A few ping flowers

My Pinguicula 'Pirouette' flower has opened!

Ping flowers are so cheery.

It's very pretty, and a nice complement to the plant itself. It also confirms the identity of this plant for me – I wasn't 100% sure this was actually P. 'Pirouette' until I saw the flower.

Nearby, it sure seems like Pinguicula rotundiflora wants to bloom.

This plant is very adorable.

That little nub in the middle looks like a flower, but it's been hanging out for over a week. I hope it makes a move soon.

Pinguicula 'Aphrodite' is flowering again too.

I guess I really like pinkish pings.

I'm a bit ambivalent about this one flowering actually. I grow it mostly because I love the color and shape of the foliage, and it seems to have shrunk after the last couple of blooms. Oh well. It's still nice!


Finally, Praelonga Watch: 2016 has entered its 3rd week.

Not my best photo, I know.

It wasn't easy to photograph, but the Utricularia praelonga flower stalk is now almost 5 inches tall. Let's see those flowers!

Plants in full regalia

Look at this Utricularia longifolia.

Three flowers and more on the way!

Just look at it.

I'm very proud.

I promised U. longifolia in my last post, and here it is. I love this plant!

Seeing this bloom show (which is far from over, by the way!) had me poking around the collection looking for plants are are in a similar state of full display. Most plants don't look their best 100% of the time, but these ones at least are currently looking spectacular.

Pinguicula 'Aphrodite' has a couple of cute blooms on it.

Hey there little guys!

Insanely, I have several friends who claim to not particularly care for this ping cultivar. How can you resist that little plant! It's much too adorable.

This large Drosera prolifera is doing very well, especially considering that I've had to separate out a couple of plants from this pot recently.

I think any pot of D. prolifera will inevitably end up a clump if it's happy.

The plants don't quite have the color they did in the middle of winter when things were quite chilly in the garage, but they're still looking pretty fabulous.

The plant that really caught my eye today, and which inspired this post (besides the U. longifolia) was definitely my beloved Drosera ×Dork's Pink.

Be still my heart.

This is just incredible. Based on a rough estimate, I'd guess there are upwards of 50 active traps on this plant, perfectly arranged in this beautiful pink spiral.

Nearby, my Byblis liniflora seems frozen in time as this unspeakably delicate assembly of dew.

This is still the plant that most people notice when they visit my collection.

I keep trying to find a good similie for it. Sort of like a stand of tiny, sticky trees. Or a city skyline. Such a good plant.

One plant I don't mention much, but of which I am very proud, is this Dionaea muscipula 'Justina Davis'.

Penny for scale. Those are big traps!

This is a nice, mature rhizome, as you can see by the trap size. So far it seems to be doing pretty well under my lights. I hope it gets enough of a dormancy in the garage.

Finally, this pot contains my original Drosera capensis, which is to say, my first ever carnivorous plant. I planted it into a large pot, which was a huge mistake, but really, who can resist a mass of D. capensis?

It's a jungle in there.

Someday soon I'll probably take this out and divide it all up, but for now it's sorta fun seeing it losing its mind. Looking good there, D. capensis!

D. ramellosa is back (and other surprises)!

Aw yeah check this action out:

Drosera ramellosa (finally) emerging from dormancy.

I was sure I had lost all of my winter-growing sundews. I started hydrating them back in late October, and after almost 3 months of nothing I had pretty much given up hope. But here we are! Now I need to feed this guy aggressively to try and get some good tuber development. Nothing yet from Drosera rupicola or Drosera cistiflora, but I'm still holding out hope.

In terms of other surprises, my Pinguicula 'Aphrodite' is blooming for the first time.

That color is absolutely unreal.

It's also looking like, fantastic right now. This is one of my favorite pings, easy. I'm excited to see the flower!

The Pinguicula lusitanica that started blooming back in November ripened, spilled a bunch of seed (I managed to collect some), and has already germinated.

And so it begins.

Look at all the little babies! You can see the dead mother plant there to the right of the large plant. Barry Rice said that this species could be an "entertaining little weed" and I think I agree with him! I'm considering making an outdoor mixed bog at some point, and this would be a great species to just toss thither and yon.

Finally, my Pinguicula rotundiflora × hemiepiphytica. I didn't feature this plant in my recent year-to-year comparison post, (because I didn't have it last January) but I should have. Look at this!

P. rotundiflora × hemiepiphytica, March 2015.

P. rotundiflora × hemipiphytica, January 2016.

 That's like, 10 months of growth. Incredible little hybrid! This is why you shouldn't be afraid of getting pings as very small starts – they grow in just fine.

Exciting day over all I think.

What happens after 3 months of neglect?

So we all know that I haven't been giving my plants quite the attention they deserve lately. But what really drove it home for me was seeing Drosera prolifera take things into its own hands.

Thus the name I guess.

Look at these little plantlets just dangling in midair. Tell me that's not hilarious.

Hahahah whoops! Let's see what else is going on around the collection.

Drosera 'Emerald's Envy' doesn't seem to have enjoyed the handful of heat waves we've had recently.

Sorry about the heat little dude.

I don't think this guy is toast though – there's a new flush of leaves there, and the weather should be cooler over all pretty soon.

As I was preparing this post, I was planning on saying "The smaller Pinguicula reticulata died while I wasn't looking," but then I went in for a picture and realized it was just dormant.

So tiny I almost lost it.

So tiny! The larger plant didn't go dormant, and is looking great.

What an unbelievable red.

Check out that color! I'm swooning here.

The Drosera occidentalis that I had given up on as a lost cause sprouted up out of nowhere on me.

I'm continually surprised by how hard it is to actually kill a plant.

Look at those cute little nubbins! I don't know why everyone isn't an obsessive pygmy collector.

The Drosera madagascariensis, which I've been needing to trim back for a year, have given up on the stakes and are just splayed out everywhere.

Stems everywhere!

There's a lot of flowers stalks I need to trim in there too...

I've missed photographing 2 Byblis liniflora flowers during the last couple months, but it looks like a couple more might be on the way.

The colors in this plant are so subtle and fine. I love it.

I really like this plant. It's so fragile-looking.

Finally, the best thing to come out of this period of neglect is my Pinguicula 'Aphrodite', which is looking absolutely stunning right now.

Again, thus the name.

The color plus the dew is nuts. And it's offsetting!

All told the collection is still looking pretty good inside (don't ask me about my Sarracenia – that's for another, more somber post). I'm really fortunate that the climate in the Bay Area is very sundew-friendly, and that my growing setup is so self-regulating. The timer keeps the lights on the right cycle, and the cool nights keep the plants from frying. I even got quite lax with water – letting my trays go dry for several days at a time – and the plants didn't noticeably suffer.

This is not to say that I could ignore my plants forever. I've got a lot of trimming and a bit of repotting to do to keep things tidy in my collection. Fortunately the Bayer 3-in-1 seems to have finally taken care of my aphid problem. Looking forward to a good autumn. It's almost gemmae season!