Weekly Photo Challenge : Vibrant…

I mentioned in my last post how Bromeliads are the most versatile and easy care plants in my garden (See that post here)

How appropriate that Jen should choose “vibrant” as her WP theme for this week, because what I didn’t show about the bromeliad in my last post is how diverse and vibrant the flowers are.

Not many are flowering at the moment in mid summer as they are, mainly, a spring-flowering plant. So I searched through the archives to find some of the vibrant images I have of the Bromeliad in glorious flower.

Also they carry these amazing and diverse forms of flowers for many weeks, sometimes months. When they do eventually fade the Bromeliad will slowly die, but not before it has produced a number of pups (small replicas of itself) around the base of the plant to carry on the easy care tradition.

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The most abundant, versatile and easy care plant in my garden…

Pride of place goes to the Bromeliad.

From the year 2000 to 2010 this area was in the grip of a terrible drought. Ever increasing water restrictions were put in place. No sprinklers allowed in the garden, only hand-held hoses every second day from 4pm to 7pm. Then even that small consideration was cut off. Only watering cans allowed to be used. The local dams were down to below 10% of capacity.

I was in despair for my garden. Plants were wilting and dying. But one plant thrived in these conditions. It became the plant of the decade and as other plants died I replaced them with this versatile survivor. Now the Bromeliad is everywhere in my garden.

It is an attractive and tidy edging plant.

Attached in the fork of a Frangipani tree. It colonised it, needing no soil to grow in.

Attached to the fork of a Frangipani tree.

Filling in bare spaces.

Thriving in full sun against a north facing wall.

Surrounding the fish and lily ponds.

Used as a feature plant in a pot.

Even in a dark corner under trees.

Or scrambling up trees.

With so many different colours, shapes and sizes the Bromeliad will happily fit into any space.

All it requires, every now and again, is a small amount of water dribbled into the centre cup.

And then it will reward you with a variety of unusual flowers.

The drought broke in 2010 with torrential floods and it kept raining through 2011 and 2013 with more floods. As you can see the garden is still colonised with broms. They are an excellent choice for easy care and as we travelled these amazing plants just looked after themselves.