Question
Hi Darlene --

This Valentine's Day, in a completely unexpected moment of romantic guilt my boyfriend bought me a sweet little house plant. It has curly, pointy leaves and, at the time, had bright purple, star-like flowers. I was delighted!

I noticed that Jeff had neglected to remove the pricetag so I pulled it off discreetly -- but I think that was where the plant name was listed!

Now my little love plant is suffering -- limp lower leaves, yellowing around the edges, some brown edges. I figure the first thing is to figure out what exactly it is, and then to figure out how best to care for it.  

I will send a picture of it to your aol e-mail. Thank you SO MUCH for your help, Darlene!

--Sarah
Portland, Oregon

Answer
Sarah,

Your plant is a bromeliad. I beleive it is a variety of Neoregelia but I am not positive. It needs bright sun in a south facing window with no drapes or mini blinda closd all day. It also need a bit of water kept in the center of the plant where the blooms were. In nature bromeliads grow in the crotches of tropicl trees where branches join the trunk. They grow in tropical areas where the sun is very bright. They usually bloom for about 3 months. I beleive that your boyfriend was sold one that had been blooming already for at least a couple of months and was ready to start going down hill fast. That is fine if he got it at a discounted price but if he paid full price he should take it and demand money back or a replacement.  If that is not possible put it in the sunniest location possible and keep treating it the same. Keep it watered, fertilize it once a month with a water soluable fertilizer such as Miracle Grow or Peters and with. Eventually it should send out side shoots from under the dying plant. Wait till these side shoots anre nearly as large as the parent, and their could be 3-5 side shoots, then separate each from the parent and pot them up individually. Each plant should devolop the same blooms an bloom for about 3 months but they do need a very sunny bright location.

The site below will have more info:
http://bsi.org/

Good luck.
Darlene