Field Trip: California Carnivores (again)

Before this post, a programming note: The Bay Area Carnivorous Plant Society is having their monthly beer social at the Westbrae Biergarten in Berkeley on Wednesday, 10-14 (tomorrow). The address is 1280 Gilman St., and is about a 10 minute walk from the North Berkeley BART station. We'll be there from 6-9, so come on by, drink some beers, and hang out. I'll probably bring some ping pulls to share. Okay, back to your regularly-scheduled blogpost.

I've been hanging out with a lot of carnivore folks lately. On Sunday Josh and I took a drive up to California Carnivores to see some folks and stare at some plants. Y'know, as you do. There was lots of great stuff in there (as usual), but a couple things caught my eye.

First up is this Nepenthes Viking × ampullaria Red Stripe. I'm only permitting myself one Nepenthes in this post, but I think this is worth it.

It looks like a candy apple.

Fly away little plant.

Look at that bright red little fatty with the big ole wings. This is a real show-stopper of a plant. I had actually never been in this part of California Carnivores. I'm not sure why. It's a big hothouse area. Guess I hadn't realized that door was there!

I spent a bit of time admiring their collection of weird VFT clones and cultivars. One of my favorite mutants is Dionaea 'Angel Wings'.

These are definitely non-functional traps.

Now that is a yonic plant.

I also quite liked the much more understated Dionaea 'Harmony'.

Such neat tidy little traps. Cute!

There's so much fun stuff back there. Just wait until this all gets in production, it's gonna be awesome for VFT collectors.

This Pinguicula sp. Tonala ANPA A had the best flower in the ping collection when I was there.

I love how different this flower is.

I wonder if this is the plant I lost the auction to Mike Wilder for. Hmm...might have to beg a pulling off of them.

The tuberous dews are starting to wake up over there. This is Drosera rosulata.

Tuberous dews are so much work. I should get more.

I should probably start to coax my two tuberous species out of dormancy. That'll be a major finger-crossing moment.

Near the tuberous are a couple of Drosera regia, including this insanely dewy tangle.

This is what doom looks like to order Diptera.

This species produces insane amounts of mucilage when happy. Just look at that!

Finally, the loveliest plant there was this Drosera intermedia × capillaris.

Even my non-plant friends think this plant looks awesome.

I really ought to have bought one, but I've definitely capped out my plant budget for this paycheck. Oh well, there's always next time.

P.S. If you're in the Bay, come to the social. It'll be a Hoot.

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 Part 2: Dews and Pings at Predatory Plants

A couple days ago we checked out the Nepenthes at the San Francisco greenhouse of Josh Brown, owner of Predatory Plants. Today we're gonna look some of his other plants, particularly Drosera and Pinguicula. The first thing I noticed when I walked into the work area of the greenhouse, though, were these Sarracenia benches. I laughed when I saw them, because Josh is vocal in his dislike of Sarracenia (he claims he can't grow them well).

Babies on the left, monsters on the right!

Those look pretty decent to me! Josh does a lot of sarrs from seed (which you can see on the left), including some in-house crosses. On the right there are specimen-sized plants that he grows for flowers, or for large divisions which can be sold on eBay or what have you.

In his heart though, Josh is a Nepenthes and Drosera man. This is his "sundew ark" – the parent stock of (almost) all of the sundews he has in production, and what is pretty much his personal collection.

It was cute seeing these parent plants all hanging out together.

He apologized that these plants weren't all looking great, since a number of them had flowered and shrunk back a bit. Still, some of them look great, especially (to my mind) the Drosera sp. Floating (which is a form of Drosera admirabilis) on the bottom left.

Next up is the production area, where he grows out all the dews he sells online and in-person.

In this tray, from top: Drosera aliciae, Drosera coccicaulis (now usually considered synonymous with Drosera venusta), Drosera natalensis, Drosera "Chimanimani Mountains",

Albino-colored Drosera venusta. Super cool!

Big old tangle of Drosera tracyi.

Josh has an interesting shipping method. He calls it "bare root," but it's significantly less disruptive than typical barerooting. He pops the plant – including the plug of media – out of its tray, wraps the plug up to keep it in place, and then ships it along with an appropriately-sized pot. The purchaser can then just pop it in the pot and Bob's your uncle. Pretty cool!

I thought this tray of Pinguicula lusitanica was cool, and Josh was pretty casually like, "Yeah, I don't know why I have those really, I never sell any."

Look at all those plugs so neat and full of pings.

I fully intend to lighten him of some of these plants. He meant to give me a pot, but I forgot. My own plants bloomed, failed to set seed, and died.

One of the interesting things about the plant trade is which plants get maintained in production, and which do not. These next two are a perfect example. First up is the absolutely unstoppable pygmy sundew hybrid, Drosera omissa × pulchella.

What a hilarious mound of plants.

Josh actually lost a bunch of his pygmies this year because he never got around to harvesting and re-sowing gemmae, so when the eventual round of die-offs happened there were no contingencies. I didn't get a picture of it, but he had several trays of pygmy skeletons. It was sad. Except for these guys, which will probably never die. Look at those crazy clumps. Hybrids often have extra vigor, and D. omissa × pulchella is crazy. There's a reason that any place that sells pygmies always has loads of this hybrid.

The counter to this fecundity is the rather lovely Pinguicula planifolia.

It's a shape these are so hard to propagate, I think they look awesome.

Most of the more familiar pings propagate very easily though leaf pulls (all the Mexican species, like Pinguicula gigantea or Pinguicula moranensis) or by buds at the leaf tips (Pinguicula primuliflora) or in rare cases, by self-pollination (P. lusitanica). This species – according to Josh – can only be propagated by crossing two different clones and sowing seed. He got this one batch of ~100 plants by crossing two plants a couple years ago, which eventually died. He's been growing these out ever since, and they've never bloomed. So while they're really lovely, don't expect to see many for sale any time soon. Alas.

It was great fun checking out the greenhouse. Always cool to see how someone else solves the problems of growing our favorite weirdo plants!

P.S. Maria let me know in the comments of Wednesday's post that there is in fact a Predatory Plants Instagram. Good to know.

Field Trip Part 1: Nepenthes at Predatory Plants

Today I had the pleasure (along with my friend Anne from the Cactus Jungle) of visiting the San Francisco greenhouse of Josh Brown, BACPS President and owner of Predatory Plants. Josh is one of the rare growers that is able to turn an interest in carnivorous plants into a livelihood. He specializes in Nepenthes and Drosera, but he has a decent selection of Sarracenia as well, and is slowly building up his stock of Pinguicula.

Josh and I routinely have good-natured arguments about whether or not Nepenthes suck and are stupid. While I'm not about to rush out and build a highland greenhouse, this visit was a big step in convincing me that maybe they're not as lame as I've always felt (sorry Nep lovers). First though, he wanted to show off some ant plants.

Myrmecodia sp., looking rad as hell.

Those weird white bumps are flowers. Funky.

Hydnophytum sp. Josh likes the bulbous ones.

These funny-looking epiphytes grow internal chambers in those big swollen stems, which are then colonized by mutualistic ants. These are pretty uncommon in cultivation in the US, but are apparently pretty quick-growing and often self-fertile. Josh is working with one of his greenhouse-mates to figure out good ways to cultivate/sell these. Pretty exciting for anyone with a decent greenhouse!

Nearby were the first of the day's neps: Nepenthes ×briggsiana (which is lowii × ventricosa), and a variegated Nepenthes alata.

Dig that color gradient!

I think I like this plant, even though Josh doesn't.

The N. alata was very striking, but apparently Josh sort of hates it – like most variegated plants it's finicky and not particularly vigorous. Still, people always clamor for variegated neps – which are pretty uncommon – so he keeps on propagating them. He loved the hybrid though, which I can totally understand.

Down at the other side of the greenhouse space was his work area – announced by this profusion of Nepenthes "Lady Luck" (i.e. ampullaria × ventricosa).

That's a lot of plants!

Josh is growing these guys to use with Borneo Exotics' new Bio-Dome system. The thing looks gimmicky at first, but based on what I've heard from several different growers I actually think I'm going to buy one once they're in circulation. Good-looking plants too!

Next up are three big flowering-size plants: a Nepenthes truncata with a 4-foot flower stalk, "Papa ventricosa," and "Mama maxima."

The light made getting this shot really hard.

Great color on this N. ventricosa.

Love those speckles.

Josh really likes F1 Nepenthes hybrids, and he's used all of these plants for some nice-looking crosses. Again, seeing his collection started to bring me around to the idea that simple crosses are pretty cool. We agree though that complex hybrids are usually muddy and boring-looking.

Josh has a few great Nepenthes ventricosa hybrids (see the N. ×briggsiana above), and he also has several really nice Nepenthes hamata hybrids, such as this wicked Nepenthes singalana × hamata.

Hairy and shiny.

Great teeth!

Finally, let's leave with some species, since at the end of the day species are what fascinate me.

Nepenthes aristolochioides always makes me want to crack my back.

Totally eye-popping Nepenthes sanguinea.

Look at that cute little Nepenthes argentii.

That N. sanguinea is huge, and it's one of the prettiest clones I've ever seen. The N. argentii is the smallest nep in the world. Josh has a hilarious story about how he first imported a couple dozen of them when he was just getting started and sold like 5 of them for $20 since he had no idea what they were worth on the market. He uh, doesn't sell them for $20 any more.

Check out the Predatory Plants Facebook page for more sweet carnivores, and I think Josh is on Instagram too, but I don't know for sure. And check back soon for part 2, when I get to look at plants that I actually want to grow!

Field Trip: Nepenthes at the Conservatory of Flowers

I've posted several times about how much I love the UC Botanical Garden. Another of my favorite plant destinations in the Bay Area is the Conservatory of Flowers in Golden Gate Park. It's a big 19th century glass greenhouse that contains a stunning collection of tropical plants, including the largest Philodendron in cultivation, a 100+ year old specimen that is the centerpiece of the Tropical Lowland room. I always forget to take a picture of the conservatory itself when I visit, but here's a decent example from Wikimedia.

The Conservatory also hosts a delightful collection of Nepenthes. I decided to document some of my favorites on my most recent visit, since I don't feature that genus much on the blog here. One note: plants at the Conservatory aren't always labeled super well. A few of these I knew offhand, a couple I made educated guesses about, and a few are NOID. Please comment with a correction if you know more than me!

This NOID (I suspect perhaps Nepenthes ventricosa x alata, i.e. N. ventrata) is what made me realize I should start taking pictures.

Lovely coloration and pitcher shape on this plant.

The vine was also really impressive. The average hobbyist greenhouse owner probably couldn't afford to devote this much space to one plant, but it makes for a wonderful display.

Probably 100 pitchers on this plant? Fantastic.

These pictures are from the Aquatic Plants room, which has a large pond and hosts a lot of epiphytic species. It has lowland to intermediate conditions.

I think I had a guess about this species but I can't remember anymore.

Some of these Neps are huge, such as the following Nepenthes truncata and Nepenthes rafflesiana.

These pitchers are like, 18 inches (45 cm) long.

I love these fat pitchers. Great coloration too.

Other are just perfectly formed, like this Nepenthes ventricosa that's almost popped its top.

It looks like it's smiling.

Or this Nepenthes bicalcarata, which has one of the most perfect pitchers I've ever seen.

Those fangs are so distinctive. Love the orange and green too.

Bicals are the largest Nep by total mass, which is clear from this vine.

This plant is like an old friend of mine I like to visit.

The nearby Tropical Highland room hosts a couple of more delicate species, including this lovely Nepenthes mikei and its vine.

These upper pitchers are so fine and delicate.

Another great vine, although somewhat more modest than the one in the Aquatic Plants room.

And this beautiful Nepenthes lowii, sporting a big fat patch of crystallized nectar.

That nectar patch looks so inviting. If only I were a shrew.

N. lowii has such a distinctive shape. If I ever start growing highlanders this one is high on my list.

A few other (non-carnivorous) plants caught my attention that day, and I couldn't not share them with the blog. Such as this insane hibiscus flower.

This is in the Potted Plants room.

I had to include my hand for scale. The flower was enormous.

And this lovely Paphiopedilum.

I love that lantern-jawed look.

Paphs are so funny looking.

In conclusion, the Conservatory of Flowers is super awesome. It's a fantastic place to visit if you're ever in the Bay Area, and are keen on weird plants.

The Potted Plant room is really magical.