Plants pulling through

Here's a silly story:

A few weeks ago I was rearranging my collection and I took my small pot of Pinguicula gigantea × moctezumae out of its tray and set it on top of my shelves. In the dark. In a dry tray. Over two weeks later I was walking to my car, looked in the little window in my garage door, and noticed my plant. I rushed back inside, and put it in a proper tray, in the water, under the lights.

It's totally fine.

There's even a leaf pull that struck in this time.

It's barely even etiolated. This pot was in the dark for over 2 weeks. The soil was bone-dry and rock hard. And a couple days later you can't even tell. This is an offset from a plant that my friend Anne got when she was 11, and is the only carnivore she never managed to kill. Great plant!

Another plant that's getting over a rough patch is my Drosera 'Emerald's Envy'.

One of my favorites! Glad it's coming back.

This plant bloomed hard, sending up two flower stalks in quick succession (from which I was able to harvest a healthy amount of seed). Right then we had our last heat wave of the summer, and I think the combination just stressed it out. It had sat around with no traps, just petioles, for over a month, but now it's getting back to business. I've been feeding the new traps in order to give it a good burst of energy.

I've also begun to re-hydrate my Drosera cistiflora pot.

Fingers crossed!

We'll see if I'm successful with it. My tuberous pots aren't showing any sign of life so far, but I'm still holding out hope. This one as well – it went to sleep late, so it didn't get a particularly long dormancy. We'll see!

On the other side of things, my Drosera brevifolia have germinated!

There are at least 4 seedlings in this pot. Try and spot them!

I noticed (and took this picture) a few days ago, and given the size of the seedlings I'd say they probably germinated sometime in early November. That means it took something like 18 weeks from when I sowed them back in late July. Don't give up on your seeds too quickly! Now I'm just waiting on those red Drosera filiformis.

The nearby Drosera burmannii (Gunung Keledang) have had a bit of a head start, and one in particular is looking excellent.

Loving that color combination.

I should finish hardening these off and get some serious feeding started.

The last set of seed is the one I'm most excited about, Drosera tomentosa.

Now they just need to out-compete the moss.

I hope this is one of the forms with extravagantly fuzzy flower stalks. They're so cute! I'm trying to find South American sundews right now, btw, and would be happy to trade for plants, roots, leaf cuttings, or seed. Email me at sundews.etc@gmail.com!

Finally, it's that time of year again. I've spotted the first gemmae of the season! These are Drosera leucoblasta.

The first gemmae forming is the real sign of autumn.

Pygmies are my favorite, as I've said before. And since I already mentioned trading earlier in this post, I might as well say that I'd love to do gemmae swaps with all comers this season. Here is my current list of pygmies:

D. allantostigma
D. barbigera
D. callistos, Brookton large form
D. × Carbarup
D. dichrosepala
D. × Dork's Pink
D. enodes (Scotts River)
D. grievei
D. helodes
D. leucoblasta (Brookton)
D. leucostigma
D. mannii
D. nitidula
D. occidentalis var. microscapa
D. omissa, pink flower
D. oreopodion
D. palacea, giant form
D. patens
D. pulchella, orange flower
D. pygmaea
D. roseana
D. sargentii
D. silvicola
D. scorpioides, pink flower
D. spilos

And these are the plants I'm looking for this season! The ones in bold are the ones I'm most excited about.

D. androsacea
D. citrina
D. closterostigma
D. echinoblastus
D. eneabba
D. gibsonii
D. hyperostigma
D. lasiantha
D. microscapa
D. miniata
D. nivea
D. parvula
D. pedicellaris
D. platystigma
D. pycnoblasta
D. rechingeri
D. sewelliae
D. stelliflora
D. walyunga

I love trading! Feel free to hit me up to trade whenever.

Pinguicula leaf pull update

Back at the end of April I yanked a couple leaves from various Mexican Pinguicula. I've had some decent success since then.

Pinguicula laueana is really a hero when it comes to propagation – this picture is from May 4th, just 5 days after I took the pullings.

P. laueana leaf pull after 5 days.

And here we are now:

Same leaf pull after 2 weeks.

This guy has been very reliable for me when it comes to leaf pulls. This bodes well for the future.

Next up is Pinguicula 'Pirouette'. If you look very closely at the leaf base (click the picture for higher resolution) you'll notice some little bulges that are definitely strikes.

P. 'Pirouette' leaf pull after 2 weeks.

I donated some plantlets from an earlier leaf pull to the NASC auction. Now I've got to get some started for the next BACPS meeting.

I haven't seen any action on the Pinguicula gigantea or the Pinguicula agnata that I started at the same time, but the Pinguicula rotundiflora that I posted about last night is getting right to it.

So many little plantlets.

I'm well on my way to ultimate cuteness.

In other ping news, the Pinguicula gigantea × moctezumae that Anne gave me a couple weeks ago have already put on some nice new growth.

Almost time for a bigger pot.

And the Pinguicula cyclosecta that received back at the beginning of February are showing excellent color, and the largest one is starting to fill out its rosette very nicely.

That lavender color is so lovely and unique.

Thank you for visiting Pinguicula Etc.

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!