The Great Tilly Gathering @ HortPark

Last Sunday, HortPark’s Fruit Room was packed to the brim with gardening enthusiasts who came to listen to Paul T. Isley III’s talk on Tillandsia, a group of plants commonly called ‘airplants’. Paul is President of Rainforest Flora which is the oldest Tillandsia nursery in the USA. We are privileged to have Paul here  in Singapore to give a talk and I must thank my members of the Green Culture Singapore discussion forum who informed me of his visit.

This is his maiden visit to Singapore and many of us felt ‘we have finally met up with the man’. The talk can be likened to be a gathering of sorts as many of the participants of the talk are well-known Tillandsia enthusiasts in Singapore, as I recognised a large handful of them. In his talk, Paul treated his audience to a colourful slideshow of many Rainforest Flora’s Tillandsia hybrids and shared with us the parentage of each one of them as well as their interesting background information.

Paul also revealed the news of his latest publication, Tillandsia II, which is a long-awaited and updated sequel to the book that many Tillandsia enthusiasts  grew up with. I remember seeing Paul’s earlier book, Tillandsia I, back in 1990 which was when airplants made their first appearance in Singapore. Participants of the talk also took this opportunity to bring their volume of Tillandsia I for his autograph.