Billbergia form clumps; one or two plants in a pot will fill the pot within a couple of years. The plants require almost no care other than occasional watering and dividing. Friendship plant fits this Billbergia well; like an old and good friend, it spends most of the year as a quiet companion on the patio. Then when the days grow short, it bursts into a dramatic display of brilliant pink bracts with green and blue flowers.

The genus, Billbergia, was established in 1821 by Carl Pehr Thunberg. Thunberg wrote, "Wished to give the name in honor of the most well known botanist, the most wise author of the elegant Flora of Sweden, Master Gustave Johan Billberg. Brothers (Thunberg and Billberg) of the Chamber of Reason, and Knight of the most splendid Polar Star." ("An Annotated Catalogue of the Generic Names of the Bromeliaceae", Jason R. Grant and Gea Zijlstra, Selbyana, bsi.org)

In 1869, Hermann Wendland described and named queen's-tears, Billbergia nutans, for the nodding inflorescences.