Guzmania Bromeliad Plant
Guzmania is a genus of epiphytes in the Bromeliad family. This family consists of numerous plants that bear fruit once before dying. While this plant is slowly dying it will produce up to three offsets (these are short shoots that arise from the base of the mother plant's bulb) that you can then separate and grow into a new mature, ready to bloom plant.
There are several species of this genus that are cultivated as both indoor and outdoor garden plants. The best known of these plants is the Guzmania Lingulata, which is more commonly known as the Scarlet Star. It bears both orange and red leaves. Other well-known types of Guzmania plants are the edible pineapples and the Spanish moss that can be found hanging in the southern states.
The Guzmania is a very beautiful plant. It is very colorful and so this plant is able to make an excellent statement regardless as to whether you leave it hanging on its own or you use it as a part of a planted office display. Since this plant is so extremely versatile and is also show stopping beautiful, it has become a very popular plant that is seen hanging in numerous offices. Due to its huge popularity, the plant will be sure to have a huge impact upon any visitors who come into your office.
Unfortunately though, Guzmanias do die after they have produced flowers in the summertime. Thankfully, new plants can easily be propagated from the offsets of the plant. These offsets will appear as the parent plant is dying. Since these offsets are epiphytes (plants that derive their moisture and nutrients from the air and rain) they can do quite well if you simply tie them on to pieces of bark and bind their roots into sphagnum moss, which can easily be found at your local gardening center.
You will need to keep your Guzmanias in warm temperatures where there is a relatively high amount of humidity. However, at the same time you are going to need to make sure that the plant's roots do not get either too wet or too cool. If this happens, then the plant will easily develop the sac fungus that is known as Bipolaris sorokiniana (a fungus that stems from the Cochliobolus sativus fungus) as well as several other types of fungi as well. These fungi can cause root rot in these plants, which can then be fatal to them.