Tips from our gardens: bromeliads

Steve Falcioni lives in an inner city suburb of Sydney, growing all his favourites on his rooftop terrace while keeping an eye on his local community garden. Bromeliads are one of his favourites.

I have a lot of bromeliads in my garden and love how low maintenance they are. However, eventually they do become congested and need dividing. Late summer and early autumn is a good time to take on this task as many of these plants will have already flowered and their side shoots, called pups, will be a decent size.

I’m pretty ruthless once I get started. On go my elbow-length gloves (many of my broms are quite prickly) and then I start removing them from their pots. Pups which are at least a third the size of the original plant get cut off and saved for replanting. Mother plants which have already thrown a few pups and are looking tatty get binned.

I heap the old growing media together and mix in some fresh chunky bark and coir pieces to ensure it’s very free draining. After that it’s time to repot and water in with a seaweed solution. And the task is done for another year.

Steve and our other hort experts share their growing knowledge in the Early Autumn 2026 issue. You’ll find it in newsagents and selected supermarkets, or you can subscribe here to get an issue delivered to your door!