Thanks Lisa for that kaleidoscope of colors and texture.
My collection is growing as we speak and with each new picture so is my want list.
I just cannot get over the beauty of these plants!!!
Patris

Wow,Lisa...speechless. That Vr.platynema variegata is my all time favorite vriesea. And thats the absolute best photo I've ever seen of it.Thank you ! Bob

That Vriesea platynema v.variegata is stunning. i also see where Kawika got some traits

Thanks for the pics Lisa. Great stuff. Scary thought...what if those images were flashed on giant stage screens, say, like a Pink Floyd concert or the old laser light shows from the 70's? The gray matter'd be floating in the aisles!

I think I was at that concert, gonzer! At any rate my gray matter is still floating around somewhere, and looking at these things doesn't help. I used to be an art student, but I quit when I came to the conclusion that even the simplest things in nature were far more complex and interesting than anything my fellow students and I were likely to turn out in our lifetime. The hybridizing thing is just my way of keeping one foot in both worlds.

Yes, I'm sure that is Kawika's daddy, hdd. I don't know if that's the same "melanodonta" that Michael is selling, or where David got the plant from in the first place, but Ray picked up a pup from me and I'm sure he'll make good use of it. Slow growing bugga, though, and I've never seen it bloom.

Vr. platynema variegata is one of the all-time greats, I agree. It actually has kind of a nice-looking flower too, at least when it's still in the buddy stage. Most of the foliage-type Vrieseas have fairly ugly flowers. It makes some nice hybrids, but I don't think any of them is really any better than the original, just different.

These pictures belong on the FCBS site

I have just confirmed with Michael, that's the same Neo. "Shiigi's melanodonta" he carries and I am getting one soon. Hehe.

I have a couple of melandonta ..very nice plants...so are the plutonis

Bringing back this post was appropriate since I took these photos of the very plain Billbergia elegans in full glory.

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Wowsers, gonzer! But are you sure that's just plain old elegans, and if so, where did you get it? Mine has a rather sparse upright flower like the ones on FCBS. Yours looks like it could be elegans crossed back to Windii, or some such thing.

Here is a link that might be useful: {{gwi:497065}}

All the plants are from a single plant I got from Birdrock years ago. Here's another clump flowering more like you mentioned Lisa. This is one species that can easily get out of hand.

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