Tuesday, October 27, 2015

Seedlings and more

Back in July or so (I'd have to check the tags to be sure, but that seems right) I started some seed of a few different species. Currently two have germinated – Drosera burmannii (no surprise there) and Drosera tomentosa (that one's a bit surprising). The seedlings are putting on some size.

Drosera burmannii Gunung Keledang seedlings.
It's been a while since I've had D. burmannii seedlings. I like them this size!
Drosera tomentosa seedlings.
New South American species! I want some more SA 'dews.
The D. burmannii is a form from Gunung Keledang in Malaysia. We'll see if it varies at all from the Australian forms I currently grow. At this point I'm most interested in finding a persistently green form of D. burmannii. The D. tomentosa seed I received in a trade forever ago and finally sowed, and I'm pleased I've gotten plants out of it. I've fed both of these sets of seedings, so I'm hoping things start popping off soon. The other two pots I sowed (Drosera filiformis Florida Red and Drosera brevifolia) have, alas, not germinated.

A somewhat older seed-grown plant is this Drosera indica. This is one species that did not appreciate the period of neglect during the summer.

Drosera indica.
Keep strong, lonely little leaves.
A number of plantlets conked out after not having been fed. Just look at what the pot looked like initially. I think that D. indica is one species that absolutely must be fed. These two only made it because I got them a bit of fish food a week or so before this picture was taken. I've fed them again since, and am looking forward to healthy plants going forward.

I've started trying to wake up the tuberous sundews I picked up back in January and which went dormant in April.

Drosera ramellosa and Drosera rupicola.
I still need to remove the moss cap.
I have no clue with tuberous dews. They're really really cool, and I'd love to be able to grow them. There's definitely a finesse to it though, and we'll see if I've got the touch. I really hope they start to re-emerge soon!

One plant that is 100% not coming back out of dormancy is Drosera intermedia 'Cuba'.

Dead Drosera intermedia 'Cuba'.
It was a good run, D. 'Cuba'.
They went dormant last December, and just never came back. They stayed alive for a long time though – as recently as mid-April I was convinced they'd wake up any day. However, that black color is pretty definitive. Oh well, it makes a bit more room in my collection. Maybe I can harvest those last few flower stalks and start a new pot.

I've actually been quite good about feeding my plants lately, and my Drosera capensis red form has decided to reward me with a flower stalk!

Drosera capensis red form flower stalk.
This looks like it could be a really good flower stalk. I'm excited.
When I noticed this I gave it a really heavy feeding, because I'm hoping to get lots more seed from this. Josh has observed that the red form of D. capensis is the least fertile form he grows, and is the only one that will regularly yield no seed at all. I want seed though, so this sucker is getting fed.

2 comments:

  1. Do you have an update on your Bainskloof? I wanted to compare mine as it's either not the real deal or just needs to mature more (or needs more light...)

    ReplyDelete
  2. Do you have an update on your Bainskloof? I wanted to compare mine as it's either not the real deal or just needs to mature more (or needs more light...)

    ReplyDelete