Friday, June 6, 2025

My visit to Bird Rock Topicals (visiting paradise and not being able to bring it home)

This is my last post from our January trip to the San Diego area, I'm wrapping it all up in grand style with a visit to Bird Rock Tropicals... 

Walking up I wasn't sure what to expect. I've ordered from BRT for years, and I have a friend who visited once a few years back and shared photos. Seeing it in person though exceeded all of my expectations. I should note they're not open for walk-in visits, you need to make an appointment, which is easy to do on their website.

So many tillandsia! And that's just a small part of them...

These specimens look like they're on their way somewhere, and check out that curtain of Tillandsia usneoides!

Oh the colorful bromeliads...

Hohenbergia leopoldo-horstii (dark clone)

Hohenbergia leopoldo-horstii F2 hybrid


Aechmea recurvata




Nidularium atalaiaense


Edmundoa lindenii (Canistrum lindenii)




Billbergia 'Cold Fusion'

Aechmea triangularis

I wasn't as dedicated to tracking tillandisa names (not that I was 100% with the bromeliads), just appreciating their forms and in some cases the blooms.




There's the curtain wall of Tillandsia usneoides again, from the other side this time.


Those are some seriously dangerous teeth!

This palm with its trunk covered in tillandsia and bromeliads stood just outside the sales area. 

Thankfully I was invited to walk past it and into the production area, normally off limits to visitors.

Even more tillandsia!

This one gave the illusion of long "snakes" of Deuterocohnia lorentziana.


Vriesea brassicoides purple





This is what I most wanted to take home with me, *le sigh* (a mix of Quesnelia marmorata 'Tim Plowman' and Quesnelia 'Rafael Oliveira')...


Hohenbergia pennae

Yep, I'll take all of those!


Guess what, there were pyrrosia!


I was also allowed to walk around BRT owner Pam Koide Hyatt's stunning home landscaping, she lives behind the nursery.





What a visit! I went in knowing the only thing I'd be bringing home with me were memories and photos. Well, that's not quite true. I did get a small Racinaea crispa (red clone) and an Aechmea Bert (orlandiana x fosteriana)—shown in this post. Maybe someday I'll return with a larger budget and a car to fill!

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