BACPS 2015 Annual Show and Sale

This past Saturday was the Bay Area Carnivorous Plant Society's Annual Show and Sale at the Lake Merritt Garden Center in Oakland, CA. It was a fun day! Unfortunately I got very little sleep the night before – one of those nights where you just stare at the ceiling in despair – so by the end of the show I was exhausted.

It was a tough weekend for a show. We were competing with the San Francisco Cactus and Succulent Society show, as well as the San Jose Orchid Exposition. In spite of that we had a very nice turnout from members of the public. However the show itself was a bit less packed with entries than we'd have liked. Sundews and pings were well-represented, as were Sarracenia. The Nepenthes entries were a bit more sparse than usual, but still contained some excellent plants. However there were zero entries in the "Other Pitcher" category, only 1 for the aquatics, 2 for Art, and just 3 in "Terrarium/Dish Garden."

We're not sure why so few plants were submitted as compared to last year, but increasing show participation is going to be a major goal for the coming year in the BACPS. Now, without further ado, the entries.

Art

First: Heliamphora nutans, pontillist drawing, Sam Stafford.

Second: Venus flytrap, metal sculpture, Benjamin Bailey.

Terrarium/Dish Garden

First: Pygmy Garden, Devon Peterson. Also Third in Show.

Second: Dish Garden featuring Pinguicula sp. Huahuapan, Stephen Davis.

Check out that amazing flower! That's a new ping to add to my want list.

Third: D. adelae, D. scorpioides, D. burmannii, Ben Raymond.

Butterwort (Pinguicula)

First: Pinguicula 'Pirouette', Doris Quick.

Second: Pinguicula 'Weser', Stephen Davis.

Third: Pinguicula gigantea, Brian Lipinski.

Sundew (Drosera, Byblis, Roridula)

First: Drosera falconeri, Apache Rose. Also First in Show.

Second: Drosera ordensis, Apache Rose.

Third: Drosera ultramafica × spatulata, Devon Peterson.

American Pitcher Plant (Sarracenia)

First: Sarracenia flava var. rubricorpora, Doris Quick.

Second: Sarracenia alata "black" × flava "red", Stephen Davis.

Third: Sarracenia hybrid, Larry Logoteta.

Tropical Pitcher Plant (Nepenthes)

First: Nepenthes spectabilis, Apache Rose. Also Second in Show and winner of the Geoff Wong Award for Horticultural Excellence.

This was really a flawlessly-grown and wonderfully-presented plant. Apache really knows how to grow 'em.

Second: Nepenthes talangensis × robcantleyi, Josh Brown.

Third: Nepenthes bongso, Elizabeth Sampson.

Aquatic

First: Utricularia graminifolia, Devon Peterson.

I was sort of bummed there weren't more aquatic entries, since I think this guy would have shown well against some competition. Oh well.


Venus Flytrap

First: Dionaea 'B-52', Benjamin Bailey.

 
Second: Dionaea 'B-52' × 'Ginormous', Larry Logoteta.

Third: Dionaea 'Red Dragon', Anne Smith.

Best in Show

I've gotta say, the real hero of the show was Apache Rose. Anyone who's active in carnivorous plant groups on Facebook knows Apache, and she really brought some killers. She also credited me with helping her get that D. falconeri so strikingly red – she raised her plant right up near the lights in the last two weeks to color it up, as I had done with my Drosera burmannii last year. It was well done!

First in Show was Drosera falconeri by Apache Rose, Second in Show was Nepenthes spectabilis by Apache Rose, and Third in Show was my own humble pygmy garden.

It was a fun show. Still, there were 5 ribbons not awarded due to lack of entries. Any SF Bay Area growers reading this post: start preparing your plants for next year.

Pygmy sundew roundup, April 2015

It's been a while since I did a pygmy roundup, and lots has been going on, so I decided to check in on the cutest little plants in the collection.

Let's start at the beginning, with my Drosera scorpioides.

D. scorpioides is common, but that's mostly because it's a fantastic plant.

Poor little guys.

The first photo is my main pot from the first pygmies I ever had, some D. scorpioides I started from gemmae last year. The consensus is that the black mounds are earthworm castings. Also I didn't harvest the gemmae from these guys because I just had way too much D. scorpioides gemmae this year. Hope it doesn't affect their growth too much. The second photo is the pot I got in the raffle back at the Spring BACPS meeting in 2014. They got hit hard with aphids, and are still in the process of recovery, alas.

 Now let's see what's up with the pygmies I got from Brie in the 2014 NASC auction: Drosera helodes, Drosera dichrosepala, Drosera pygmaea, and Drosera allantostigma.

Later in the season the white color really comes out on these.

These guys just keep trucking along in their tiny pots.

These are all doing pretty well, except for the D. pygmaea, which is only barely hanging on. For some reason D. pygmaea does not do well in my conditions, which is strange since it's supposed to be a very easy pygmy. The D. allangostigma, as you can see, is clumping like crazy from the gemmae. Looks great.

I've also got several pygmies I purchased from California Carnivores: Drosera callistos, Drosera enodes, and Drosera lasiantha.

I can't wait until next winter when I get Christmas wreaths again.

I didn't get to harvest any gemmae this season, darn.

I keep waiting for these to take off.

D. callistos looks fantastic (it's one of my favorite pygmies). A couple of the D. enodes didn't survive gemmae season, but the others are still lovely. For some reason the D. lasiantha has not been thriving. It's really just been sitting around not growing much. I can't really figure why. I've fed it a couple times but it hasn't seemed to make much difference.

This is a pot of D. allantostigma I started from gemmae from Brie's smaller pot.

They look like little gems.

There's not too much to say other than that D. allantostigma is a beautiful plant.

Finally let's get into the plants I started from gemmae myself this last winter. Most of these I purchased from Drosera Gemmae, which is the source for pygmy sundew gemmae in the States. This first tray contains D. allantostigma, D. helodes, Drosera nitidula, Drosera leucostigma, Drosera oreopodion, and Drosera spilos. The first two species listed were sown from gemmae from my own plants, while the other four were from a late-season order with Drosera Gemmae.

D. helodes doesn't show very well against the sand.

I'm hoping they'll get bigger and easier to see.

Poor D. spilos.

As you can see, the D. spilos reached a certain size and then crashed. I have no idea why. The D. allantostigma I harvested from my first, prized D. allantostigma, which – alas – didn't survive gemmae season.

Finally, let's get to the Winter Batch, which was my big order of pygmy sundew gemmae right in the middle of the season. This first picture is (clockwise from top left) Drosera palacea, Drosera leucoblasta, Drosera omissa, Drosera silvicola, Drosera pulchella, and Drosera barbigera.

This is a fine-looking group of pygmies.

Of this group D. omissa is easily the most vigorous, but I really like the shape of D. barbigera – it looks like a tiny firework. D. palacea has great color and a nice, neat little shape.

On the other side of the tray is 8 more species/hybrids, which I will list in the photo captions to make it a bit clearer.

The leftmost four pygmy pots, clockwise from top-left: Drosera grievei (with one D. omissa hitchhiker), Drosera × Carbarup, Drosera roseana, Drosera pygmaea.

The rightmost four pots, clockwise from top-left: Drosera patens, Drosera sargentii, Drosera × Dork's Pink, Drosera occidentalis.

My D. pygmaea were looking really good for a while, but it seems they've gotten hit with the aphids. I hate aphids. D. sargentii has a really unique shape and profile, which I've really come to like. And D. × Dork's Pink is just a beautiful plant.

It looks like my D. occidentalis failed entirely, but that's not quite true – there is a bit of life in that pot.

It's hiding in there.

You may need to click the picture to see it, but there's a sundew in there. I don't know how well it will survive into next year, but at least I can hold out hope for more gemmae someday.

So that's the spread of my species/hybrid-specific pots. There is one very special pot though – the Pygmy Garden.

Looking like a proper garden now.

It's filling in. I'm excited.

Pgymy sundew update

Back in December I started a whole bunch of pygmy sundews from gemmae. Most of them have done pretty well! Let's check in.

Drosera barbigera type form on left, Drosera pulchella orange flower on right.

Drosera sargentii on left, Drosera patens on right.

Drosera ×Dork's Pink on the left, Drosera occidentalis (or lack thereof) on the right.

Drosera roseana on the left, Drosera pygmaea on the right.

Drosera paleacea giant form on the left and Drosera leucoblasta (Brookton) on the right.

Drosera ×Carbarup on the left and Drosera grievei on the right.

Drosera omissa pink flower up top and Drosera silvicola down below.

A few observations about the pygmies:

• D. occidentalis pretty much failed across the board. I think that the gemmae, being so small, dessicated on the sand before they could reach the media. It's too bad, because D. occidentalis is exactly the pygmy to most benefit by keeping the moss down. Maybe I'll do one final order.
• D. omissa is a total beast. Easily the most successful and vigorous of the batch.
•  I like the color on D. patens and D. palacea a lot.
• The gemmae that were more expensive (D. silvicola and D. sargentii, for example) haven't been as vigorous. I guess that's part of rarity.

Here's how the Pygmy Garden is shaping up.

The Pygmy Garden is looking pretty good!

There are a couple bare patches. Maybe I'll fill them in with some Drosera scorpioides and Drosera callistos.

As a bit of an aside, look at this visitor I had to the collection while I was photographing my collection.

Hi there cutie!

A cute little jumping spider on my Drosera burmannii! I plucked the little dude off because I really like them and my D. burmannii have enough to eat already.

Progress shots from the Pygmy Garden

Things are really starting to get going over in the Pygmy Garden.

The Pygmy Garden is starting to actually look like a garden now.

You can start seeing distinct patches developing. I'm really looking forward to seeing this a few months down the road once everything has filled in. Let's get in close!

Drosera omissa (center) surrounded by other species.

Drosera silvicola getting that stem going.

Deep red Drosera x Carbarup.

The prettiest one in the bunch so far, Drosera x Dork's Pink.

I'm definitely glad I drew up this map when I was first creating the garden. It's a bit rough, but it was enough for me to figure out which was which. There are so many pygmies in this garden! I can't even imagine how cute it's going to be when some of them start blooming.

Speaking of blooms, I've got a little something developing on my Pinguicula laueana x emarginata.

My first-ever bloom on a ping other than Pinguicula gigantea.

I was just thinking earlier about how I want to pot this up into something bigger. Now I guess I'll wait at least until it's done flowering. I'm excited!