Images may show mature specimens and are provided as a guide only. As plants are living products, the size, shape and appearance of the stock supplied may vary from the images shown.
Nursery Direct
Giant Bromeliad
Alcantarea imperialis
Everything is included in this price: the plant, free delivery and professional installation
The price you see is the whole job: the plant supplied, delivered free and professionally installed. Done for you.
Want to see the actual plant?
The photo shows this species, not the individual plant reserved for you. Send us an enquiry and we usually reply within 1 business day with photos of the actual stock available in the size you want.
Request photosGetting it in: the largest size here needs about 900mm to 1.2m of clear access. Measure the narrowest point on the route and tell us on the booking call. Standard access is included in the price, and anything unusual is quoted and agreed with you before work begins. What happens on installation day
Looking for a larger size?
Sizes shown are the sizes we currently source in this species. If you need larger specimens, project quantities or a size not listed, our sourcing team can look for it through our national supplier network. We confirm your exact stock with you on the booking call before anything ships.
Send An EnquiryYou order. We do the rest.
After checkout, our team contacts you to confirm site access and book a day that suits. Most orders are delivered and planted within 2 to 4 weeks of your booking call. Nothing else for you to organise.
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Product Details
Overview & Specifications
Price includes everything: the plant, free delivery and professional installation by our planting team. One price, whole job done.
Giant Bromeliad - Alcantarea imperialis
Among the largest bromeliads in Australian gardens, Alcantarea imperialis forms a broad vase of thick, smooth edged leaves, green on the upper face and usually flushed burgundy underneath and toward the tips in strong light. It is planted for scale and permanence: a single rosette does the structural work a cycad or an agave would do in a tropical scheme, without a spine anywhere on the leaf. In habitat it clings to bare granite above the forest, so in a garden it asks for sharp drainage, bright light and very little else.
Why Giant Bromeliad
Sculptural scale: Broad leaves arch out from a single crown, so one plant carries the bulk and outline of a small shrub with none of its pruning.
Self watering cup: Overlapping leaf bases hold water in a central well that carries the plant through dry spells with little irrigation.
Cool winter tolerance: An established rosette handles the cool winters of South East Queensland and the coast to Sydney and comes through an occasional light frost, though frost can mark the leaves, so a frost free or overhead sheltered spot is the safe position.
Flowers once, in old age: A branched stem among reddish bracts appears only on an old rosette, which then slowly fades, and since this species makes few offsets it is best treated as a long lived single specimen.
Ideal Applications
Tropical feature bed: At the front of a bed of gingers and cordylines it gives the planting a fixed centre that keeps its outline all year.
Pool and paved surrounds: Spine free leaves and almost no litter let it sit right at the coping of a pool or the edge of a terrace.
Raised beds and rockeries: Set among boulders or on a gritty mound, it gets the drainage its granite origins demand.
Sheltered coastal gardens: It copes with salt laden breezes in gardens set back behind the first line of beachfront planting.
Specimen & Installation
Spacing (feature/avenue): 1.5 to 2m, so the leaves can arch without crowding
Best Planting Season: Through the warm months, from mid spring to early autumn
Soil & Drainage: Gritty, sharply draining ground of crushed rock, sandy loam and composted bark; heavy soil is dug out and replaced, not improved, before planting
Establishment Care: Firm the mix hard around the base at planting, since a young rosette with a full cup is top heavy and can tip. Through warm weather hose out the central well every week so mosquito larvae cannot breed, and give the roots a drink only when the mix is dry a finger's depth down. A plant raised under shade cloth is best given a few weeks of filtered light before full exposure, which prevents the leaves bleaching.
Plant Details
Height: 1 to 1.5m in leaf, to around 3m in flower
Width: 1.2 to 1.8m
Growth Rate: Slow
Foliage: Evergreen
Light: Full sun to partial shade; some afternoon shade in hot inland districts
Native to: Granite outcrops of Rio de Janeiro state, Brazil
Flower Colour: White to cream among reddish bracts on a branched spike, carried once in the plant's life
Delivery & Installation
Delivery and installation are included in your price
No freight calculators and no separate installation quote for a standard installation. Your price covers specialist plant transport, positioning and professional planting by our installation team. The whole job, handled.
- Wrapped, secured and transported by specialist plant freight.
- Professionally planted, staked and finished by our install team.
- Our team confirms site access and schedules a time that suits you.
Installation
Professional installation included, never extra
Every plant we sell is planted by our professional installation team, and it's already in the price. We coordinate the delivery, the machinery and the planting for standard site access, so your only job is choosing the tree. Unusual access or engineering requirements? We'll confirm everything with you after checkout before any work begins.
Questions? Send An EnquiryWhy Nursery Direct
Every price includes supply, delivery and installation
Buying a mature tree often means three separate jobs: the plant, the freight and finding someone to plant it. We price the whole job as one: the tree, the delivery and the professional install.
- One price: supplied, delivered and installed
- Mature trees and specimen palms at every scale
- National sourcing for hard-to-find stock
- Residential, estate and commercial projects
How It Works
Place your order. We do the rest.
We Supply
Premium advanced stock, selected from a national network of wholesale growers.
We Deliver
Specialist plant freight brings your order to your door. Free, anywhere in Australia.
We Install
Our professional team plants, stakes, mulches and finishes the job on site.







