Field Trip: Nepenthes at the Conservatory of Flowers

I've posted several times about how much I love the UC Botanical Garden. Another of my favorite plant destinations in the Bay Area is the Conservatory of Flowers in Golden Gate Park. It's a big 19th century glass greenhouse that contains a stunning collection of tropical plants, including the largest Philodendron in cultivation, a 100+ year old specimen that is the centerpiece of the Tropical Lowland room. I always forget to take a picture of the conservatory itself when I visit, but here's a decent example from Wikimedia.

The Conservatory also hosts a delightful collection of Nepenthes. I decided to document some of my favorites on my most recent visit, since I don't feature that genus much on the blog here. One note: plants at the Conservatory aren't always labeled super well. A few of these I knew offhand, a couple I made educated guesses about, and a few are NOID. Please comment with a correction if you know more than me!

This NOID (I suspect perhaps Nepenthes ventricosa x alata, i.e. N. ventrata) is what made me realize I should start taking pictures.

Lovely coloration and pitcher shape on this plant.

The vine was also really impressive. The average hobbyist greenhouse owner probably couldn't afford to devote this much space to one plant, but it makes for a wonderful display.

Probably 100 pitchers on this plant? Fantastic.

These pictures are from the Aquatic Plants room, which has a large pond and hosts a lot of epiphytic species. It has lowland to intermediate conditions.

I think I had a guess about this species but I can't remember anymore.

Some of these Neps are huge, such as the following Nepenthes truncata and Nepenthes rafflesiana.

These pitchers are like, 18 inches (45 cm) long.

I love these fat pitchers. Great coloration too.

Other are just perfectly formed, like this Nepenthes ventricosa that's almost popped its top.

It looks like it's smiling.

Or this Nepenthes bicalcarata, which has one of the most perfect pitchers I've ever seen.

Those fangs are so distinctive. Love the orange and green too.

Bicals are the largest Nep by total mass, which is clear from this vine.

This plant is like an old friend of mine I like to visit.

The nearby Tropical Highland room hosts a couple of more delicate species, including this lovely Nepenthes mikei and its vine.

These upper pitchers are so fine and delicate.

Another great vine, although somewhat more modest than the one in the Aquatic Plants room.

And this beautiful Nepenthes lowii, sporting a big fat patch of crystallized nectar.

That nectar patch looks so inviting. If only I were a shrew.

N. lowii has such a distinctive shape. If I ever start growing highlanders this one is high on my list.

A few other (non-carnivorous) plants caught my attention that day, and I couldn't not share them with the blog. Such as this insane hibiscus flower.

This is in the Potted Plants room.

I had to include my hand for scale. The flower was enormous.

And this lovely Paphiopedilum.

I love that lantern-jawed look.

Paphs are so funny looking.

In conclusion, the Conservatory of Flowers is super awesome. It's a fantastic place to visit if you're ever in the Bay Area, and are keen on weird plants.

The Potted Plant room is really magical.

Getting my pots all set up

I've mentioned before that I really don't like mixing up media. However, you can't grow plants without pots of media, so this week I decided to get it done. Especially because I just got this new bowl to use for a pygmy garden.

This is another Carey Cherney pot from the Cactus Jungle.

I'd been meaning to mix up media for a while, but I had been much too busy at work. This week I'm getting a helping hand from mother nature.

Rain is nice, but feels very unfamiliar after all this drought.

We'll be getting a lot of rain in the next 3 days, so I was able to skip the most annoying part of media preparation, which is the rinsing and squeezing to get rid of excess minerals, nutrients, and spores. Now I can just let the storm do that work for me.

15 new pots ready for plants!

I took care to make this mix lighter and airier than prior mixes. It's got the regular peat and sand, as well as a decent helping of perlite and a small but not insignificant amount of long-fiber Sphagnum moss. I'm hoping the additional perlite and LFS will keep things from getting too compacted.

I went ahead and topped my future pygmy garden with sand, since that's how it will be when I actually sow the gemmae.

I went back and forth on whether or not to use sand, but I think it will highlight the pygmies better.

I'm excited! A lack of media has prevented me from expanding my collection and doing more propagation, so I'm looking forward to doing more of that. I've got a big order from Drosera Gemmae queued up.

In order that this post not be totally boring, check out these Drosera callistos, they are looking awesome.

I've been admiring these for weeks now.

That color is outrageous! Pygmy sundews are the best.

An emissary

We got a little visit from the Kingdom of Fungi over in my Pinguicula moranensis pot.

So small I almost didn't notice.

I've had to periodically deal with mold and mildew, but this is the first of the so-called higher fungi that has graced my collection (to my knowledge). I don't really know what this means. I suspect it will be mostly harmless.

It sure is cute though.

Hi there you handsome fella.

More updates as events warrant, but I suspect this little fruitbody will die back and then I'll forget there was is a mushroom in this pot. If my P. moranensis suddenly dies for no reason though I'll have a handy scapegoat.

Mushrooms were a very early interest of mine, and I've often thought about getting back into their cultivation and study. It's cool to see a little one pop up among my carnivores.

Drosera prolifera seems to be doing better

I received a Drosera prolifera back in April from the NASC Auction. It struggled for a while in my care, and by August or so it was looking pretty shot.

This poor plant looks fried.

I suspect its original conditions had had somewhat lower light and decidedly higher humidity. This photo was actually taken shortly after I moved it from its original position directly under the lights to a new one at the edge of the tray, where the light is somewhat reduced. I guess my instinct with this plant was correct, because it's looking pretty good lately.

It's really neat seeing them reach up out of the moss.

Also looking good is that Sphagnum. It's growing like crazy, and it's all the D. prolifera can do to reach up above it with its extra long petioles. There are also several babies poking up around the pot.

D. prolifera plantlets have to work to not get swallowed by moss.

Living Sphagnum is a pretty cool potting medium, but it makes the plants work for it.

One thing I've noticed about plants I receive from other growers is that sometimes they'll severely shrink back in my conditions and then regrow nicely. One thing it's good to know when trading or buying plants is what their typical growing conditions are. It can help you acclimate them to their new homes more easily.

My Drosera adelae (another of the Three Sisters of Queensland, and a close relative of D. prolifera) is going bonkers.

Look at this ridiculous D. adelae bush. I wonder if this is how they look in habitat.

It's also sending roots out the bottom of the pot and tossing up plantlets in the tray water.

I should take care that the roots don't invade other pots.

I sorta feel silly deciding to do some leaf cuttings of D. adelae as part of the Summer Batch. The cutting that struck is looking cute though!

It's so pretty and gem-like when small like this.

Wish I could get that nice red color on my mature plants.

Finally, in non-carnivorous news, there's a flower bud forming on my Aloe x spinosissima.

Aloes bloom in winter, and there are lots planted around the Bay. It's a real treat.

This is the first year it will bloom, and I'm excited. Aloe flowers are really pretty.

Drosera venusta back in action

My Drosera venusta was looking a little so-so for a while, but recently it has been doing a lot better. It's even got a new flower stalk.

Looking less fried than it did during summer. Maybe it was the heat.

The last couple stalks it made aborted for some reason, but this one is growing all the way up into the lights.

I moved it just in time.

That means it's time for a move! I decided to have it take the place of my Pinguicula laureana x emarginata, which isn't going to need very much vertical room. I also decided to pull out those Utricularia bisquamata flowers, because as much as I find it to be a charming weed, I'd prefer it not set seed all over my collection.

Speaking of weeds, while I was shuffling around the plants to make room from the D. venusta I bumped my Drosera capensis red form flower stalk.

Hope I don't get too many D. capensis red form seedlings everywhere.

Dang! I took a pause from shuffling plants to harvest some D. capensis red form seed (and also, while I was at it, some D. capensis 'Albino'). Those seeds will be available for sale soon.

In any case, I got it all set up, and now I'm ready for it to bloom and set seed. Exciting!

Beauty shot!

Pinguicula roundup, November 2014

Besides sundews I have a reasonable collection of Sarracenia and Utricularia. I also have a small collection of Pinguicula – one which I'm hoping to expand in the future. Pings are easily the most adorable of carnivorous plants, with a gooey charm all their own.

Pinguicula gigantea was my first ping, and it has been offsetting quite nicely.

The little plantlet has to really stretch to get light.

That little guy off to the left is the newest growth point. I really need to divide and re-pot this plant. This is one of the few Mexican butterworts that doesn't have a non-carnivorous winter dormancy. It's also one of the only ones with mucilage on the bottom of the leaves as well as the top.

On the opposite side of the size spectrum are my Pinguicula "Yucca Doo 1717", a selection from New Mexico that is really cute.

They're buddies!

Mature plants from this selection are really pretty, with nice scalloped leaf edges. They've grown pretty nicely since I received them several months ago.

Also on the small side are these Pinguicula lusitanica, which are dead.

This is another one of those "liverwort and moss" pots.

These are supposed to be an annual that will sprout, mature, set seed, and die all within a few months. I received 5 plants, 2 of which bloomed and all of which have since died. I keep holding out for seedlings, but so far all I've got is a sundew in the bottom left of the pot. We'll see.

My newest ping is a hybrid, Pinguicula laureana x emarginata.

Lovely colors on this hybid.

This guy has great coloration, and is fairly large. It is in a pretty small pot though, and I don't want to end up drowning it with the water level in the tray. Another re-potting job for when I have the time.

Finally, I think my prettiest ping right now is this Pinguicula moranensis GG from California Carnivores.

So precious! This is one of my favorite plants.

It's a beautiful greenish pink color, and is developing quite a handsome rosette shape. When I got it it only had 2 leaves, so apparently it likes my conditions. This is definitely one I'll want to propagate once it gets a bit bigger.

Pings are great.

Pest follow-up

I've been dealing with pests in the collection a bit lately, so I decided to do some follow-up with a couple of my plants.

First up, the Drosera collinsiae that had aphids on its flower stalk appears to be aphid-free.

This is actually the best this plant has looked in some time.

I think they had all gathered on the flower stalk to take advantage of all the sugar and nutrients concentrated there, which made it easy to get rid of them. I'm keeping this plant in quarantine a bit longer, but I think it's out of the woods.

The same cannot be said for my much more heavily-afflicted Drosera anglica CA x HI.

A shadow of its former glory.

I don't think it really liked the treatment with isopropyl alcohol, and was already quite weakened by aphids. There is a bit of green at the crown, and hopefully it can bounce back, but it's hard to say. Also I'm not positive all the aphids are gone, since they weren't all gathered on an obvious spot. That said I haven't seen any on the sundew weeds in the pot, so I'm holding out hope that there are none left. I'm going to keep this plant in quarantine for a while until it either definitely dies or bounces back and gets stronger. Then I'm going to repot it and throw out the media in case there are eggs.

My experience with this plant is proof of the wisdom of taking cuttings whenever you get a new species or cultivar. If I didn't have those plantlets I would be seriously bummed to lose this hybrid, which is one of the loveliest in cultivation, and somewhat difficult to find.

The most severely caterpillar-munched Drosera burmannii plant has kicked the bucket, but I think the other one is going to make it out alive.

To be fair this plant had already probably outlived its natural lifespan.

There are a couple dewy leaves on the plant on the left in the foreground (which is the one where I found the caterpillar living). I've fed it to jump-start the regrowth process. The one on the right has basically melted. Godspeed little plant.

To honor my fallen plant I want to share this photo from back in May. It's actually of the centermost plant, but I want to share it anyway because I recently realized it had never been posted to the blog, and it's one of the most horrifying photos I have of my carnivores. Consider it a warning to future pests.

D. burmannii is a fearsome hunter.

That's grim.