Blanchet's vase plant produces sawtooth-edged chartreuse leaves overlain with red-orange. Colors are more intense grown in sun. The flower spikes are red and yellow. This large species is found growing in forests along the Atlantic coast of Brazil. It brings lost-lasting color to tropical flower borders but is too large to make a good house plant. Bromeliads are succulent plants that are usually epiphytic, growing on the recesses of tree branches in tropical climates. They grow in rosettes, with narrow stiff leaves radiating from the center. Small flowers emerge from long-lasting colorful bracts on stiff upright spikes. Plants in the tropical American genus Aechmea are called vase plants or urn plants. Their curved leaves collect water and can be home to aquatic insects and microorganisms. Plants take several years to flower and will usually decline after the long-lasting blooms fade, but they can be restarted from “pups”: small side shoots. They like filtered light and loose soil mixed with small bark chips to increase porosity.