Sander,
Well it sure looks like B.nutans,which I must have given away a dozen plants of,as it grows like a weed,no matter what kind of care or neglect given it. But I've never seen it turn red,even in sunshine,it stays a constant green. So,I'm thinking yours may be a hybrid,perhaps bi-generic,of some sort,dominated by the nutans looks.[perhaps Ae.foster's favorite and B.nutans?--a wild guess]And I'm surprised that it has'nt bloomed for you,as those I've had seem to pop a bloom spike quite often,especially in our winter months.(indoors,of course).A bloom spike would really help ID it. But thats just my experiance with nutans,others may have a different story,especially our GW'ers that know their Bils. [not me]
Of all the broms I've had,B.nutans would be my choice as the most surviveable under neglect or any adverse conditions.Even those bloomed and dying produce pups while on the compost pile.Hope someone can help with an ID for you.
Bob

Thanks Bob, the red made me doubt. Can't find a red one anywhere on the web. Maybe I can find a way to make it flower this winter.

I'll check the bi-generics on FCBS, maybe that helps.

Sander

Might be this thing, very stretched out:

Here is a link that might be useful: Uncle Derek says: Bill. Rubrocyanea, et al...

Thanks for that input Lisa,it surely looks like a logical ID. I'm wondering why Sander's plant,as full and mature as it is,has'nt bloomed as yet.
Bob

Thanks Lisa I was hoping you would know, but I think it is not the one Uncle Derek describes there. This one does not look so tubular an it has no stripes on the underside.

I made some more pics maybe that helps.

I've found a lot of nutans pics on the web and somehow they all look smaller to me. I measured the longest leafs and they are 1 meter(a bit more than 3ft). Compare it to my fireball:
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There is some sun now so I can get the colour right in the picture. The light spots only occur on a few older leafs. The leafs are as shiny as some of my neo's.
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The underside is almost the same, here's other side of the leaf at exactly the same spot. A bit more sun so it looks lighter:
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Some of this years pups, colour starts at the underside untill they get bigger. Check the mud and stinky algae bubbles at the bottom left.
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I bought is at a local garden center, I can't imagine it's a rare hybrid. They had quite a few, mine and the others were not red at the time. I think we can be sure now that it is a hybrid.
Would it help if I let it dry out completly to make it flower this winter??
Did anyone try the trick with the apple on Billbergia's? I think I can wrap it in plastic with an apple in there.

Hi Sander,
The semi-shiny leaves and spots on the older leaves add to this mystery plant. As nutans has dull green leaves,it would seem that any cross used with it would have long,redish,and maybe spotted leaves.The spotted leaves are an often seen trait with billbergias. A fairly common Bil with plentiful strappy leaves,is B.'Windii',but I've not seen pics of it with any red. You might ask at the garden center if they know something of its origin,as there were multiple plants there,which leads to believing its common and available.
I've found that letting them go bone-dry over winter seems to help the blooming and pupping,so you might try that together with the apple-in-the-bag thing. Seeing it bloom would likely help with the ID.
Bob

Believe me the morons at the garden center don't know. It has been years since I got it.

They used to have pretty special stuff there. A lot of weird and wonderfull tropical plants. And they knew a lot about them. But since it's under new management it has changed a lot. They even sell ski's (!) and furniture now. So usualy they only have the middle of the road stuff. But every now and then they have something special, I think that is by accident or old stock they found in the corner of their greenhouse. A while ago they didn't even know what perlite was...... Not that they had any.

I will try the apple trick and letting it dry out.

Thanks Bob, maybe the new pics shed some light on te matter to the GW Bill experts

OK,lets scrap the garden ctr.idea ;^)
Skis,furniture,and plants....novel idea,...must pack them in.
Anyway,I think your nameless plant is a good looker.And searching for an ID will keep us busy. I'd suggest useing Lisa's ID for now,as I'd trust her knowledge and experiance.
I was thinking of taking the above photos of your plant with me to the Brom.Extrav.show in Fla. later this month,and see if I can get an opinion from Harry Luther of the Brom.ID Ctr.,who may be there as a speaker. We'll see.
Bob

Yeah you're right I have to go by the picture on FCBS and Lisa has seen most in real life. She proably has most of them in real life, and if not she just makes them :-)
Can't imagine she's far off, that would be a surprise for once.

Wow! If you can take that picture to the Brom show that would be very very cool!! If it's not to much trouble. Be sure to say it is in the Netherlands so it could be a Dutch hybrid. Maybe even something very common. I never saw them again though, not there and not at other garden centers. Maybe it really is from the ancient stock. The old owner was a bit of a connoiseur.

Brom ID center??? What's that??

Apple, ski's and cling film in hand I wait for new daylight to embark on a quest for blooms... :-)

Thanks a million Bob!

Well, I'm not 100% sure on that, but it certainly does appear to be a B. nutans hybrid. Rubro-cyanea/Hoelscheriana/Pixie etc. seems a likely suspect since some form of that cross has been around for over 100 years, and I can see how it could be less tubular and more grassy-looking grown soft. It also looks a bit like the FCBS photo of Beadleberg, but that was only registered in 2001, so that seems a lot less likely.

Bob, my experience with Harry is that he is reluctant to even speculate on most hybrids. The BIC deals only with species, and even then he will be fairly guarded about giving a definitive ID to anything he hasn't dissected and keyed out properly. He is well aware of the weight his word carries, and doesn't want a casual opinion to be mistaken for an official identification.

Here is a link that might be useful: BIC

Hi Lisa

That Beadleberg is very close. It looks shiny enough but is it spineless like one of it's parents?

I think I bought it in 2003 so it could be.

Thanks for the link and the effort.

Hope I can get it to bloom for me, untill then it's a Rubro-cyanea.

Sander

I haven't seen a plant like it before. If Don B. is involved, expect the unexpected.
One thing I would do is tranplant it into a proper medium, because if it grows like that in sludge just think of what it would do in a good mix.

The plot thickens....

Gonzer, Madagascar fan? Nice, I love that too.
I've been there five times, mainly focused on aquatic plants, reptilians and amphibians, (and the lovely country and people).

Good tip I'll take a few pups off and see what happens before I wrap it in cling film. I'm not repotting the whole plant though I really like it the way it is. Unless a pup grows to be even better.

Sander

gonzer What is a 'good mix'?

Good soil depends on the rest of your growing coditions.
Check the link below, many more where that came from.

Apple in the bag:
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Here is a link that might be useful: Soil mixture

I hope your plant doesn't get cooked in there, Sander! It looks like a sauna, or some sort of home weight-loss method. I would have used a paper bag or cardboard box to avoid damaging it, or at least a large, loose-fitting plastic bag (placed in shade). It doesn't have to be 100% air-tight, but maybe Bill will emerge with slimmer and more shapely thighs! ;-)

It's microwave foil, that has little holes in it. And that spot gets no sun at all at this time of year it's allready getting pretty cold out here.
I didn't pack it as tight as it looks, it's pretty loose, I tied up the leaves with a peace of string to avoid damage. That's where the Xmas tree look comes from.

I don't want Bill to losse weight or suffocate. Bill says thanks for your concern. If he does lose weight I might try this myself.LOL

Hdd, to me, a "good" mix is anything that lets the poor guy breathe ;-). My favorite is 10% perlite, 40% good humusy potting soil and 50% small redwood nuggets (orchid bark).

cool one of my seashells 'pink champagne' has a pup already..

Am I still related?

For my Neo's and Vrieseas I use orchid bark with 30% corase sand and 10% Perlite. And a tiny bit of slow release osmocote. That works fine.

Fast draining and low on fertilizer. Good soil for me.
Over here all potting soil has to much nutrients so I don't use that.

I'm in Holland so moderately warm wet summers and four months a year chance of mild to heavy frost, so the plants are not outside then. This summer we had an incredible amount of rain, and last year it was bone dry and hot for months.

After a couple of days in the sun the green pups I planted in good mix are getting more red by the day.

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Hi Sander,
Seeing these pups up close,somehow suggests 'Aechmea' to my thinking,more so than Billbergia. A hybrid is still the #1 theory tho,but does anyone else have an opinion,before we see it flower?
Bob

IFFFF we see it flower :-)

The apple in the bag still feels a bit like a hoax to me.
Still can't imagine enough ethylene coming from a sliced up apple.

We'll see...

Sander

Does this look like what I think it is??

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Sander

it sure looks like it to me after turning on the lights LOL
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Haha thanks if forgot where the lightswitch was. :-)

First I thought it was a new pup but this one was in a weird place. Glad I took Lisa's advice to store some Amoena pollen.

I won't be slagging off apple in the bag again.
Check the date on the post when I bagged it...... 4 months exactly.
Now that proves a few theories.
Bill didn't have one drop to drink since he came out of the bag. I'll reward him with some fertilizer tomorrow.

Sander

Is that the only one, Sander? I'm not sure if that is a flower or not. Usually the buds are tighter, not so leafy-looking. I'm going to reserve judgement until it grows out a bit more.

Yup, that's the only one. It looks like a pup very much. I am still in doubt also.
But it has never pupped that way. It allways pups at the base and new pups have no red. It's in the center of an older plant.

Freaky.....
Has anyone ever seen a Bill pup this way?

Spike? (a bit blurry sorry)
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A normal pup:
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Sander

Sander a bloom spike should come from deep inside the center a mature plant...I cant tell from the photo if thats inside a plant or or on the side of one

Sander,
At the moment I have a very strange thing happening with one of my Aechmea comata var. makoyana. First photo is of another specimen doing the usual pup from the base - always a lovely pink-flushed thing.

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But the other day I noticed a clump on a post which is very exposed - gets full sun and full heat of summer, and is in the coldest area also in winter. And as you may remember, my last winter had shockingly low temperatures for this area. So that clump has smaller and more compact plants, due to its harsh growing conditions. First I thought it was a flower spike coming from the centre, but on closer inspection, I see it is a new pink pup coming from the centre of the vase! I just photographed it to show you, and now the new pup has yucky brown on it, like the whole clump - not exactly a beautiful specimen I know - but interesting???

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I also have a new pup coming from the centre of an Aechmea magdalenae, after last winter. I'm guessing it's their way of surviving under adverse conditions, but I don't know why your Swampy Bill seems to be doing that after the apple trick.
Looking forward to seeing more photos as your mystery 'thing in the middle' develops.

Cheers,
Kerry

I thought it was from the side but on closer inspection it grows from the center of an older half grown pup.

It could be like Kerry's weird pup from the center of an older plant, but it never did that before and it is not Bill like to do that.

I am geting more confused by the minute :-)
We'l see what happens.

Every time I look at it it looks more like a pup to me.....

Sander

That's bizzare.

It must be from stress...good survival tactic

Still no flowers but it looks a lot better today:

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Ik keep it a lot dryer now. The pics don't do it justice btw.
And yes, I finished my new balcony. Quite a chore.

Sander

I wonder if separating off part of the clump might shock one or the other clump into blooming. There absolutely is no scientific basis to that idea. Just a random thought.

The Bromeliad Extravaganza in Florida is November 13-15 in Orlando this year. Come on down!

Sanders, doesn't it look like there's some "Halleluja" genes roaming inside your plant? Or is my imagination running wild?

We could be on to something there Gonz!

Halleluja longifolia????!! Hehe ;-)

Could well be a Halleluja Nutans cross, I guess we'l never know cause this bugger is not going to flower.

I think 'Swamp Thing' is a pretty good name Sanders, fits like a glove.

Compared to Neo lilliputiana it is a monster.

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I remembered this thing hiding in the yard, nutans x ? with spotting on the leaves too. He could use a bit more light though.

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Hmm very similar.

5 days after reviving this year and a half old thread!!!
Wowzers that's scary......

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It heard your thoughts, Sander!

That's a very amoena-looking flower. I'm not seeing any traces of nutans there, so maybe your plant's long strappy leaves are just growing conditions and not genetic.

Definetly no nutans in there, that flower is just like my amoena's, but nowhere near my amoena's plantwise.
I think Gonzer called it. It 's very Halleluja like.

After seven(!) years of trying I was even doubting if was a brom.
At least I know it's a Bill now.

It has not seen a drop of water all winter and not much light too.
Is has not gotten any fertilizer or new soil for years now.
This brom likes it really hard.

I'm eager to see if the flowers are curly and twirly like my amoena's. I'll post some pics later on.

I wonder what happens when I put some pollen on Melon...

Sander

Hi Sander - long live the thread!

Pics below of my Halleluja last time it flowered. Sorry about pixellation - from an old phone before I got my digital camera, but hopefully they should show enough.

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Looking at these as they have come through photobucket, the colours have lost a little intensity as well (low res before they started), but it looks a lot like the way yours is heading.

Have you tried taking a pup off the clump and growing it separately to see if you get a stockier and more coloured plant? I've found with a few different broms that if I leave them in big clumps, it doesn't matter what I do with feeding or light, they stay strappy and only part-coloured.

Cheers, Paul

Yeah I tried that, they turned out the same.

Al my Bills are a bit strappy, it's too cold out here I guess.
Not as strappy as 'swamp' though. It was like that when I got it, somehow it seems that's just the way it is.