# is Tillandsia okay for darts?



## Gaz_dbd (Apr 30, 2009)

i bought it from asda today, it was like £1.87 so i thought it would be cool

if not its a nice house plant


----------



## Morgan Freeman (Jan 14, 2009)

What Tilandsia is it?


----------



## Gaz_dbd (Apr 30, 2009)

tillandsia cyanea


----------



## Morgan Freeman (Jan 14, 2009)

Yep, try and keep it a little drier if you can.


----------



## Spikebrit (Oct 23, 2006)

Yep T.cyanea is absolutely fine. In fact most tillandsia are completely fine.


----------



## Wolfenrook (Jul 2, 2010)

Spikebrit said:


> Yep T.cyanea is absolutely fine. In fact most tillandsia are completely fine.


With the exception of the dusty looking ones remember.  Basically because the 'dust' is an evolutionary response to arrid habitats, which is about as opposite to what you find in a dart frog viv.

A few tips though: 1 Mount it HIGH in the viv, the closer you can to a top vent the better. 2 Make sure it can dry out completely between mistings. 3. Make sure the base doesn't stay wet (DON'T poke it into holes, wrap it in moss etc), a wet base is a rotting base in my experience with tillies.

Here you go, some ides as to siting, have a game of spot the tilly. 



















NONE of them are glued/siliconed in place, one is wedged in a gap (not a hole) in wood, 1 is just resting on a wide liana and the last one is held onto a large piece of wood by a marcgravia.

Ade


----------



## Spikebrit (Oct 23, 2006)

Wolfenrook said:


> With the exception of the dusty looking ones remember.  Basically because the 'dust' is an evolutionary response to arrid habitats, which is about as opposite to what you find in a dart frog viv.
> 
> A few tips though: 1 Mount it HIGH in the viv, the closer you can to a top vent the better. 2 Make sure it can dry out completely between mistings. 3. Make sure the base doesn't stay wet (DON'T poke it into holes, wrap it in moss etc), a wet base is a rotting base in my experience with tillies.
> 
> ...


Yep there are quite a few arid tillsandia, however, there are lots of humid lovers as well, as most of my vivs use tillies (they look brill imo). i think they are a great little plants. 

But yep, Ade is right, the base stays dry, although most shops sell T.cyanea in pots the soil can be removed and it can be mounted around the viv. it's important to let these dry between misting and to not let the base sit in water as they will rot. 

jay


----------



## Wolfenrook (Jul 2, 2010)

Mine all came from Key Essentials, so no soil or pots. They're the ones that usually supply places like garden centers, super markets etc. 

Don't froget to rinse it off (then let it air dry of course) before you use it though. Coming from a supermarket odds are it DOES have chemical residues on it from sprays etc.

Ade


----------



## Spikebrit (Oct 23, 2006)

Wolfenrook said:


> Mine all came from Key Essentials, so no soil or pots. They're the ones that usually supply places like garden centers, super markets etc.
> 
> Don't froget to rinse it off (then let it air dry of course) before you use it though. Coming from a supermarket odds are it DOES have chemical residues on it from sprays etc.
> 
> Ade


I always find the key essentail ones are often poor quality, all mine come from gill at Just Airplants now. 

here is picture of an anole viv I did completely with air plants. it's changed a bit now as i have added more climbers (ficuss which covers the sides) but at the time i wanted to see what i could do with mainly tillies. its also for anoles and not frogs so the layout is completely different. i've not done a frog one with only tillies, think that might be the next challenge. . 










jay


----------



## Wolfenrook (Jul 2, 2010)

Mine came and were excellent quality. The Key Essentials website is very easy to use as well, where the Just Airplants one is, to be blunt, a flippin mess of a site. lol

It was just a matter of time though before you plugged "Gill at Just Airplants". What took you so long? :Na_Na_Na_Na:

Ade


----------



## Spikebrit (Oct 23, 2006)

Wolfenrook said:


> Mine came and were excellent quality. The Key Essentials website is very easy to use as well, where the Just Airplants one is, to be blunt, a flippin mess of a site. lol
> 
> It was just a matter of time though before you plugged "Gill at Just Airplants". What took you so long? :Na_Na_Na_Na:
> 
> Ade


never ordered from the key essential website, only had their stuff from shops and wasn't overly impressed by it. But that could be the shop more then them. 

I was being good. :Na_Na_Na_Na:. But it had to come eventually lol.

Jay


----------



## Wolfenrook (Jul 2, 2010)

Aye, some shops seem to be able to kill pebbles. lol In their defense, the tillys we grew outside of vivs were killed by our central heating with the very first winter. A crying shame.

Actually, given as this time the discussion is actually about air plants, I'll let you of for the plug. Plus, I kinda started it when I mentioned Key Essentials. lol My ONLY reason for not using JA was the website if I am honest. I looked there before I went to KE. For one thing, I like to be able to tell if what I am ordering is in stock. The other problem was back then the species list was showing it was over multiple pages, but I could only ever get one page up, whatever browser I used. Call me shallow, but for me the presentation of the website is very important when I am new to a company.

Oh and hopefully Gaz doesn't mind us going so off topic, given we already answered his original question. 

Ade


----------



## Spikebrit (Oct 23, 2006)

Wolfenrook said:


> Aye, some shops seem to be able to kill pebbles. lol In their defense, the tillys we grew outside of vivs were killed by our central heating with the very first winter. A crying shame.
> 
> Actually, given as this time the discussion is actually about air plants, I'll let you of for the plug. Plus, I kinda started it when I mentioned Key Essentials. lol My ONLY reason for not using JA was the website if I am honest. I looked there before I went to KE. For one thing, I like to be able to tell if what I am ordering is in stock. The other problem was back then the species list was showing it was over multiple pages, but I could only ever get one page up, whatever browser I used. Call me shallow, but for me the presentation of the website is very important when I am new to a company.
> 
> ...


You know you are going to have to stop agreeing with me or people are going to start talking lol

The website has improved a lot recently. I've never had a problem with plants not being in stock, i beleive everything lists is in stock unless there has been a mass order a few hours previously - though im not sure now you mention it. When out of stock im sure there is usually a comment on the item stating this in my experience. 

I know what you mean about not ordering from certain websites as i am the same and am really picky, if it's not well layed out i tend to avoid it. Though I've never really had a problem with gill's site in all honesty. But i do recomend giving gill a chance if you order again. it's always worth just dropping her an email as well and talking things through with her as she may be able to suggest other suitable plants etc. Any way enougth of the plug lol.


----------



## Ron Magpie (Oct 11, 2009)

Spikebrit said:


> *You know you are going to have to stop agreeing with me or people are going to start talking lol*
> 
> The website has improved a lot recently. I've never had a problem with plants not being in stock, i beleive everything lists is in stock unless there has been a mass order a few hours previously - though im not sure now you mention it. When out of stock im sure there is usually a comment on the item stating this in my experience.
> 
> I know what you mean about not ordering from certain websites as i am the same and am really picky, if it's not well layed out i tend to avoid it. Though I've never really had a problem with gill's site in all honesty. But i do recomend giving gill a chance if you order again. it's always worth just dropping her an email as well and talking things through with her as she may be able to suggest other suitable plants etc. Any way enougth of the plug lol.


We already are...:whistling2:

Just had a result; popped into a florists in Isilington Angel and found a clump of Spanish moss hanging up. They gave it to me for free as it seems pretty much dead, but I'll give it a soak and see. If any of it is salvagable, I'll try it in the golden treefrog tank, otherwise I'll use it for decoration in one of the dryer tanks- plated lizard or corn snake.


----------



## Spikebrit (Oct 23, 2006)

Ron Magpie said:


> We already are...:whistling2:
> 
> Just had a result; popped into a florists in Isilington Angel and found a clump of Spanish moss hanging up. They gave it to me for free as it seems pretty much dead, but I'll give it a soak and see. If any of it is salvagable, I'll try it in the golden treefrog tank, otherwise I'll use it for decoration in one of the dryer tanks- plated lizard or corn snake.


Soak it in rainwater, it's pretty much indestructible unless you place it too close to a bulb and it dries out to quickly, not that i have done this :blush: twice.


----------



## Gaz_dbd (Apr 30, 2009)

well im glad to know i can use it, ill try to fix it somewhere high

i dont mind going off topic as its good to find out other suppliers and peoples opinions on them

being fairly new to using live plants i have only had experience from richie and dartfrog so it good to know some of the others out there


----------



## Wolfenrook (Jul 2, 2010)

Richie's plants rock! Him and Bert Westerman are the 2 sources I settled on, mostly Richie now as shipping is a LOT less for the same good plants.

Word is Richie will have some surprises on his table come frog day, he's keeping stum though. lol

Oh and Ron, it's the Alpine green hair isn't it? lol Don't believe me that my hair is Alpine green? Come to frog day, see for yourself. lmao

Ade


----------



## Morgan Freeman (Jan 14, 2009)

Yeah Richie's plants are bang on. Glad there's another UK supplier.

With Tillandsia I've heard that watering with hard water can be damaging, the minerals clog up something or other in the plant.


----------



## Wolfenrook (Jul 2, 2010)

Pass, but sounds credible. I use RO with BSP vit drops added, so not at all hard.

Ade


----------



## Ron Magpie (Oct 11, 2009)

I didn't have any rainwater handy, so I scooped up a jugfull from the turtle tank- lots of nutrients, anyway!:lol2: Most of it is definitely dead, but there are a couple of sprigs that look promising this morning...


----------



## justairplants (Mar 2, 2010)

Ron Magpie said:


> I didn't have any rainwater handy, so I scooped up a jugfull from the turtle tank- lots of nutrients, anyway!:lol2: Most of it is definitely dead, but there are a couple of sprigs that look promising this morning...


If any strands are green the plant should be viable so discard any that remained brown when the clump was wet - the strands do not to be long to grow again - Spanish Moss is made up of multiple plants that chain link together to form long strands. It is a relatively rapid grower so even a strand of a couple of plants on it will expand into a clump.

HTH
Gill


----------



## Ron Magpie (Oct 11, 2009)

justairplants said:


> If any strands are green the plant should be viable so discard any that remained brown when the clump was wet - the strands do not to be long to grow again - Spanish Moss is made up of multiple plants that chain link together to form long strands. It is a relatively rapid grower so even a strand of a couple of plants on it will expand into a clump.
> 
> HTH
> Gill


Thanks, Gill- I should have grabbed some at your stand at Detling, but at least this was a freeby.


----------



## justairplants (Mar 2, 2010)

Wolfenrook said:


> Aye, some shops seem to be able to kill pebbles. lol In their defense, the tillys we grew outside of vivs were killed by our central heating with the very first winter. A crying shame.
> 
> Actually, given as this time the discussion is actually about air plants, I'll let you of for the plug. Plus, I kinda started it when I mentioned Key Essentials. lol My ONLY reason for not using JA was the website if I am honest. I looked there before I went to KE. For one thing, I like to be able to tell if what I am ordering is in stock. The other problem was back then the species list was showing it was over multiple pages, but I could only ever get one page up, whatever browser I used. Call me shallow, but for me the presentation of the website is very important when I am new to a company.
> 
> ...


Hi Ade, 
I take on board you comments about our website. Our available plants catalogue is updated dynamically when we have stock - as Jay mentioned, we also will mark plants as available to order only. In a nutshell, if it is on our website it is in stock.

My main criticism of the system in place at the moment is that we actually do not currently have all of our plants listed on there - a job for me over the coming weeks now our main Show Season is over. If, on the rare occassions, our available stock of listed plants is purchased in large quantities simultaneously, resulting in us not instantly being able to ship your order we currently have a lead time of approximately 1-2 weeks which in the greater scheme of things has never been an issue with our customers - our published lead time is 3 weeks. As a rule we will always aim to inform you if there is likely to be a delay in shipping your plants - the main factors usually being beyond our control - such as the weather conditions that might result in you receiving damaged plants.

Over the coming weeks there will be a number of changes and updates made to the website to improve the experience for our customers - however, it is unlikely that having dynamic stock levels will be happening in the near future but it is something we are certainly going to implement at some point. For now, if it is listed, we've got it - if not, we will try and source it for you.

Our range of foliage plants should be appearing on-line in the very near future, along with some plant selections put together for specific vivarium sizes. 

As ever, we are always available to give help and advice on creating planted habitats via email, and will be posting content on the website for those looking for general information and tips.

Feedback, is always important to us, as this allows us to understand our customer's needs.

All the best
Gill
Just Airplants
Email: [email protected]


----------



## justairplants (Mar 2, 2010)

Wolfenrook said:


> With the exception of the dusty looking ones remember.  Basically because the 'dust' is an evolutionary response to arrid habitats, which is about as opposite to what you find in a dart frog viv.
> 
> A few tips though: 1 Mount it HIGH in the viv, the closer you can to a top vent the better. 2 Make sure it can dry out completely between mistings. 3. Make sure the base doesn't stay wet (DON'T poke it into holes, wrap it in moss etc), a wet base is a rotting base in my experience with tillies.
> 
> ...


A few more pointers/comments on Tillys...

Tillandsia cyanea is a "rainforest/tank-type" plant so is well suited to a tropical vivarium habitat. It is one of the Tillandsia species that can be grown successfully either as a pot plant or an epiphyte. If grown as a pot plant (or in the substrate) the key is to ensure that it is not sitting in water-logged soil. When grown as an epiphyte, it is one of the few Tilly species that benefits from having moss wrapped around the root system.

The majority of Tillandsia that you will find at Garden Centres are those that grow naturally in an arid environment. The "dusty" look is down to the number of trichomes (filaments) on the leaves which are there to maximise the uptake of water when available. As a general rule, the more silver/grey or furry the plant is, the drier its natural habitat is. The same is true of many of the stiff leaved species. These are not really suitable for high humidity habitats - they'll last for a while and then just fall apart through rot. You would be much better off using some of the smaller Bromeliads - a bit more expensive to buy initially but they will last.

Tropical Tillandsia tend to be those with softer, green leaves - many of these are "tank type" plants like other Bromeliads and are relatively rare in cultivation - I have a few in my collection but wouldn't recommend them for planting in vivs mainly because of the price and rarity.

If you are mounting Tillandsia in a viv it is best to keep it at least 6" away from heat/light sources, and angle it downwards so water flows away from the centre of the plant. Avoid glue if at all possible as this restricts the air flow around the base of the plant which will rot it. Xeric (arid) Tillandsia will almost certainly rot, as mentioned by Ade, if the base is permanently wet.

Poking the plant into holes can be an issue if this leads to restricted air-circulation, which in turn leads to rot. It is much better to use the roots of the plant to attach it as would happen in nature. Sadly, most of those found in Garden Centres have had their roots removed for asthetic reasons although they should grow back over time. 

I agree with Ade, that the problem with Garden Centre Tillandsia is more down to the lack of appropriate care in the shop than the quality of the plants originally supplied. 

Gill


----------



## justairplants (Mar 2, 2010)

Ron Magpie said:


> Thanks, Gill- I should have grabbed some at your stand at Detling, but at least this was a freeby.


You should have introduced yourself :bash: Don't think I was sleeping at the Autumn Show - just the spring one

Gill


----------



## Gaz_dbd (Apr 30, 2009)

Thanks for the advice on the till Gill

it looks perfect, no damage or or even bruising to the leaves.

i couldn't blieve it was reduced, wish i bought more now

would you recomend (to prevent the soil around it being too damp) to put it in a tall planter made from a section of cork tube, then maybe even putting some lecca in the tube (making sure no frogs can get to it) to aid in drainage?


----------



## justairplants (Mar 2, 2010)

Gaz_dbd said:


> Thanks for the advice on the till Gill
> 
> it looks perfect, no damage or or even bruising to the leaves.
> 
> ...


In a viv I would probably grow it epiphytically (on a branch/perch) with some moss around the base to prevent the roots from totally drying out. When we pot our cyaneas and Broms we use a mix that is heavily biased towards bark or orchid bark. This is fast draining and ideal for growing this type of plant. 

It would have been reduced because the flower will not last much longer or the shop wished to get rid of it just before this happens. When the Pink Quill dries up snip it off if you find it unsightly. The next stage is that the plant will offset (produce new plants known as pups) - for a couple of years or so it should look like a healthy, lush, green foliage plant. Once the pups reach maturity they will produce the Pink Quill bract, which in turn produces blue flowers from the edge. The cycle will then continue until you have a reasonable sized clump that will send up multiple flowers on an annual basis. 

Cheers
Gill


----------

