Hi Andy, welcome...! Your first photo looks to me like a nice clump of Neo ampullacea, or maybe an ampullacea hybrid. There are some 40 + forms of ampullacea, and it's a very popular plant with hybridists, so ampullacea hybrids are everywhere.

I've got no ideas for the plant in your second photo. Is that it's full size? And do you have a photo of the plant with pups?

Cheers, -Andrew.

The only thing I can think of for the later one is JC Superstar.

Hi,
the second plant looks like a young neo. spectabilis (that hasnt seen the sun)

Thanks all, I kind of thought the clump was ampullacea, but didn't know quite how many kinds there were.

As for the other one, that is full size but I just clipped it off its mother. I had just mounted the mother on a branch that I'm making a bromeliad tree with and this one was dangling hard and starting to twist. Although beat up, the mother is starting to throw another pup. And it was in full sun outside (ok, partial, but here in San Diego it was still pretty harsh sun). It keeps that nice pink color with white bands and the center is a nice apple green. If it helps any fellow San Diegans, I got the mother (pretty beat up) really cheap at the sale at Balboa Park last fall, so someone else down here has them. And actually, now that I think about it again, when I got it this mother was on a ~4" stolon from its mother (at that point just roots).
-andy

I reckon thats a cruenta hybrid of some kind....

Hmmm, the JC Superstar seems closest, but that looks much larger than what I have. My guess from the shape of the leaves was that it was an aechmea, but that's just my assumption that neo leaves are more rounded or blunt toward the tip. These seem pretty angular/sharp and then have the curved tip. But then as I look around at my other broms, I see that a lot of them have the down curved tip.

Here is the mother throwing out another pup.
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Here is roughly what it looked like before I clipped it.
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Close up of the tip.
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Another view of the freshly removed plant.
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Thanks for posting the additional pictures, Andy. Maybe we can narrow it down.

The form (particularly of the mother) is too narrow and tubular for any Neo of that size and general appearance that I can think of, and the stolon is not the type that Aechmeas produce, at least not the chantinii types.

I'm thinking Billbergia. Perhaps B. amoena v. stolonifera? I only have the variegated form of that sp., but the size, shape and appearance of the stolon seem about right, and the coloration just looks Bill-like to me. Anybody have the unvariegated form to confirm or refute?

Excellent, I think we (well, you) have definitely gotten pretty close. Looking at the different varieties of amoena I can find online, the form certainly matches and looks like the color just might be varietal. Thanks for the help. And now looking around, the similar form of my b. fantasia should have led me down the billbergia path. I'll get the hang of this soon.
Thanks again for all the help!

Hey Lisa, looks like you hit the nail on the head. The flowers look exactly like all the photos I can find of the B. amoena v. stolonifera with just a touch of color on the tips of the sepals and petals. Much stronger colored foliage than the other v. stolonifera, but obviously falls within the range of colors in the amoena group.

I got back from a trip just in time to see the blooms (I was afraid I would miss them over the long weekend with only four flowers!). Sorry about the weird lighting, I wanted decent light and needed to grab the pictures before the sun went down.

Full plant
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Closer
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Well, that's one more mystery solved! A bloom always makes it so much easier, but there are usually other clues if you know where to look for them.