CraftyPlants – The UK’s Tillandsia (Air Plant) Nursery
CraftyPlants Air Plant Nursery
Tillandsia ionantha ‘Rubra’ at CraftyPlants Air Plant Nursery
We’re an award winning, independent specialist Tillandsia (air plant) nursery in the North West of England. CraftyPlants offer one of the largest selections of air plants commercially available. With a lifelong passion for plants, it’s no wonder that we were so fascinated by the bizarre concept of these ‘plants without pots’.
Once we were bitten by the air plant bug, our collection of a few solitary Tillandsia plants in the corner of the greenhouse quickly expanded (and is still growing!). As keen air plant collectors, CraftyPlants evolved from our own Tillandsia addiction. It’s no surprise that we’ve amassed one of the widest selections around of these weird plants.
We propagate many of our air plants at the nursery from vegetative offsets which provides ‘true to type’ clones of the plants. We grow a selection of others from seed at our Preston Nursery.
At present we grow around 300 species, hybrids and cultivars Tillandsia, a range that we are always looking to increase. Most of the air plants we grow are available to buy online all year round direct from our nursery to your home. If there’s an air plant you’re looking for that we don’t list on the site, please get in touch as we’ve many Tillandsia species that we grow but simply don’t have in sufficient volumes to list online.
Tillandsia xerographica in bud at CraftyPlants Air Plant Nursery
Tillandsia usneoides amidst Agaves
Like most horticultural fanatics, our passion for plants doesn’t stop with one genus. Although our main obsession is Tillandsia, we’ve long been fascinated by the huge diversity of the bromeliad family in general as well as a somewhat random selection of other weird plants that we also enjoy growing. and this is reflected in our ever expanding range of other plants.
Our greenhouse grown Tillandsia, bromeliads and assorted weird plants are available to buy on-line along with a selection of other tropical and sub-tropical plants grown on our nursery. This collection of some of natures most weird and wonderful creations works great alongside our air plants, and what’s more most of them are low maintenance too!
Sustainability
Sustainability is paramount for us, unlike some we do not deal in habitat collected plants. Several species of Tillandsia are listed endangered with CITES (the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of wild fauna and flora) and with IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature). Prohibiting the trade of wild collected specimens plays a crucial role in restoring natural populations of these endangered and threatened species.
We believe that ongoing cultivation of endangered and threatened Tillandsia is also crucial to their survival. As their natural habitat diminishes and changes by ways of deforestation etc, keeping these species in cultivation offers a genetic back-up ensuring that these species remain in existence. We strongly believe that we all have a responsibility to ensure the ongoing existence and cultivation of endangered and threatened plants to ensure that none of these species slips into extinction.
Media
Our Tillandsia nursery has featured in various magazines, pod casts and TV programmes including:
Lancashire Life Magazine – 2016
BBC Gardeners’ World – In 2017, our nursery team, Graham Sigsworth and Alex Donaldson with our selection of weird plants caught the attention of the Gardeners’ World production team who visited us at our nursery in 2017 to film an air plant segment for the popular TV show. You can find a clip from the episode on the BBC website – www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p05dg4nn
BBC North West Tonight – We were featured on the BBC’s regional news programme for the north west of England in 2017 when they came to visit us at the nursery to learn more about our unusual range of plants.
RHS The Garden – Roy Lancaster – Roy spent an afternoon with us at our nursery and his article about us, our nursery and our plants was published in the RHS magazine (The Garden) in August 2019.
Flower Shows
We regularly attend major flower shows, exhibiting some of our plants and have regularly gained top awards for our exhibits. We also take our Tillandsia and other unusual and weird plants to various specialist plant fairs, take a look at our events page to find out where you can find us.
As a working nursery we may not always be available to answer calls, however we always endeavour to respond quickly to messages and email enquiries.
The CraftyPlants Air Plant Nursery Team (from left to right) – Graham Sigsworth, Lizzie (Nursery Security), Alex Donaldson.