I intend to complete the documentation on this page eventually, but in the meantime below are some pictures of my air plants.
I am only able to speak about the UK as that is the only place that I have purchased them. However, visits to garden centres in Europe suggest that the caveats that I give are probably valid there. The name "air plant" is a bit of a misnomer as it implies that the plants live just on air. In fact it is essentially the moisture in air on which they live plus nutriants carried in that moisture. Very few garden centres (at least in the UK) seem to have much of an understanding of air plant care, which is why great care needs to be exercised when purchasing them. If they look wizened and dead, they probably are. However, if the leaves have some colour, not necessarily a lot and look as though they have some substance, they are probably OK. The best place to go if you can is a Tillandia specialist. You can find lots of these via a search engine such as Google®. Be particularly aware of specimens that have got obviously fake flowers stuck in them (this applies to cactus as well). On the plus side, garden centres do tend to have the more hardy varieties, so if you are just starting and you choose healthy plants you should be well rewarded.
To be accurate, Tillandsias are a subfamily of the enormous Bromeliad family. This includes all sorts of plants such as orchids (some of which are also rootless) and pinapples. Tillandsias themselves have a large range of sizes and shapes from the tiny T. Bryoides (L Above), which I have to T. Grandis, which I don't, but I have seen a picture, it looks like a large Aloe in bloom. T. Usneoides (Spanish Moss, L Below) can grow into huge hanging clumps, and can be seen all over the southern states of the USA.
