How to Grow Aechmeas Successfully
Aechmeas are among the most beautiful of all bromeliads. Large, colorful blooms rise above the urn-shaped rosette of leaves and last for a long time. Hardy plants, second only to the billbergias, they will adapt to most household conditions and tolerate neglect.
Culture: Aechmea
Temperature: Average to warm (60-85°F, 16-30°C) all year; tolerates as cool as 40°F, 5°C for short periods.
Light: Moderate to bright light, some tolerate intermittent full sunlight. Shaded plants grow with elongated leaves.
Water: Keep water in cup at all times. Keep the potting medium of stiff leaved specimens on the dry side-water about once or at most twice weekly. Water most succulent varieties more often. Mist leaves every few days.
Fertilizer: Apply liquid fertilizer at half the recommended strength to cup of rosette and to potting medium once monthly.
Potting Medium: Mixture of one part Canadian peatandonepartperlitefora porous, slightly acid combination.
Additional Growing Information: All aechmeas give offshoots readily, sometimes before flowering and adapt readily to containers though they can be grown as epiphytes on wood. Most are easily grown from seed to flowering in 2-3 years. Used for specimen plants for low table, shelf, or floor. Grow as a foliage plant between flowerings.