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Why Do You NEED This Limited Time Air Plant?

November 11, 2022

Why Do You NEED This Limited Time Air Plant?

What do we mean by FIRE🔥 genetics?
These are our best of the best Fuego's from our greenhouse! These Fuego's are hand selected for their super intense hot pink blush. They have been selectively bred for generations in order to produce such a gorgeous full color display. These are collector quality with their superb genetics! You won’t find many like these out there!! Notice how the color of their blush goes from the very top of their leaf to the very bottom! That color saturation is not something you will see in the vast majority of Fuegos. This is what makes this line stand out so much and why we refer to these as full color. 

Get your full color high quality Fuego here: Sellers Choice - Ionantha Fuego Full Color High Quality - TheDrunkenGnome Airplant Co.


What to do when you receive your Fuego
     Once your Fuego arrives, it will have gone multiple days in a box without any water. This is why we recommend giving your air plant a quick soak first thing. You can do this by grabbing a bowl from your kitchen and filling it up with preferably rainwater. If you are unable to source rainwater, purified water is the next best thing. If the only water you have is tap water, you can leave the bowl filled with tap water on the counter for 24 hours prior to soaking your air plant and this will help remove a lot of the harmful chemicals. 
     Leave your air plant 3/4th submerged with the butt of it facing up (see photo below for reference) for 20-30 minutes. Then remove the air plant and let it dry upside-down for a couple hours. You want to make sure after every watering that there is no water pooled in their base. This is why we recommend the upside-down method.

How to display your Fuego
     There are endless possibilities for choosing how to display your Fuego! Air plants are a great alternative to potted plants because you just need to ensure they have two things, good air flow and sunlight.
     Good air flow is important because you want your air plant to be able to dry out quickly after watering. If your air plant has restricted air flow, you can remove it from that location or display for watering and return it after it has completely dried out. 
     As for sunlight, air plants prefer bright indirect sunlight. This means that the Sun's rays aren't directly reaching your plant, but instead bounce off of something first. How to tell if your air plant is in bright indirect sunlight is they will cast blurry, indistinct shadows. 
     Our favorite way to display air plants is by attaching them to driftwood hanging displays. We have a lot of examples of this available for purchase under our WYSIWYG Air Plant collection. Check them all out with this link: WYSIWYG Air Plants - TheDrunkenGnome Airplant Co. . This is a great option if you want a premade stunning display. Most of our driftwood displays available have multiple generations of air plants on them. 
Here is the link for this exact display: WYSIWYG- Hanging Driftwood Air Plant Display 70 - TheDrunkenGnome Airplant Co.

What Happens After Your Fuego Blooms?
     T. Ionantha Fuego have a life cycle of growing to maturity and then blooming. Before, during, or after blooming T. Fuego will start producing new baby plants called offsets, which are also known as pups. Fuego is a quick grower that produces lots of pups that clump together to form a ball (as pictured below). On average it will produce between 2 - 8 pups.
     The pups will obtain nutrients from the mother plant as she ends her lifecycle. They can be separated once the pups grow to 1/3 or half the size of the mother plant. A gentle tug and twist will not hurt the plants as you remove the pups. 
     The photo below shows why we love leaving air plants (especially Fuegos) in a clump. You can see that they all tend to come into blush at the same time when left as one unit. This makes for a stunning display! Here is the link for this exact air plant under our WYSIWYG air plant collection: WYSIWYG- Blushed Fuego clump hanging on wire 89 - TheDrunkenGnome Airplant Co.




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