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.

Propagation updates

It's been a little quiet around the blog lately, since I've had a number of non-plant things getting in the way of my plant time. This usually sucks, but it has the benefit of allowing me to be surprised when I have time to spend with my collection again. A number of my propagation efforts are going fairly well!

First up, my Drosera ×"Andromeda" (which is Drosera schizandra × prolifera) water-float leaf cutting had developed enough that it was time to transfer to the media, in this case a pot of living Sphagnum.

Had to transplant the cutting before the mother leaf wilted away.

Blending in well among the moss.

The cutting that I started directly on the Sphagnum hasn't struck, but neither has it wilted. I'm being philosophical about it.

Several of my Pinguicula pullings have also taken, including a few which I had thought had withered.

Pinguicula moranensis leaf pull.

Pinguicula 'Pirouette' leaf pull. I thought this one wasn't going to take at all.

Successful Pinguicula laueana pullings on either side of the mother plant.

More Pings: always better.

I've also had almost too much success with those Drosera indica that I started a few weeks back.

Quite a carpet of D. indica here.

I have no idea whether or not it will be reasonable to separate this pot out later.

The nearby Byblis liniflora are doing well, but are less ridiculous.

Now I want to add more Byblis to my collection.

Can B. liniflora be transplanted? I suppose I'll soon find out.

Finally, the Dionaea 'B-52' leaf pull that I started back in November may finally be ready to lose the humidity tent, since I think I've pulled every last plantlet out of that guy.

Cute little D. 'B-52' plantlets. Little babies!

Now I just need to let them grow out for a season.

I've been threatening it for a while, but I think it's almost time to expand to one more set of lights. I'm hesitant, but there may be nothing else for it. In the meantime, my outdoor growing is going great. I'm going to wait to do a big Sarracenia post until we have a nice overcast day, but check out this goofy-looking Sarracenia flava var. cuprea.

Love that funky pitcher mouth.

What a funny plant.

Venus flytrap repotting

I got my first Venus flytrap (Dionaea muscipula) from the Cactus Jungle back in October of 2013. Strictly speaking, it was my roommate's plant, but he very quickly gave me full custodial rights. Here we are right out the beginning.

We've come a long way.

Now, I like D. muscipula as much as the next guy, but they don't excite me as much as they excite, say, the Carnivore Girl. So I've sort of ignored this guy for the last 18 months or so, but recently things have started to get ridiculous.

A brief note before we continue – it was much, much too sunny out today to take decent pictures, at least with my phone (which is, at best, a blunt instrument). I was also busy repotting and trying to not get my phone wet and covered in peat. It took some serious Photoshop to get these in even semi-workable condition. Anyway. On to the plants.

A bit crowded in here.

As you can see, things uh, went a little crazy. The Cactus Jungle gets its VFTs from tissue culture, just like almost everyone, because VFTs are really, really cheap from tissue culture. One thing that happens with TC plants is that they can clump like crazy in the first year or two. That appears to be the case with my little plant. Luckily, I had a plan.

I was excited to find this pot.

A big pot. When I first started growing carnivores I came across a photo (which I can't find at the moment) of a nice, wide pot filled entirely with beautiful Venus flytrap mouths, all red and hungry-looking. It was pretty cool, and has been a minor goal in the back of my mind ever since. I picked this pot up at California Carnivores a couple weeks ago specifically for this purpose.

First though, I had to get this thing divided.

Pretty good for a 2-inch pot.

Based on the flower stalks I guessed there were at least 10 big divisions in here. I got it out of the pot and then started spraying it gently with the "center" setting on my garden hose. This started to reveal some nice-looking rhizomes.

They were all pretty healthy.

I then sat there working them apart and hosing them off before depositing them in a bit of a bath to wait it out (I learned this bit from the Carnivore Girl – her pictures are better though).

All taking a bath.

All told there ended up being 11 big divisions and 4 or 5 very small offsets that may or may not survive the stress of repotting. In any case, things are looking much better now.

Now with some room to stretch out.

Can't wait to see what this will look like with a full growing season under its belt.

Now, in order that I not fill a post entirely with over-manipulated, ugly photos, I present for your consideration this Sarracenia oreophila, which is inviting its pollinators to play a very dangerous game.

You can never trust an oreo.

Treacherous.

Utricularia longifolia putting on a show

It's been almost exactly a month since I first noticed a flower stalk on my Utricularia longifolia. Today is the first day with a fully open flower, and man is it pretty.

Beautiful U. longifolia flower.

There are two stalks on the plant, and lots of buds forming.

The stalk is 18 inches (~45 cm) tall!

Unfortunately, I'm dealing with a pretty serious aphid problem right now, and they keep finding their way onto these flower stalks. I've been spraying Take Down around my collection (on the recommendation of Damon Collingsworth at California Carnivores) and hopefully the aphids will get beaten back before they can do too much damage.

In the mean time though, let's look at other Utrics flowering in my collection, because Utricularia flowers are the coolest.

First up, Utricularia subulata and Utricularia calycifida from a recent post.

I like these U. subulata flowers more than the cleistogamous ones (obviously).

U. calycifida looking elegant as usual.

Then a few from today – Utricularia livida, Utricularia bisquamata, and Utricularia sandersonii blue form.

U. livida still blooming up a storm almost a year later.

U. bisquamata amongst the Drosera capensis red form (with a D. capensis 'Albino' weed as well).

Angry bunnies and cleistogamous U. subulata flowers.

That U. sandersonii pot is a bit messy, but at least the angry bunnies are cute.

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!

Flowers!

There's a lot in bloom right now. It's spring!

Drosera helodes.

Sarracenia flava.

Drosera omissa with lots of flowers.

Utricularia calycifida.

Drosera sessilifolia (probably).

Utricularia subulata.

Drosera natalensis.

And it's not just carnivores that are in bloom. Peep this Cleistocactus tupizensis.

C. tupizensis.

Nice!