air plants: growing the family

Last winter, I picked up a few air plants and a burro's tail succulent at the Southern Christmas Show in Charlotte, NC. Most of the plants have survived (miraculously), but our journey together has been spotty at best and one of the air plants did bite the dust before I figured out whatever the heck I was doing with the things. Air plants, for all their claims of being low maintenance, have not exactly been low maintenance for me. It turns out they do need some care. But once I figured out a good spot for them (the kitchen counter where there's some shade, as opposed to hanging in the window where it was constant sunlight), we made our peace. We made peace like whoa. We are a veritable pack of peace-loving hippies, there's so much peace between the air plants and me.

One of the air plants decided to bloom a while back. I had no idea this was a Thing Of Significance on account of never having had air plants in my care before, so I didn't really take any pictures. But it was white with some yellow in it, if I remember correctly. So there was bloomage. Which I guess is kind of a big deal in the life of an air plant, or something like that. 

And NOW...there is puppage. When certain kinds of plants spawn, the new baby plants are called pups. Baby aloes are called pups, and baby air plants are, too. Word on the street is that when an air plant blooms, it means a pup is on the way. I knew that at one point, but the bloom was so long ago (maybe like 4 months?) that I completely forgot. Until recently, when I was watering my air plant and noticed a pup. Whoa! And THEN...I was watering the OTHER air plant, and I noticed ANOTHER pup! Double whoa! The other one hadn't bloomed (at least not since it was in my care) so I don't know if I am dealing with difference species here, or if pups and blooms aren't necessarily related occurrences. 

Either way, we are expecting. It's an exciting time to be a single mom of a toddler with two baby air plants on the way.