Welcome vgoff. You are correct many plants with the same name look nothing alike but they are like children we don't care what they look like, we are looking for healthy.

I have a bromeliad no expert has been able to identify and that includes the likes of Derrick Butcher. The source of this plant was from the collection of Eric Knoblock, a founding member of the New Orleans Bromeliad Soc and good friend with Mulford Foster. It's a remarkable plant really in that it is so healthy and happy all the time - in any condition, takes cold and heat. Nary a brown spot ever on it's leaves, full sun or shade - it doesn't care. I'd like to give this forum a crack at it and I would like to share this plant with anyone who wants to trade. I think we all should consider ourselves conservationists, especially when you realize the original habitats of many of these plants are being destroyed at a rapid rate - many plants are extinct in the wild, no telling how many get destroyed before they are ever even identified.

Eric Knobloch kept notes on his plants, realizing that these south american beauties are actually transplants to our environments and he aspired to a collection that would grow well in his environment (south Louisiana). I have some of his notes and you might say, I aspire to do the same.

I originally found this site because I wanted to know all I can about Aechmea Ampla. I have a pup ordered and I suspect from postings on this site that it may have specific requirements for color and bloom. We manipulate heat/cold, humidity, light, fertiliser, water and soil, air current don't we? Looking for that right "mix" but you can't just find a book that tells you all that - right? Then there's that 'stress' period - some plants love to be crowded in a pot, some don't. I tend to favor plants that are originally from a latitude and elevation in the southern much like mine in the northern - that being mostly Brazil. Only thing difference is the wider range of temps here in Mississippi. I am so lucky in that I have sweet well water and live oaks.

My friends and family think I am odd about these plants. I tell them that they need to quit thinking there is no God just because they haven't seen his face, can't they even consider that we could be seeing him all around - maybe even in a plant. Anyway, that's how I look at it and that's how it feels to me.

There is still very much we do not know about these plants and I think we as collectors need to share knowledge and not leave it all up to the scientists. We have a lot of observations we need to share.