How should I proceed? Should I tie the pups to the wood with wire, hot glue them, or what? Should I leave the base bare or wrap it in moss? Any other tips would be appreciated.

I see you're another new member who has just joined us and I'd like to say welcome to our forums. I'm sure that like many others and myself you will learn a lot about brom's in general and not just Bil. Nutans.

Although I've never tried to grow nutans epiphytically, I have done so with other Bil's. I just tie them to the tree with a strip of green shade cloth about 25mm wide and as long as required to surround the branch or other mount.

When you pull on each end of the strip you will find it stretches a bit lengthways and becomes narrower in width and it is also to a certain degree a little bit stretchy.

It's very strong, won't rot, and if tied firmly with a knot that won't slip, (a 'reef knot' is good) it will do the job adequately until the plant attaches itself with roots.

To finish it off, I just drape a bit of "old man's whiskers" over the shade cloth strip to hide it and to give it a more natural look.

One word of warning though, if you use wire, make sure it's not copper as this is deadly to bromeliads.

All the best, Nev.

Cable ties work well also, what kind of wood are you planning to mount it to?

Cheers,

Rick

Bromadams- That's good to hear. My thumbs are far from green, so hardy plants are my friends.

Nev- Thanks for the welcome and the advice! I hadn't considered shade cloth. It doesn't promote rot where it's pressed against the plant base?

I'm not absolutely new to bromeliads. I had a modest collection of tropical plants when I was a kid, including several Tillandsia, Neoregelia, and Vriesia, but an ice storm wiped them out and I haven't had the heart to start over until now. I have, however, forgotten most of what I once knew about them, so I'm effectively a newbie.

I have a yellow Guzmania ligulata (I think) that I just got from Lowe's, and I hope to get these B. nutans pups from a coworker. Hopefully this will be the start of a new fair-sized collection.

Rick- the wood I intend to mount it to is a piece of hardwood driftwood from a local river. It is too old and worn to identify any further, and is at the "skeletal" stage where there's little but lignin left. That should be safe, don't you think?

The driftwood is about 4 feet long and W-shaped. There is room on it for several plants. I am still trying to figure out how I want to mount this piece of wood. I am considering attaching it to a plaque that will hang on the wall and planting a climbing fern in a pot tucked away behind it, so the fern can twine around the bases of the bromeliads.

That sounds like a good idea, if you river is a salt water river you should soak your driftwood in fresh water changing daily for about a week to leach all of the salt out.

Cheers,

Rick

No problems with the shade cloth re. rot, it's only in contact over an area of about 20mm.and the air can still pass through it.

I forgot to mention previously, to make sure that the plants are tied firmly because if they're not they will be reluctant to put down roots and like Rick said, if the river is salt, make sure it's all washed off the wood before you use it.

All the best, Nev.

It occurred to me that misting the plants could cause issues with the paint on my wall. I am thinking of making a sort of planter with plexiglass that would shield the wall from moisture and create a shelf beneath the mounted wood for additional plants, like so:
[IMG]http://i194.photobucket.com/albums/z161/Newt1453/bromeliadwallplanter.png[/IMG]

Any thoughts on that?

Nathan - Everyone probably has a different idea on pup removal and I don't think there is any hard and fast rule as some pups can be removed easily while others are more difficult to remove. I generally take the main plant in my left hand and gently but firmly try and bend the pup backwards and forwads to "get a feel" of how firmly it is attached.

If it hasn't come away, I then try to (firmly but gently), bend it outward away from the main plant. This usually does the trick in seperating the pup from the main plant.

If on the rare occasion it still doesn't break away, I take a thin bladed knife and cut down between the main plant and the pup; and as I do so I try and leave a small amount of main plant tissue attached to the pup. It won't hurt the main plant but if you cut tissue from the pup it may damage the base and make it more prone to rot.

I then stand the seperated pup in an empty pot for a few days until the cut has dried before mounting or potting.

All the best, Nev.

Harton