My Bromeliad Looks Like It’s Dying
Bromeliads are part of the air plant family.
Bromeliads are normally found in nature growing on rocks and/or trees (as the rocks and trees form a host for the plants to hold onto), where there is sometimes little or no food.
Bromeliad parents or full size flowering plants actually die to provide food for their babies (pups). The way that they do this is that the leaves mulch down and also hold a small amount of moisture that can help kickstart the growth and development of their young plants. Normally you will end up with two or more baby plants (pups) growing from the one mature (mother) plant that you have. This is how they naturally multiply.
The picture bellow shows three new pups off one mother plant in the garden. The mother plant has died but three new pups have formed.
Pups will sometimes develop before or after flowering.
Whatever you do, do not throw the mother plant out even if it has not yet produced pups as it may take a while to do this.
Once your pups have reached 1/3rd of the size of the mother plant, these can be removed and divided into their own seperate plants. Please see "Breaking Up And Dividing Bromeliads" for more information on this.
Could you have copper nearby?
Is there any copper that could be running into your Bromeliad plant?
Copper will kill Bromeliads.
Even if you get run off from a roof which is made of copper treated timber, this can be enough to kill your Bromeliad.
There is very little that kills Bromeliads but copper is one of them.
Bellow is a picture of a copper power pole. The rainwater run off has killed the plant.
Hope that helps!
Happy Growing!