A neat miniature, stoloniferous, clumping species that matures at less than 6 inches tall. Its gracefully curving, slightly speckled leaves form a bulbous base and a 10 inch flower spike with light red, white tipped bracts. Discovered near Parati in Rio de Janeiro state of Brazil and described in 1980, it is a native of low, wet rainforest where it grows as an epiphyte. An easy to grow yet rare collector item. Superior for terrariums.

A stunning, vivid bright purple plant. This outstanding Grant Groves hybrid is one of his best. A 20 inch rosette of soft leaves with small spines, develops a most unique coloration. Color deepens with age, but is colorful in all kinds of light. Not for direct sun.

A Brazilian native with wide, thick, leathery leaves in a 15 inch, recurving rosette. An unusual gray-blue color, speckled with tiny red dots and bearing an interesting, branched, yellow inflorescence produced in winter make this an attractive species. In spite of the gray, thick leaves, it is a shade grower in nature, living on granite rock cliff faces inside the mountainous Tijuca forest of Rio de Janeiro. A slow grower, excellent for terrariums when small.

A legendary plant. When you look up ‘rare’ in the dictionary, you should see a picture of tayoensis. This plant has only been collected a few times in nature, in Ecuador and Peru.

Most, if not all plants in cultivation came from these two collections. The most well know plant was Wally Berg’s which won the ‘Best in Show’ award at the Bromeliad World Conference in Orlando in 1996. At that same show, another plant was donated by the Marie Selby Botanical Garden and was auctioned off for $1,200.00 to a buyer from the Philippines.

The plant is a large grower, to over 4 feet in diameter. The leaves are petiolate with a narrow spiny petiole and a broad, spineless leaf. The plants are green, tinted orange-red.

The inflorescence is a spiny head of many recurving, orange-red bracts and yellow flowers and can last for a year or more. Grow warm and moist (not wet) in shade to bright shade.

This hybrid from Jim Pearce is a cross of Pitcairnia echinata x pseudoundulata. A large growing plant to 48 inches high and wide. The leaf petiole is red and covered with scurf and the lanceolate leaves are green. The tall and full inflorescence is orange-coral color, nothing short of spectacular!

A large growing Cryptanthus hybrid by Carole Richtmyer is a cultivar of (‘Nancy’ x ‘Peaches’) x argyrophyllus.  This Cryptanthus has 10+ very thick succulent lanceolate leaves forming a medium plant to 18″ in diameter with an open, rounded rosette shape.   This plant can attain larger sizes, over 24", in more shade.

The color of the leaves is pink to rosy pink changing to old gold or olive green with age and stronger light with dark grey edges and light scurf covering the entire leaf, both the face and back.  A exceptionally nice plant!

A colorful, upright growing hybrid of unreported parentage. A smallish plant to only about ten inches across with leaves of 1.25 inches wide in an upright rosette. Brightly colored red with chartreuse spots and bands over fully 50% of the plant. Leaves have a thick texture and are quite stiff. Although we do not know the parentage, it looks to us like it may have ‘Hannibal Lector’ in its background.

One of the most exciting species to come into cultivation in a long time.  A beautiful compact growing Cryptanthus with broadly triangular leaves, banded lengthwise with three rows of silvery trichomes over a base color of reddish chestnut-brown, in a full, leafy rosette.  Grows 4 to 8 inches across and produces a profusion of offsets on long stolons.  This stunning decorative species was extremely rare and fairly expensive when first introduced.