Beautiful bromeliads

One of the few plant species that I seem to be able to grow successfully in Kommetjie is the bromeliad. Our soil is more like white sand, as this was once part of the seabed, and is oily in texture, which means that any watering is pretty ineffective unless you stand there for half a day. It justs runs off the surface in the nearest downhill direction, usually the neighbour's garden, and joins the 30 years of compost and fertilizer I have dug in - there is no point in doing this, as it works its way back to the surface as if the sand is trying to rid itself of alien vegetation.

Bromeliads are in the main air plants, not really needing a root system for sustenance, and like a little watering in the middle where the leaf growth occurs, so this is ideal for soil that doesn't hold water. Most bromeliads have razor sharp serrations along the leaves, and any kind of gardening in that area should be undertaken with chainmail up to the elbows. The photo below demonstrates the extent of my allergy to these serrations. This is an arm!

Snails are drawn like magnets to these damp hollows where the new young leaves shoot and probably account for lack of flowering as they eat the buds, and therefore it is a hazard of growing bromeliads that you have to remove the snails all the time if you don't like to use snail bait. Unfortunately the porcupine seems to have taken a fancy to biting at the base of these plants, and can be very destructive while not getting a decent meal.

The many varieties (over 1 000) can provide flowering all year round and they are spectacular in their form and colour spectrum. They are very effective when placed in tree branches or grown in metal sculpture bases, in fact in any place that needs to be filled. The only requisite is light to deep shade. Sunlight can fade the leaves and inhibit flowering. These are a few of these remarkable flowers - probably bracts and the flowers are tiny - but I will just call them flowers!