Single:

blooms that have one row of five petals. (Occasionally there are two or three additional petals inside the main row.)

Semi-double:

blooms that have two or three com­plete rows.

Moderately full:

blooms that have 1 5 to 25 petals.

Full:

blooms that have 26 to 40 petals.

Very full:

blooms with more than 40 petals.

Animal manure is also suitable. Do not add huge quantities of material, no more than a 7.5-cm/3-in layer per week. Add some calcified seaweed because the worms do not like acid conditions. The worms will work best between 13-25C/55-77F and will die in freezing weather so cover the box with old carpet to insulate it. Some of the compost can he removed after 2 months.

- Make the size of the container as large as you can: 1 sq m/3 sq ft is the minimum practical size. If your garden is very small, purpose-built compost bins are available.

- Use good insulating materials for the container to help maintain the heat in the heap. Line the base of the container with a 15-cm/6-in layer of coarse material like straw or tough stalks or use wire mesh laid over widely spaced bricks to allow air to circulate.

- Add about 20cm/8in of fresh mixed material to the container at any one time. The easiest way of doing this is to place waste materials first into a black dustbin liner, mix up, then add the contents when full. By adding a mixture of materials, the heap remains well aerated and doesn’t pack down.

- Include any fresh or cooked plant or vegetable waste from the house or garden, including lawn mowings. Slightly woody stems will need shredding or chopping.

- Do not include animal waste which may attract vermin, woody material such as hedge clippings or rose prunings which will take a long time to break down, any diseased or infected plant material, weeds that have gone to seed or roots of perennial weeds like ground elder, couch grass or creeping buttercup.

- The bacteria which act to decompose the material put on the heap need air, moisture and nitrogen. The water is mainly obtained from the leaves put on the heap but you should water dry materials like straw before adding them.

- Including animal manure in the heap will help to provide nitrogen, as will seaweed or seaweed extract or a proprietary compost activator.

- Adding lime helps to neutralize the natural acidity. The bacteria prefer a less acid environment so this will also help to speed up decomposition.

- Compost needs to be covered to keep the heat in and to prevent the material becoming too wet. An old piece of carpet or black plastic is suitable.

- In summer a heap should he ready for use in about three months, in winter it will take more like nine months.

Have you ever wondered why the leaves of aechmea are always arranged in a rosette? In the wild most aechmeas are epiphytic i.e. it grown on some other plant but not as parasite and gets its food from air, rain and things around it and the leaves have adapted to their environment, and are always arranged in a rosette, shaped to capture and hold water. All species of this large genus come from humid tropical areas. The Leaves of some kinds are clasped tightly together so as to form long tubes,  in others the rosette is looser. But there is invariably a cuplike center in which water accumulates, and the flower stalk rises from this center, which should not be allowed to dry out.

Image Credit: Wiki

All aechmeas flower only when mature, and only once from each rosette, after which the rosette slowly dies. The foliage and colorful inflorescence remain decorative for several months after the small blooms have faded, however. During this period offsets appear around the base of the old rosette. Many indoor gardeners simulate natural conditions by growing these bromeliads on “epiphyte branches”.

Growing and caring for aechmea

Light

All potted aechmeas grow best in full sunlight. They will not flower successfully if kept at a distance from a sunny window.

Temperature

These plants like temperatures of over 60°F, coupled with high humidity throughout the year. Pots should be stood on trays of moist pebbles. Aechmeas with thick, scaly leaves tolerate cool positions and dry air better than, do those with soft, shiny foliage. Most of these plants, however, can survive short periods of cold without suffering unduly.

Watering

Water moderately, enough to make the potting mixture thoroughly moist, but allow the top half- inch to dry out between waterings. In addition, make sure that the cup— like centers of plants have a constant supply of fresh water. Cups should be emptied and replenished periodically, to prevent water from becoming stale and smelly. In hardwater areas it is advisable to put aechmeas out in the soft rain from time to time (but only in mild periods), hard water disfigures the leaves by building up lime deposits.

Fertilizer

Except in midwinter (when these plants may take a brief rest) provide half-strength standard liquid fertilizer once every two weeks. Apply the fertilizer not only at the roots but over foliage and into central cup.

Pots and Repotting

An equal parts mixture of leaf mold, peat moss, and coarse sand or perllte is suitable. Most aechmeas produce rather little root, and therefore do best in small pots. Smaller plants will flower in 4— inch pots, and the 5—inch size suffices for most others. Repotting, if done at all, should take place just as new growth begins.. To avoid top— heaviness, use clay pots rather than plastic ones.

How to propagate aechmea

When the offsets that appear around the base of a plant are about half the size of the parent plant, they can be cleanly detached preferably in spring and planted in 2 to 3 inch pots of the recommended potting mixture for adult aechmeas. If all offset has already produced roots of its own, they should he retained. For roughly the first four months, each little plant should he kept in bright but filtered light and should be watered very sparingly—just enough to keep the potting mixture barely moist. When it is well established, the young aechmea call be moved into direct sunhght and it can then he treated as a mature specimen.

Steps for propagation:

- Detach on offset for propagation that is about half the size of parent plant.

- If the offset has already developed small roots be careful not to damage them.

- Press the offset gently but firmly into a pot of the mixture for adult aechmeas.

Aechmea growing tips

After a plant has flowered, some growers prefer not to remove offsets for propagation but to make room for the new rosettes to develop in the original pot. This is easily done by using a sharp kitchen knife to cut off the old rosette at the lowest possible point when it has become shabby and started to wither. Pots containing two or more rosettes can he exceptionally beautiful, particularly when in flower.

Best varieties

A. chantinii has tough, arching leaves up to 18  inches long, which are gray-green, spiny-edged, and powdered with minute silvery white scales in crosswise bands. The inflorescence consists of a cluster of pointed, orange— red bracts, which droop as they open, to reveal a number of branched flower stems with upright yellow-and-red flowers. Ac. ‘Pink Goddess’ and Ac. ‘Red Goddess’ are varieties with pink and red bracts respectively.

A. fasciata (sometimes known as A. rhodocyanea or Billbergia rhodocyanea, commonly called urn plant) is the most popular aechmea. Its arching, gray-green, spiny leaves, which are cross-banded with sprinkllngs of white powder, can attain a length of 2 feet. When fully mature (usually after three or four years’ growth), the plant sends up a strong flower stalk bearing a pink inflorescence up to 6 inches long. The large inflorescence consists mainly of bracts from between which emerge small, pale blue flowers that soon turn red. These disappear quickly, but the pink bracts remain dccorative for up to six months. There are two variegated forms: Af ‘Albomarginata,’ which has cream colored bands bordering each leaf, and Af ‘Variegata,’ whose leaves have lengthwise cream stripes.

A. fulgens has broad leaves tip to 16 inches long, which form a rather fiat, Opel, rosette. Only one variety, A.f. discolor, has become a common house plant. Its leaves are glossy olive green above, and deep wine purple dusted over with whitish powder on the underside. As the dark purple flowers die, attractive red berries appear, and these remain on the plant for several months at a time.

A. racinac (Christmasjewels) has soft, glossy, green leaves about ia inches long and r inch wide arranged in a small, loose rosette. It normally flowers at Christmastirne, when it produces a drooping flower stalk ia—18 inches long, bearing a cluster of about 12 oval, bright red, berrylike flowers with bright yellow and black petals projecting through the tip of the red oval. The flowers are followed by brilliant orange-red berries, which remain attractive for months.

Two of the most attractive small aechmcas—neither with leaves longer than 8 inches are hybrids. A. ‘Foster’s Favorite’ has shiny, deep wine red leaves forming a narrow tube but fanning out for about half their length. The flower spike, which tends to droop, carries deep purple flowers, which give way to dark red berries. The flowers are short—lived, but the berries last for two or three months. The leaves of A. ‘Royal Wine’ are ollive green on top and wine—colored on the underside, and both surfaces look highly polished. Flowers are blue and berries orange. These two hybrids are extremely easy to grow indoors.

As a further precaution, you can add activated charcoal to the water in the vase. This will absorb the slime. Use 1 tablespoon of charcoal for every 2 pints of water, stirring steadily all the time as you add it.

Alternatively, you can add household bleach to the water: about three drops to each pint. This is effective as long as the daffodils are present in no more than equal proportion to the other flowers.

When there are more daffodils, you need to add more chlorine in the form of extra bleach – and this in itself can damage more sensitive plants.

Adults emerge from the soil in June or July and almost at once the females begin to lay eggs – on living plants and dead leaves. The eggs hatch within two weeks and the resulting caterpillars feed for a month or two before spinning themselves into cocoons. From these, a second generation of adults emerges in August or September. The autumn cutworm hatching spends the winter in the soil, feeding whenever weather permits, and metamorphoses into adult forms in the following spring.

The different species of cutworms feed between them on a wide range of vegetables and ornamental plants – lettuces, the cabbage family, carrots, celery, beetroot, potatoes, chrysanthemums, dahlias, marigolds – and even on very young trees. The only fruit plants likely to suffer are strawberries. Damage is likely at almost any time of year, but is worst on light soils during dry summers.

Cure is difficult, but prevention relatively easy. Clear away dead plant debris, keep the weeds down, and hoe regularly through the year to expose the creatures to frost and birds. Watch the soil round the plants when you’re out hoeing and you are likely to spot a few of the pests, which can be dealt with there and then. Protect seedlings with insecticidal seed dressings.

The time to lift the clumps is after the daffodils have finished flowering and the leaves are turning yellow. The leaves are useful in that they remind you of the exact whereabouts of the bulbs. Unfortunately this is not always the best season to replant because the soil can be too dry: so keep the bulbs in a cool dry place until autumn rain begins to moisten the ground in about September. Sort the daffodils bulbs out before storing them. Throw away any soft or damaged ones and rub off excess soil from those you are keeping, then spread them out on a tray. As the summer progresses, remove any leaves, roots and skins that become dry and brittle.

If you want to plant the daffodils bulbs back in the same positions in your borders, prepare the soil thoroughly first. This is important, for when daffodils are grown in the same soil for many years, it becomes very impoverished. Dig in some well-rotted compost or manure and add a generous dressing of bone meal.

When you put the bulbs back in the border, set them in holes at least three times the depth of the bulb. A bulb 2in deep, for instance, should go into a hole at least 6in deep – deeper if you hoe the ground at all, to protect the bulb from disturbance – and should be covered with at least 4in of soil. Set the bulbs 4-8in apart if they’re the large varieties. 2-3in apart if they’re small. You should get a refreshed display full of flowers the spring after next.