense yeah, by her alive, not all of the
ones that I've bought her alive. Yeah. But so we basically just want
you to help teach us what we need to do for our air plants and
how to keep these to Lanzy, these really beautiful plants alive. Obviously,
you grow in a conservatory, which is an amazing and dare I say ideal
environment, very ideal. Yeah, we got to see some plants that were
just thriving in a way that I could never achieve in my home. But
for growers interested in keeping these as houseplants, what are your ideal airplant care
recommendations that people can apply to their home environments. Well, first of all,
let me just thank you for your benevolent praises, because I'm really not
an expert in the large sense for tlansias, but I have perfected a lot
of things I keep every day. Well, that's true of gardening in general.
There's always someone who knows more than you, and you can always learn
more exactly, But I'm happy to be taking care of them because the care
here is ideal. Like you said, we have a lot of space for
air plants to llansias to grow. We have the moisture that is captured within
the greenhouses and the conservatory. We have the sunlight. Those two things are
really essential for the care of tlansius. If you don't have good sunlight,
they're not going to thrive. But at the same time, you think about
air plants, you don't need to water them. You do need to water
to lansias nowise they won't thrive either. One thing about the tollansias that you
may notice is that they have sort of a scaly, sometimes fuzzy, very
silvery looking cover over them, and that's really essential to its growth because those
are the tri zones that captures water to keep it moist and growing and all
the nutrients from air and humidity. And also if they're larger, as in
the xeric type of Tallansius, they deflect the very very bright sunlight. Even
though it's required for the xeric, they help deflect sun so that's really essential.
With that being said, they also are easy because you don't need a
substrate or a soil mixture because they can just be hanging. If you notice
on some of these tallanzius, they have roots, but they don't act as
roots because they don't absorb the nutrans or the water through those roots. They're
really anchors, tans, anchor on branches, on trees, on rocks and
cliffs, even on telephone lines. Oh wow, yeah, I've seen that
in the wild and Peru. These air plants just perched like birds on high
altitude desert power lines. It was really cool to see that. And you
can definitely tell that those roots are doing nothing to help the plant do anything
but cling. That's it. That's what they are. And so you don't
want to cut away those roots, those attachments, because that's what they're for
is to be secure and whatever vessel or pot or bark that you're going to
be placing them in. Okay, So hearing about the way that they don't
need their roots to take up water, they're just there to cling. They
have these tricomes to help deflect light when there's a really highlight environment, but
also absorb water and nutrients. You're saying that sunlight and water are the two
most important things. So if you're growing one of these very very silvery ones,
you know that it's going to deflect a lot of light away, so
that probably means that you have to give it a much higher light environment so
that it's not deflecting the minimal amounts of sunlight that you're providing. Versus a
greener one, you might be able to get away with more bright indirect light.
Is that a good way to think of that, Yes, exactly.
Zerographica, that's one of the tilansias that are very silver gray. Yeah.
Oh, it's beautiful. It's one of the bigger ones, and you see
them at plant shops. It's one of my favorites. Yeah, and very
expensive because it takes a while to grow. It's a slow grower, right,
But that in particular needs the hottest part of your window where your room,
and it needs at sunlight. I put that where I get sunlight in
the west and during noon it's very bright and sunny. I water it less
and it doesn't cause any rot. I have seen my xerographica rought out because
too much water has been captured into the cap. That's how I'm killed every
zero graphica that I've ever killed. Yeah, So when you're talking about water
being important for these in the wild, the ones that come from really dry
ecosystems are going to get probably some warning do probably some seasonal rain. Absolutely,
then the ones that come from wetter climates are getting a lot of it
from both rain and from humidity. I know that a lot of people tend
to soak their plants and bowls of water and then let them drain upside down
to make sure that water gets away from them. But do you have any
tips for how to keep your house plants, air plants as well moistened as
they need, the frequency kind of how you should prioritize humidity versus active watering.
There's several ways of watering, Okay, I have to say though at
home, for my chillensias, I don't have a lot. What I do
have I soak them once a week, okay, for how long? Anywhere
from an hour to three hours Okay, I think an hour is safe to
say. But I do soak them because I don't have time during the week
to miss as I should be right right, they should be misted like maybe
three times a day in the wild, that how they would get their moisture.
But at home maybe missing once a day would be ideal. But some
of us forget One of the signs that you'll see on tilansias where it will
need water is that the leaves will start curling to form kind of a pencil
shape tunnel shame. I've seen that. Yeah, and once that gets hydrated,
it starts spiking up and standing a little taller. Yeah. Okay,
you can do kind of a shower or take it right into your bathtub and
take the nozzle and shower it off. Those are three things that I've heard
of and that I actually do, and it works. Are growing great.
Yeah, they're doing well by following that regime. Okay, And I like
that we have an option for people who are fairly hands off, you can
just soak them once a week or so, and then if you're a really
hands on plant person, you can miss them as much as you want.
The thing you don't want to do is you don't want to leave water sitting,
especially at the base or even on the leaves. You don't want to
have water sitting there. You want to make sure that it does drain off
or dry. Yeah. And I love the way that you know if you
thoroughly soaked a planta as regardless of how silvery they are when they're dry,
they look green, and then when they're bright and silvery again, or back
to their room or color, and you can put them back where they were
displayed originally. Yeah, I know when I water my tolanza wall that I've
watered thoroughly enough. When they turn green, all of them have a little
bit of a silvery skin to it. But once yeah, I know that
it's sufficiently watered, and then I move on. Okay, Okay, I
am learning a lot already, so this is very helpful for me. Yeah,
you know, because you know in your experience just visiting other people's solves,
like I've seen great tolanzia display is happening in like a bathroom, right,
or maybe they're getting that humidity, maybe they're getting water from the shower.
Great ones in like the kitchen window too, right, where maybe people
are remembering to spray and all of that. I am kind of the nitpeaky
one on this podcast in some ways where I sort of want the exact direction.
So when I hear soaking, I just had a little follow up question
there, is it like you would soak it in a bowl you just kind
of put it in the bowl, or is it like you really should make
sure the plant is submerged like sometimes you have to kind of put a weight
on them to sink it untill you get it under There is there a specific
delicate ste I think they're delicate. I mean they float, right, that's
true. The leaves are kind of brittle sometimes, and so I would be
very careful about putting a weight on. I actually use a Pyrex bowl sometimes,
or one of my plastic mixing bowls, or I have a basin that
I use. I use any of those, depending on the mount of telamsias
I have to soak. Okay, I guess I do have quite a few,
but I collect them all and i'd fill it up to the brim with
water, and I very delicately push my hands down so that they submerged for
a little bit, and then I just let them alone. Okay, you
know, I come back and maybe toss him around like a toss salad,
but toss him around. Yeah, And within that hour, you know,
it's gotten maybe turned once twice maybe okay, great, marinating some vegetables or
meat, right, and then you're ready. They're ready to go. Well,
here's another follow up question. Does the water quality matter if these are
getting mostly like missed humid air rain. I imagine that you're going to want
to be fairly careful with using good quality water for these Will they be harmed
if you have either hard water or maybe chlorine added to your tap water?
You know, I haven't heard much about that myself. We are lucky in
Seattle to have extremely high quality water here exactly exactly. But I think ideally
you would like to have maybe purified or maybe even distilled water. But I
don't think it matters here in Seattle, Like you said, we have very
high quality water. Do you fertilize? Do you add fertilizer to the water
at any point while you're soaking them. I've never done that. I've never
put fertilizer in the soak okay, but they do require fertilizer, Okay.
You may notice on some of your plants that it's getting weaker looking, it's
losing its green, it's kind of grayish or yellow at the base. And
it could be one of two things. I mean, it could be maybe
starting the overwatering process, but more than likely it is not getting enough fertilizer
because it needs to feed off of something. And home plants, home tilansias
do need a fair amount of fertilizer, and I would say every three months
during the winter, and then especially during the growing season, maybe biweekly monthly.
Okay, can you give me guidance on the MPK ratio that they you
want a little bit of nitrogen, but the rest can be even. They
can all be even. But if you have a little bit of nitrogen the
first number, then that would be better. So you want that to be
a little higher than higher. So if you had a twenty twenty twenty,
if you went to a twenty three twenty twenty, that would be a better
option. Okay, But if you tend to want to fertilize every time you
water, then I would dilute that fertilizer maybe in half, which is what
you at the conservatory. Yeah, we have a weekly schedule when we fertilize
all of our plants. But it's a very weak solution. Same thing at
home. You want to dilute that fertilizer so it's safe because if you have
too much fertilizer, you will definitely bring your plants. Okay, So growing
a variety of kinds of bromeliads. The only pests that I've noticed on mine,
but again, this is with near regalia, which is more of like
that tank style tropical rainforest, you know, bromeliads. I've noticed scale on
those. Yeah, I've not noticed anything specifically on my Tolanzia, But can
you give us an idea of what kind of either pests you needs to look
out for or maybe pest management if you do have an infestation. I've basically
here at the conservatory and even well, not so much at home. I
really try to play it safe at home. Here we have lots of Mealy
books and we have lots of scale. Yeah, you want to tackle those
things right away because if scale gets into the base and into the crevices,
same thing with Mealy bugs, really damaging to the plant. You may have
to just get rid of it. Seems like it'd be tough to get those
outs, and good luck controlling it when they've really gotten deep into those rosettes,
so many nooks and grammys. Yeah, it is tough. I actually
use a soft toothbrush with a soapy water solution and brush out the scale.
I don't want to brush too hard because it could damage the surface, but
I've had to do that on some of my better tilansius that I wanted to
say, yeah, do you have to worry about removing the try comes when
you do that? Well, that's what I'm saying is that it may remove
some but I think the gentle brushing just in one section. Meanly, bugs
aren't as bad as scale. I think scale is much more serious. But
really bugs are ugly looking and they get cottony, and they scatter too.
You can actually see the mealy bugs crawling around. But that you can actually
spray off pretty easily. Yeah, take maybe your kitchen spray and go in
there and just spray out into the crevice very gently so you don't break the
leaves off under and over on the top as well and in the crevices.
Then come back once that's all cleaned up with your soapy water solution. It's
like a spray bottle, maybe quartz size, with three or four squeezes of
dish soap in the water and that's it okay, And you don't have to
worry about using some kind of like special soap like down dishwashing fluid is going
to be okay there. I don't think it matters. I think just three
or four scots of it and it'll be okay. Okay, we use seventh
generation here, so whatever you have at home, okay, Well, before
we move on to Steven's next question, I just want to say that what
I love about the idea of treating these pests is that it is like the
same motion as watering them. Well, that you can kind of do this
both to remove them by spring them down you're watering at the same time,
as well as that being a good preventative treatment, like if you have baby
mealy bugs, you're washing them off before they've established a breeding population. Just
an emotion of caring for these plants the way that they need. I can
tell you're a plantsman. Yeah, if we've been doing this for a little
while, I've also had my brush with mealy bugs. They're never gone.
Yeah, And you know, I just kind of want to throw in that
was good pest management talk there. But in my experience, I've never had
pests on mine. I've had scale in my home, right, things like
that. So I just anyone listening, I hope you know you're not hearing
it like it's this chronic, you know, extremely common issue. And I
think I think you guys would agree, right, Yeah, at least Steven
and I both agree that of the pests that we have had, they have
not showed up on the clansia, even if there are lots of other plants
nearby. But I've had serious outbreaks of other things on wood. Yeah.
Yeah, oh, I agree with you. I have no pests on my
clansia is at home, and I think those are one of the prime plants
to own because they don't get that many pests when you have them in the
home. Saying, yeah, that is such a blessing. So no pest,
no soil, you know what, These are very easy. Yeah.
So what are your recommended species for home growers? Yeah? Speaking of easy,
where's a good place to start in the home environment. I think starting
small, and it could be any species that starting fall is always good.
But I just showed you one of my favorites. I had a very tiny
one when I first started, and it is two or three times the size,
so it's a grower. Yeah, it's kind of surprising, but it
has a most beautiful plant, has a spike on it or fluorescence that's a
hot pink with purple flowers that are extending out of the bracts here and then
plus it's curly. You know it's got this Medusa effect. It is a
really unique shape. Yeah, I think you can kind of see the Medusa
element. And I'm just going to interject your like, podcasting is an auditory
medium, and we're looking at a really beautiful plant over the video that we're
doing this on. This is a clansy that you're probably familiar with at plant
shops that kind of has like this bulb shape with really thick, fleshy,
succulent leaves to it that kind of come out. So you've got like this
bulb at the base with these twisted corkscrewing leaves. They're very coarse compared with
some of the other air plants. Stephen has one, And Stephen, how
big is your airplant? Does it? Does it look as nice as hers?
Let's just say it was surprised to hear that it was a grower,
Emily. I've had Yeah, I've had mine be kind of the same size.
For I mean, I want to say a year or so. We're
here to learn from you, Emily. Steven's not been missing or fertilizing his
Yes, we are both. I think we're both to Lanzia novices in some
respect, and I am kind of at this point where I'm just happy that
I've had it for this long. It has been the the same size for
a year. It does still look good though, and I'm very glad too.
They said to start small because that's you know, that can be tricky
sometimes sometimes, you know, it's better to start with a plant that has
some size that maybe can weather rocky care as people figure them out. So,
yeah, I started small, and I have more hope now, So
thank you, Emily. Well, so here's a question. When you say
start small, do you mean the small species they're typically available at most places
that sell plants, and specifically air plants, or do you means start small
with like pick a couple, don't get a huge collection, figure out the
care of the ones that you begin with. Probably both, right, yeah,
yeah, definitely both. Okay, because there are some smaller tolanzias.
I find those very tedious and very sensitive to touch because they just sort of
fall apart. So I would get something that is a little sturdier, smaller,
and maybe get that and another the duse. Maybe you're just one that
speaks to you whatever you like. But you know, start a small quantity
wise and size wise, because if they should fail, then you really haven't
lost too much. Okay, great, that's a good idea. So what
I'm hearing is basically that if you can find it at a plant shop,
it's going to be a good option that you don't have to worry about any
enormous challenges in their care. Do you think that's a good way to sum
it up? I think so that's comforting. Now if you feel as though
you have kind of gotten the knack of these that maybe you're growing some like
down a little fish and gravel, or growing them hanging in a window or
something, and you're happy with them, if you really want to go to
the next level with your air plants, like I don't know, maybe you
see them flower, maybe you see them produce seeds, if you want to
try growing them from seeds or try maybe a more tricky species. Do you
have any ideas for how a home grower who wants to get more invested in
a higher level air plant could kind of do this? Yeah, Ire Like,
for the experience inst people out there, we are novices, clearly,
but the more experienced people listening to our show, yeah, because I'm kind
of thinking that you might be telling us about terrariums or some like really unique
species that you might have to search out. But I'm just curious where you
think a budding airplant fanatic could kind of like sink their teeth. A little
later, there was another favorite that I want to bring up that I really
like, and it's called the Talensia ciania. It has a y okay and
the beautiful purplish blue florescence that come out of the bracts of this pink paddle
and literally it's like a paddle. Yeah. That one reminds me much more
of the Vergia And it was actually my very first bromelia that I ever owned
back in like junior high. I love that one. Yeah, And the
thing is, you know, I thought this was just so alarming to see
this pink paddle with the purple flowers. It just brightened up my day.
Every side Find Myself Home Depot Lows sells it. Really every is getting into
these designer and exotic plants now, which I think is good. But I
was so surprised that Lows had a whole tray that was going to be my
question, right, like, where do you find this exclusive, you know,
challenge species? Okay, I mean I think that I got mine at
lows a something years ago, and I gotta say, like, it is
so colorful. The flowers themselves clash in the most in the most brilliant and
beautiful way with the like flaming pink bracts that they come from. It's a
really grassy looking plant too. It has a darker foliage and less of that
silveriness to it. That's that's a good recommendation. I like that. Yeah,
it's it's very bright green and it's kind of brittle, so you don't
want to knock up against it. That's a problem with this as Sianias is
that the leaves can break off very easy, so you want to be able
to I guess, hang it or put it in a structure that is kind
of more pedestal, like, because I I've snapped the leaves off, Like
it's not like the leaf itself breaks, but it snaps off from the base
of the plant kind of like is that is that how you found that to
be brittle? Yes? Okay, yeah, it's the tips are just get
broken very easy, so I have to set it back a little bit from
the bench in the conservative I bet people want to touch them too. Oh
of course there's a tactile. It's a show stopper. When people come by
and that they'll say, oh my gosh, and they'll start taking pictures.
Yeah, and maybe you can tell me what some of these species are,
because I don't know a ton of them. But there are some that are
super narrow, leave that they are very grassy, some that have really fluffy,
silvery kind of like it seems like the try comes are almost like flocking,
like a you know, holiday decoration. There's a lot of diversity in
form here. I know which ones you're talking about. There's one and I
forget the name of it. It almost looks like a pine cone with yeah,
and they kind of come into a little ball and they have the little
tiny thread like leaves that stick out, and if you put them together they
kind of cling like velcro. You can make kind of a sphere out of
it. There's also one very similar to that, but it's a little more
elongated with very extended leaves and the fluorescence. The spike that it gives out
is very long, maybe one or two feet, with purple at the end.
Yeah, there really is this amazing diversity of species commercially available ones.
Yeah, and also display options, right, Like I think just the air
plant nous of air plants, it kind of forces you to think of different
ways to display them and to grow them. Gives you a lot of options.
There's definitely a lot of you know, artisanal kind of projects that you
can do that could really enhance these and you can have fun with. And
that makes me think of just like one little follow up question that I want
to ask when you're displaying these is it important to the plant's ongoing health to
encourage them to actually secure themselves onto something or could you really just treat them
like this little self contained, completely mobile plant that you care for well,
display in different ways as you feel like it. Are they going to continue
to thrive even if they've not clung to something. I find that if I
don't anchor them in some way, like with wire, that they don't really
perform as well. Yeah, you can put it in a dish, but
in our setting of the conservatory, things are either on the bench in a
substrate or the soil, or they're hanging. Now, all the tilanzias are
hanging. Okay, I want to bring up a book. I don't want
to promote a book, but there's one out in the market now that I
really like it, and this talks about displaying it. I mean you can
even have tillansias as boutineers on a bridegroom's buttonhole. I've seen that, or
yes, part of a veil. It's really interesting. And it's by Zenatas
saying it looks like a good thick tone too. Oh it is nice.
Yeah, it has everything that we've talked about, plus at the very end
it shows you about how to design and how to attach these. That looks
really good. Yeah, that looks great. I love that. Yeah,
it's so interesting. And Stephen, we're going to chat about this after we're
done with Emily, because I have definitely used airplants as like ornamentation in the
past. Oh wow, by your window, I mean, this is my
favorite. I love that. I've seen stuff like that. That's how I
would want to display mine. Yeah, I like that. That's great.
Basically, what we just saw was like a very handsome, elegant looking wire
mash in a window with airplants is growing on it. Really beautiful. Okay,
so we've gotten a lot of good information. I have learned a lot.
Maybe you could see the wheels turning a little bit like I do move
my airplants, maybe a little bit too much. I don't move my other
plants. Maybe we need to let them grow like plants, not like ornaments.
So why, yeah, why have I treated them that way? And
so on? I really think that's okay, because it's like furniture in our
house. I mean, they do thrive pretty well, but not for long,
okay, so moving it around. That's part of the owner's fantasy of
growing plants like that, is to be able to place it in places like
a coffee table or a kitchen bowl or something, but then bring it back
to its origin where it has the light and the water, because it's going
to need it, yeah, eventually, but it will thrive. Yeah.
So it's just the same as our potted plants. These just don't have pots,
right, Okay. So if someone after all this good information, if
you're still hesitant, what would you tell them to convince them to try air
plants out? Well, I just think it's so creative that you've got this
plant that doesn't need to be in soil. I mean, our whole lives
we think we put we dig a hole in the ground, we put our
tomato seed in there. And watch it grow. Here's a plant that you
don't need to do that too, and to understand its origins because they're from
Mexico, Central America, and South America and even of Southeastern America, United
States. We have them growing. I've seen them growing in Houston. Yeah,
yeah, yeah, So I think that's the marvel of this plant is
that it's in the air and taking an advantage of that and trying to develop
some good growing habits. To see your air plant thrive in your home,
I think is a great challenge and it's different than any other plant that you
will ever own. It really is. They're in a class by themselves.
Any of us who don't have any table space left. You have no excuses
with air plants, right, And I love that we kind of have these
ideas of if you want to grow them, ideally you can do this,
and if you want them to survive and still do okay, you can be
a little bit more relaxed with that. It seems like they're just relatable and
yeah, they're going to suit most people who are interested in plants, whether
or not they're anywhere near as passionate as the three of us, or if
you just want something that's alive and kind of green. And the good thing
too is that you don't get aphids and you don't have slugs to eat them
up. Right, even better, even better? Right, and you know
in the home environment, you won't have the outdoor pest that plants to come
to, so I think your chances of success would be pretty good. Start
small, Okay, great, all right, thank you so much. This
has been so informative. Yeah, and for imparting all of this great information,
I'm helped and I'm sure a lot of people will be great. I
enjoy it. Yeah, thank you so much for joining us today, Emily.
It's been a real pleasure, very welcome. It was my pleasure.
Thank you, thank you. Okay, Well, I loved that and I
learned some things that could help my little airplant collection pretty much right away.
Yeah, and that was just a really fun chat too. I'm really glad
that we got to meet with Emily and have this interview with her. We
really just got to enjoy a laid back plant levers conversation, and it made
me feel much more confident in how I'm going to approach my tlanzia in the
future, just with more deliberate intention really, and I am now fully inspired
to do that and grow them much better from now on. Same and this
week's after show, we discussed the TOLLANSI interested botanists that share a Stephen's surname
and the inspiration or burden of having plant species that seem to contain your name
or family name? Is this a force in your planty life? If extra
banter like this sounds appealing, however, to Patreon dot com slash plant Daddy
Podcast and check out our official patron level. Okay, anything else? No,
I think that's it all right. This has been Plant Daddy Podcast.
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