Give Your Air Plant Clump A Head Start

There’s time enough, but none to spare.” -Charles W. Chesnutt

In the present day we have all become accustomed to everything moving at the speed of thought with all this technology pulling us ever faster into the future. Then when it’s time to let a plant grow our patience sometimes disappears!

Take Tillandsia, also known as air plants – they grow in clumps or mats if given the right amount of time but for some, that might be too long to wait. So why not give you air plant a little extra help in forming a great big clump or ball …or even a little ball?

There are many ways to accomplish this depending on the size clump you want to create but today we were giving a little extra help to start a small-sized ball.

The air plant we used is Ionantha which will blush red and also produce a purple flower. We began by cutting a dowel into approximately 1 ½ inch sections. You could also use corks from wine or champagne bottles.

After you have your pieces of wood or cork you can screw in a little eyelet that will give you an easy way to hang it. Hanging is best if you want your air plant to form a nice ball or clump.

You will also want a type of glue to attach the plant to the piece of wood or cork. We recommend E6000 Glue as it is a tough, flexible and highly versatile rubber based compound that exhibits exceptional adhesive, contact adhesive and sealant qualities and is weather resistant.

We only glued 3 plants to each piece for a bit of a head start. You can completely cover your wood or cork if you prefer giving your clump an even larger head start. Or you could use a larger piece of raw cork to create an even larger clump.

We are imperfect beings in an imperfect world so sometimes the plants will come unglued and fall off. If this happens simply re-glue the plant back to it’s base. Over time the air plants will multiply and completely surround your piece of wood and will continue to expand outward creating an even larger ball or clump as you can see in the photo below.

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