What's blooming at the end of January

As it turns out, lots of things are blooming at the end of January. Let's jump right in – there are a lot of plants to look at.

Utricularia livida still blooming after several months. This is the best-looking Utric pot right now.

Utricularia subulata flower in the Utricularia sandersonnii blue form pot. The U. subulata is winning the day.

Utricularia calycifida with scattered flower petals.

Utricularia subulata flower in the Drosera venusta pot.

Drosera capensis scape on left, D. venusta on right. I don't think there's much seed in the D. venusta buds.

I love the shape of the Drosera adelae flower stalk.

Flower stalk developing on Drosera prolifera.

Looking forward to seeing this Pinguicula laueana x emarginata flower.

Pinguicula gigantea getting started again.

This sundew doesn't seem to self-seed. I'm just going to call it Drosera spatuhaha.

It turns out I was mistaken when I stated that Drosera ultramafica x spatulata was sterile. There are seedlings everywhere hahahah.

Drosera spatulata 'Kanto' has really nice-colored flowers.

What's that? A D. capensis bloom? Shocker.

Some more Drosera capensis 'Albino' seeds on the way.

Drosera brevifolia keeps on keeping on, although the stalk on the one on the left aborted for some reason.

There's always at least one flowering Drosera burmannii in my collection.

Flowers :-)

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!

The Drosera capensis mini collection

One of the great things about collecting sundews is that genus Drosera is so widespread and varied that there are all sorts of sub-collections to collect. There are the Three Sisters, the pygmies, South American sundews, tuberous species, and on and on. One of my favorite mini-collections is the Drosera capensis complex. It's a highly varied plant, with distinct types having been found in the wild and developed in cultivation. It's also very easy to cultivate, though to look its best it needs really bright light.

The most commonly-available form of D. capensis is usually styled "typical." Under ideal conditions it has deep red tentacles, bright green petioles and laminae, and mostly upright leaves. The flowers are lavender-pink on long fuzzy scapes.

D. capensis typical, getting a bloom started.

This is the baseline against which the other forms are usually compared. Pretty much everyone who grows carnivorous plants will end up growing D. capensis typical, since it's a famous weed. It's a great plant!

The only registered cultivar in this complex is D. capensis 'Albino'. It has been referred to in some places as D. capensis 'Alba', but that's not an official cultivar name, and it risks confusion with the South African species Drosera alba.

A pair of D. capensis 'Albino' bunking together.

This a a mutation that arose in cultivation. The leaf shape is pretty much identical to the typical form, but the tentacles range in color from pale pink to totally white (depending on light intensity and frequency of feeding), and the flowers are white. This is another extremely common plant, but it is absolutely lovely. The pink blush makes the laminae seem like they're glowing.

The red form of D. capensis hasn't been registered as an official cultivar, but it really should be. Under bright light and without too much feeding the entire plant turns a deep, almost maroon red. Regular feeding will lead to greenish color on the leaves for a while.

D. capensis red form with hitchhiking D. 'Albino'.

The color isn't the only distinctive characteristic of this plant, however. The petioles and laminae are half again as long as the typical form, and overall the plant is less fuzzy. The flowers are also larger, redder, and longer-lasting than a typical D. capensis.

I have one D. capensis form based on leaf shape, the so-called "Broad leaf" form. This is another plant that is widely recognized, but not registered as a cultivar.

A couple D. capensis "Broad Leaf" growing very well.

The coloration and general habit of the plant is very similar to the typical form, but the laminae are wider and flatter-looking. These specimens aren't as extreme in this characteristic as some I've seen online, but since this isn't a registered cultivar it's difficult to say if that's a result of different growing conditions or different clones or what. It's still a noticeable trait.

The last form I currently have is a location form, D. capensis Bainskloof. This is a particularly lovely form with a tighter rosette and a wonderful curving leaf shape. My two plantlets are too young to be showing these characteristics this far, but I'm really looking forward to growing them out.

Recently-fed D. capensis Bainskloof.

Recently potted-up D. capensis Bainskloof. Cutie!

There are several more location forms out there, as well as things called "Giant" or "Pink" or "Narrow Leaf." It's clear that there is work to be done describing this complex of plants, both on a scientific and a horticultural basis. I know I'm always looking for different varieties so I can grow them in similar conditions and see the differences. Luckily it seems like there has been a bit more attention being paid to D. capensis lately, which can only be good for the hobby. These are really wonderful plants.

Drosera intermedia 'Cuba' gets a haircut

My Drosera intermedia 'Cuba' have been looking a bit messy since they went dormant.

Dormant sundews aren't particularly handsome, especially not covered in dead leaves.

There's also a lot of seed in there waiting to be harvested. I started off trimming the flower stalks.

There ended up being a lot of flower stalks.

D. intermedia 'Cuba' seed pods hold their seeds fairly securely, so I had to pinch and roll a bit to get the seed out. This left a bit of a mess.

Messy messy.

I used a wire mesh strainer to get the big bits out, and then I used the cleaning method I covered in this post to separate the high-quality seeds from the low-quality seeds and other chaff.

Good, high-quality seeds.

Terrible seeds and chaff, same magnification.

A satisfying pile of seed.

Quite a nice bit of seed, that.

The plants were looking a bit better by this point.

Almost there...

But I still wanted to get rid of all of those dead leaves. A bit of (careful) scissor work later, and they look positively military.

Nice and freshly-trimmed.

There's even one waking up on the bottom left of this picture. I'm going to donate at least one pot of these guys to the BACPS raffle, if only to make more room in my collection.

Building an apirator to harvest gemmae (gemmae for sale!)

I needed to harvest the gemmae from my pygmies (especially Drosera allantostigma and Drosera callistos), so I decided to build an aspirator.

Total cost of this project: $6.

It was pretty easy! I started with an old Tupperware, then drilled 2 holes in the lid with a Dremel. After that I threaded in a couple of lengths of plastic tubing.

It's not elegant, but it's functional.

I then sealed the tubes into the top and bottom of the lid with silicone caulk. If you inhale through the short tube it creates a vacuum that sucks the gemmae through the long tube and deposits them in the Tupperware. Don't test it until you're sure that the silicone is dry and you've vented the vapors from the Tupperware. I made that mistake and had a headache for a couple hours.

It worked really well!

This is over 150 gemmae. That's a lot of potential plants!

However, I did end up accidentally ingesting a handful of these D. allantostigma gemmae. Most aspirators will have some sort of screen on the inhale tube. However, I solved the problem when harvesting my D. callistos gemmae by lining the Tupperware with a wet paper towel. The gemmae ended up sticking to it nicely and not bouncing up into my straw.

The D. callistos look so different now.

They look like a puppy with a fresh haircut.

After harvesting the gemmae I packetized them and they are now ready for sale in my shop. If you missed out on gemmae earlier in the season now you can get in on that sweet pygmy action. $5 per packet, plus $2 shipping on your order. Get 'em while you can!

So many gemmae!

Gemmae production is rough on pygmies

Gemmae season is in full swing for my pygmies, but man, some of them are taking it hard. Especially Drosera allantostigma.

These plants look wiped out.

 These guys are absolutely wrecked right now. I remember back when I interviewed bluemax he mentioned that he didn't like his Drosera scorpioides producing gemmae because it set them back several months. I can totally understand that position now.

Just look at my prized D. allantostigma in the community pot!

Wow. What a change from the glory days.

It looks like death warmed over. This is my first season putting my pygmies through gemmae-making, so hopefully it's not as grim as it seems. I want to feed these guys,but there's no dew on the leaves. I guess I'll wait a few weeks and see what happens after I harvest all those gemmae. That's gonna happen soon, btw. Watch this space.

I did end up harvesting a bit of D. allantostigma for a new proper pygmy pot, btw.

There is nothing wrong with more pygmies.

I'm going to eventually transition all of my pygmies into nice neat sand-topped pots. I'll just need to get another set of lights to accommodate that, hahah. I also have a new order coming from Drosera Gemmae. Four new species – Drosera spilos, Drosera nitidula, Drosera leucostigma, and Drosera oreopodion. Now I'm just waiting for Drosera gibsonii, Drosera mannii, and Drosera x Lake Badgerup to become available and I'll be done for the year (maybe).

I've been talking about pygmies a lot lately, but I guess it is the season. To cap it all off, here's a progress shot of the Pygmy Garden.

Go ahead and click the picture  – there's a lot happening in there!

It's coming along!

Another pest follow-up

So I've had a (mercifully small) problem with aphids in a couple pots lately. My Drosera anglica was worst hit, and my Drosera collinsae recovered quickly. The weirdest one has been my Drosera aliciae. I didn't document its decline particularly well, but I stuck it in the quarantine tray some time ago, and it appears to have gotten better. I think? I never found any actual aphids on it, but it was going down in the exact same way as my D. anglica (even though they were across the room from each other).

Anyway, it's flowering now, which is stupid.

What a dumb little flower stalk.

It also appears to have split into at least 3 growth points.

It's a mess in there.

Again, as with my D. anglica I'm intending to let it settle in, start growing properly again, and then repot. I'll dump all the media and wash the plant well to get rid of any residual aphids/eggs. If I get 3 plants out of it then well, all the better.

Speaking of the D. anglica, there's at least one proper growth point on it again.

It's heartening to see new growth at least.

As you can see the original crown is a huge mess. I've got no idea how it's going to develop, but I guess we'll see. I bet it'll grow well with a bit of a feeding.

In any case, my backup plant is coloring up nicely being closer to the lights.

I love how quickly this is getting red.

Sure glad I have extras!

In other news, check this out.

The flowers are smaller than I expected.

Computer, zoom and enhance.

Beautiful red color.

Drosera adelae flowers are really pretty.