Utricularia graminifolia flower and other cool stuff

Back at the beginning of March – 3 months ago – I first noticed a flower stalk forming on my Utricularia graminifolia. Yesterday it finally popped its first flower.

Neat little flower. Foliage is looking pretty good too.

So cute! U. graminifolia is considered one of the more fiddly terrestrial/semi-aquatic utrics. I grow mine in an undrained glass container about 18 inches from my lights. I let the water pretty much evaporate all the way before refilling almost to the top of the container (covering the plant entirely). I've heard of several people using this method to successfully grow U. graminifolia to flower. There are several more flower stalks coming up, which is exciting. One thing to note when using this method – when you first plant your plug of U. graminifolia there's nothing holding the peat together, so watering really stirs it all up. The peat settles after a day or so. Once the plant fills in the container watering isn't so much of an issue anymore.

 I've also got a flower coming up on my Drosera collinsiae (Fairyland, RSA).

Very nice rosette of leaves on this plant.

This is a really handsome plant that hasn't gotten much attention on the blog. It started to flower once before, but I clipped the stalk when I noticed aphids on it. Now we're flowering again and I'm keeping my fingers crossed that this one won't be similarly afflicted.

These next two photos I recently posted on my Instagram, but I decided to share them here too because not everyone has Instagram. First up, look at this wild picture of my Drosera burmannii (Hann River, Kimberley, Western Australia).

Dig that weird splotchy coloring.

I had let them go a while without being fed, which gave them a lovely, luminescent red color. Then, a couple days after a heavy feeding, I noticed that there was this mix of pale pink and deep red leaves as the new growth grew in. Super cool!

I also shared this photo of Drosera enodes, which I took as part of my project to improve the pygmy sundew pages on Wikipedia.

One of the loveliest pygmies, imo.

D. enodes forms this little dome composed almost entirely of dew, and it's really, really cute. I love my little pygmies.

Gemmae explosion

Happy Christmas Eve everyone! It's wintertime and my pygmies going nuts on their gemmae. Pretty much every mature species in my collection is producing gemmae, and some are really going overboard with it. It's like they've caught the Christmas spirit.

My original Drosera allantostigma is crammed full.

This is definitely too many gemmae to count.

The pot I got from Brie is looking a bit messy since I've been using it to demonstrate what gemmae are to people.

Getting gemmae everywhere.

The Drosera scorpioides I started from gemmae myself are just getting started.

These D. scorpioides are so lovely and dewy.

While the ones I got at the spring BACPS meeting are going bananas.

Packed in like grapeshot.

I believe I see gemmae even on my long-suffering Drosera pygmaea. I need to bring it forward in the tray so I can look at it more easily.

Maybe after this my D. pygmaea will finally settle in.

The Drosera helodes look almost ready to harvest.

These D. helodes look like they're about to explode.

There are a couple forming on the stem-forming Drosera dichrosepala.

That one in the back is just getting started.

While the closely-related Drosera enodes appears to just barely be getting started. Beautiful plants though!

The colors on these plants have been fantastic lately.

And finally, the most festive of them all, Drosera callistos.

Little Christmas wreaths!

Happy growing everyone. I hope your pygmies are doing just as well. And if you don't have any pygmies yet, keep an eye out on the blog – I'm going to have lots of gemmae to get rid of soon.

Pygmy sundew roundup, September 2014

September is essentially the start of pygmy season. Soon pygmy sundews in collections everywhere will start producing gemmae, which will need to be quickly sown, sold, traded, or gifted, since gemmae are modified leaves rather than seeds and only have a brief shelf life. Keep an eye on Drosera Gemmae if you're interested in starting up/expanding your pygmy collection. I know I will!

I learned in my interview with bluemax (and according to things I've read elsewhere) that reducing the photoperiod on my lights should cause my pygmies to form gemmae. I reduced the photoperiod by an hour a couple weeks ago, and I'll be continuing that reduction until they're down to 10 hours or so per day in the deep winter. Hopefully I'll get lots of pygmies that I can start on new pots to share with people. In the mean time, I decided to post another roundup post about my pygmies to see how they're doing before they possibly start making gemmae and get all weird for a couple months.

First up is my first ever Drosera allantostigma, from the community pot.

My old friend D. allantostigma hanging out with his buddies.

My first ever pygmy sundew, acquired quite by accident, and far and away my favorite pygmy species. Also probably my favorite plant in the collection.

Around the time I was watching D. allantostigma shape up I got some Drosera scorpioides gemmae from Drosera Gemmae. It was one of the last sets of gemmae they had for sale, and I'm glad I got them!

D. scorpioides started from gemmae in March. I like the spacing in this pot.

This pot is a little bare since I lost those 3 plantlets.

Of the 15 gemmae I received, 12 made it to maturity. The other three died when I removed a humidity cover too soon. I sowed these gemmae on about a centimeter of pure sand, which has totally prevented moss from developing. I'm not sure I would always sow on sand – I've come to appreciate the way a well-mossed pot can look – but it's nice to see that this technique is so successful.

I also got a pot of D. scorpioides at the spring BACPS meeting from the raffle.

D. scorpioides get quite large, so this is pretty close quarters for them.

These are in a 2-inch circular pot, rather than the 3.5 inch square pot that houses my others. Also they were sown much more densely. At this stage in their growth they have formed a sort of undifferentiated mass which isn't quite to my tastes aesthetically. Great coloration though – hope these form lots of gemmae.

At the 2014 BACPS Show and Sale I picked up 2 species of pygmies from California Carnivores – Drosera callistos Brookton large form, and Drosera enodes (Scotts River).

D. callistos with Utricularia bisquamata flower in the foreground.

Quite dewy D. enodes.

Apparently the D. callistos will have enormous, hilarious orange flowers in the spring. Also, I love the little stem-forming pygmies, and D. enodes seems to be going at it pretty well.

Finally, back during the NASC Benefit Auction over at Terra Forums I won a 4-pack of pygmy sundews from Brie. They were beautifully packed, and included Drosera helodes, Drosera dichrosepala, D. allantostigma, and Drosera pgymaea.

The tentacles on this D. helodes are strikingly pale.

D. dichrosepala reaching for the stars.

Little jewel-like D. allantostigma. Their flowers were super cute too.

Hope you bounce back little guys!

As you can see the D. pygmaea look a little iffy. It's funny, cause I've heard them recommended as one of the easiest pygmy species! Hopefully cooler temperatures and shorter photoperiods will have them springing back to life again.

Pygmies are so cute. I addition to sowing them in pots for propagation purposes, I'm going to make at least one large pot with a bunch of different species growing in it. That will be super fun.

BACPS 2014 Annual Show and Sale Part Two: Everything Else

In this post I'll share a few more photos from the recent Bay Area Carnivorous Plant Society Show and Sale. In part one I posted about the winners of the juried show.

The event was held at the Lake Merritt Garden Center (I didn't get pictures of the surroundings, so have a GIS). It was a really nice day out, but inside the garden center it was pretty warm and humid, being full of people and plants breathing all over each other. There was a really good turnout!

Lots of people buying plants! Sometimes it was too crowded to move around, which is great!

Most of the plants on offer were Nepenthes and Sarracenia – there was a decent, though not enormous, selection of sundews, and just a few pings. I think I saw a handful of Utricularia as well. I just ended up getting 3 plants, which I'll share at the end of this post.

Sarracenia everywhere.

These were reasonably-priced plants, but some of the rarer offerings were hilariously pricey.

Almost makes me wish to be a Nepenthes grower – but not quite :-p

I also had a few more photos from the Show. Here's the Dish Garden table.

Such nice plantings.

My pictures of the ping and sundew tables were ruined by the light from the window. Oh well.

I wish I had recorded the identity of that big vining plant.

Hamatas! I think these were grown by Drew Martinez.

There were also loads of Sarracenia in the show. They took up a whole wall and then some!

I can't imagine having to judge all these Sarracenia.

As I said, I only got three plants at the show –  two pygmies, Drosera callistos and Drosera enodes Scotts River, and Drosera admirabilis.

These D. callistos will have big orange flowers. Cute!

I like stem-forming pygmies, like these D. enodes.

Finally a positively-identified D. admirabilis. Charming plant!

So much fun! I can't wait for next year.