Plant care: Air plants aka tillandsia

By ngoc nguyen

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Air plants are one of my favourite type of plants to gift as they are fairly low maintenance plants and even the most inexperienced plant parent can learn to care for them.

The biggest misconception about air plants is that they don’t need anything to grow. Since they look fake, people tend to forget about them which eventually results in them turning yellow/brown, drying up, and then dying. Although air plants do not need soil, they still need sun and water to grow.

In terms of sunlight, I find my plants typically thrive under bright indirect sunlight. Giving your plant enough light is the number one priority. Depending on how much sun and how humid your home is, your watering schedule will vary.

Watering

It’s best to use bottled water, rain water, filtered water or tap water that has been left out for the chlorine to evaporate. The biggest thing to remember when watering is that you don’t want the water to sit in the bulb part of the plant for too long as it can cause it to rot. When watering, I like to submerge my whole air plant under water for about 30 minutes once a week. After 30 mins, take it out of the water, shake off what you can and sit it upside down on a towel for all the water to drip out. Once your plant is completely dry, you can put it back in it’s holder.

Depending on how much sun and how dry your home is, you’ll want to mist your plant in between waterings. Try to mist the leaves a good amount so they change in colour. You’ll see the leaves become a darker green when they are moist and taking in water.

If your home is fairly humid or if you have a humidifier running, then you may want to wait 1.5 weeks between soaking.

If your looking for a cute way to display your air plants, we have several fun options.

 

Ombre skull concrete air plant holder Salvaged wood air plant holder

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