This plant was named by Bill Timm, but originally imported by Tropiflora as a natural hybrid of (ionantha x paucifolia) from Guatemala. Growing to about 4 inches tall in an upright, spreading rosette of fairly soft, silvery leaves with a slight bulbous base. The foliage tints red at anthesis and the inflorescence is a short scape with purple flowers.

This hybrid of (leonamiana x ixioides) is pretty much what you’d expect of this cross. An open rosette of narrow, arching, stiff leaves of silvery gray and an inflorescence that is tall and slender with a few short branches at the top, silver dusted orange bracts and yellow flowers. Easy, prolific and showy.

A cultivar of (capitata ‘Peach’ x concolor). A handsome, medium sized plant with an open rosette shape of fairly stiff, recurving, channeled, gray leaves. The inflorescence is about 12 inches tall, with long bracts and a clustered head of short, shiny, reddish branches and beautiful blue flowers. The upper part of the plant blushes peach color at anthesis.

This is a beauty and one of our favorite Tillandsias! We collected our original plants many years ago in Southern Ecuador and have propagated them since. An excellent species with many arching silvery-gray leaves in a 20 inch or larger rosette, with a beautiful branched rose-red inflorescence lasting for months.

Native to semi arid valleys and can often be found in trees near water courses. Somewhat of a slow grower but a spectacular plant at maturity. This species thrives with bright light and moderate watering and feeding.

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 clone of (aeranthos x leonamiana). A robust beauty to 6 inches tall with stiff, purplish-green, silver lepidote, upright, recurving leaves. Lavender flowers and bicolor pink bracts are borne on a 4 inch scape. Very easy to grow. 

An outstanding hybrid of unknown parentage, by Bill Timm, but we suspect it could be (Tillandsia ionantha x streptophylla). Bill made the cross and gave us the germinated seedlings on a wine bottle cork. He recorded the cross as what was to become ‘Baby’s Bottom’. 

When our plants began to flower it was evident that the plants were something else, but what? Bill agreed but did not know what the cross could have been. At any rate, he has registered the plant under another name.

It is a beauty with many narrow but succulent, recurving leaves in a bulbous rosette. The leaves are silver with trichomes and quite thick and stiff, the upper whorls blushing deep pink when blooming. The inflorescence has six or more pink branches that are nested in the center, rising just an inch above the foliage. Flowers are light blue. A very dense and heavy plant.

An accidental hybrid, probably made by hummingbirds visiting a greenhouse, is almost certainly a cross of (balbisiana x pseudobaileyi). This plant occurred amongst a group of seedlings of Tillandsia balbisiana supplied by a South American nurseryman. The shape of the plant is rather classic balbisiana in all aspects including size. The leaves though are semi-terete and have the striping like the T. pseudobaileyi. 

The inflorescence is like balbisiana in shape and size but has the color of pseudobaileyi. One can never be sure of such a cross, but in my experience I have never seen a hybrid that appeared as obvious as this one. A very striking plant.

A caulescent species with a stem to over two feet long with very stiff, thick, spreading, almost succulent, red leaves. The inflorescence consists of a rose-red scape with 3 to 6 narrow, silvery branches, the whole extending over a foot. Native to Veracruz, Mexico where it grows as an epiphyte in small trees under semi-arid conditions. Easy to cultivate.

A fine example of the variable divaricata group of latifolias. Common to southern Ecuador, it is found mostly in colonies on the ground in treeless desert areas. The plants form dense mats of hard, reflective silvery leaves, their tall shiny orange spikes glistening in the full sun. In cultivation, where conditions are relatively much less stressful, they grow somewhat larger than in their native habitats, reaching about 18 inches tall. Very slow growing.

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 (fasciculata x ionantha) made by the late Luis Ariza, well known bromeliad hybridist from the Dominican Republic. This same cross is also known as nidus and ’Fortin Jalapa’ as it has both been crossed by others and is often found occurring naturally wherever both parent species live together. This one was allegedly made with one of the small growing clones of fasciculata native to the D.R.