What I've been up to lately (hint: selling gemmae)

For the last couple weeks my pygmies have been producing lots and lots of gemmae. Last year I threw a lot of gemmae out, so this year I determined to do better. I've shared some with friends, and I've also sold a lot of gemmae, mostly via Facebook. Here's what I shipped out this morning!

Lots of stuff headed to the post office.

This is a non-trivial amount of work! Last year I learned that gemmae that have been harvested and packetized have an extremely short shelf life, so now I harvest per order. I put on a podcast and it's nice, but it takes time. I don't mind though, because I really like spreading different plants around. It's sort of an insurance policy – inevitably I'm going to lose some plants, and if more people are growing them it will be easier for me to get them back later.

Freshly-harvested pygmies look funny.

Drosera leucoblasta with gemmae (and recently-harvested).

I've still got a good amount of gemmae left, including Drosera leucoblasta, Drosera sargentii, Drosera paleacea, Drosera callistos, and Drosera helodes, among others. If you'd like to get some, email me at sundews.etc@gmail.com. I've been charging $5 per pack, with $3 for basic shipping, and various options for cold weather. Let me know!

Besides pygmies and gemmae (and pygmies and gemmae and pygmies and gemmae), I've been spending a fair amount of time thinking about utrics lately. My Utricularia longifolia is blooming again!

Blooming U. longifolia. No aphids this time!

I guess this is just the time of year for it. Last year it I first noticed the bloom in mid-February. My clump is a bit more mature now. I should have taken a picture of the bottom of the pot – it's a solid mass of stolons and traps. It's pretty funny. Maybe this year I'll pot this up into a much larger pot – I've been threatening to do that for a while. I gave a chunk to my friend Anne, who will be growing it outside. Interested to see how it does!

I haven't killed my Utricularia cornigera! That's exciting!

Brand new leaf! I'm very happy.

As I've mentioned before, this pot had gotten much too dry and had lost all it foliage. However, it still had a big fat stolon, which I buried in the pot once I moved it to a wetter tray. Looks like we've got life now! I should fertilize this a bit once it grows in.

At the recent BACPS meeting I picked up a new tuberous sundew, the delightfully-named Drosera zigzagia.

One of the best specific epithets in the genus.

I've gotten a new burst of confidence re: tuberous Drosera since my Drosera ramellosa came back from dormancy. Gotta get all the tubers I can now.

Something more to add to my confidence in growing the summer-dormant species is the fact that Drosera cistiflora is back as well.

Arise! Awaken!

There was a little dried out nob on the pot where the old stem had been, and when I flicked it away I exposed this bit of stem to the lights, so it's growing! Now I really really want to get it to flower for me. That would be a real feather in the cap! We'll see.

Stem-forming sundews

I noticed something very exciting today – my Drosera cistiflora is forming a stem!

Reach for the stars little guy.

It even looks like it's cheering, hahahah. I probably won't get flowers this year, but I'm very happy with this plant. It's become one of my favorites.

D. cistiflora isn't the only stem-forming South African sundew. The most well-known is probably Drosera madagascariensis, which develops a scrambling habit very quickly.

It's a jungle in here.

In cultivation lots of people will chop them back and take stem cuttings. I haven't done that since I have neither the time nor the space and well, here we are.

Our old friend Drosera capensis is also a stem-forming plant, though it stems out much more slowly than D. madagascariensis.

I'd need to do some trimming to see the stem.

This is a pretty neat plant.

The first photo is my original D. capensis, which has a pretty respectable stem, but it's hidden by a clump of dead leaves and offsets. The lower photo, my D. capensis "broad leaf" is showing its stem a bit better.

Drosera affinis is sort of intermediate between D. madagascariensis and D. capensis in how quickly it forms a stem.

I have high hopes for that flower stalk.

The very similar Drosera nidiformis is much the same, though mine has yet to start stemming out yet. Edit: As it turns out D. nidiformis does not in fact form a stem. I mis-remembered while making this post. Looks pretty good in any case.

These should probably be in a larger pot.

South African sundews are very cool. It's the first region that interested me, and it's one of least-studied. Fernando Rivadavia says that that's because we don't have a carnivorous plant expert in-country right now. If anyone in South African can read these words, go forth and study some plants.

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!

This post is just for sundews

Man, it's been feeling like Sarracenia Etc. around here. I must plead circumstance – first of all, I've got a lot of room for new Sarracenia and very little for new Drosera. It's also spring, so all the pitchers are waking up. And finally I keep battling the aphids in my indoor collection. But there's lots going on still, so let's get back to basics and look at some sundews.

First up, the season is over for my two tuberous species, Drosera ramellosa and Drosera rupicola.

This spot is now occupied by my new Drosera slackii.

They definitely went dormant earlier than expected. Now I've set them to dry out, after which I might see what the situation with the tubers is. At the very least I'm going to remove that horrible cap of moss on the pot and replace it with a layer of sand.

My other summer-dormant sundew, Drosera cistiflora, is still very much awake, and enjoying having been recently fed.

Looks like a feast.

 It hasn't formed a stem yet this year, and considering how late we are in the season I doubt that it will. Still, I'm glad that it's apparently so healthy. This one will almost certainly come back next season.

One of my smaller Drosera filiformis plants has woken up.

Always propagate. It's like insurance.

This is very satisfying, since the one that was on its way a couple months ago is now, beyond much doubt, definitely dead.

The question now is: do I keep waiting?

Maybe the shock of being moved up closer to the lights was just too much for it. I'll let the one that's still alive get a bit bigger before the move, I guess.

The first of my Drosera intermedia 'Cuba' seems to be waking up as well.

Wake up little guy.

This is the only plant among the 3 pots of D. 'Cuba' that seems to be waking, though the others are definitely still alive. We'll see.

Another Drosera hamiltonii has apparently sprouted from the roots.

I didn't expect to see these plants start offsetting.

This was sort of a surprise, since this species has always seemed only barely satisfied in my conditions. I guess it can't be so bad.

The two Drosera anglica CA × HI plantlets from the Summer Batch that I thought had died have apparently come back.

Propagation can surprise you.

I've fed them, so hopefully in a month or two we'll have some more of this excellent plant available.

Finally, the Drosera indica situation is still completely out of control.

This is too many plants.

I'm in the process of hardening these guys off. What I'll do after that is anyone's guess.

Feels good to get back to sundews! The aphids seem to be in retreat, so hopefully I'll be able to get back to normal sooner rather than later.

Some recent acquisitions

I usually wait a little bit to post about new plants I acquire, since you want to make sure they're not going to just immediately croak in your conditions. It's happened to me a couple of times that I get a plant in the mail, it looks awesome for a day, and then it withers into nothing. One thing I've started doing to mitigate this is using humidity tents on any new plant I receive in the mail. That way if the plant was use to substantially higher humidity than my conditions provide it can be hardened off gradually without going into shock.

Drosera cistiflora is a relatively recent addition to my collection – I received it a little over 3 weeks ago, after winning it in an auction on the Carnivorous Plant Auctions and Sales Facebook group, and it has bounced back tremendously from shipping.

So much dew on this D. cistiflora.

Is it thinking about starting a stem?

I'm almost done hardening this guy off. Look at that great dew, and that touch of red in the tentacles. Excellent! For a humidity tent I use a sandwich-sized Ziploc baggie fit over the pot. I harden off the plants by first cutting off one corner, then the other, then opening the top all the way, then cutting down the sides of the baggies, then finally removing it all together. The whole process usually takes 2 weeks or so, and the plants seem to do just fine.

About a week after I received the D. cistiflora I completed a trade with another California grower who was looking for Pinguicula gigantea. I sent him a large offset, along with a couple Utrics, and he sent me a few plants in exchange. These cute little starts of Pinguicula cyclosecta and Pinguicula 'Florian' were part of the exchange.

Baby Pings: the only thing cuter than mature Pings?

This cultivar grows up to have very lovely scalloped edges.

These are little babies. I harden Pings off much more quickly than I do Drosera, since Pings are usually comfortable with lower humidity over all. These guys are almost done.

He also sent along a big clump of Drosera × snyderi, which is a botanically invalid name for Drosera dielsiana × nidiformis (an Ivan Snyder hybrid). I wonder if the fact that most people agree that the Drosera dielsiana in cultivation is mostly Drosera natalensis means that this plant is actually D. natalensis × nidiformis. This is the nitty-gritty of plant collecting.

This is kind of a lot of plants.

There's some decent dew on these guys, though they're taking their time a bit. The dividing and repotting process was a bit tougher on this group of plants, so that makes sense.

The last plant I received in that trade was a green form of Drosera burmannii from the Hann River in Kimberley, WT, Australia. I've been wanting a green form of D. burmannii for a while, so this was very exciting.

What a looker.

This little dude started out all green with pale tentacles, but the tentacles have since reddened up and made this a really breathtaking plant. Just look at it! I can't wait to start feeding it heavily and seeing what it looks like all grown up.

Finally, just yesterday I met up with a grower from the eastern reaches of the Bay Area (hi Rose!) to swap a couple of plants. She got several Drosera plants and some gemmae, and I got several Ping starts and this lovely little Sarracenia psittacina.

My first S. psittacina!

Apparently in the summer this plant gets a really nice red color. I'm already getting started filling up those lagoons!