With the weather turned nippy outside and the holidays bearing down, most of us turn from the garden to indoor decorating this time of year. Adding indoor plants to the decor not only elevates our health and spirit, but can also be quite stylish. If you don’t feel like messing with potting soil as you’re getting your holiday decor assembled, there are certain plants that only need a pretty vessel in which to be displayed.
Tillansias, often simply called air plants, don’t root into ground soil in their natural habitat; rather, they attached themselves to tree branches or rocks and absorb water and nutrients from the air and surrounding leaf litter. This means you don’t need to worry about potting soil with these beautiful specimens. They can simply be nestled into any vessel of your choice, be it a hanging terrarium, glass vase or even your favorite shell. Partner them with mosses, decorative glass or other found objects for some serious botanical styling. Tillandsia will bloom annually and when they do are quite showy.
When it comes to caring for your air plant, remember that they are naturally accustomed to high levels of humidity and bright light. In our dry homes, your tillandsia will need to take a soaking bath for a couple of hours once every couple of weeks. Boil a bowl of water and let it cool, or fill a bowl with water and leave it out for 24 hours in a sunny location so that it can naturally de-chlorinate. Then simply dunk your tillansia in the”bath”. Leave it there for a couple of hours so it can absorb the water. If your tillandisa seem to be trying out anyway, then dunk them once per week. Add a pinch of orchid fertilizer to the water once every 2-months to keep your air plants thriving and beautiful. Remove from the water bath and allow to dry completely on a towel. Then simply place back into its vessel. If you’ve wedged your air plants into containers from which they are difficult to remove, then mist them once per week with your de-chlorinated water.
