This is a commercial mix that we at Tropiflora have custom made 50 yards at a time. We use this formula because #1 it works for us and #2 it is economical.

Anyone can mix their own potting media and we encourage you to do so in order to best suit your needs. However, if you wish to use our proven mix, we are more than happy to oblige!

Here is the formulation:

• 30% Canadian Peat
• 30% Green Bark
• 30% Hardwood Chips
• 10% Perlite (though this can vary with availability of materials).

It also includes 3 pounds of minor elements per yard and has a pH level of 6.0 to 6.5.  This mix allows good air access to the root zone, good moisture retention without getting soggy, long pot life, and good substance for holding plants upright.

Note: A one quarter cubic foot bag of soil should fill about half a dozen 6 inch Azalea Pots.

A cultivar of (intermedia x streptophylla) by Mark Dimmitt. A bizarrely delightful plant with uniquely curling leaves and a colorful inflorescence. Taking the best characteristics of both parents, it has wide, strap-like, extremely curling leaves, a bulbous shape and a long inflorescence with many curly scape bracts. 

It will often offset from the inflorescence as does the intermedia parent and can form a chain of oddly twisting offspring. A choice plant for any Tillandsia lover and one of especially easy care. Grow bright and breezy and feed often for great fast growth.

Mark Dimmit’s hybrid of the same grex as ‘Houston’, a (stricta x recurvifolia) cross. Larger than either parent, it has many silvery, semi-soft leaves in a full 8 inch rosette. The large semi-pendant inflorescence has bright rose-red bracts. A very showy plant!

A fairly large hybrid by Luis Ariza, (brachycaulos x fasciculata), to about 10 to 16 inches with many leaves in a spreading rosette. The leaves are somewhat softer than a fasciculata and dusted with silvery scurf. The inflorescence is a cluster of short red branches on a red scape, with long scape bracts that blush reddish too. The flowers are exceptionally long, tubular and light bluish purple. An easy grower that does well mounted. 

A hybrid of Tillandsia aeranthos x gardneri. Fairly stiff, silvery-green leaves in a full 8 inch rosette. Pretty pink floral bracts. Easy to grow and prolific.

Bill Timm’s cross of (ionantha v. vanhyningii x bulbosa) is pretty much just what you’d expect. The plant without a flower looks very much like a bulbosa is shape and size, perhaps a bit stiffer with thicker leaves. When in flower, the inflorescence is more like that of the ionantha v. vanhyningii parent, short, almost without a scape, with a cluster of tight branches and blue flowers. The top of the plant and the inflorescence blushes red at anthesis.

A hybrid of (mallemontii x duratii) by M. Patterson in Australia, it’s a pretty good combination of the two parents. Tillandsia duratii is a robust plant with a long stem and curling leaves, rootless in the adult form and producing a long, branched inflorescence with fragrant purple flowers. Tillandsia mallemontii is a plant with fine leaves, forming a tangled ball with many plants. The slender inflorescence is un-branched and produces a large, fragrant, purple flower. 

The hybrid ‘Wonga’ looks more like a skinny duratii with many curly leaves and a long, branching inflorescence. The stunning thing though is that the flowers of both parents are very fragrant and those of ‘Wonga’ are not!

An attractive hybrid of (ionantha x chiapensis) by John Arden. As with most ionantha hybrids, it shows very strong characteristics of that species. A very leafy open rosette to about 8 or 10 inches tall with a pinkish blush to the scurfy, silvery leaves. The inflorescence is very colorful, a cluster of bright red branches nested deep in the center, with large, tubular, inky-blue flowers. Very pretty and easy to grow. Likes to be on the dry side. 

A spectacular, large, red-bracted cultivar of ‘Houston‘ (stricta x recurvifolia) a popular Mark Dimmitt hybrid. A very leafy 8 inch, gray-green rosette, with a large, full inflorescence of bright red bracts and flaring white flowers. 

Bill Timm’s hybrid of Tillandsia ionantha ‘Druid’ x ionantha v. vanhyningii, looks pretty much like a large vanhyningii. If this plant had turned out with a yellow blush instead of red, more like the ‘Druid’ parent, then this would have been a show stopper. But alas it isn’t yellow, but it is still a very nice, compact and colorful plant as you can see by the photo. 

A cultivar of (stricta x aeranthos) by Woods. It is a medium sized plant to about six inches across with narrow, silvery-green leaves. The inflorescence is very colorful, dark pink bracts and deep, inky-blue flowers. Grows easily mounted and will form attractive clusters. 

A nice, rather upright spineless plant with a pink cast to the foliage, bold creamy-white variegation and a deep red center flush at anthesis. Forms an attractive clump with many offsets on short stolons.