Big news at Sundews Etc. HQ

Hi everybody, this post is mostly about me, rather than the plants, which is not what I usually like to post about. Don't worry though, I've got some pictures of some of my plants to spruce things up!

First of all, I'm about to head to the ICPS Conference in London! I'm very excited to go meet other weird obsessives from around the globe.

The Drosera graomogolensis look rad as heck right now.

I'll be in London next weekend for the conference, and then my girlfriend and I are going to spend a week in Germany futzing about for the hell of it. I'm quite excited, and will make sure to take pictures/video of the event. My great dream is a selfie with Sir David Attenborough, but we'll have to see.

The second bit of news is a bit bigger, and is part of the reason that I've been posting somewhat less frequently in the last several months. I'm now a carnivorous plant professional working at Predatory Plants!

Drosera burmannii Gunung Keledang look very alien and cool.

Specifically, I'm the Director of Retail Operations, which means I do online order fulfillment, work the plant show circuit, and do propagation and greenhouse work whenever I can find a spare second. Basically I now think about plants all day long, almost to the exclusion of other concerns. It's very exciting – and very, very unexpected – to have begun something of a career in carnivorous plants, especially considering I bought my first Drosera capensis less than 3 years ago.

Utricularia praelonga still blooming up a storm.

In point of fact, I've been working at Predatory Plants since November. At first it was part time (after I left my last job), and then it became full time, but it wasn't clear that it would be a permanent position. Luckily, things have been going quite well in expanding the business, and well here we are. My family is deeply confused about what my life has become.

This is Drosera adelae Giant form, and it's actually genuinely giant. Wow!

What does this mean for the blog and Instagram? Well, I might not post quite as often, if only because after a long day in a hot greenhouse I can barely manage to keep my personal plants watered, much less documented and blogged about. However, now that everything's all official I'll be able to post about work stuff as well, some of which is quite cool. I'm still trading and selling my own seeds and gemmae, but I may occasionally post links to fun stuff that we're selling on our website.

The unspeakably adorable Pinguicula gypsicola × moctezumae at work.

Thanks to all of you who read the blog, and who have commented and emailed about how much you enjoy it. I had been in a bit of a post-college slump/depression for a bit when I started collecting sundews, and then started blogging about it. It really got me out of my funk, and now it's gotten me a very strange and fun job. Life is very weird and cool! So are carnivorous plants, I guess.

Summertime!

I guess it's summer now for real. I can tell because Drosera cistiflora is finally giving up the ghost.

Goodnight, sweet prince.

Now comes the real challenge – I've gotta get it to sleep, then keep it alive during dormancy, and then I need to wake it up in fall. Fingers crossed!

Right nearby there's some funny leaves in the Drosera adelae pot.

Mmm. Lettuce.

You can clearly see the affinity with Drosera schizandra here. This big old colony is hilarious.

In terms of summer, my Pinguicula sp. Tehuacán is leafing out into carnivorous growth, and dang this is a cute ping.

Looks like that pulling I took didn't take. Oh well.

It's got great color and nice neat leaf margins. Upturned leaf margins are one of my favorite characteristics on pings.

Finally, I made a very silly image to offer in lieu of fireworks for the Fourth.

I'm not ashamed.

It's pygmies! :-D

A study in dew

I'm off traveling right now! I took some pictures of some of my dewiest plants before I left so I could share them with you all.

Drosera hamiltonii looking about as good as they ever do. It's pretty good!

Drosera prolifera has really liked the cooler temperatures in the garage.

Drosera capensis red form leaf just showing off.

Drosera aliciae from the Community Pot. Great plant!

These are the best-looking Drosera adelae in the colony right now. Lovely!

Sundews are the coolest.

Sundews Etc. one year in

One year ago today I made my first post here on the blog, about my blooming Drosera capillaris.

D. capillaris, 3-7-2014, from Flowers and D. capillaris "Alabama".

Things were so much simpler back then.

Here are some Fun Facts about the Sundews Etc. blog:

• Around 17% of my traffic comes from Ukraine. Thanks for tuning in, Ukrainian growers!
• Both of my Grower Interviews are among my top 10 most popular posts. I guess I should do some more.
• Based on the labels (to the right) I talk about Drosera burmannii more than any other species (big surprise), but pygmy sundews as a group are a close second.
• There are just shy of 1100 photos of carnivorous plants on this blog for 153 posts, around 7 per post on average.

Now, let's look back at some old posts and see how far we've come.

March

Dionaea muscipula, 3-12-2014, from Things are growing!

April 

Drosera scorpioides, 4-3-2014, from Pygmies and D. adelae.

May

Drosera 'Marston Dragon', 5-26-2014, from The Housefly and the Dragon.

June

Drosera allantostigma, 6-20-2014, from I really love Drosera allantostigma.

July

Drosera capensis 'Albino', 7-4-2014, from Repotting a few sundews.

August

Drosera helodes and Drosera allantostigma, 8-26-2014, from Checking in on various plants.

September

Drosera adelae. 9-11-2014, from Drosera adelae is offset crazy.

October

Praying mantis and Sarracenia leucophylla, 10-25-2014, from A thief among the Sarracenia.

November

Pinguicula laueana × emarginata. 11-21-2014, from Pinguicula roundup, November 2014.

December

Utricularia calycifida flower, 12-6-2014, from A few new blooms.

January

Drosera ultramafica × spatulata, 1-27-2015, from Some progress shots.

February

Drosera venusta, 2-9-2015, from Random pictures of pretty sundews.

Finally, here are a few more posts I noticed looking through the archives that might be of interest to newer reader.

• BACPS Annual Show and Sale Part One: The Juried Show
• Field Trip: California Carnivores
• 100th Post! I photographed the whole collection!
• Field Trip: Nepenthes at the Conservatory of Flowers

And of course, there are Plant Profiles, Cultivation Guides, and Grower Interviews on my Blog Series page.

Thank you all for reading – sharing pictures and talking about my plants with fellow growers makes everything a lot more fun. Here's to another good year!

Another pest follow-up

So I've had a (mercifully small) problem with aphids in a couple pots lately. My Drosera anglica was worst hit, and my Drosera collinsae recovered quickly. The weirdest one has been my Drosera aliciae. I didn't document its decline particularly well, but I stuck it in the quarantine tray some time ago, and it appears to have gotten better. I think? I never found any actual aphids on it, but it was going down in the exact same way as my D. anglica (even though they were across the room from each other).

Anyway, it's flowering now, which is stupid.

What a dumb little flower stalk.

It also appears to have split into at least 3 growth points.

It's a mess in there.

Again, as with my D. anglica I'm intending to let it settle in, start growing properly again, and then repot. I'll dump all the media and wash the plant well to get rid of any residual aphids/eggs. If I get 3 plants out of it then well, all the better.

Speaking of the D. anglica, there's at least one proper growth point on it again.

It's heartening to see new growth at least.

As you can see the original crown is a huge mess. I've got no idea how it's going to develop, but I guess we'll see. I bet it'll grow well with a bit of a feeding.

In any case, my backup plant is coloring up nicely being closer to the lights.

I love how quickly this is getting red.

Sure glad I have extras!

In other news, check this out.

The flowers are smaller than I expected.

Computer, zoom and enhance.

Beautiful red color.

Drosera adelae flowers are really pretty.

Update: the Summer Batch

 Back at the beginning of July I started a round of propagation I referred to as the Summer Batch. I started 4 species from seed and 4 from leaf cuttings. It's been 5 months, so let's see how things stand.

First up, the seeds. Drosera capillaris was the most successful in this respect, and I've got a couple decent-looking seedlings.

D. capillaris is a very pretty little sundew.

As well as a couple Drosera tokaiensis.

D. tokaiensis is a pretty vigorous grower usually. Hope these take off soon.

And, hilariously, one lonely little Drosera burmannii (Humpty Doo) that germinated after like 4 months.

This one took a while.

I still haven't seen any Drosera intermedia 'Cuba' sprout. I know it's not the seeds, since I've seen seed that I sent to other people germinate.

In all I'm disappointed with the seedling success rate (although pleased that D. capillaris germinated without cold stratification). I'm not sure what exactly went wrong. I think that fancy bag of peat I used may have something to do with it – the Drosera sessilifolia and D. burmannii (Hann River) that I started on my standard peat a couple months later have been doing great.

I'm more pleased with how my leaf cuttings performed, although not necessarily elated. First up, only one of my 6 Drosera adelae plants struck, although considering the current state of my main pot, this is more a blessing than anything else.

The red color is very nice on these plantlets.

On the other hand I have several nice looking plantlets of Drosera venusta that have come up. Only one of the three cuttings struck, but dang they're pretty.

This is really a lovely sundew. I wish my mature plant was growing better.

I also had pretty good luck with Drosera madagascariensis. Two of the three cuttings struck, and one even has a little stem going already.

It's already got that lean oh no.

The cutting I'm happiest about is this Drosera anglica CA x HI. If you follow the blog you'll know I recently lost the mother plant to aphids (essentially – it's still got some green but the prospects are grim). This plant is pretty much the size the mother plant was when I received it in March. Not too bad!

Really a stunning plant. I need to keep this one alive.

I'll have to start propagating off of this plant now, since I really want to be able to share this guy with the BACPS and others.

What have I learned from the Summer Batch? The first thing I learned is that I played with too many variables. Changing up the peat I use, using seed starter trays for the first time, messing with a bunch of different species – it's hard to draw a coherent picture. I definitely think that the peat is part of the problem, and I don't plant on using it again (especially since it's so expensive).

The main thing I learned is that I need to be propagating more, if only to keep generating backup plants. Now I just need to make some more room under my lights.

A few new blooms

A couple days ago I noticed a little patch of yellow over in my Drosera capensis red form pot.

It's like a whole ecosystem in this tray.

It's Utricularia subulata! And this time with a proper flower, rather than the cleistogamous ones I've seen around my collection in the past.

I love looking at my plants up close.

These are nice, colorful flowers, and they'd be very pleasing in a dedicated pot, I think. I feel conflicted about the weedy Utrics – I do like to see them, but I don't really want them in every pot in my collection.

I also noticed a little something forming in my Drosera adelae bush.

Looking forward to seeing the unique red flowers of D. adelae soon.

Aww yeah, it's a flower stalk. This is exciting, since it's my first on D. adelae. I think I've heard before that this species likes to wait until the pot is sufficiently large and sufficiently full of plants to bloom. I guess I know what that looks like now. More photos as events warrant!

The coolest thing I noticed today was that the Utricularia calycifida flower that has been developing for a while has finally popped, and it's a looker.

U. calycifida is an awesome plant. What lovely flowers.

This is great! And there are several more flowers on the way. This pot is going to look fabulous by the winter BACPS meeting.

Flowers!

Drosera prolifera seems to be doing better

I received a Drosera prolifera back in April from the NASC Auction. It struggled for a while in my care, and by August or so it was looking pretty shot.

This poor plant looks fried.

I suspect its original conditions had had somewhat lower light and decidedly higher humidity. This photo was actually taken shortly after I moved it from its original position directly under the lights to a new one at the edge of the tray, where the light is somewhat reduced. I guess my instinct with this plant was correct, because it's looking pretty good lately.

It's really neat seeing them reach up out of the moss.

Also looking good is that Sphagnum. It's growing like crazy, and it's all the D. prolifera can do to reach up above it with its extra long petioles. There are also several babies poking up around the pot.

D. prolifera plantlets have to work to not get swallowed by moss.

Living Sphagnum is a pretty cool potting medium, but it makes the plants work for it.

One thing I've noticed about plants I receive from other growers is that sometimes they'll severely shrink back in my conditions and then regrow nicely. One thing it's good to know when trading or buying plants is what their typical growing conditions are. It can help you acclimate them to their new homes more easily.

My Drosera adelae (another of the Three Sisters of Queensland, and a close relative of D. prolifera) is going bonkers.

Look at this ridiculous D. adelae bush. I wonder if this is how they look in habitat.

It's also sending roots out the bottom of the pot and tossing up plantlets in the tray water.

I should take care that the roots don't invade other pots.

I sorta feel silly deciding to do some leaf cuttings of D. adelae as part of the Summer Batch. The cutting that struck is looking cute though!

It's so pretty and gem-like when small like this.

Wish I could get that nice red color on my mature plants.

Finally, in non-carnivorous news, there's a flower bud forming on my Aloe x spinosissima.

Aloes bloom in winter, and there are lots planted around the Bay. It's a real treat.

This is the first year it will bloom, and I'm excited. Aloe flowers are really pretty.