Changes

Puyas and pitcairnias are generally found in collections of bromeliads and are usually grown in moist tropical houses. The native home of the puyas is on the steep stony slopes of the Cordilleras at high altitudes with little other vegetation for company except some species of cereus. This would indicate that drier and cooler conditions, or such as are given cacti and succulents, would suit them best, yet they thrive equally well in the tropical house. Indeed, the writer has found most of the family Bromeliaceae very accommodating not only to temperature and moisture conditions, but to soils and methods of growing them; for example many of the tillandsias may be grown on blocks of wood as epiphytes, yet they do equally well grown in pots. But what perhaps is more remarkable is the fact that several of the stronger-growing bromeliads appear to grow equally well either in a strong loamy mixture, or a mixture of chopped fern root and charcoal. The writer has pineapples growing in both mixtures with equal success. But the most rational treatment is to give all the bromeliads conditions and soil similar to the environment in which they are found in their native habitat, yet according to the experience of the writer few plants possess such remarkable adaptability to changed conditions as do these plants. (E.J. Canning.)

Puyas and pitcairnias are generally found in collections of bromeliads and are usually grown in moist tropical houses. The native home of the puyas is on the steep stony slopes of the Cordilleras at high altitudes with little other vegetation for company except some species of cereus. This would indicate that drier and cooler conditions, or such as are given cacti and succulents, would suit them best, yet they thrive equally well in the tropical house. Indeed, the writer has found most of the family Bromeliaceae very accommodating not only to temperature and moisture conditions, but to soils and methods of growing them; for example many of the tillandsias may be grown on blocks of wood as epiphytes, yet they do equally well grown in pots. But what perhaps is more remarkable is the fact that several of the stronger-growing bromeliads appear to grow equally well either in a strong loamy mixture, or a mixture of chopped fern root and charcoal. The writer has pineapples growing in both mixtures with equal success. But the most rational treatment is to give all the bromeliads conditions and soil similar to the environment in which they are found in their native habitat, yet according to the experience of the writer few plants possess such remarkable adaptability to changed conditions as do these plants. (E.J. Canning.)

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