Windowsill growing

If you've followed my blog for very long, you know that most of my personal carnivorous plant growing has been of the indoor, artificial light variety. Since I've been working at Predatory Plants I've also gotten a decent amount of experience at greenhouse growing. However, for most people, the easiest way to start growing carnivorous plants is in a sunny windowsill. There are also quite a few growers with very impressive windowsill collections. So here's what's been going on in my kitchen lately!

We expanded the windowsill so we could fit more plants into it.

As you can see, not everything there is carnivorous. On the left I've got an Adenium obesum I really like. My roommate also has a pretty sweet Pachypodium sp., and we've got a couple orchids and stapeliads. But to hell with that!

The fiddliest species I grow currently is Nepenthes spectabilis "giant"

Love the cream-and-red coloring.

I've waited so long for this pitcher. Josh gave me this almost a year ago, in April 2016. It came with two lovely pitchers, but those were dropped as soon as it went into my windowsill. This most recent pitcher opened maybe 2 weeks ago, which means I kept it around for 9 months with no pitchers. In the plant's defense, I was pretty bad at watering until a month or two ago. It's been doing pretty well lately.

Another plant that gave me problems at first but turned out to be totally great is this N. spectablis × aristolochioides.

Cute little vine!

I got this one in October 2015 as a basal from our big breeding plant at Predatory Plants. It was cute enough, but it also dropped its pitchers and just vined for months and months. I was rewarded with a really great pitcher in early autumn 2016 that lasted for month and months. Of course, I didn't really photograph it. Suffice to say, people liked it. Now though, the plant is doing great – the vine has two pitchers swelling, and the basal is doing great, including popping a cute new pitcher.

Probably one of the better aristo pitchers.

This has really put on a lot of biomass since I first got it. I'm going to need to repot it soon.

One of my best plants lately has been N. hamata × platychila. (Check out this post for the entrance of both it and the N. spectabilis × aristolochioides into my collection.)

I'm super into this plant of late!

For the longest time this would only hold one pitcher at once. Then it grew a really strong basal and totally took off this autumn. For the last month and change there were 4 active pitchers, and it just looked great. I think this one really preferred the cooler temperatures and brighter light in winter. The light is brighter because in a south-facing window there are more hours of direct sun in winter, when the sun is lower in the sky. We'll see how this does in summer.

My favorite windowsill plant is N. khasiana.

This is one of those plants that very rare, but not that desirable, so it's not too expensive.

After a few weird leaves early on this one has been really doing great for me. It even held its pitchers during winter, when they'd normally die off. The most recent leaves are a bit small, but I expect it'll do great during summer. Since working at Predatory Plants I've come to really like green pitchers with odd shapes, which this has. My friend Amir says I'm a Nepenthes hipster.

It's not only Neps that grow in my windowsill though! Amir gave me a Cephalotus some time ago, and again I didn't document it well. Initially it was small, with immature pitchers. I've kept it in my windowsill and it's doing great!

Funny little faces.

This is a very nice clone with lots of red coloration. I keep it in this tupperware, which I fill with water after letting it go dry for a couple days. I put some Osmocote fertilizer in one of the small pitchers once, but its been really hands-off otherwise. That's Utricularia sandersonii in the pot, but it hasn't bloomed in months (probably too dry). Whoever said Cephs are hard to grow?

Speaking of Amir, you should go check out his blog, www.thesundew.blog (I helped him workshop the URL). Amir bought some Drosera burmannii seeds from me a little over 2 years ago, when he was first getting started with carnivorous plants. Since then he's become quite a formidable indoor grower, with an impressive collection of Drosera and rare Cephalotus. His blog has great pictures, and he grows a lot of plants I don't have, so it's worth examining. Here's a Drosera regia he grew from seed and gave to me a couple months ago.

The King has arrived!

Isn't that great? Go look at his blog, especially since I seem to have become so bad at posting regularly.

Some plants just struggle

Not every plant can be a Drosera spiralis. There are a handful of plants in my collection that always seem like they're in a slump. Drosera collinsiae is definitely like that.

On the plus side, that utric looks great.

This is a very handsome plant when it's happy, but it just seems to get deflated by everything. Heat for sure, and Pyrethrin, but also the Bayer 3-in-1, which didn't seem to affect any other plant in the collection. I can't remember the last time this one had more than 3 dewy leaves.

Another consistently wimpy plant is Drosera ×snyderi, which is D. dielsiana × nidiformis.

They actually look pretty decent right now.

There were originally 5 plants in each pot. The one on the right clearly had a bit of a crash recently, but all of them look super set back whenever I have to spray for bugs or whatever. Funny plant.

A very funny case is Drosera schizandra. I've got two pots, and they're looking pretty different right now.

Spinach anyone?

There's a little pup in the bottom of the pot actually.

They're also looking pretty different than they looked back in January. I don't think there's been enough heat to cause a crash like this, and nothing else weird has happened. Who knows? This is a famously temperamental species, after all.


This next is a funny one. I got this Pinguicula esseriana from California Carnivores a year ago. It certainly hasn't grown, and looks to have shrunk back a bit in fact.

Little guy is lost down in there!

I don't know why that would be the case, because a bit later I received some small P. esseriana starts, and those are doing much better.

Look at all the little babies.

I should really just scoop out that first one and put it in the second pot to free up some space in the tray. I wish it would put on some size!

On a more hopeful note, the itty bitty Cephalotus follicularis I got in a trade a bit ago seems to be settling in rather than dying off.

We've got a long road to go, but we're off to a good start!

I believe that's a new pitcher on the upper right, and it's certainly a new leaf on the lower right. Progress!

The Drosera hamiltonii are a funny case. These look absolutely terrible, right?

Sooooo ugly right now.

The thing is, they're just fine. I fed a bunch of plants (including these) a week ago or so, and D. hamiltonii take forever to look good after feeding. The thing is, when they look good they look really good. Weird little sundews.

Finally, a pygmy that seems to have no idea whether or not it likes me.

I love all pygmies, even the fussy ones.

Drosera spilos is the only pygmy I've got that seems to go dormant at all in my conditions, and as you can see there are a couple of them that are dormant right now, in the middle of winter. Amusingly, this is as good as this pot has ever looked. No idea why. Sorry you don't like it here as much little guy!

Plants are weird.

Some recent trading

I've been doing a bit of trading lately, after having been out of the game for a while. Got some fun new plants in!

First off, it's my first Cephalotus follicularis!

So little!

I've been overdue for a Ceph. This is a small one, but it holds great promise! This (and the next two plants) are from a trade with David Flocken, who I recently profiled in a Grower Interview.

This is Drosera spatulata 'Tamlin', a well-known cultivar of the infamously messy D. spatulata complex.

A D. spatulata with an actual identity. Nice!

D. 'Tamlin' is named after Tamlin Dawnstar, a very well-respected member of the community who has been in prison for (if I recall) growing small amounts of marijuana. Tamlin unfortunately got arrested before the recent relaxing of the law around marijuana, but he was known as a very giving member of the community in days past (and hopefully will be again soon). I've seen mature specimens of this cultivar that look quite a bit like Drosera ultramafica × spatulata, so I'm interested to see how it grows in.

Finally, I couldn't do a trade with David without getting my hands on a Drosera capensis "Big Pink".

Drosera capensis "Big Pink".

I'm very excited to see how this plant matures. Given how David talked it up I've got high hopes indeed. Getting a good new form of D. capensis is always cause for rejoicing.

A little bit ago I also did a trade around some South American Drosera. Unfortunately, it looks like the Drosera latifolia leaves I was trying to start from cuttings didn't take off.

Poor dead leaf cuttings.

I'm pretty sure that I'm to blame with this. I've been absolutely terrible at keeping water levels high lately, and I think it just got too dry for these cuttings. I've got a scheme for improving success with leaf cuttings though, I'll have to trial it soon.

My Drosera graomogolensis root cutting, on the other hand, has 2 strikes and I'd be amazed if I don't get more soon.

First strike on D. graomogolensis.

Second strike on D. graomogolensis.

Root cuttings are the obviously best way to go for propagating a lot of sundew species, but I'm glad these guys have been so good about it. I can't wait to have some D. graomogolensis – it's a beautiful sundew.

Finally, I've very nearly hardened off my Drosera felix a.k.a. Drosera kaieteurensis.

I think it looks very happy!

Apparently the specific epithet "felix" is currently considered synonymous with "kaieteurensis", which I think is a bummer, because the word "felix" means "happy", which is a great specific epithet. In any case, it seems to be doing well. I almost wish it was a bit less blushed, since it actually seems a little over-lit currently. I'm not too worried though, it's got some decent dew there.

Trading is fun, but it's a lot of work! I've got some space in my collection recently (I've cleared out a few old pots), so I've still got room too expand. There are always more Drosera out there!

Field Trip: Funny stuff at Predatory Plants

Yesterday I decided to go hang out in San Francisco with my friend Josh, owner of Predatory Plants. I thought I'd head home early to beat the commute traffic, but unfortunately the commute traffic got started around 1 pm, so I ended up sitting around his greenhouse checking out all the weird stuff he's got around (and also catching up on all the carnivorous plant gossip).

This Nepenthes glandulifera flower stalk looks like a certain other prized inflorescence.

Like a teddy bear.

This plant is so fuzzy it's ridiculous.

The clump of Drosera omissa × pulchella is just about to attain sentience.

Be careful of pygmy hybrids.

Meanwhile the Drosera scorpioides are looking quite Dr. Seuss-like.

They look so fragile.

I correctly guessed that these plants are three years old. It's fun having extremely niche expertise.

Josh discovered something funny about his pots of Pinguicula planifolia.

They're attractive plants, just baffling.

See that hole in the pot? It's hollow underneath. I guess in the two-plus years these have been growing here the bottom layer of soil has gradually been washed away, while the top is held together by the moss. Josh says he's afraid to mess with it now, since the plants seem to be fine.

I had to stop to admire this fine patch of Drosera filiformis Florida red.

I love this plant. Great color.

These are around two years old. Really lovely plants! I wish mine would get a move on and start filling out.

Also, Josh recently got into growing Cephalotus, and the results are looking pretty good!

So squat and hairy!

Everybody loves Cephs. If there was more of a consensus on how to grow them (and an easier way to produce them) I'm sure they'd become one of the most popular plants in cultivation.

Towards the end of the day Josh was planting up some Drosera hamiltonii to a larger tray. For every plant he repotted he got a root cutting to start a new one. It's a very efficient system.

Those are some good-looking roots.

Seeing all those D. hamiltonii made me want to check in on my own when I got home. They're looking great!

Dew like crazy.

I love seeing the new leaves unfurling.

This is definitely one of those species where the less you mess with them the better they look. I think I spotted a root or two creeping into the tray though. I should get some propagation going. Look at those plants!

Field Trip: California Carnivores

A couple weeks ago I decided to take the hour trip to California Carnivores to use the gift cards I won at the BACPS Show back at the end of June. It's not too far, but it was a hot day, and the AC on my car is out. I was definitely happy to finally arrive.

The quirky sign and wonderful drought-friendly landscaping at California Carnivores.

Lots of Sarracenia basking in the blazing sun.

California Carnivores is located in Sebastopol, CA, a bit north of San Francisco. It's a really nice little town, comprised primarily of nurseries, antique stores, and apple orchards. California Carnivores is mostly a large greenhouse, along with some outdoor bogs/growing areas.

It's also got the nicest display of carnivorous plants probably on the West Coast. I made the mistake of trying to buy a couple display plants – embarrassing! (Sorry Damon). This post is mostly focused on their displays, which were really something special. Got quite a few pictures!

I don't know enough about Heliamphora to identify these, but they were in bloom and beautiful.

Utricularia longifolia putting on quite a show with some Sarracenia hybrids.

These (and several of the other more delicate plants) were growing near the wall of the nursery that was basically a huge swamp cooler. The cool, damp air was really nice, especially considering the temperature outside was in the low 90s F (~33 C). I wore a long sleeve shirt, which was a mistake.

This Sarracenia flava var. rubricorpora was almost 4 ft (120 cm) tall. Wonderful!

I think this hanging basket of Drosera binata is probably the extrema form. Lots of branching and red color.

Amazing color on these Cephalotus follicularis.

Brocchinia reducta, a rare carnivorous bromeliad.

These Darlingtonia california had wonderful coloration, and were BIG. The head was about the size of my fist.

Drosera erythrorhiza ssp. squamosa should really be asleep for the summer by now.

In addition to the display plants and the regular stock (i.e. lots of Sarracenia, South African sundews, VFTs, various Nepenthes, and others) there was a section with some Rare and Exciting plants. The first that caught my eye was Sarracenia 'Adrian Slack'. These not-so-large specimens of the prized cultivar were going for $125. I wish I had a better Sarracenia setup (although I probably wouldn't invest in a rare cultivar like this for a while). My girlfriend asked why these were so special compared to other S. leucophylla and I had to do a lot of explaining.

The rare plant table is also the helpless yearning table.

These VFTs, however, required no explanation. Look at those silly little cartoon traps! Alas, I can't remember the name of the cultivar, or the price.

If I had a better VFT growing environment I would have totally snatched these up.

We also had a peek at one of their indoor propagation areas, with loads of plants getting prepared to be sold someday. Looks like a lot of work, but probably pretty satisfying work.

Carnivores for days!

It was a really fun trip, and I'll definitely be back later in the season, when Damon said they'll probably have some Drosera slackii available. I don't know if I'll be able to make it to the potluck BBQ this upcoming Saturday. I hope so! Gotta get my AC fixed first though. The plants that I brought back with me (which I'll post about later) did not enjoy the hour-long ride in a baking hot car.

One thing I noticed going through these pictures – the quality of light in a greenhouse like that is really ideal for picture taking. No harsh shadows or weird colors. Just pretty plants!

This bromeliad/Spanish moss (Tillandsia usneoides) area is quite evocative.