Mum.....Dad?

I'm going to be a grandpa again. This time to a whole bunch of little green things.

Airplants need encouragement to procreate, they are asexual, so no amount of mood music, wine or leather restraints is enough to get them in the mood. What they need is to be put outside in gentle sun and allowed to cool. This causes a strange fight or flight reaction in the plant. However, being a plant, they'd rather "root than fight" as they say in Oz. Cold presages death, the imminence of death creates the wherewithall to create young so that the line may continue. The young are known as "Pups." They grow from the main plant and may eventually be broken off or removed using a scalpel once they are large enough to draw enough sustenance from the liquid they are sprayed with, basically rainwater with a tiny amount of Orchid food mixed in.

At present most of my plants are surrounded by pups, the downside to this wonder is that the main plant usually dies, as happened recently with my waving bulb Tillandsia. Occasionally the parent will survive with heaps of TLC, then produce more wonderful flowers the following season. They are the most exquisite sight when flowering, a blip for the future, do not hold your breath. The pups shown in this picture have taken at least a year to grow to this size, I anticipate at least another year before they are separated from Mum/Dad.

PS That's a lump of North Cornwall they have claimed as sovereign territory.