Bromeliaceous

Last fall I brought home a bromeliad plant from the mall.  I knew it would eventually die, but before it did it would send up the beginnings of new plants ("pups") which I could repot.

The mother plant lasted longer than I thought it would, though, and three new shoots appeared at the base.  Although the leaves got quite floppy they stayed green until a couple of weeks ago.  I finally cut them off, and waited for a day when I had time to deal with the rest of the project.

I took the pot outside and did my work in the grass so I wouldn't have to clean up any mess.  Here's a 'before' picture:

You can see two of the three new shoots

 First I turned the pot upside down and dumped the plant out. The shoots were pretty small, but I went ahead with my project anyway.  I used a steak knife to cut the pups away from the dead mother plant, leaving a bit of a stem on the new pup.

pups repotted and fertilized

I put all three pups in the same pot. (If they all end up living I'll deal with the crowding later.) The last step was to give the pot a good soaking of fertilizer before I brought it back in and set it on the window seat in the kitchen where it will get the morning sun.

It would be awesome if I got new plants from this, but I don't have high hopes.   As I said in my original post, "The plant will either thrive, or it can go in the compost pile"

Five years ago today: New Thing #178--It's Only Rock and Roll