Cute little ping pullings

I think Pinguicula are the most fun carnivorous plants to propagate. You don't need to prepare any pots or get all messy, and if the propagation attempt fails it's really not that big of a deal (unlike, say, dividing Sarracenia rhizomes). Also, the plantlets are so cute! Consider this Pinguicula esseriana:

I can't believe how tiny these are.

All of those little tiny leaves fell off when I was mailing off a plant for the NASC auction. Look at all the babies!

Another ping that has done really well at making babies is the Pinguicula rotundiflora that I won at said auction.

One of my favorite pings. Great leaf margins.

These guys have really taken off! That's like 5 or 6 for the price of one.

Let's see how my other recent leaf pulls are doing.

Pinguicula 'Pirouette'. I think the mother plant is thinking about dividing as well.

Pinguicula gigantea. This is one of the most popular plants in my collection. It's a charmer!

Pinguicula agnata looking pretty fine.

Pinguicula laueana, another contender for the "leaf pulling champ" title.

That's quite a successful batch of pullings!

One plant that I've never yet successfully propagated is Pinguicula "Yucca Doo 1717".

I'll have to keep trying with this guy.

The leaves seem to wither very quickly. Maybe I'll just have to wait for the plant to divide itself naturally.

Finally, as I was taking pictures for this post, I decided to yank a leaf from Pinguicula sp. Tehuacán.

Carnivorous leaves ahoy! This is gonna be a cute one.

If you do leaf pullings every few weeks you'll always have backup pings to grow and share. And they're so adorable!

Pinguicula leaf pullings

I just started some new leaf pullings on my Pinguicula. It's always good to be propagating, and pings (especially Mexican pings) are some of the easiest carnivores to propagate. Just take one of the newest leaves, pull gently until it pops out, and set it down somewhere. I usually just set it back down on the media in the pot where the mother plant lives. This apparently works best with succulent leaves, but plenty of people have had success with the carnivorous leaves as well.

Yesterday I started new pulls of Pinguicula 'Pirouette', Pinguicula agnata, and Pinguicula gigantea.

The color on this plant is wonderful.

P. agnata doesn't get enough attention on this blog.

I want to give a P. gigantea to all my friends.

As you can see, I've done successful pullings of P. 'Pirouette' before. My last P. agnata pulling failed to strike, and I've never propagated P. gigantea before (intentionally). I'm looking forward to seeing how these turn out!

Back in March the Pinguicula moranensis I bought from California Carnivores (last July) went through a very brief succulent phase, so I did a pulling. It's coming along!

This plant has come so far in the last 9 months!

The plantlet is down at the bottom, tangling with some invading Drosera capensis red form. I think it's already started to root among the moss and Utricularia biquamata, which shows that it has gumption.

I acquired this Pinguicula laueana back at the BACPS social in February (mentioned in this post). One leaf had fallen off already, and I did another pulling shortly thereafter. The resultant plants are on the right and left of the mother plant, respectively.

The leaves have gotten nicely red under my lights as well.

I also did a new pulling (that big leaf there) just a week or two ago, since it was growing in sort of funny. I hope it strikes too!

In other ping news, my friend Anne (the driving force behind the carnivore section at the Cactus Jungle in Berkeley) recently gave me this sweet little pot of Pinguicula gigantea × moctezumae. Anne and I have a very destructive relationship where we constantly convince each other to buy more carnivorous plants.

The two plants in this cross couldn't be more different. Quite funny!

Apparently she's had the mother plant for more than 10 years. That's pretty rad! I'm looking forward to growing these guys out.

Finally, I've really come to adore Drosera cistiflora. It's popped out a bunch of new growth since its recent feeding, and isn't showing any signs of going dormant for the summer.

Look at all that new growth.

Looking great!

Pinguicula roundup, March 2015

It's been a while since I did a Pinguicula roundup, and I've acquire quite a few new species/hybrids/cultivars since then. Let's have a look!

First up is this tray that houses several little starts I've acquired recently.

Pinguicula start tray. Little babies!

In here we have (clockwise from top right): Pinguicula 'Florian', Pinguicula jaumavensis, Pinguicula rotundiflora × hemiepiphytica, Pinguicula 'Sethos', Pinguicula esseriana, and Pinguicula cyclosecta.

P. florian, March 2015.

P. jaumavensis, March 2015.

P. rotundiflora × hemiepiphytica, March 2015.

P. 'Sethos', March 2015.

P. esseriana starts, March 2015.

P. cyclosecta, March 2015.

Some of these have really nice colors, especially the P. 'Florian' and P. cyclosecta. Also my friend Apache Rose said that the P. rotundiflora × hemiepiphytica is her favorite ping, and she has a very nice collection (four of these starts are from her). One more note – in a couple of months I'm going to have a lot of little P. esseriana floating around hahah.

Now for some old friends. Pinguicula gigantea is in the midst of another flowering burst.

Flowering P. gigantea, March 2015.

Hopefully that means it will start dividing again soon!

My other two tiny little P. esseriana are putting on a bit of size.

Somewhat older P. esseriana, March 2015.

Still pretty small though.

Pinguicula moranensis recently made some leaves that look sort of succulent, so I took a pulling.

P. moranensis, March 2015.

Here's hoping it strikes! I should take another.

Meanwhile there's another flower forming on Pinguicula laueana × emarginata.

P. laueana × emarginata, March 2015.

It's really filling out that tiny pot.

Still watching the carnivorous leaf unfurl on Pinguicula laueana.

P. laueana, March 2015.

I've also got some pullings working on this guy. Fingers crossed!

It's about time I separated these two Pinguicula "Yucca Doo 1717" plants.

P. "Yucca Doo 1717", March 2015.

They've put on some good size since I traded for them back in August.

Pinguicula 'Pirouette' is looking amazing lately.

P. 'Pirouette', March 2015.

Lots of success from those pullings too.

Finally, Pinguicula agnata, which hasn't gotten much attention on the blog lately, but which just has a delightful leaf shape and color.

P. agnata, March 2015.

I love my pings. I feel like I should consolidate them into a tray together so I can appreciate them better. So pretty!

Long overdue potting

Several weeks ago I was very kindly gifted 2 Pinguicula by a BACPS member who invited me over for coffee. I was pretty amazingly busy at the time, and had yet to pot them up. Luckily, they seemed pretty happy to chill out there in the bags.

I especially love the leaf color on the P. agnata. Pings are adorable.

Pinguicula agnata and Pinguicula 'Pirouette' are apparently pretty vigorous and didn't mind the treatment.

I've also got a leaf cutting of Drosera capensis Bainskloof that has developed quite nicely floating in some water.

Those are impressive roots for a leaf cutting.

It's even got some pretty respectable roots. It was time to transfer to the media.

I don't have any pictures of the potting process, but it was pretty straightforward. Even mature pings don't have much of a root system, so I just sort of stuck them on the pot and piled a bit of soil around their base. For the D. capensis Bainskloof roots I made a little hole and then worked them in.

And here we are!

I bought these sandwich bags specifically to use for my plants.

Soon I can start feeding, and then it'll really grow.

The pings look pretty nice, but the leaf cutting will need a couple weeks to settle in at least. I also stuck a couple of leaves that fell off of the P. 'Pirouette' during potting into the soil. Maybe they'll strike!

Happy New Year everyone.