Plant Profile: Utricularia longifolia

This is part of a series of posts describing my experiences with different species, their culture requirements, and photos of their growth in my collection. The full series can be read here, or by species at the Series page

If I were forced right now to rank all of my plants by how much I love them, Utricularia longifolia probably wouldn't be on top, but it would be a near-run thing. Consider this picture from a couple days ago.

U. longifolia flower, 4-21-2016, after nearly 8 weeks open.

See that flower in the middle? The one that's starting to wilt? It opened on the 27th of February. That means it's been open for 8 weeks. Take that orchids! And this is from a plant that probably couldn't be easier.

I got my U. longifolia during my first trip to California Carnivores, the time when I tried to buy a bunch of Damon's collection pots by accident. I think he fetched it smooth over my embarrassment. Sweet guy!

U. longifolia, 7-22-2014. Just getting started!

U. longifolia is extremely low-maintenance in my conditions. Early on I had to move it to its own little tray because it kept sending out stolons toward other pots. That actually proved to be a pretty good move, since it let me give the plant a nice flood/dry cycle.

U. longifolia, 1-26-2015. Long leaf! This is almost ready to bloom.

Lots of people have asked me for advice with U. longifolia, but I can't say anything definitive since I haven't tried growing it in different ways. Here's the basics: it's 18 inches and a bit offset from my lights, so not very intense light, though it is good light; in my garage, where temperatures tend toward the 50s and 60s, occasionally getting cooler in the winter, and ranging into the upper 70s during the hottest days of summer; planted in long fiber Sphagnum moss, I water its tray every 10 days or so. The water level almost always drops way down before I water it, though the moss never really dries out. I water to the very top, nearly flooding the pot. The secret to U. longifolia culture is probably buried somewhere in that description, but I don't know what is the important bit.

After 7 months or so of that treatment, I was rewarded with my first flower stalk.

U. longifolia flower spike, 2-19-2015. I was so excited.

Much like many popular species of orchid, the scape takes several weeks to develop. This first year I only had 2 scapes, and they got hit with aphids, so it was a bit of a let down, though the first few flowers were nice. This year I got 6 flower stalks.

U. longifolia in full bloom, 3-20-2016.

At the peak of the bloom there were 14 open flowers. It was amazing! The two largest stalks look like they'll have 6 or 7 buds in the full course of the bloom, while the smaller ones have 2-3. It seems like the peak of the bloom lasts 2 or 3 weeks, while the full bloom cycle will probably be around 3 months. Not bad at all!

One funny thing about confining my plant to its own little tray/pot is what happens below the pot. It's a bit nuts.

U. longifolia, 4-21-2016. About 18 months of stolon development.

You can see the trap development right on the bottom there, and the density of stolons is nuts. This plant would probably like a LOT more space. A part of me is considering getting it into a big pot and seeing what happens. I'll let it finish blooming first, but I might need to mess around with it come summer.

Seriously, U. longifolia is a great plant. I've heard of being growing them in windowsills just fine, in greenhouses, under lights, and outside. If you find any, give it a shot! Maybe I'll try and divide mine up into a few pots to trade/sell. We'll see!

U. longifolia flower detail, 3-27-2016.

The Breakdown

• media: Long-fiber Sphagnum seems to work well.
• light: Modest light is fine. Probably gets longer leaves in dimmer light.
• water: Seems to like periodic flood/dry cycles. I achieve this through the careful method of being terrible at watering on time.
• temperature: Avoid frosts. Probably prefers cooler temperatures, but I bet it would be fine growing warmer as well.
• feeding: Probably foliar feeding with something like MaxSea would work, but I've never done it.
• propagation: Divisions are the way. Be careful keeping it near other pots, because the stolons will aggressively colonize its neighbors.
• flowers: Starts blooming for me in the late winter/early spring.

Plant Profile: Drosera spiralis, updated

This is part of a series of posts describing my experiences with different species, their culture requirements, and photos of their growth in my collection. The full series can be read here, or by species on the Series page.

About a year and a half ago I did a Plant Profile of one of my favorite sundew species, Drosera spiralis. A lot has happened in the mean time, so I decided to do an update.

Here's what my plant (and my collection) looked like back in April 2014.

The halcyon days of yore.

And here's the same plant today!

I didn't realize they got this big, hahahah.

It was really hard to photograph because of how big its gotten. The leaves are more than 9 inches (23 cm) tall, which means they end up growing into my lights sometimes. It's a big robust plant, and has proven very easy and vigorous in my conditions.

This was like the 3rd or 4th sundew I acquired, at the Winter 2014 BACPS meeting. That's where we all learned the difference between D. spiralis and D. gramnifolia. One of the tests was how the leaves unfurl. Of course, taxonomy being what it is, the plants don't always cooperate.

A uniform spiral, technically characteristic of D. gramnifolia.

More what a D. spiralis leaf is "supposed" to look like.

One of the things that I learned was that D. spiralis is a difficult, temperamental plant that might just up and die on me at any minute. That hasn't proven to be true. I suspect that two things make this plant happy in my conditions: extremely bright light, and consistently cool nighttime temperatures. Longer-leaved sundews always do the worst in low light, and the mountaintops where this is found in habitat are pretty much always chilly at night.

I had enough success with this formula that I've even flowered the plant twice!

Check out those stipules too, those are sweet.

Best Drosera flower I've seen in my collection so far.

The second time it flowered the plant even managed to set a bit of seed. I sold the excess, but I've saved some to try cultivating. Another thing I want to try is root cuttings. The plant has sent out long roots into the tray that are just ripe for propagation.

Time to take some cuttings!

Basically, this plant wants highland conditions, but with very bright, intense light. Since I've moved my collection into the garage (where it's even cooler) it's just done fantastically. If your Drosera capensis look really fantastic, there's a chance you could grow D. spiralis as well. It's worth a shot anyway.

And don't forget to feed them! The mature plants don't move their leaves, but they'll curl all the tentacles in to feast. And little babies even roll up on the food, like this sproutling that appeared a few months ago next to the mother plant.

You go little plant. Eat that fish food.

Much too cute.

The Breakdown

• media: long-fiber Sphagnum, perhaps with a bit of pumice to keep it airy
• light: unspeakable amounts of light
• water: tray method, doesn't mind occasional dry days
• temperature: cool nights make all the difference
• feeding: feeding fresh leaves is good.
• propagation: no experience so far (soon, though!)

Plant Profile: Drosera venusta

This is part of a series of posts describing my experiences with different species, their culture requirements, and photos of their growth in my collection. The full series can be read here, or by species at the Series page

At the end of yesterday's post I shared the following picture of Drosera venusta, which inspired me to do a Plant Profile of this species. It's one of the prettiest plants in my collection.

D. venusta, 5-19-2015.

D. venusta is a South African sundew that is closely related to – some say synonymous with – Drosera natalensis. I'm totally unqualified to take a position on this issue. In any case, I got my D. venusta from California Carnivores back in June 2014.

D. venusta, 7-22-2014.

It was beautiful and lovely and everything for a month or two, but then there was a period of several months where it declined hard and looked very ratty.

D. venusta, 9-2-2014.

I've heard from some people that D. venusta will just occasionally look terrible, or even die back, but then bounce back for no apparent reason. In my case though I think it was high temperatures that sort of fried the plant.

While the main plant was looking terrible I had some good success propagating with leaf cuttings. I started leaf cuttings from several species, including D. venusta, in July. It struck after about 5 weeks, and then developed quite well in the next few months.

D. venusta leaf cutting, 8-15-2014.

D. venusta plantlets from leaf cuttings, 12-22-2014.

I traded the babies away around this time, and luckily my main plant was starting to bounce back.

D. venusta, 11-24-2014.

I really think it was the cooler weather that made the difference. I've since moved my collection into the garage, which stays cooler all year than the house. We'll see if that keeps the plant looking good throughout the summer.

One thing to note with this species: the first time I got it to flower all the way I didn't get any seed. The next time it flowered I basically ignored the blooms, but it looked like it spilled some seed onto my lights. I'll have to keep an eye on it next time to harvest seed properly. In the mean time I can just admire the heck out of this plant.

D. venusta, 2-9-2015.

The Breakdown

• media: Standard peat:sand carnivore mix.
• light: As much as you can possibly provide.
• water: I haven't noticed any particular sensitivity to water levels. My tray goes dry periodically and the plant doesn't care. Keep it wet over all though.
• temperature: Seems to be sensitive to temperatures much in excess of 80-90 F (25-30 C).
• feeding: D. venusta really responds well to feeding. It will get somewhat redder without being fed, but not dramatically.
• propagation: Pretty easy to start from leaf cuttings. No experience from seed or root cuttings or anything.

Plant Profile: Pinguicula gigantea

This is part of a series of posts describing my experiences with different species, their culture requirements, and photos of their growth in my collection. The full series can be read here, or by species at the Series page

There's really no reason to not be growing Pinguicula gigantea. It's one of the easiest and most rewarding plants in my collection.

P. gigantea ready to bloom, 1-29-2015.

This was my first ping, and one of my first carnivorous plants. I bought it at the winter 2014 BACPS meeting. As I recall it was a Carnivore Culture acquisition. This post takes me back!

P. gigantea, 2-15-2014.

P. gigantea is a Mexican butterwort, but it's unique in several ways. It lacks a non-carnivorous succulent winter dormancy, and produces mucilage on the bottom of the leaves, unique among Mexican pings. It also gets really big, and has cute purple flowers.

P. gigantea bloom, 4-29-2014.

This plant gets identical conditions to my easy sundews – Drosera capensis etc. – and loves it. It first flowered for me in late April, after it had been in my collection for around 3 months. The flowers hang around for more than a week, which makes them a really wonderful addition to any collection. They also appear to encourage the plant to divide, which is great!

P. gigantea division forming, 5-23-2014.

I've never given this plant a dry period, and it gets very bright under my lights, and that has seemed to work very well. It blooms every other months or so, and after a few rounds of blooms it had developed 4 crowns.

P. gigantea offset, 11-21-2014.

Now, I haven't tried leaf pullings with this plant yet, but fortunately it propagates itself pretty easily. I basically ignored it and it quadrupled itself. Also, dividing pings is uh, not very difficult.

That's my father adding some appreciative grunts to the process. 

I may try some leaf pullings from this plant, and if I do I'll definitely post it on the blog. For this division (which I used in a trade), I just rinsed the moss and media out of the roots. Ping roots just mainly keep the plant anchored in the soil.

P. gigantea offset with roots, 1-29-2015.

This is a wonderful plant. If you're interested, Matt usually has it in stock. I've never ordered from Carnivore Culture online, but I've heard that the plants arrive in very good shape after shipping. Give it a shot!

The Breakdown

• media: Peat, sand, and perlite. People use all sorts of media for Mexican pings, and I don't pretend to be an expert. I tend to use more aggregate for my ping soil (extra perlite or pumice mostly).
• light: As much light as possible is good. Brighter light really improves the carnivorousness of the leaves.
• water: I keep it in the tray wet all year. This species doesn't have a non-carnivorous dry dormancy.
• temperature: My tray ranges in temperature from the low 50s to the mid 90s. Never had a temperature problem.
• feeding: I sprinkle ground up fish food on the leaves periodically. It definitely gets digested, and I think the plant benefits.
• propagation: P. gigantea divides fairly regularly. I believe leaf pullings work, but I don't have any experience.

Plant Profile: Drosera intermedia 'Cuba'

This is part of a series of posts describing my experiences with different species, their culture requirements, and photos of their growth in my collection. The full series can be read here, or by species at the Series page

Earlier this week I mentioned that my Drosera intermedia 'Cuba' have formed hibernacula for winter, and are going dormant. They look pretty quiet right now.

Dormant D. intermedia 'Cuba', 12-11-14.

Dormant D. intermedia 'Cuba', 12-13-14.

 However, during full active growth, it can be a really lovely, if somewhat diminutive, sundew. It can acquire a deep maroon color, and gets quite dewy under high light conditions.

D. intermedia 'Cuba' in flower, 4-22-14.

This was one of the first species I started from seed, and they had really high germination rates. It's a tropical cultivar of D. intermedia that stays on the small side. They also grow really quickly when fed regularly – it was about 4 months from germination to flowering with these guys. I fed them my regular beta fish food, and they responded really well.

When it came to repotting, however, results we a lot more mixed. When the seedlings were very small I transferred about half of them to a new pot, and overall they did okay. A few months later I tried repotting mature plants, and lost about 25% of them. They had very small, thin roots which I think were easily damaged. However, I didn't use a humidity tent in the process, so I don't know if that would have improved survival rates.

Repotting losses, 8-10-14.

In all I think this is a pretty good beginner sundew. Easy to start from seed, quick-growing (with food), and very pretty under high light. The small size makes them very easy to fit into a collection, though a bit fiddly to work with.

The Breakdown

• media: Standard 1:1 peat and sand, although they also did fine in long-fiber Sphagnum moss.
• light: As much as you can provide. Plants can turn deep, striking red in high light.
• water: Tray method is appropriate, doesn't mine the tray occasionally drying out.
• temperature: Staying above freezing is important. I also noticed some heat stress in the middle of summer when temperatures were around 90 F (32 C).
• feeding: Regular feeding is important when plants are seedlings. If they are allowed to set a lot of seed without being fed some plants may die back a bit. Less food does mean more red color though.
• propagation: Easy to start from seed, high seed set when mature. In a colder climate this plant could act as an annual. No experience with leaf cuttings; root cuttings would probably not work.

Plant Profile: Drosera adelae

This is part of a series of posts describing my experiences with different species, their culture requirements, and photos of their growth in my collection. The full series can be read here, or by species at the Series page

Drosera adelae is one of the most common sundews in cultivation, but well-grown specimens are among the most delightful plants a grower can have in their collection. The uniquely lanceolate leaves, wonderful color, and vigorous growth make it one of the first sundews I'd recommend acquiring.

A crowded pot, shortly before I separated and repotted everything. 7-13-2014

Much like Drosera capensis, D. adelae sometimes gets short shrift for being a beginner's plant, but I love beginner plants! It's true this is one of the first sundews I acquired when building my collection, but it has continued to be one of my favorites.

A little baby plant. They grow up so fast! 3-11-2014

I received my little baby D. adelae from Natch Greyes back in March. No plant likes being shipped, and this one had one little leaf at first. But it perked up and started growing right away. It's wound up being one of the most vigorous plants in my collection, more so even than my D. capensis varieties.

D. adelae sure like to eat! 4-4-2014

D. adelae is one of the Three Sisters of Queensland, along with Drosera prolifera and Drosera schizandra. This group of 3 closely-related species from Queensland, Australia grow in a wet, jungle environment that is quite different from the bogs where most sundews are found. As a result these plants can tolerate (and D. schizandra requires) lower light levels than most other Drosera. In my opinion though, D. adelae grown in bright conditions looks much better than do specimens I've seen growing with less light. It has more red (mine would get very red indeed if I could resist feeding them so often) and is remarkably dewy.

My first offset. 5-21-2014

Check out how red and dewy the baby is! 5-21-2014

I grow mine in long-fiber sphagnum, sitting in the tray with the rest of my plants. The humidity is fine, but not particularly high, and temperatures range between 55 F and 85 F (12 C - 30 C). As the above pictures demonstrate, it grew from a small plantlet to a freely-offsetting mature plant within about 3 months. I feed it as often as I do my other plants (every 2-3 weeks) and it responds with lots of new leaves and long roots. I recently repotted it, sending 2 small plantlets off in a trade, and moving my largest plant into a big pot, while keeping another plantlet in one of my standard square pots. It looks a little ratty, like any recently-repotted plant will, but I'm looking forward to it getting even more free root run and continuing to multiply.

New digs! Gotta take some time to settle in. 7-16-2014

The Breakdown

• media: Long-fiber sphagnum or living sphagnum are recommended, though my initial pot also involved some 1:1 peat:sand mix and the plant didn't really seem to mind.
• light: Can tolerate lower light. Leaves will be longer under lower light, but will lack much red color and have less dew. Very bright conditions make for a more upright, healthier plant.
• water: Use a tray and keep it wet. D. adelae is pretty tolerant of varying level of water as long as it doesn't dry out.
• temperature: Don't let it freeze. Tolerates higher temperatures as long as there is higher humidity as well.
• feeding: Feed regularly (every 2 weeks or so) for lots of growth. Regular feeding will keep the plant green, while less food means more red color.
• propagation: Offsets freely when mature and healthy. Also produced long roots suitable for cuttings. Leaf cuttings are also apparently very easy. Does not self-seed – requires a genetically different plant for fertilization.

Plant Profile: Utricularia livida

This is part of a series of posts describing my experiences with different species, their culture requirements, and photos of their growth in my collection. The full series can be read here, or by species at the Series page

 Utricularia livida is a perfect example of an easy, delightful plant.

U. livida blooms, looking adorable on 6-9-2014.

I've had my U. livida for about 3 months, when I bought a little plug from Natch Greyes' Carnivorous Plants. Natch reads the blog, and I think he'll be pleased to hear that he sent along an excellent little plant – it's been growing like gangbusters and the blooms are just as adorable as I could hope.

First new growth once I received the plant, 3-12-2014.

U. livida is a terrestrial Utricularia, and is also widely held to be a weed (though a charming one). For this reason it lives in its own little glass tray/container, with the pot sitting inside. This way I can keep it out of my sundews and other Utricularia, and give it free reign to delight me with little sprays of flowers and cute foliage.

A month of growth, 4-11-2014.

A taste of things to come, 4-11-2014.

It's also extremely, extremely easy to care for. I have it under my lights, but I'm sure it would grow just fine on a windowsill (my windowsills are just too narrow for plants, which is too bad). The soil is the standard carnivore peat and sand, and the water is distilled. While I got a couple flowers out of one of the old stalks it had been shipped with, the plant waited to make new flower stalks for about 6 weeks, during which time it focused on spreading throughout the pot.

My first new flower stalks, 4-30-2014.

One trick I read somewhere for terrestrial Utricularia is to periodically saturate the media to sort of simulate a fluctuating water level in a bog. What I do is let the water level drop to about an inch from the bottom of the pot, and then fill it back up to right level with the top of the media. It'll be really soggy for several days after that, and the plants seem to spread nicely afterward. My Utricularia sandersonii and Utricularia calcyfida also get this treatment, and respond well.

U. livida blooming for real now, 4-29-2014.

Of course, the flowers are the thing when it comes to Utricularia (for the most part). I'm not sure what caused my patch to start flowering – I've heard that different clones behave differently (this one is awesome). It gets a constant photoperiod and hasn't been around long enough to know any seasons here, so it's anyone's guess. I suspect that if you get some U. livida, give it decent light, and flood it periodically, you'll be rewarded with lots of adorable little blooms. I certainly have. Every carnivore grower should consider adding this cute little guy to their collection.

The flowers are so cute up close. 6-9-2014.

The Breakdown

• media: Peat and sand or pure peat work fine.
• light: Doesn't need quite as much as a sundew. Great windowsill plant, or good placed a bit farther from the lights than the rest of the collection.
• water: U. livida likes it wet. Keep it in a tray and flood it periodically if possible.
• temperature: It probably shouldn't be allowed to freeze.
• feeding: I've heard that terrestrial Utricularia can benefit from foliar feeding with something like MaxSea, but I have no experience in this. I've considered seeding my pot with some pond water to introduce little microorganisms but the plants haven't seemed to need it yet.
• propagation: Once you grow a colony you can dig out patches of it and seed new pots. I've heard that Utricularia like to always be colonizing fresh media, so it might be a good idea to divide your Utrics periodically.

Plant Profile: Drosera burmannii

This is part of a series of posts describing my experiences with different species, their culture requirements, and photos of their growth in my collection. The full series can be read here, or by species at the Series page.

I love Drosera burmannii. It's everything you could want in a sundew – easy to grow, incredibly dewy, a big (and dramatic) eater, and very handsome when mature.

May 16 2014, the five plants in my competition pot.

These D. burmannii come from Humpty Doo, NT, Australia. I'd had an eye out for these plants since I'd read about them on Grow Sundews (and watched the video). I was lucky enough to find seeds available from Crystal's Carnivores (alas, now defunct), and started them a little bit before the new year.

Feb. 15, 2014

I was still getting familiar with the hobby, so I used terrible Wisconsin long-fiber sphagnum from Mosser Lee that was full of sedge and twigs and which I intensely regret purchasing.  Still, it worked fine for the short time I used it, and I got a decent germination rate (though nothing compared to the D. intermedia 'Cuba' seeds I started at the same time).

Mar. 1, 2014

The real trick with D. burmannii, as with all sundews I've tried so far, is food. When fed regularly sundews grow very quickly, and D. burmannii can be fed very regularly. They were a bit slow to get started at first, since the earliest carnivorous leaves were tiny, difficult to feed, and could only take very very small amounts of food. However, once the seedlings reached a decent size (and could be fed accordingly) they fairly exploded. Consider the following two photos:

Mar. 11, 2014

Mar. 31, 2014

The plants doubled or tripled in size in only 3 weeks, compared to the extremely slow growth before. They really like food! Shortly after the above photo was taken I traded 2 of the seedlings for some Utricularia praelonga and donated 2 more to the NASC auction, which left me with 9 plants total. Two are now starting to flower!

May 19, 2014, happily repotted.

Honestly, if I were to recommend one sundew to people (besides the inevitable and delightful Drosera capensis), this would be it. There are several different location forms (Humpty Doo being among the nicest-colored), but I understand that they're all pretty much as easy as they come.

One note about Drosera burmannii: they are said to be annual, needing to be restarted from seed after flowering. However, the guide at Grow Sundews disagrees, saying that they'll pull through flowering if fed enough and kept in favorable conditions. I guess I'll have the opportunity to find out in the next few months!

May 19, 2014, having been recently fed.

The Breakdown

• media: I've used (terrible) long-fiber sphagnum as well as the standard peat:sand and they haven't seemed to care much.
• light: As much as you can provide, but would probably be fine on a windowsill. I doubt anything but full sun or intense artificial light could produce the nice red colors, though.
• water: The tray works well, has tolerated brief periods with the tray almost dry.
• temperature: No particular restrictions, although they'd probably die if frozen.
• feeding: I feed whenever I have time and there are a couple fresh, unfed leaves (which is often). These guys can really eat.
• propagation: Easy to start from seed. Sow on a pot of media of your choice, and keep under the lights to germinate. I used plastic wrap to keep the humidity high. Acclimate the plants to lower humidity gradually and then feed as soon as possible. Mine went from seed to flowering in about 5 months.