Free Shipping on Orders Over £50 - Select Free Shipping at Checkout

trade login

Welcome to Love Tillys

Love Tillys is the UK’s leading air plant supplier. With over 40 years experience - quality and service are at the heart of everything we do. All our plants are nursery grown, and cared for at our own nursery in the beautiful Hertfordshire countryside.

Our aim is to keep things simple and bring you the best Air Plants that can be enjoyed by everyone! Popular collections include...

Who we cater for...

You’ll find that we cater for everyone, from those just starting out, to the seasoned Air Plant collector looking for something really special to try. If you are looking for something special, visit the 'Most Wanted' section of the shop to see what we recommend this week.

Have you got any Air Plant questions? Get in touch and we will be happy to help, better still come and visit! Our nursery is open from 9am – 5pm on weekdays and from 9am until 1pm on Saturdays.

About Air Plants (Tillandsias)

An Intoduction to Tillandsia - Air Plants

Tillandsias, commonly known as Air Plants, are found anywhere and everywhere from dry deserts to humid rain forests and harsh mountain regions of southern parts of the United States, Mexico, Central and South America. In these often difficult, habitats they have developed into plants that don’t need much water.

These curious plants come from the Bromeliad family, which also includes a wide range of other plants, including the Pineapple. The bromeliad genus Tillandsia is named after the Finnish botanist Dr Elias Tillands and they are the most widespread type of bromeliad. With over 600 species currently known even more species are being discovered today as dedicated plant hunters seek them out.

Tillandsia are epiphytes they do not have roots, live without soil and take in water and nutrients through their leaves. If they are happy where they are, they will send out small, wiry anchor roots to hold them in the favourable situation that they find themselves in. They can live quite happily on trees and other plants without taking anything from them, and are just as happy to live on nothing, rocks or in the case of Spanish Moss, even telephone wires!

Taking water in through the leaves, air plants have adapted hair-like scales known as ‘trichomes’ to help them. Air Plants adapted to living in hotter and dryer areas have more of these trichomes, which gives them a more silvery appearance. As well as helping plants take up water they also help prevent it drying out by dispersing sunlight away from the leaves and shading the minute pores in the leaves, by which gases and water enter or leave the plant. The more silvery, or ‘fluffy’ the plant appears, eg. T. Tectorum ‘Snowy’, the more sunlight it can take.

The final part of the secret to their survival on such meagre water rations is the way they photosynthesise. Almost all other plants do this during the day, during which time gases and moisture will be released. In extreme temperatures it is not ideal to release essential water vapour during the day, so Tillandsia have developed the ability to keep their pores closed during the day, and releasing their gases and moisture during the night when there is less risk to them, due to lower night time temperatures. (As a benefit to us, if they are releasing precious oxygen through the night, it makes them ideal for the bedroom, where they could very well help with a better nights sleep!)