The Pitcher Plant Project

Heliamphora divisions

One of the awesome and dangerous things about being in this greenhouse, especially in the winter, is that I’m able to try my hand at new things. I’ve only begun to play around with Heliamphora, and so far so good! I mean, I’ve had one for a few years, and it did (and is still) doing well. But yeah, more pitcher goodness for me to play with now! I recently got the itch to break things apart and… I did. (See the photo above.) Heliamphora seem quite brittle when compared to Sarracenia. With the Sarracenia, I would just break and tear rhizomes up like a Karraayyzzayyy hungry honey-badger. When I was splitting the Heliamphora apart, quite a few sections of plant just kind of fell apart without having any root attached. DOH! So I just stuck that rootless piece of greenery it in some media anyway. The media that I’m using is just a lighter mixture of long fiber sphagnum, peat moss, and perlite.

I was a bit worried and asked around if other Heliamphora growers have had success in propagating Heliamphora this way. Turns out that many folks have! Check out this article by João Roberto Gabbardo on the International Carnivorous Plant Society site. Very cool! Well, the humidity in the dome is high enough that I don’t really have to worry too much about it, but I threw a large Tupperware bin over them anyway to keep the humidity up. It doesn’t get that hot either under the dome as I have shade cloth that keeps things cool. I’ll keep that Tupperware bin for a while until I see the new growth really take off. Others have had success by bagging the pot (covering in a plastic bag) and placing it in a cool yet bright location. Heliamphoras are awesome. All this is new for me and I look forward to sharing my Heliamphora adventures with you all!