I visited the Singapore Garden Festival 2016 last month. I went on two separate days and bought a few new tillandsias to add to my growing air plant garden at home. There are a few stores selling air plants but they seem to sell similar varieties.
First are the five Tillandsia ionantha Druid I bought from two stalls. I always wanted one as I read that instead of the leaves turning red when it blooms, the leaves are yellow instead. The flower is white instead purple like the usual ionantha varieties.
I bought the adult ones first. Then I came across these cute little pups at another stall and bought them before I realised they were also T. ionantha Druid. All of them will go on my ionantha rack.
The adult Druids had bloomed and you could see the dried flower stalks. Ideally, I prefer to get some ones that have not bloomed yet as most air plants only bloomed once in their lifetimes. However, the store where I saw these are only selling bloomed plants.
One of the adult T. ionantha Druid already has pups. I was amazed when I saw that it had four pups forming. The seller must have fed it fertiliser while it was growing to get so many pups at the same time.
I find the baby Druids are so cute and they are surprisingly soft to touch, almost like velvet. Love love love ❤
The three above air plants had no id. I asked the person manning the stall but he was not the owner so he did not know what are their names.
A member on the Singapore Tillandsia forum said that the two of them are likely Tillandsia tricolor var. melanocrater. These are plants with stiff, smooth leaves, unlike other Tillandsia species which have trichomes covering the leaf surfaces. The base of the leaves are a dark colour, almost purple.
I have no idea what is the name of this plant. It looks like a pup and I’m going to wait for it to grow up before attempting to identify it. I love the fat, squat shape, so cute!
I almost forgot about the Tillandisa intermedia. It is still a pup but as the leaves get longer, they will grow curvy, giving the plant a whimsical shape. I’ve read that it grows upside down so that’s how I will hang it.
Air Garden Blog 