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No-Care Plants

wcgypsy
11 years ago

This plant was given to me over 20 years ago...in the same pot...and has been sitting in this spot for 15 years here..

Comments (11)

  • wcgypsy
    Original Author
    11 years ago

    Queen's Tears / billbergia nutans. It obviously hasn't minded the neglect....

  • onederw
    11 years ago

    My guess would be, wcgypsy, that your bilbergia has grown right through the bottom of the pot and is firmly rooted in the ground. It would be a major undertaking to move it. I rescued one decades ago that was out in the hot sun, unwatered, on a nearby rooftop garden after the owners had departed. And a pitiful looking thing it was, too. It bounced back to look something like yours. I divided it, rerooted the pieces, and gave the new plants to friends as presents. A true Lazarus plant.

    Kay

  • wcgypsy
    Original Author
    11 years ago

    Rooted into the ground?..lol...Yes, I would imagine so since two of the trees that shade it were set down, in their pots in that same area at the same time and proceeded to root into the ground also...through a thin layer of asphalt. Would I have planted a schinus and a pistache that close together? No, but I'm happy with it anyway. I often find that even with seedling trees, they will come up in a spot that I wouldn't have chosen, but when I give it some thought, I realize I like that tree in that spot......

  • wcgypsy
    Original Author
    11 years ago

    The pistache is growing about 3 ft away from the schinus...

  • hosenemesis
    11 years ago

    Enchanting. I love mature trees.

  • wcgypsy
    Original Author
    11 years ago

    Oh, me too. I'm a tree-hugger..lol..I'll always be happy if I can just have trees and my grasses.

  • hosenemesis
    11 years ago

    And beautiful white picket fences.

  • Dick_Sonia
    11 years ago

    Incidentally, that's not straight Queen's Tears (Billbergia nutans), but the hybrid between B. nutans & B. baraquiniana. It's traditionally labeled as Billbergia x windii. It's sometimes marketed as "Angel's Tears."

  • wcgypsy
    Original Author
    11 years ago

    Thank you so much...I would never have known that! That's what I appreciate most here...people with a vast array of knowledge.

  • bahia
    11 years ago

    I also grow Billbergia x windii, and I don't think it is this hybrid either. It looks more like a Billbergia vittata to me, due to the pronounced silver striping on the leaf undersides. Also, B. x windii has even larger, showier bracts and the inflorescence usually extends downwards for at least a foot when fully extended; your bloom spikes look to be shorter and less pendant.

  • wcgypsy
    Original Author
    11 years ago

    B. vittata does show the banding that mine has. I don't see that on pics of the B. windii. The info I found on B. windii stated it's to 1 ft tall and mine is taller than that. You guys have taken me into the wider world of Billbergia....and in that search I saw a variegated one that I now feel I need to have...thanks...
    I do have some needing-to-be-divided other old billbergias that look as though they may be B.windii.