Tillandsia Cyanea

The Tillandsia cyanea, which is more commonly known as the pink quill, is an easy-to-care-for, versatile, and robust tropical houseplant.

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Plant Features

The Tillandsia cyanea, which is more commonly known as the pink quill, is an easy-to-care-for, versatile, and robust tropical houseplant.

Part of the Bromeliad family, unlike most Tillandsia species, it can be grown in a pot as well as an air plant.

It produces a display of large, long-lasting, showy pink bracts that resemble ink quills, and this is where the inspiration for its common name comes from. The bracts add interest for several months—so you'll have plenty opportunity to enjoy their vibrancy. You'll also get to appreciate the pretty little violet flowers that emerge in the summer; although they only last two or three days.

It usually takes a couple of years for a plant to reach maturity, and it won't bloom until then. Consequently, most people buy the plant at the flowering stage.

As the bracts age, they can start to turn from pink to green, and when they diminish, the plant will begin to die off. However, if you want to appreciate the bracts and blooms more frequently, it's easy to propagate from offsets. So you can grow several generations to have blooms appearing at different times.

In their native tropical rainforest environment, the Tillandsia cyanea grows as an epiphytic species on trees. Having the option to grow it in a pot rather than securing the pink quill to other objects (like wood) or attaching with wires, makes it particularly appealing for some houseplant lovers.

Growing Instructions

Plant Care

With Tillandsia species, the key care requirements are getting the balance right when it comes to light and watering. If you manage that, your pink quill should produce an impressive display of long-lasting vibrant bracts.

Light

Pink quill plants do best when positioned in a sunny spot. This will prolong the flowering period and keep the plant happy and healthy. However, too much direct and intense afternoon sunlight can burn the foliage, and too little will mean they won't bloom.

Most enthusiasts recommend an east or west-facing window position.

Soil

Although Tillandsia cyanea can be grown as air plants, what makes them unique is their ability also to be grown in containers. Their rooting system is small and fragile, so care should be taken when potting them, and the pots don't need to be large.

Whatever potting medium you use, it should be particularly well-draining. Spongy and porous orchard bark, or peat moss and leaf mold mixes are popular choices. There are even mixtures available especially for Bromeliad species.

Water

Although pink quills don't need as much water as the average houseplant, they do tend to need more than most

Tillandsia species.

If they're potted up, depending on the time of year and how dry the conditions are, they could need watering anywhere from every two weeks to every couple of months.

Special Care