Temperature and Humidity
Keep your tillandsia in a spot with good air circulation and where temperatures are consistently between 50 and 85°F.
Sky plants like a little bit of humidity but a once or twice weekly spritz is enough to provide this.
Fertilizing
Strictly speaking, you don’t need to fertilize your sky plants, but they will grow better and be more likely to bloom and put out offsets if you give them some food.
Choose a Tillandsia-specific food that is formulated with the right balance of nutrients to encourage healthy growth in epiphytes.
Tilly Boost is a favorite of hobbyists and experts alike.
Tilly Boost
You can find it available from the CTS Air Plants Store via Amazon in four-ounce packs. Follow the instructions on the packet for application timing and frequency.
Cultivars to Select
Most T. ionantha cultivars are about the same size and shape as the species, and there are a number to choose from.
Here are a selection of my favorites:
Druid
Instead of a red pigmentation on the mature leaves, ‘Druid’ takes on an orange-yellow hue, instead.
The flower is pristine white with yellow stamens.
This cultivar was first identified by botanist Drew Schultz in Vera Cruz, Mexico, in 1971.
When it turned out to bloom in white and yellow rather than purple, he knew he had something special on his hands and named it ‘Druid’ after his own name.
Fuego
If you need to brush up on your Spanish, “fuego” means fire, and burn this sky plant does.
The upper leaves can be almost entirely red, and especially when contrasted with the purple blossom, it looks like you’re staring into the dancing flames of a fire.
If you like the red of sky plants but want more, more, more, ‘Fuego’ is the most blazing option of them all.
Guatemala
Can we all take a trip to ‘Guatemala?’ This adorable little cultivar is like having a Guatemalan sunset right in your house.
It has green, pink, and red leaves with striking purple and yellow flowers.
This cultivar needs a good amount of light to produce this incredible color, so be sure to provide plenty of bright, indirect light for several hours per day.
Rubra
‘Rubra’ aka T. ionantha var. rubra, sometimes just called red sky plant, grows a bit taller and has fewer trichomes than the species.
There are actually two forms of this type, the soft one and the hard one.
The soft tends to have a wider growth habit thanks to its pliable leaves, while the hard form is more upright as it has stiff leaves.
Vanhyningii
T. ionantha var. vanhyningii has the thickest leaves of any sky plant. When in bloom, that chunky, spiraling foliage that grows in a star shape turns pale red.
It was first described in 1957 by botanist Mulford B. Foster, who was well-known for identifying and collecting various Tillandsia species.
Part of what sets it apart, beyond the thick leaves, is its cascading growth habit, with pups growing all along the curving stem.
Zebrina
Originally called T. ionantha var. zebrina, this one was first described in 1975 when Bert Foster discovered the unusual specimen in Guatemala.
It appears to have stripes on the foliage thanks to bands of trichomes.
The upper leaves turn blush red when the blooming period starts, followed by purple and yellow flowers.
There’s a lot of debate among botanists as to whether to classify this sky plant as its own species or reclassify it as a form rather than a variety.
Wherever it ends up, it’s an extremely interesting option.
Propagation
Most Tillandsia species put out what are called offsets or pups that can be gently separated from the parent and grown independently.
These form after the plant has flowered, before the parent dies.
Wait until the new growth is about half the size of the parent and then gently tease them apart. That’s it!
Managing Pests and Disease
Don’t lose sleep about pests and diseases. They’re not super common in air plants.
