Tillandsia Lilac Spire
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Tillandsia Lilac Spire
stricta x duratii, Mark Dimmitt
Len Colgan ... "Some of my greatest pleasures in Tillandsia collecting involve visits to the home of Mark Dimmitt in the Sonora Desert on the outskirts of Tucson, Arizona.
Wow, what a plant collection he had! The most vivid memories involve the ginormous size of his Tillandsias, due to his use of fertiliser fed into his plant watering system. But he is better known as one of the foremost Tillandsia hybridists.
My first visit was driving there in 2000 with Keith and Ruby Ryde. One of his unusual hybrids I purchased was T. stricta x duratii. It flowered seven years later, and together Mark and I named it T. 'Lilac Spire'. The spike containing the inflorescence was 57cm long. One of the two offsets is now coming into spike.
I have just been looking on the fcbs website as well as the BSI Cultivar Registry, and the only mentions of this cross are two very, very low resolution images of a photo I took on my old lawn.
I have attached a higher resolution version.
I know I have seen this same hybrid elsewhere, but I cannot recall where. Why are there no other references, seeing Mark Dimmitt's hybrids are widely spread, and Pam at Bird Rock Tropicals distributed lots of Mark's plants after procuring many of them?
I cannot remember if this duratii hybrid has fragrant flowers or not, and I guess I will try to get a close-up of a flower if the plant coming into spike allows it.
Does anyone else on this list have this plant?"
George Nieuwenhoven ... "Nice looking plant Len, while I do not have stricta x duratii I have a duratii x stricta called 'Goomong' made by and purchased of Margaret Paterson, my plant is not flowering at the moment. It is a bit more lush looking but that may of course be due to cultural conditions, I have attached a photo for comparison."
Pam Buttler ... "I have T. Goomong and a plant bought from Birdrock under the duratii x stricta formula that looks more like T. Imbroglio.
My plants are mounted. I might try potting one up and see what it looks like."
Updated 25/11/17