From the elegant spikes of a flaming sword (Vriesea spp.) to the cheerful explosions of tufted air plants (Guzmania spp.), bromeliads have some exceptionally unique and exciting flowers.
Experiencing them one time just isn’t enough!
So you’ll no doubt want to know how to encourage them to flower over and over – I have good news and bad news.
We link to vendors to help you find relevant products. If you buy from one of our links, we may earn a commission.
The bad news is that some types of bromeliads can’t bloom a second time.
These are known as monocarpic and the plant dies after it flowers, but don’t be too hasty to toss it out as many produce offsets that you can remove to propagate new plants.
Other types can and will rebloom with the right care.
In our guide to growing bromeliads, we give an overview of how to cultivate the diverse species in the Bromeliaceae family.
Coming up, we’ll help you sort out which types can rebloom – and how to encourage it – and what to do with those that can’t.
Here’s what I’ll cover:
We need to all get on the same page with the lifecycle of plants in the Bromeliaceae family. That will help us figure out what to do with our plants and when.
Bromeliad Bloom Cycle
It’s important to understand the blooming cycle of these plants to know how to encourage them to bloom or rebloom.
As mentioned, many plants in the Bromeliaceae family are monocarpic. A monocarpic plant only flowers once in its lifetime and then the plant dies.
Many annuals that we grow in our home gardens are monocarpic. They grow, flower, and die in one year.
Other monocarps can live for years before they bloom and die. That describes most bromeliads, as they can live for decades before they finally flower and die.
You might also hear the types of plants that flower once and die called hapaxanth or semelparous – these terms mean the same as monocarpic.
So if your plant blooms and you’re hoping it will bloom again, you need to first make sure that it isn’t one of the species that is monocarpic.
Most Guzmania, Neoregelia, Tillandsia, Vriesea, and Wallisia species are monocarpic. Interestingly, edible pineapples (Ananas comosus) are, too.
But there are exceptions. Tillandsia intermedia, T. pringlei, and T. sphaerocephala are polycarpic, for example.
Polycarpic means the opposite of monocarpic and refers to plants that will bloom more than once in their lifetime.
Most Dyckia species are polycarpic.
If you don’t know exactly what species you are growing, it can be hard to tell for sure whether it’s monocarpic or not, but I would always assume that it is.
The chances are far greater that your specimen is the kind that flowers once and dies than a type that blooms repeatedly.
Terrestrial species are more likely to be polycarpic than the epiphytes are, but that’s not a given.
Can Bromeliads Rebloom?
A monocarpic type won’t rebloom and there’s absolutely nothing any of us can do to change that.
Instead, you can cultivate the pups that it will put out and eventually these will flower.
After the monocarpic specimen has finished blooming, the parent plant will die back and as it fades, it’ll send out new growths called offsets or pups.
These are baby versions of the parent – clones – that will grow, mature, and eventually bloom.
It takes a few years, but you’ll be treated to another round of flowers, followed by new offsets, and the cycle continues.
You can remove the offsets carefully and pot them up into individual containers and nurture them as you did the parent.
Learn more about how to care for your bromeliad after blooming in our comprehensive guide.
For polycarpic types – those that flower repeatedly – you can encourage reblooming by removing the spent flower stalks at the base and feeding your plant with a mild and balanced fertilizer.
Indoors, you can expose the plants to slightly cooler temperatures than they’re used to for a month or two, before reintroducing them to normal temperatures to help encourage flowering.
But the truth is that they’ll rebloom on their own without any effort on your part.
How to Encourage Blooming
If you have a monocarpic type that hasn’t bloomed yet and you want it to, you can expose it to ethylene gas to help move it along.
That’s how professional growers make sure their bromeliads are blooming when they hit the store shelves.
But how do you expose it to ethylene gas? Place the plant in a clear plastic bag out of direct sunlight and set an apple or pear inside the bag with it. Care for the plant as you would normally.
You can open the bag during the day to let out some of the humidity, but try to keep the bag closed as much as possible. Replace the fruit as it starts to rot.
Keep doing this for two weeks. Then, remove the bag, and the bromeliad should send out blossoms within a few more weeks.
Make the Most of Your Bromeliads
While most plants in the Bromeliaceae family only bloom one time, the plants will keep adding color and interest to your garden as they reproduce and send out new offsets that will mature and bloom on their own.
So while these types don’t “rebloom” in the traditional sense of the word, they can grow and bloom, for a long, long time.
What kind of bromeliad are you cultivating? Are you having trouble encouraging a monocarpic type to send out offsets? Or maybe your polycarpic specimen is stubborn about reblooming?
Let us know what’s up in the comments section below. We’re always happy to troubleshoot.
And for more information about cultivating bromeliads, add these guides to your reading list next:
