PlantFiles: Imperial Bromeliad
Vriesea imperialis

im from philippines living in one of the coldest part of the contry.
I have this in my garden. they do best in bright but filtered sun. mine already produced 5 pups, by the way the easiest way to propagate this plant is to get the pups that grows just beside the mother plant and planting them in a pots of fern chips. the larger the pot, the bigger it will get. the best fertilizer to use is a weak solution of fish emulsion.

This is a magnificent giant bromeliad, reaching up to 1,2m tall, but can grow up to 2m when blooming, It has large leaves, with a dark green superior page, and a purple inferior page. The spineless leaves form a rosette that acumulates water. It´s not only important ecologically, but it´s also necessary to keep it constantly full of water. It´s one of the largest bromeliads of the world, losing to species of the Andine genus Puya and maybe a very few isolated others from other genera (though I doubt they can grow that tall).

The inflorescence is huge for a bromeliad. White flowers protected by large bracts. The color of the bracts may vary from purple to dark green. The flowers atract a profusion of flying animals, from bees, butterflies, to bats and birds.

It´s a living ecossystem that vegetates on the southeastern mountains of Brazil, mostly on cracks on the rocks with little organic, moist soil, but it will tolerate moderately moist soils, as long as you keep the tank full of water. Likes full sun and subtropical climates. It can be propagated from seeds that will float long distances if you don´t bag the seed heads. I´m not sure if it will produce any buds or can be propagated by any other way.