Category Archives: Blog

Happy Halloween: Attack of the Zombie Pitchers!

Posted on October 31, 2011 | 2 comments

It’s a pretty sad Halloween night on my block.  Seriously, only like – 1 group of kids (totaling maybe 5 or 6) showed up at my door tonight.  I wouldn’t blame them. Who wants to walk up my monster hill anyway? Heh… That means I have all this extra candy I have to eat.  Alternatively, I can feed the candy to my plants. (Just kidding… that would cause them serious indigestion.)

Last year, Halloween trick-or-treating in my ‘hood consisted of answering the door and giving fellow trick-or-treaters and their parents the score and play-by-play updates to Game 4 of the World Series. (GO GIANTS!)  On that Halloween,  21 year old Madison Bumgarner was freekin’ spooky good. (Dude pitched 8 shutout innings, allowing 3 hits…)  Sorry. Just had to get some baseball in there…

Anyway, in the spirit of Halloween cheer, here are a few photos of some zombie pitchers.  (They’re dead pitchers that I haven’t trimmed back yet.)  Photos of *dead* pitchers for once – what better night to showcase these?  I see dead pitchers… Attack of the Zombie Pitchers!

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Zombie Pitchers

Zombie Pitchers

Zombie Pitchers

Zombie Pitchers

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Trick, Trap, n’ Treat!

Posted on October 30, 2011 | Leave a comment

Wishing you all a very safe and Happy Halloween!

As far as the fly below is concerned, it went knocking on the wrong door.  It was tricked, trapped, and served as a treat for the Sarracenia… yum!

Trapntreat

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Thank You Sam!

Posted on October 26, 2011 | 1 comment

Oh, what an awesome day today – I found something carnivore related in my mailbox!! Sam (follow him on twitter: @SammLiberty) sent me some Darlingtonia californica – mountain clone seeds.  Mos’ definately the highlight of my day!  Thank you Sam!

For more info, you can check here, and here.  Although not in the genus Sarracenia, Darlingtonia are classified in the Sarraceniaceae family.  And they’re bad ass lookin’ carnivores not to be messed with.

So, thank you Sam! And yes, I am looking forward to your experiment to see if they will start under lights!  Thank you so much!

 

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Hope Manifested

Posted on October 24, 2011 | Leave a comment

seed-1[Hope. Manifested]

These are recently harvested pods from my very first AF cross that I did a few years ago.  I’m excited that this day has come.  If you notice, the pods aren’t as swollen and each pod has a low seed count, sadly.  This was due to the bad weather we had early on this year… but there were some seeds at least. Not many, but there were some.  I’m very excited to see that I’ve come this far and I am looking forward to see how far this will go…

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Sarracenia (minor x ‘Judith Hindle’) x ‘Adrian Slack’

Posted on October 23, 2011 | 2 comments

20111023-084614.jpg
[Sarracenia (minor x ‘Judith Hindle’) x ‘Adrian Slack’]

Good morning y’all! This is my first attempt at blogging from my iPhone…. Hope it works :). Blogging live, direct from my bed cuz apparently, I’m too lazy to get up…

Not sure how I like mobile blogging just yet. I could conceivably write as events happen, or as I’m just out and about in the garden or other place… We’ll see how this unfolds. 🙂

Anyway, I did the above cross a couple years ago. (Photo taken via the instagram app on iPhone.) I like that red lip that it’s starting to show. Once I am able to thin more seedlings out and give them more room, they should really take off. A few other seedlings were exhibiting the areoles (light spots around the upper portion of the pitcher) stronger than this one. Anyway, its a fun cross and I’m looking forward to seeing what it will turn out like when it grows up.

Signing off for now, blog you again soon.

… I need me some coffee. 🙂

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Sarracenia readii x moorei – Select Clone

Posted on October 17, 2011 | 5 comments

Earlier this year I got a recent division of S. readii x moorei – select. This was created by Phil Faulisi – and I’m really happy that it threw up some recent late pitchers.  I can’t wait to see the large pitchers it will throw up next year. I’ve seen some established divisions of this plant with impressive pitchers.

S. readii is a rubra/leucophylla hybrid.  S. moorei is a flava/leucophylla hybrid.  The late pitchers on this plant are quite a treat this late in the season, thanks to the S. leucophylla influence which sends up nice pitchers in the fall.  A few other plants in the garden have already been reduced to phyllodia. (Phyllodia are those non carnivorous leaves – they catch sun rays for the photosynthesis action…)

Ahh, I’m going to enjoy this cuz dormancy is right around the corner… 🙂

Sarracenia readii x moorei, select clone[Sarracenia readii x moorei – select clone]

 

Sarracenia readii x moorei, select clone[Sarracenia readii x moorei – select clone]

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Reminiscin’

Posted on October 9, 2011 | 11 comments

We were doing some clean up of old old files in the family archives.  It’s always nice to go back and just take those walks down memory lane now and then. It puts things in perspective. One of the things my little sister found during clean up was a collection of my old sketches. These were all from the early 1990’s. I was probably around 11 or 12 years old at the time I drew the following sketch — and at this time, I didn’t have any Sarracenia, but was already so fascinated by these plants. I don’t remember exactly where I got the inspiration from this, but it may of been from a book from my school or local library.  (If anyone recognizes this diagram, please let me know!) I would check out plant books even at this young age and just fill my mind with plant goodness.

Sarracenia Cross Section
Early 1990’s: Sarracenia flava cross section – a sketch be me.
I was still in grade school. This was penned during my pre-voice-cracking days.

The above drawing shows the anatomy of the different zones of a pitcher. Pretty rad, eh?  *I drew this before I grew any Sarracenia.*  I’ve murdered plenty of flytraps, but nobody around had any Sarracenia to sell or distribute.  Who would of thought that from this, I would of grown and ended up with something like this blog?  It’s pretty crazy just looking back at the whole thing – and looking forward to what’s to come in this plant journey is pretty exciting as well!

Greenhouse: October
October 2011: Greenhouse, after major trimming and thinning plants out.

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