Although air plants don’t rely on water as much as traditional blooming plants do, they still need to be watered about once a week. It’s best to look at the life cycle of an air plant to determine blooming. Since blooming air plants look attractive in store displays, some nurseries would “make the air plant bloom” even before the plant reaches its maturity. If you want a large air plant, I suggest buying one that is already large rather than buying a small one and waiting for it to grow bigger. Avoid using softened water; it’s high in salts. Do Air Plants Die After Flowering? A variety of air plants. Keep this apple bag in the shade for 7-10 days and it may trigger a bloom. The are like an orchid in that they absorb water through the humidity mostly - some absorb through their leaves and some have traditional roots. Many nursery grown air plants can bloom anytime of the year the nursery wants them to bloom. After the pups grow to about 1/3 of the size of the mother plant, you can remove them or leave them to form a clump. It is a common industry practice to use ethylene gas to induce air plants to bloom. What do you do with the dying flowers and spike? Even more fun, is that they come in a ton of different sizes and shapes, from tiny delicate cones to huge thick tentacles. Pups will always produce plants with characteristics identical to the mother plant. On average, 1 to 3 pups will be created by the air plant after blooming, depending on the air plant species. Air plants do not harm their host, instead using it as support. In a lot of ways, this is a good thing since they will not outgrow their display for a long time. This huge genus—the largest in the bromeliad family—is sometimes divided into the grey-leaved air plants and green-leaved terrestrial plants. Contrary to their common name, air plants DO NOT live on air, and some species are aquatic, growing on seaweed. Air plants do amazing with proper lighting. Protect your plants from anything colder than 45 degrees; they will die at those temperatures.