What's blooming in winter?

It's not officially winter yet, but we've gotten the first real chill in California this last week. Let's see what's blooming in spite of the – relative – cold (it's still California, after all).

Pinguicula emarginata and Pinguicula lusitanica are both putting up blooms.

The venation in this flower is even visible before it opens.

There you go little guy!

P. emarginata is extremely floriferous, and it's got wonderful flowers. I like having it in my collection! The P. lusitanica is a very healthy specimen I got from Josh, and I'm hoping it'll set seed with this bloom, rather than just dying like my last one did.

The alien and adorable Utricularia pubescens has a solitary bloom right now.

Funny little flower.

Unfortunately the sporangia outnumber the flower stalks in this pot. Fortunately, the U. pubescens flowers are cool as heck.

My Byblis liniflora keeps making new blooms, but I've yet to collect any seed from it.

B. liniflora is so delicate-looking.

For whatever reason these guys just aren't making any fruit/seeds. It's still a great plant, but I need to get seed before it dies off. Oh well, I can enjoy it for now at least!

There are a couple other plants blooming right now that I've yet to get seed from: Drosera venusta and Drosera madagascariensis.

This flower stalk is much too long.

Good luck little guy.

That D. venusta stalk is super long and dangly. As you can see, it's insinuated itself among the Drosera spiralis. There might be some seed setting in the spent buds, but I can't tell. The D. madagascariensis might have a better shot this time around, since it's in full scramble, and will be able to support itself on the media once the stalk gets too long. We'll see.

One plant that I'm betting on heavily for seed is this Drosera capensis red form. It's gotten several significant feedings, and it's rewarding me with a fat crop of buds.

A lot more to come here.

Josh has said that this form of D. capensis is the only one that occasionally fails to set seed for him, but I think that this flower stalk at least is chugging away – I'm pretty sure there's some seed swelling in the oldest buds. The tough thing will be to avoid bumping it while it finishes blooming out.

Drosera aliciae and Drosera anglica CA × HI are both blooming for the first time in a while, and I'm excited to get some seed from them.

Haven't seen this one in a while!

I need to do something about this corner.

The D. aliciae that live in the community pot always seem to struggle with humic acid buildup, which makes their growth stall, but I'm not sure what to do about it. Eventually it clears up and growth starts again. I should feed this guy to get a nice crop of seed. The D. anglica is sitting over in the former quarantine tray, and is bending towards the light (the bulbs should be replaced soon).

Finally, there's a flower open on some Drosera omissa.

If you're not growing pygmies yet you should start this season.

As you can see, this species is a very enthusiastic bloomer. It's funny, I've only gotten a few species of pygmies to flower. D. omissa flowers the most readily, and I've also gotten blooms on D. leucostigma, D. allantostigma, and D. helodes. However, I've never flowered D. scorpioides, or D. pulchella, or any of the other species that are otherwise doing so well. It's curious.

The gemmae are ripening though :-D

Some stuff blooming inside

I noticed that my Drosera spiralis is starting another flower stalk.

Check out that wonky leaf too. I don't know why it grew like that.

This is a great plant! I really need to do some root cuttings.

Let's see what else is blooming around the growspaces.

Pinguicula laueana × emarginata flower. Very elegant.

Pinguicula emarginata. It's fun to compare with the hybrid flower above.

Emerging Drosera binata flower stalk. I think I'll turn this one into cuttings.

Drosera capensis. I received this as a broad leaf form. the leaves aren't that broad, but it's a large, impressive plant.

Of course there are a million Utricularia bisquamata and Utricularia subulata blooms everywhere. It's nice to see everything blooming so nicely.

The fruits of the BACPS spring meeting

Back on the 9th we held the BACPS Spring meeting down in Palo Alto. I was pinch-hitting as secretary and also helping run the thing, so I didn't have much time for photos. However, I did have time to acquire some new plants.

First up is this Pinguicula sp. Tehuacán which was sent down from California Carnivores especially for me, since Daniela knows how I'm always keeping my eyes peeled for new pings.

Cute little guy.

It's all succulent right now, so I'm looking forward to seeing some carnivorous leaves.

I also picked up a new pygmy from Damon. He literally just said "Do you have Drosera mannii? It's got nice big flowers," and I just handed him some money immediately.

I'm a total sucker for pygmies.

I'm nothing if not reliable with regards to my pygmy habit. Damon also told me that Drosera lasiantha is a slow and finicky grower for everyone, which made me feel better about how little mine has grown since I got it in January.

An unexpected bonus came from a fellow from San Jose who was selling a few plants, including this Stylidium debile.

Can't wait to see some cool flowers on this guy!

He also had a Drosera regia that almost tempted me, but I'm taking a month or so off work right now so I decided to stay prudent and not buy it. The S. debile is cool though! I think it's been decided that Stylidium is not carnivorous, but it grows in similar conditions to bog carnivores, and has very interesting flowers that snap together to ensure pollination. I'll post about it if I get blooms!

I also got a couple of plants (that I did not need) from the raffle – a young Sarracenia flava var. rubricorpora and a small Nepenthes ventricosa.

Already showing good color.

I know I won't be able to resist the Nepenthes forever.

Of course, the question of need is a thorny one when it comes to new plants. It looks like the nep is gonna need to adjust a bit to my conditions. That'll be fine though – it should be a pretty easy grower.

The last plant I got on that (a day when I wasn't planning on getting many plants) is this Pinguicula emarginata I bought from Drew Martinez.

I'll post a picture of that flower once it pops.

Drew invited people back to his house to see his collection and buy pieces of it after the meeting, since he's moving to Texas soon. I'll need to do a post about his backyard soon.

Finally, I just want to post my Drosera venusta because damn it's been looking good lately.

This is one of my favorite species, absolutely.

What a beaut!