Carnivorous plant blogs you should be reading

Pinguicula moranensis developing some nice scalloped leaf margins.

The carnivorous plant community is bigger now than ever, but it's still pretty niche. That means there aren't that many blogs – especially compared to, say, gardening blogs, which are legion. Luckily a lot of new blogs have come online in the last year, and just recently several that appeared to have gone dormant have woken up. This post covers all the active blogs I know about – let me know if you know of any more!

By the way, all the pictures in this post are of my collection – I'm including them to make the post more fun to look at.

Very pretty color on this Drosera spatulata 'Kanto' flower.

Natch Greyes Carnivorous Plants

Between updates on his collection, field trips to carnivorous plant habitat, and growing guides this is a great all-around blog for the carnivore enthusiast. Natch has also expanded his little shop into an online nursery that has a particularly nice selection of terrestrial Utriculatria.  A bit of a Nepenthes focus, but Natch grows everything.

The Carnivore Girl

Maria has a lot of Venus Fly-Traps, and takes very cute pictures. She also hunts around for old drawings and engravings of carnivorous plants, as well as contemporary stuff. A fun read, and the only place I know of online where you can buy a Cephalotus throw pillow.

Sarracenia x 'Abandoned Hope', displaying its classic "wailing of the damned" posture.

The Pitcher Plant Project

 

A blog for the Sarracenia obsessed. Rob has a large hoop house and grows lots of anthocyanin-free clones, as well as some real weirdos. Updates usually once or twice a month, but the posts are loaded with pictures that make up for the waiting. Also has cool videos!

The Pitcher Plantation

 

An Australian Sarracenia blog that had been dormant for months and recently woke up. John is an enthusiast of Sarracenia flava, and he put together a great series recently on building artificial container bogs. As a bonus, his pitcher plants are awake while mine are dormant.

Utricularia calycifida blooming away.

Zone 6b

 

Carnivorous plants are not fragile, finicky plants that can't handle real-world conditions. Carl proves that by growing Sarracenia, Dionaea, Drosera, and Pinguicula outdoors year-round in Ontario, Canada. Quite impressive, and the plants all look great.

Hooray Plants

 

Another blog that has recently awoken from a long dormancy. Melody grows succulents, orchids, and other weird plants in addition to her Nepenthes, Sarracenia, and assorted carnivores. Lots of activity lately, and I hope she keeps updating!

Lots of action on Drosera x Carbarup (along with other pygmies).

ExB

 

Loads of phenomenal carnivore photography, especially crystal-clear macro shots of Drosera, Pinguicula, and Utricularia. I don't really understand how Tumblr works, but I love seeing the new photos. Highly recommended.

These are all the active, established carnivorous plant blogs I know of right now. Let me know if you know of any more worth watching. If you're interested in blogging about your plants but don't know how to get started feel free to shoot me an email at sundews.etc@gmail.com. I'd love to see more blog action (especially if you grow pings or utrics, but really the more the merrier)!

Various sundews

Sometimes I feel like posting about my sundews but lack a good unifying theme for the post. This is one of those times.

There are actually 3 flower stalks in my Drosera madagascariensis pot. I've had to add some more straws into the pot for support.

I guess the D. madagascariensis are doing pretty well.

It's a little hard to see (click the picture for higher resolution), but there's a flower stalk silhouetted against the label on the left, and also one against the yellow straw (and of course the tall one up top). It's gonna be pretty touch-and-go for a while until these are done blooming, but then think of all the seed!

A few weeks ago I took a trip up to California Carnivores and picked up a pot of Drosera spatulata 'Kanto'.

The moss in this pot is really deep and turf-like.

It has acclimated to my conditions really well, and is coloring up nicely, in addition to getting some good dew production. Also, it's begun to flower!

The flower stalk is hard to see cause it's thin and the same color as the plant.

It has happened several times that I've acquired plants and had them begin to flower within a couple weeks of entering my collection. I think it has to do with all the light I provide, but maybe I'm just flattering myself.

There's some more weirdness over in my Drosera filiformis pot.

Little D. filiformis plantlet.

There's a little offset forming off the base of the (hopefully) dormant plant. I've stopped trying to figure out what these plants are up to. I think I'm just going to ignore them and hope for the best.

My Drosera natalensis seedlings are finally putting on some size after having been fed a couple times.

Things are filling out around here.

Also, the larger seedlings are well-spaced throughout the pot, which is nice, since they won't be all crammed together like some other seeds I've started have been. If I had more time and was better about feeding these guys regularly I bet they'd start exploding about now. I should really feed my collection again.

Finally, here are a few Drosera aliciae seedlings.

The moss has a head start but I bet the sundews will take over soon enough.

I scattered seeds on this pot when I decided I didn't want to bother packetizing the rest. It was never covered, and just sat out in the tray. I think they took a bit longer to germinate than other seeds I've done, but here we are! I should start feeding these guys.

Anyway, that's what's going on in my collection. What's up in yours?