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.

It's been a while since I've had D. burmannii seedlings. I like them this size!

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.

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.

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'.

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!

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.

This post is just for sundews

Man, it's been feeling like Sarracenia Etc. around here. I must plead circumstance – first of all, I've got a lot of room for new Sarracenia and very little for new Drosera. It's also spring, so all the pitchers are waking up. And finally I keep battling the aphids in my indoor collection. But there's lots going on still, so let's get back to basics and look at some sundews.

First up, the season is over for my two tuberous species, Drosera ramellosa and Drosera rupicola.

This spot is now occupied by my new Drosera slackii.

They definitely went dormant earlier than expected. Now I've set them to dry out, after which I might see what the situation with the tubers is. At the very least I'm going to remove that horrible cap of moss on the pot and replace it with a layer of sand.

My other summer-dormant sundew, Drosera cistiflora, is still very much awake, and enjoying having been recently fed.

Looks like a feast.

 It hasn't formed a stem yet this year, and considering how late we are in the season I doubt that it will. Still, I'm glad that it's apparently so healthy. This one will almost certainly come back next season.

One of my smaller Drosera filiformis plants has woken up.

Always propagate. It's like insurance.

This is very satisfying, since the one that was on its way a couple months ago is now, beyond much doubt, definitely dead.

The question now is: do I keep waiting?

Maybe the shock of being moved up closer to the lights was just too much for it. I'll let the one that's still alive get a bit bigger before the move, I guess.

The first of my Drosera intermedia 'Cuba' seems to be waking up as well.

Wake up little guy.

This is the only plant among the 3 pots of D. 'Cuba' that seems to be waking, though the others are definitely still alive. We'll see.

Another Drosera hamiltonii has apparently sprouted from the roots.

I didn't expect to see these plants start offsetting.

This was sort of a surprise, since this species has always seemed only barely satisfied in my conditions. I guess it can't be so bad.

The two Drosera anglica CA × HI plantlets from the Summer Batch that I thought had died have apparently come back.

Propagation can surprise you.

I've fed them, so hopefully in a month or two we'll have some more of this excellent plant available.

Finally, the Drosera indica situation is still completely out of control.

This is too many plants.

I'm in the process of hardening these guys off. What I'll do after that is anyone's guess.

Feels good to get back to sundews! The aphids seem to be in retreat, so hopefully I'll be able to get back to normal sooner rather than later.

Last week of the NASC benefit auction

Every year the online carnivorous plant forum TerraForums hosts a benefit auction for the North American Sarracenia Conservancy. The NASC is really cool – they restore habitat, perform controlled burns, and organize ex situ conservation to maintain genetic diversity (and in the hopes that sites may be restored and repopulated in the future).

During the auction people put plants up for bidding, and the winning bid is payed to the NASC, though the person donating the plant usually receives money from the winning bidder for shipping. Last year I spent a lot of money during the auction! This year I'm planning on spending somewhat less, but I'm also able to donate a lot more. The following are all plants or seeds you could win from yours truly.

Plants

Drosera capensis red form offset.

Two Drosera 'Marston Dragon' plants.

Pinguicula rotundiflora × hemiepiphytica.

Pinguicula esseriana.

Pinguicula 'Pirouette' (plantlets to the right of the mother plant).

Seeds

Drosera anglica CA × HI.

Drosera intermedia 'Cuba'.

Drosera burmannii (Humpty Doo, NT, Australia).

Most of the items can only be shipped within the US, but you don't need to be a TF member to bid. Anyone can bid as a guest, provided you leave an email address so you can be contacted if you win an auction. Go forth and bid! There are lots of rare/uncommon plants available, and it's for a good cause.

Expect an update on my winning bids in the next few weeks, hahahah.

Flowering age: various Drosera

Let's do a little overview of how long it's taken various of my plants to grow to flowering size, either from seed or from leaf cuttings.

I started Drosera burmannii, Drosera intermedia 'Cuba', and Drosera capensis 'Albino' at the very end of 2013, and they all germinated in mid-January of 2014.

D. intermedia 'Cuba' was the first to flower, on the 11th of April, only 3 months after germination.

D. intermedia 'Cuba' seedlings, mid-January 2014.

D. intermedia 'Cuba' flower stalk, 4-11-2014.

Then we had the D. burmannii flowering on the 16th of May, 4 months.

D. burmannii seedlings, mid-January 2014.

D. burmannii flower stalk, 5-16-2014.

The D. capensis 'Albino' took the longest, sending up a stalk on July 4th, just under 6 months.

D. capensis 'Albino' seedlings, mid-January 2014.

D. capensis 'Albino' flower stalk, 7-4-2014.

Last spring I got some Drosera natalensis seeds from Natch Greyes, which germinated in mid May of 2014, and started blooming just a couple days ago, on February 13th, 2015 – 9 months. Bear in mind though that these guys got no food for the first 3 months of their lives, and then had a huge growth spurt once fed.

D. natalensis seedlings, mid-May 2014.

D. natalensis flower stalk, 2-13-2015.

Another really speedy plant is Drosera sessilifolia. The seeds germinated on September 21, 2014, and with a lot of feeding the first ended up blooming on February 11th, 2015 – just under 5 months to flowering size.

D. sessilifolia seedlings, 9-21-2014.

D. sessilifolia flower stalk, 2-11-2015.

Those are the only plants I've started from seed that have bloomed, but I do have a couple of species blooming right now that I propagated from leaf cuttings. First is Drosera ultramafica × spatulata. The cuttings struck in mid-June of 2014, and the first plant flowered on February 12th of this year, 8 months total.

D. ultramafica × spatulata strikes, mid-June 2014.

D. ultramafica × spatulata flower stalk, 2-12-2015.

The cutting I'm proudest of is the Drosera anglica CA × HI, which is one of the best plants in my collection. It was one of the earliest strikes in the Summer Batch, on August 4th, 2014. I noticed the bloom stalk (already well developed) at the beginning of February of 2015, so it probably started blooming just after the new year. That's only 5 months, and it's a big, strong plant.

D. anglica CA × HI strike, 8-4-2014.

D. anglica CA × HI flower stalk, 2-2-2015.

So here's how it all breaks down:

From seed:

• D. intermedia 'Cuba': 3 months
• D. burmannii: 4 months
• D. sessilifolia: 5 months
• D. capensis 'Albino': 6 months
• D. natalensis: 9 months

From cuttings:

• D. anglica CA × HI: 5 months
• D. ultramafica × spatulata: 8 months

I remember when I was first getting into growing plants the idea of waiting for 4 months to get a mature plant from seed seemed like forever, but at this point I'm already thinking things like, "Well next season when my pygmies produce gemmae..."I hope this post encourages some people to try out starting new species from seed. It's not very difficult (I still need to write up a Cultivation Guide on it though) and it's extremely rewarding to watch the seedlings grow up.

The most important thing to remember in any propagation effort with Drosera is that feeding is crucial. The reason that my D. natalensis and D. ultramafica × spatulata lagged behind the others is that they weren't fed all that much early on. Even just 2 or 3 feedings of seedlings will give them a huge boost in life. Good luck!

(P.S. – Sorry for the week of silence here on the blog. It's been a bit hectic here at Pinkhouse lately. Luckily that means I have a lot of new stuff to talk about!)

Drosera intermedia 'Cuba' gets a haircut

My Drosera intermedia 'Cuba' have been looking a bit messy since they went dormant.

Dormant sundews aren't particularly handsome, especially not covered in dead leaves.

There's also a lot of seed in there waiting to be harvested. I started off trimming the flower stalks.

There ended up being a lot of flower stalks.

D. intermedia 'Cuba' seed pods hold their seeds fairly securely, so I had to pinch and roll a bit to get the seed out. This left a bit of a mess.

Messy messy.

I used a wire mesh strainer to get the big bits out, and then I used the cleaning method I covered in this post to separate the high-quality seeds from the low-quality seeds and other chaff.

Good, high-quality seeds.

Terrible seeds and chaff, same magnification.

A satisfying pile of seed.

Quite a nice bit of seed, that.

The plants were looking a bit better by this point.

Almost there...

But I still wanted to get rid of all of those dead leaves. A bit of (careful) scissor work later, and they look positively military.

Nice and freshly-trimmed.

There's even one waking up on the bottom left of this picture. I'm going to donate at least one pot of these guys to the BACPS raffle, if only to make more room in my collection.

Plant Profile: Drosera intermedia 'Cuba'

This is part of a series of posts describing my experiences with different species, their culture requirements, and photos of their growth in my collection. The full series can be read here, or by species at the Series page

Earlier this week I mentioned that my Drosera intermedia 'Cuba' have formed hibernacula for winter, and are going dormant. They look pretty quiet right now.

Dormant D. intermedia 'Cuba', 12-11-14.

Dormant D. intermedia 'Cuba', 12-13-14.

 However, during full active growth, it can be a really lovely, if somewhat diminutive, sundew. It can acquire a deep maroon color, and gets quite dewy under high light conditions.

D. intermedia 'Cuba' in flower, 4-22-14.

This was one of the first species I started from seed, and they had really high germination rates. It's a tropical cultivar of D. intermedia that stays on the small side. They also grow really quickly when fed regularly – it was about 4 months from germination to flowering with these guys. I fed them my regular beta fish food, and they responded really well.

When it came to repotting, however, results we a lot more mixed. When the seedlings were very small I transferred about half of them to a new pot, and overall they did okay. A few months later I tried repotting mature plants, and lost about 25% of them. They had very small, thin roots which I think were easily damaged. However, I didn't use a humidity tent in the process, so I don't know if that would have improved survival rates.

Repotting losses, 8-10-14.

In all I think this is a pretty good beginner sundew. Easy to start from seed, quick-growing (with food), and very pretty under high light. The small size makes them very easy to fit into a collection, though a bit fiddly to work with.

The Breakdown

• media: Standard 1:1 peat and sand, although they also did fine in long-fiber Sphagnum moss.
• light: As much as you can provide. Plants can turn deep, striking red in high light.
• water: Tray method is appropriate, doesn't mine the tray occasionally drying out.
• temperature: Staying above freezing is important. I also noticed some heat stress in the middle of summer when temperatures were around 90 F (32 C).
• feeding: Regular feeding is important when plants are seedlings. If they are allowed to set a lot of seed without being fed some plants may die back a bit. Less food does mean more red color though.
• propagation: Easy to start from seed, high seed set when mature. In a colder climate this plant could act as an annual. No experience with leaf cuttings; root cuttings would probably not work.

Random updates

Once again, there are a few things I wanna talk about that don't all form a cohesive theme.

First up, I've got some strikes on my Dionaea 'B-52' leaf pulling.

Seeing a leaf pulling strike hasn't gotten any less exciting.

I received my D. 'B-52' from Brie back at the end of September, and in the course of shipping and repotting a couple of leaves fell off. I decided to give them a shot as pullings, and while one shriveled right away the other stayed strong and has finally struck, about 2.5 months later. Really looking forward to getting some plantlets from this little guy.

We've been having a lot of gemmae chat around here lately, and I noticed today that my Drosera helodes seem to be taking the plunge.

It's the most wonderful time of the year!

I think I also noticed gemmae on my Drosera callistos, Drosera enodes, and possibly on my (still struggling) Drosera pygmaea. I'll either need to buy more lights and pot these new ones up, or sell and trade my gemmae away.

In other propagation news, my Drosera aliciae seedlings have put on a bit of size.

A nice number of seedlings in this pot.

This is good cause my main D. aliciae plant is looking really weird. I'll have to make a post on it. It looks like it's got aphids, but I can't find any on the plant. Anyway, I guess you should always try to have at least a couple backup plants in propagation.

Finally, my Drosera intermedia 'Cuba' are forming hibernacula (dormant buds), probably in response to the reduced photoperiod.

Look at that cute little dormant bud.

It's good to see, since they've definitely died back a bit. I think the combination of less light, somewhat lower temperatures, and no food (I haven't really fed them at all lately) is was sent them into dormancy. Unlike with my Drosera filiformis, I'm positive these aren't dead.

It's cool how there are still seasons, even under my lights.