Backyard Sarracenia update

I've been spending more time indoors with my pings and sundews lately, so I decided to have a look at what's going on outside. The light was a little funny, so the pictures are a bit funny. At least this Sarracenia minor looks sort of cute with that soft hazy light.

This is one of the prettiest pictures I've seen of my S. minor.

Really nice color on these pitchers. I love the orange and green with the white fenestrations.

My Sarracenia purpurea has also fleshed out and colored up, so that all the bird damage from last year is gone.

Nice and fat again!

I could probably afford to size up the pot again as well, but I can't imagine that happening before next year, hahahah.

This is a clone I got from the Cactus Jungle that they're calling Sarracenia "Rosy Reptile", since it's apparently the same cross as the famous Sarracenia 'Reptilian Rose', but a different selection.

Kind of a flamboyant pitcher. I like that.

S. 'Reptilian Rose' is Sarracenia oreophila "Sand Mountain" × 'Royal Ruby' (which is a natural S. ×moorei selection). I wasn't clear if this means that S. "Rosy Reptile" is a different selection of the actual cross that produced S. 'Reptilian Rose', or if someone reproduced the cross and selected this clone. I'll have to ask Anne for clarification. In any case I dig those red lips and the big pitcher lid.

I'm getting some color on Sarracenia psittacina, but I really need to pot it into something larger, since it's getting a bit cramped as is.

Poor cramped little guy.

I've got at least two divisions in there too. Excited!

I got several Venus flytraps during the NASC auction, and this Dionaea 'Dente' was among them.

Dionaea is a pretty cool genus I guess.

The rest need to recover some more from shipping, but this one's looking good!

I've got a total of 3 pitchers on Sarracenia ×formosa now. That's not a lot, but they're really pretty.

Not as big as they were at the end of last season. We'll see!

This plant is fairly low-profile and sturdy, so it bears the high winds we've had lately fairly well.

Alas, the same cannot be said for the taller plants, and this Sarracenia flava pitcher has paid the ultimate price.

The Carnivore Girl and I both have derpy S. flava now. Feels good man.

Poor goofy little pitcher.

Storm vs. Sarracenia

My Sarracenia are very much at the mercy of the elements. My growing area is not really protected from anything – luckily for the plants, the San Francisco Bay Area has a very mild climate. It almost never freezes, and the hottest days are rarely much higher than 90 degrees F (32 C). However, the winds around here can be fairly strong, and when we get one of our rare storms they can get very strong. This can be bad news for Sarracenia, depending on the species/cultivar.

This Sarracenia flava var. cuprea probably suffered the most damage, having produced, as it did, a very tall, skinny pitcher.

S. flava var. cuprea got that lean.

It's not broken, but it doesn't want to stand up again. The flower is also alive, just all bent over.

The flower on my Sarracenia alata "red throat" was, alas, less fortunate.

Poor broken S. alata flower.

Of course, seeing as I'm not doing any sort of crosses this year I'm not all that concerned with the disposition of the flowers.

My Sarracenia 'Abandoned Hope' faces a peculiar problem. Because I haven't potted it into something larger (it's still in the 4-inch pot from California Carnivores) it doesn't have a very heavy base. Combine that with large, sail-like pitchers, and even if the pitcher tubes don't break it keeps falling over (see the first picture in this post). I had to reposition it in the corner.

The color continues to deepen on this plant.

Should be safe there.

I also had some leaning in my large Sarracenia oreophila and in the Sarracenia ×moorei, but I think that was mostly due to excess water buildup. I shook the water out and both of those plants seem fine.

My good old Sarracenia flava var. maxima proves that the pitcher lid is good for something. The intact pitcher had very little water buildup, while the pitchers with damaged or totally removed lids were filled almost to the top.

I love looking down the pitcher tubes.

Luckily this plant, while sufficiently tall to be elegant, is also sufficiently stocky to be strong. It really is an excellent clone.

I also got a few more gallons of rainwater out of this storm, so there's that at least.

Sarracenia out back

It's still early in the season for Sarracenia, but my plants have gotten a bit of a head start, considering that spring arrived in the Bay Area sometime in mid-January. I went out and took some photos in the early evening today, since the diffuse light shows them to much better effect that the glaring sun that they enjoy during the middle of the day.

The first thing I want to highlight is Sarracenia 'Red Bug'. I picked this plant up from California Carnivores just under 3 weeks ago, and it is looking great out in the full sun. Check out the tan it's got going.

S. 'Red Bug' and Drosera filiformis on March 17th.

S. 'Red Bug' on April 2nd.

Now I can see why it's got that name.

Nearby my Sarracenia 'Abandoned Hope' has popped a couple of big, beautiful pitchers.

I love the orange-yellow-red coloring.

These are still really fresh too – they should color up even more deeply over the summer.

I've finally got a few new pitchers on my poor Sarracenia purpurea that got all torn up by pigeons last year.

This was one of my first carnivores. It makes me nostalgic.

I love how the new pitchers have this sort of porcelain glow to them – they almost don't look real.

Speaking of glowing, since the sun was heading down I got a great backlit shot of the newest pitchers on my Sarracenia minor

It's lit up like a lamp. That would be a cool lamp!

This one gets nice and dark orange after a couple of months in the sun too.

The nearby Sarracenia ×formosa (which is S. psittacina × minor) only has two pitchers so far, but they're developing nicely.

"Formosa" means beautiful in Latin. Appropriate!

I like the color gradient running down the pitcher tube a lot.

There's a large clump of Sarracenia alata red throat that has 3 big flowers and is just sending up its first pitcher.

These flowers are so cute coming up from the rhizomes this way.

I'm looking forward to having a big clump of pitchers soon.

I received this Sarracenia ×moorei (which is S. flava × leucophylla) as a bonus plant in a trade a couple months ago. I had no idea how it was going to look.

Charming closeup here.

Looking pretty nice so far! I'm hoping the colors become more distinct as the season progresses.

My original Sarracenia flava has essentially no coloring to speak of (though it's not anthocyanin-free). What it does have is some of the most nicely-shaped and proportionate pitchers I've seen anywhere.

Some of these pitchers are bug-damaged. Darn!

Now that is a lovely plant. If my conditions were more controlled I bet I could grow it out into a show-worthy specimen.

I've got a young Sarracenia oreophila that has some really nice venation going on.

Enjoying the last rays of sun.

It'll be another year at least before the pitchers are big and mature, but I bet it will look fantastic.

Meanwhile my large clump of S. oreophila has the nicest composition of any of my pots outside.

A nice little S. oreophila vignette.

Wonderful plant!

I'm very excited for the next few months.

Nepenthes ×ventrata in the dish rack

I'm not that big on Nepenthes. I mean, I can appreciate a beautiful specimen as well as the next guy, but it's just not the genus I'm interested in growing. However, some time back someone was giving away rooted Nepenthes ×ventrata cuttings and well then I had this plant that I a) didn't really know how to care for and b) didn't care to do too much research about.

I planted it in a mix of LFS and perlite and stuck near a window in my kitchen. The vine produced one pitcher, then a basal, and then the basal started producing pitchers. One of the tendrils found its way into my dish rack and set up shop.

All set up.

The tendril is actually formed to the rack – there's a little crook that lets it prop itself up on the edge. We haven't had the heart to move it, and now I guess we've just got to be careful when doing dishes for the next couple months.

The plant seems to be fairly happy here at least. There's another pitcher developing from the basal.

I like watching the pitchers swell.

As well this guy, which I would call an upper pitcher if I knew enough about Nepenthes to say such things with certainty.

It adds a bit of color to the grey and white kitchen area.

The plant is definitely a bit scraggly, but I don't mind. It's not too needy, and it's pitchering, so I'm gonna call it a success.

Looking romantic in the dappled sun. Hah.

In other pitcher news, I took a trip to California Carnivores and picked up a couple new plants for my outdoor lagoons – Drosera filiformis and Sarracenia 'Red Bug'.

My first temperate sundew!

By the way, a couple weeks after I set these lagoons up I noticed that they were absolute overrun with mosquito larvae. Since I didn't want my Sarracenia setup to be the source of a West Nile outbreak, I got some Gambusia (mosquito fish) and released them into the ponds. I haven't seen a larva in weeks. And the fish seem happy enough.

Swimming around as happy as you please.

They're hard to see in a photo, but when I'm out looking at the plants they swim around. It's pretty cute!

Things are going crazy out back

Spring is already in full swing here at Pinkhouse. My Sarracenia are throwing up blooms left and right. Last year I didn't get any flowers, so this is exciting!

Sarracenia flava var. maxima.

Sarracenia flava var. cuprea.

Sarracenia alata "Heavy Veins" (Stone County, MO).

Sarracenia alata "red throat".

Sarracenia ×moorei.

Sarracenia oreophila.

Little alien heads popping up everywhere. I wonder if I should do any crosses this year? Maybe I will!

This last Sunday was the first BACPS Social Plant Swap. We drank beer and traded plants and it was great. I got a Pinguicula laueana.

Pinguicula laueana with flower.

Look at that big red flower! I should take some pullings.

On a final note, I've started an Instagram. I'll try and it regularly with new pictures. I'm expanding my social media profile (follow me on Facebook too).

Cultivation Guides: Building a better outdoor growspace

This is part of a series of posts describing various aspects of cultivation, which will hopefully be useful to new growers trying to solve the challenges of growing carnivores, and experienced growers who are always looking to improve their collection. The full series can be read here, or by topic on the Series page.

I've complained in the past about the state of my outdoor growing setup. It's been pretty uh, primitive for a while.

This was definitely a "path of least resistance" setup.

Well, I recently did a trade with a fellow who was downsizing his collection and I wound up with 7 more Sarracenia, so it was time to upgrade. Luckily my roommate TJ is a great project buddy, and he's always down to help out with the plants.  Here's the teaser from a couple posts ago:

Joining the 2x4s to make a platform.

And the progression:

Putting up the outer walls.

Inner walls to make 3 sections.

Strengthening the corners.

One of the 2x4s used to join the platform together.

Up on the cinder blocks.

The full pond liner.

A quarter of the liner.

Fitting the liner into the segments.

Adding water to fill the lagoons.

The plants all in place.

We started with seven 12 foot pressure-treated 2x4 boards, which we used to make the platform. It wound up being 12 feet (~3.6 m) long and about 25 inches (~64 cm) wide. We had some leftover 2x4s from an earlier project that we cut into 4 pieces and screwed onto the boards to join them. The outside walls are made of some leftover plywood that we cut into boards 6 inches wide and then sanded down so there were no sharp edges. If we hadn't had plywood we would have bought some 1x6 boards. We screwed those onto the platform and joined the corners with some braces. The inner walls were leftover hardwood boards.

The platform is just resting on top of the cinder blocks. It's heavy enough to be pretty sturdy, and the only thing I could see knocking it over would be a big earthquake, in which case I'll have bigger problems than dealing with my Sarrs. The liner is a 10x13 foot pond liner by Pond Life. I cut it into quarters so I could use one for each segment. It's not currently secured to the platform, since I just wanted to get this up in advance of the storm we're going to be getting this weekend. Once everything dries up TJ and I are going to cut some strapping and use it to screw the liner onto the sides. I'll post an update when we do.

We got all the materials from Home Depot. Here's the cost breakdown:

$60 – 7 12" 2x4 boards
$15 – 9 cinder blocks
$60 – 10"x13" pond liner

$135 – total

We didn't have to buy boards for the walls, or any of the hardware for the job. In terms of tools, we just used a circular saw, a power drill, and a power sander, although I did most of the sanding by hand while watching the Super Bowl in the garage. Assuming you have a drill and a saw I bet you could do this for under $160.

Look at all that space I have now! I'd been putting off getting more Sarracenia and Dionaea and temperate Drosera because I didn't really have any place to put them. That's certainly not true any longer.

I think I'm going to call this grow space the Lagoon. TJ and I also planning on building a bit of a windbreak to provide shelter to the plants growing in the lagoon. Then we'll be in business!

Pinguicula laueana x emarginata in bloom

Ping flowers are great. My Pinguicula laueana x emarginata has opened up.

This is a very bold flower for such a cute plant.

My girlfriend said this one looked like religious iconography. I can see it, with the blocky shapes and the cool venation. The plant itself is also looking great.

They've responded well to being fed.

That little offset is getting bigger. Also, check out the spur on the flower.

Nearby, the Pinguicula esseriana are coloring up and looking adorable.

These have such a nice little stacked rosette.

I traded one of the plants in a big trade (that I'll talk about soon), but these two are getting really pink and it's adorable.

Another pink ping thing is this little leaf pulling from Pinguicula 'Pirouette'.

Teeny tiny plantlets!

This pulling was stupid easy. It makes me want to propagate more pings.

Speaking of flowers, the Drosera anglica CA x HI from the Summer Batch is blooming.

This looks like it's gonna be a pretty big bloom.

That's a pretty quick turnaround from leaf cutting to mature plant. I'm gonna sow these seeds to see what comes up. Apparently selfing this guy will show a decent amount of variation, so I'll have to sow some seeds and see.

Finally, I've got a project out in the backyard.

Things are brewing.

More updates as events warrant.