YORKTON - The next meeting of the Yorkton and District Horticultural Society will be on Wednesday, May 21 at 7:00 PM at the Yorkton Public Library. Everyone is welcome!
Our guest speaker at the meeting will be talking about “Air Plants and Succulents”. You might be thinking, air plants, what are they? Here’s a brief review, but come to the meeting and find out more!
The official name of air plants is tillandsia, a member of the bromeliad family. The interesting thing about them is that they are epiphytes , like orchids and some mosses and ferns, and they do not need soil to survive. They live on other plants, and survive by the moisture that they can pull out of the air.
Their roots are meant to be what holds them in place, not draw in water or nutrients like other plants. And Mother Nature knows how to help plants survive: the majority of tillandsia are shaped in a special way, with leaves coming out from a centre rosette. Guess why? The construction of the plant in this way is designed for it to catch water or moisture.
Even the colour of the plant is significant. They are beautiful, and come in a rainbow of colours like yellow, pink, purple and red. Guess why? These colours attract pollinators!
There are various types of tillandsia; some are very delicate and airy, like fine grass. Other types have fleshier leaves. Class, why is that? Because if the plant lives in a dryer or more drought-prone area, the leaves will be thicker to hold some water for the plant, in a similar way to succulents.
How do we take care of them at home? They certainly are an interesting addition to our plant collections! They like sun to part sun conditions, bright light but not direct sun; and because their root systems are so small that they don’t need a lot of water all at once.
But it is fascinating to learn about how we care for them. They don’t need to be planted in soil, but when it is time to water them, we give them a mini-bath! I read that we should put the plant in a container with enough water to cover the plant, and leave it there for about thirty minutes. After that, we remove it from the water, shake off the excess, and tip it upside down and let it “drain” to prevent the leaves from starting to rot. Then we can put the plant back into it’s home container.
So if we don’t plant them in soil, what kind of container do we use for air plants? This gives us a chance to be creative gardeners; we can anchor them in a crook of a branch that we have brought indoors, or among a small display of rocks or colored gravel in a small container, or in a seashell. If you have a terrarium, they would like that setting, too.
And one more thing: air plants only bloom once in their lives and then they die. But we can still enjoy them because they will send out baby air plants called pups, and once these little pups are about half the size of the mama plant, we can take them off the original plant and have a brand new air plant.
Who says there isn’t always something new to learn about gardening? This might be your new plant of the season, something exciting to try. And remember our mantra: try at least one new plant this gardening season! At least one! Visit the Yorkton Hort society at www.yorktonhort.ca. Thank you to our friends at YTW and have a great week!
