Bromeliaceae is one of the morphologically and ecologically diverse flowering plant families, which originally distributed in the tropics and subtropics of the New World. Their beautiful shapes and colors, low maintenance and easy adaptability have brought bromeliads into worldwide as ornamental plants. In this review, the achievements in taxonomy, conservation and utilization of Bromeliaceae germplasm resourses, breeding and genetics, and the new techniques in its breeding were collected and analyzed. To date, hybridization is still the main breeding approach for germplasm innovation in ornamental bromeliads. The breeding objectives that Colorful bracts, varied inflorescence shapes, spineless leaves, moderate plant type, early flowering, and excellent cold resistance are pursued by breeders. Strong prefertilization barriers were observed after intraspecific, interspecific and intergeneric crosses, but only minor postfertilization difficulties occurred in Bromeliaceae. To overcome these prefertilization barriers cut style and grafted style pollination techniques can be used to increase the percentage of fertilization. The parentage of most actual hybrids in commerce is very complex, and hybridization results are unpredictable. It is suggested that polyploid breeding and molecular breeding should be strengthened in the near future.