Back in January I won an auction for a
Drosera cistiflora that is
really doing great. The grower from whom I won the
D. cistiflora also included (very generously!) two leaves of
Drosera ×"Andromeda", which is
Drosera schizandra ×
prolifera. This plant is becoming more common, but it's still fairly rare and definitely a prize in any collection. I started one cutting in water, and the other I placed on some living
Sphagnum moss (that I harvested from my
Drosera prolifera pot). Just the other day I noticed a strike on the water-float plant!
 |
| Leaf strike! |
The one on the moss hasn't done anything yet that I can tell. Moss looks great though.
 |
| Getting my Sphagnum game in order. |
I'm really looking forward to seeing this guy grow in. Then I'll just need to get my hands on some
Drosera schizandra and I'll have the full Three Sisters of Queensland collection!
Another exciting development today is this flower stalk on
Utricularia graminifolia.
 |
| U. graminifolia has very pretty flowers. |
Okay, I know it doesn't look like much right now, but right there in the middle of the photo is a flower stalk, I promise. I guess
U. graminifolia has settled into its conditions pretty well. Now I want to transition it to a shallower container. I like the idea of a really shallow glass container with a layer of flowering
U. graminifolia living on it. We'll see.
Speaking of
Utricularia flowers, my
Utricularia longifolia flower stalk is getting taller!
 |
| This is really a beast of a plant. |
It's so hard to photograph that stalk with my phone camera. I'm going to need to get something proper just so I can manually control the point of focus. The tip of the flower stalk is taking on a purple tinge though. Exciting!
Finally, in other flower news there is a stalk developing on
Drosera affinis.
 |
| It curls up so elegantly. |
While I'm happy it's doing so well, I'm frankly not all that optimistic about seed production. I was disappointed with both
Drosera madagascariensis and
Drosera venusta on that front. The only South African species that have consistently set good seed for me are
Drosera capensis (obviously) and
Drosera aliciae. We'll see what happens though!
One thing I've noticed about D. 'Andromeda', which you might want to look for once yours strike, is that it has a tendency to get larger, wider leaves once fed. Mine has leaves that currently dwarf my D. schizandra (although that gets too much light as is).
ReplyDeleteGlad to see you have D. affinis in cultivation. It's somewhat rare, but looks like a neat plant. Any tips or tricks on it?
I'm excited to see how my plant develops! I know that it is a very variable hybrid which can show characteristics on the full spectrum between its parent plants. It sounds like it also has additional hybrid vigor (having leaves larger than you D. schizandra). That sounds great.
DeleteI wish I had particular instructions w/r/t D. affinis – I received it in a trade back in August and it has just received my standard conditions (very very bright artificial light, peat:sand mix, distilled water in a communal tray that goes dry every now and again). I haven't even fed it that much. My temperatures are fairly mild – between 50 and 90 F. I guess it likes things this way!