Guzmania Hope house plant.

LibbyGrey

I was given this last Christmas. The flower is now dying off. Do I remove it? If so, how?
Also, it looks as though I may be getting a new flower, as there is now another cupped rosette growing.
Is this normal.
Any help would be appreciated.

thevictorian

Hi, you can just leave the flower to fade gradually (they can dis gracefully over a couple of months) or cut it off if you like. The new rosette is a pup from the mother plant and this is how bromeliads grow. The mother plant will slowly die off, as they do after flowering, which could take another year or so and this allows the pup (sometimes you get more than one new plant form) to establish and take over. 

msqingxiao

Agreed with above. I waited for my pups to grow to about half of the mother's size before pulling them off and rooted in moist compost. Keep the rosette filled with water. 

The pups have now grown into decent size but haven't flowered yet. I tried to force them to flower in the summer using the apple in a bag apple approach, but with no success 

LibbyGrey

Thank you both for your help.
I never imagined this would be so interesting.
Do you know why the new ones are called pups?

thevictorian

I believe technically they are called offshoots botanically but pups is just a common name. I think it's just because it sounds more fun and give connotations of them being baby plants (although in this case they are clones of the parent).