Introduction
Neoregelia’ Fireball’, pronounced NEO-re-gelia, is an epiphytic flowering plant belonging to the family Bromeliaceae. Neoregelia fireball in the native rainforests of South America, known to grow attached to a neighboring forest tree as they are incapable of growing naturally from the earth like non-epiphytic plants. Due to it being epiphytic, it can only grow as wide and as high as 4-6 inches.
Neoregelia Fireball can only grow from the soil directly under controlled and designed conditions, such as being kept in a garden or on a forest tree that supports the growth and respiration of its root.
What makes the plant Neoregelia ‘Fireball’ unique?
Unlike other plants whose roots serve as a form of support and attachment to the soil to take in nutrients, Neoregelia’s roots serve as the attachment medium to hosts. They absorb nutrients through leaf litters, animal droppings.
Neoregelia’s leaves are broad-like and flat designed with brightly colored pigments, which are often red, purple, and yellow, which helps in protecting the green photosynthetic leaves from UV radiation, harsh conditions, and sunburn. This color combination may vary from plant to plant and is caused by selective hybridization and evolution as some may present to have white pigments.
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It has a cup-like inflorescence with a pronounced shallow depression at the center, which collects rainwater and partakes whenever there is an impending flower bloom.
Concerning flowering and blooming, Neoregelia’s bloom only once in their entire lifetime before they progress towards death. This blooming is synonymous with producing kids—small clones of their parents which sit around the central flowering rosette.
The offshoots of these new plants then begin to slowly replace their parents by forming a cluster around them to prepare for a new era. However, these young plants are cut off from their parents and replanted when they are half of their parent’s size to form a whole new one.
Its leaves are brightly colored and serve as an adaptation to attract pollinating insects to aid its reproduction rate.
Due to their beautiful nature and brightly colored pigments are cultivated mainly as houseplants in warmer climates and are perfectly suitable for the now popular vivarium culture.
Unlike most tropical terrarium ornamental plants that require excess care, Neoregelia needs are fairly simple and majorly involve constant being light and a growing medium or host else most of its colored parts will revert to green.
It is also necessary to plant them on a medium as most do not perform well when planted directly on the soil and are likely to have root rot.
In temperature regions where the temperature can fall as low as 48°F, they must be grown under a house or glass. Optimal growth requires a temperature range of 60-72°F and a humidity percentage level of 90-100.
Neoregelias are used by many species of which is the poison dart frog. The frogs use the plant to reproduce by raising their young tadpoles in the water-filled central depression of its inflorescence, allowing them to stay safe on high forest treetops with no need to venture to the ground to supply water for their young ones.
This protects the kids from predators and serves as a medium for nourishment as the parent frog deposits waste products and nutrients in the cup, which can then be taken in by their tadpoles.
For Neoregelia plants, having constant moisture or water droplets on the leaves is detrimental to the plant as they are prone to rot. Ensure drying off properly amidst watering sessions are done to avoid rot.
It also requires regular air circulation with high humidity as once the humidity level becomes lower than expected, the leaves start drying and browning up.
Unlike other flowering plants, Neoregelia requires regular leaching. This can be done by pouring lukewarm water all around the plant’s soil, touching every area to remove any trace of soluble salts. Ensure the water gets drained out immediately.
Plant recommendation: if you want a beautiful large leaf plant, then check out Calathea warscewiczii from Costa Rica.
What is pruning?
Pruning is a cultural practice of removing selected parts of plants which may be stems, branches, roots, for various reasons aimed at facilitating growth to the plant. Often, pruning was targeted to remove dead, decayed, damaged, or vestigial parts of plants. Depending on the reason for the pruning, there are several subcategories of pruning.
Why prune Neoregelia’s fireball
Pruning Neoregelia’s fireball does not necessarily need pruning to stay alive. There is no need to do so.
Benefits of Pruning
As aforementioned, there is no need or benefit pruning does to Neoregelia fireball.
Types of Neoregelia Fireball
There are different sub-species of the plant Neoregelia Fireball and they include:
● Neoregelia richteri
● Neoregelia roethii
● Neoregelia rosea
● Neoregelia rubrifolia
● Neoregelia rubrovittata
● Neoregelia ruschii
● Neoregelia sanguinea
● Neoregelia sapiatibensis
● Neoregelia sarmentosa
● Neoregelia schubertii
● Neoregelia seideliana
Notching Neoregelia Fireball
Notching is a method of creating an artificial branch on a plant. It is done by making a small cut on the trunk of the plant, forcing the plants to create a branch for the cut trunk without taking away any height.
Should you notch?
Notching depends on the individual’s choice and the plant’s look. Does your plant only grow upwards towards the sky and have little to no basal balance? If so, then notching should be done. If otherwise, there is no need to notch your plant.
Tips to notch
To create a perfect notch cut, the cut width should be one-third of the circumference of the stem, and its depth should also be one-third of the tree’s depth.
Ensure the cutting or incision is made directly on the plant’s nodes. They are ball-like to feel and sometimes protrude out.
The cut should be made with a sharp and sterilized knife to avoid infections of any kind.
Pinching Neoregelia Fireball
Should you pinch
Pinching is mostly recommended for scanty plants. If the plant only grows on a stem with few attached branches, the pinching may be recommended to allow for the growth of new stems that will eventually house new plant branches.
Tips of pinching
Ensure the pinching is done close to the leaf nodes to increase the chances of regrowth. Also, the pinching shears should be as sharp as possible and sterilized to avoid transferring diseases to the new regrowth.
Should you deadhead?
Deadheading Neoregelia fireball is unnecessary as this species only needs to produce flowers once in its lifetime, which is often towards its death. Do not deadhead a Neoregelia fireball, as you may indirectly kill off the plants.
The new flowering plants, be it dead or alone, contribute towards continuing their parent’s existence, and deadhead can immediately kill off this existence.
Why do Neoregelia Fireball branches need trimming
Neoregelias fireball does not need trimming at all.
Tips to encourage growth
Watering: It is advised to keep the plant moist and not soggy or watery. Soggy soils promote root rots, hence water only when necessary or only when the soils look dehydrated.
Soil: Although they mostly grow on substrates, The soil must be fast draining to allow easy water removal during leaching and allow air to reach the roots, hence preventing root rot. The soil should contain equal parts of medium or host parts and normal potting soil. This means the soil should contain sandy, gritty, or bark-based substrate supplemented with sphagnum moss.
Lightning: A typical Neoregelia plant would grow well under a canopy. They don’t do well under the hot sunlight. However, ‘Fireball’ is one of the cultivars that can handle the direct sun.
Nutrition: It is advised to use a houseplant fertilizer combined with food remnants, leaves, and roots.
Summary
Neoregelia is a colorful ornamental plant that grows mainly in Southern America known for its inflorescence cap and need for little care. It only requires minor needs for growth and can be maintained easily, although watch out for root rot.
Plant recommendation: looking for a plant that makes a beautiful statement, then check out Red peacock.