A slice of EXOTIC glamour
Add a taste of the tropics to your plot... with the pineapple family of plants
HIS name is unlikely to ring any bells today but Henry Telende was the talk of Britain in the early 18th Century. As head gardener to a wealthy merchant with a swanky property on the outskirts of London, he became the first person in this country to produce a crop of pineapples from scratch.
This trailblazer’s feat sparked a national craze in growing this tropical fruit. It was an expensive, complicated and time-consuming business. In glasshouses kept at a constant 26C, pot-grown plants were plunged into ‘hot beds’ of manure and tanner’s bark. After three years of daily attention, fruit were ready to harvest.
Pineapples are the best-known member of a family of plants known collectively as bromeliads. Largely originating from South America, most are much easier to grow than the aforementioned edible exotic, with tough species suitable for growing outdoors and tender ones that make excellent houseplants.
Bromeliads broadly fall into two main camps – epiphytic and terrestrial. Epiphytes cling to the branches or trunks of trees in the wild, taking water and nutrients from the air, with scales on their leaves called trichomes. Terrestrial bromeliads use their roots to anchor themselves to the ground.
Despite their preferences, bromeliads are adaptable plants and many are capable of growing as both epiphytes or terrestrials. As a result, most plants are offered for sale in pots – shallowrooted epiphytes are perfectly happy in containers, as long as the soil is extremely free-draining.
The group are named in honour of Olaus Bromel, a 17th Century Swedish botanist. Most form a rosette of leaves that vary enormously in size, colour and appearance, with foliage that ranges from ultra thin to very broad. Over time, some plants spread to form fairly substantial clumps.
Their flowers are equally diverse. Some are carried on towering stems, while others are held in tight clusters, deep inside the centre of rosettes. On some species, the flowers emanate from showy flattened flower spikes – the sword-shaped structures are brightly coloured and last for months on end. Among the best bromeliads to raise indoors are the many varieties of aechmea, guzmania and tillandsia. My favourites are vrieseas, with their striking rosettes and dazzling blooms. Vriesea ‘Era’ is a cracker, thanks to its green and yellow-banded leaves, and 2ft tall, orange-red flower spikes. Indoor bromeliads are best placed in a light position but not in direct sun. Water regularly, allowing compost to almost dry out before giving more – if growing aechmeas, fill up the urn-like rosette with fresh water every month. As many of them come from rainforests, mist leaves often to raise humidity levels. A number of terrestrial bromeliads are much tougher, making them ideal for growing outdoors. Several types of fascicularia, puya, billbergia and others can tolerate a cold snap down to about -5C for short periods. Over winter, insulate with horticultural fleece and protect from excessive rainfall with an overhead cover.
Plants tend to prefer well-drained soil and are suitable for sun or semi-shade, depending on the species. They look best when grown alongside other hardy tropical plants and, in my garden, a 3ft wide clump of Fascicularia bicolour rubs shoulders with daylilies and crocosmias in front of a Chusan palm.
As an alternative, hardy bromeliads make great container specimens. Raise plants in 12-18in containers, filled with soil-based John Innes No2 compost.
Water plants regularly over summer, reducing the frequency over winter. When plants fill their allotted space, move into slightly bigger pots or divide rosettes.