Opinion8ed:  Bromeliads have been slowly gaining in popularity in the U.S., but when you first started taking an interest in these unusual plants they were relatively rare.  When did these exotic plants first attract your attention and what about them called out to you?

Herb:  Sylvia and I have always grown houseplants in our apartment from the time we were married, and Sylvia was the primary grower of a variety of plants such as African Violets, begonias, Aspidistra (spider plants) etc. In 1954 we enrolled in a houseplant class given at the Brooklyn Botanical Gardens, and a little later I gave Sylvia the Better Homes and Gardens Houseplant Book as a present. I don’t remember if it was for Mother’s Day or her birthday. We both read the book and I recall reading the section on bromeliads and being attracted to their bold colors and architectural shapes. The Gardens had a Bromeliad House and upon viewing it I decided that I would like to grow them. The book listed an address for the Bromeliad Society International and I wrote asking if they had a New York chapter. I was advised that a certain dentist was trying to organize one, and I contacted him and assisted in creating a group with names of subscribers to the Bromeliad Journal. This was in 1960. I also was told about bromeliad nurseries and started ordering plants.

Opinion8ed:   Anyone who visits your urban apartment in Jamaica, Queens, NY can’t help but be impressed with the number and variety of Bromeliads on display everywhere you look.  So your collection is proof that a plant originally native to much more tropical climates can thrive in a much less hospitable environment. How many plants and varieties do you have in your personal collection?

Herb: I have cut down on my collection in the past few years but not too long ago I was growing about 200 plants in pots and about 200 Tillandsias mounted on cork bark.

Opinion8ed:  How difficult is it and what is the secret to successfully growing them indoors?

Herb:  Bromeliads are excellent house plants because they can quickly adapt to conditions that are different from their native tropical and subtropical environments. Most of the pot plants are rosette shaped with a tight center that can hold water, so if the pot medium is watered and water is placed in the center reservoir, the plants can go for 2 weeks without requiring water. The plants mounted (with glue) on cork bark are soaked in the bathtub every 10 to 14 days for about an hour. The plants are grown both with window light and under fluorescent lights. Most bromeliads are epiphytes that grow on tree branches and shrubs in rain or cloud forest habitats. From this you can tell that the roots need aeration, so the potting medium needs to be friable to provide air to the roots. We use all kinds of media that are so porous that when watered, the water drops down immediately to the bottom. Such media include fibrous peat moss, shredded cedar bark mulch, chopped fir bark or a mixture of them. Straight houseplant potting soil will tend to pack down after watering and will stay too wet and will rot out the roots of a bromeliad, so if it is used it must be mixed with lots of perlite or bark chips to provide aeration.

Opinion8ed:  OK, so if you provide the proper environment it sounds fairly straight forward.  How much time does it take you to care for your plants?

Herb:  Once the plants are potted or mounted the above time indications suffice. But of course, the plants are addictive; once you get hooked you have to have more and different species and hybrids and you start experiments and writing about them, so you find that willy nilly, you can become totally involved to the exclusion of other activities and responsibilities. I can safely say that now I’m controlling the plants, not the other way around.

Opinion8ed:  So I guess it’s true what they say… once you dabble in simple epiphytes, you’re soon hooked on the harder bigeneric hybrid stuff like X Cryptbergia and X Guzvriesea.  One of the striking things about the bromeliads on display in your apartment is the presentation.  Some types (e.g., the epiphytic varieties such as Tillandsia) are mounted on bark without any soil… how do they get the nutrients they need to thrive?

Herb:  The water they soak in has a lot of fertilizer that is in