It’s that time of year again! I’m really encouraged to see some buds growing here in the greenhouse. There’s been a lot of challenges here with lighting (… well it’s winter, so what can I expect, right?), ventilation, and water — but the good news is I’m seeing some new growth.. and buds! That’s good sign, right?
Sarracenia “H1” – Bob Ziemer Hybrid
Sarracenia rosea
Sarracenia courtii x “Adrian Slack”, Select Clone
My home-boyeeee Mike Wang recently gave me another clone of Sarracenia minor var. okefenokeensis, (aka, ‘Okee Giant’). He dubbed this particular one “Clone J” for his record keeping pleasure. He has some awesome clones! A- I, and K-Z and whatever else he has in between is ALL just stunning stuff. If you haven’t figured it out by now, there’s a lot of variation with Sarracenia and that’s part of what makes growing and breeding them so fun. Endless permutations of Sarracenia bliss! S. minor var. okefenokeensis – Clone J is a seed grown clone (Mike correct me if I’m wrong?), but I find it rather interesting as Clone J gets a coppery hood and some pink windows. It’s almost like J got some pink tattoo’s all down her back… Awww, daaaaat’s HAWT!!!
Sarracenia minor var. okefenokeensis – “Clone J”
About 3 or 4 years ago, fellow Sarraceniaphile Brooks Garcia sent me some seeds from a cross he did with S. psittacina “Golfballensis” and S. ‘Judith Hindle’. It’s holding the pitchers quite nicely even for being grown outdoors all year round last year. I know that it can and will get more colorful if grown in stronger direct light. Last year it got shaded over at times throughout the day because of the deck I had it close to but as you can see, it still grew to be a fairly robust plant with nice blushes of color. Sweet!
Sarracenia psittacina “Golfballensis” x ‘Judith Hindle’
Posted in Blog
Tagged golfballensis, Judith Hindle, North American Pitcher Plant, psittacina, Sarracenia
Sarracenia mitchelliana, Anthocyanin Free Clone
If you don’t know me by know, I really am into anthocyanin free plants. Anthocyanin free (or “AF” for shorthand) plants are basically kind of like, “albino” plants (just for a lack of better illustration), and they are devoid of anthocyanin which is the pigment that causes the coloration/red in the plants. This particular AF mitch is “okay” — it is not quite what I’d have in mind in terms of a show-stopper. It’s just… nice. I do see potential in this though. First – It’s already anthocyanin free (YAY!), saving me some time in the AF hybridizing fiasco.
Oh and before continuing with reading below, a warning that I’m going to be speaking quasi Sarracenia-ese. For readers that aren’t too familiar with Sarracenia, it would probably behoove you to familiarize yourself with some of the species that offer up endless combinations for creative hybridization before proceeding. Like here or here or cornfuse yerself here and perhaps here … (Aye, it may help decipher some of me pshychobabble here on mah’ blog, mateys! ARGHHHH!!!)
Sarracenia mitchelliana, Anthocyanin Free Clone
Sometimes with hybridizing, if you have a concept you’d like to see come to fruition, you just gotta use what you have while you have it available. Now don’t get me wrong, it would be pretty cool to create my own special select AF mitch (YES! I am workin’ on it), but for time’s sake and with the ideas I have — I might as well use what I got. Ideally I’d like to see a mitch with say, a more flared/ruffled hood, or more white/contrast. But oh well, I don’t have it (YET!) and I’m not going to wait another 5 years or so to create what I want at this time, so… for now I will just use what I got! I’ll get to that other plant-thing later. In this case, I’m working with the shape of this plant as a “base” to build on, and also doing a gamble hoping that I can cause more the the S. leucophylla (white) to express itself more so in the subsequent cross. I kinda like that upward point to the hood as well.
Anyway, I’m posting this for now just as an online record to see what kind of hybrids can come forth from this. I’ve used this AF mitch as a pollen parent with some crosses, and last season, I used it as a pod parent with pollen from S. “Green Monster”. (Here’s a photo from 2009 of one of my plants…)
Sarracenia “Green Monster”
For those of you not familiar with it, S. “Green Monster” is an anthocyanin free mutant of S. excellens, (parents of S. leucophylla and S. minor). The plant, from my understanding, was created by Bill Scholl. On the horizon for me are my own crosses to create other AF S. exellens-ses. 🙂 I am hoping that either the influence of the S. minor, will express itself in the progeny with those neat cute lil’ white dot thingies (called areolas). Also I’d really LOVE to see S. leucophylla express itself strongly in the offspring. I mean, technically I’m going to end up with a plant that’s half leucophylla: purp/leuco and minor/leuco. (And why the heck does that remind me of an algebraic equation?) … So anyways, what the heck do I know?
One of the plants I have that has that combination of parentage turned out like this, and perhaps… one of the seedlings from the AF mitch/excellens cross I just did from this batch will turn out to be an AF version of the below — with the mitch shape and leuco color quite prominent:
Sarracenia mitchelliana x excellens
My imagination spurs me on to also imagine a plant with (hopefully) white dots about the upper portion of the pitcher. Perhaps some plants will have a hood that points up like the mother, or maybe slightly hangs over the mouth due to the S. excellens father influence? Eh, But who really knows?! It was a cool cross to make at the time. Part of what I find fascinating with this hybridizing thing is exactly that – the beautiful unknown. So, for the online record, there’s my thoughts/ideas with this cross. Let’s see what the next few years bring about!
Any ideas out there of what you think this S. mitchelliana AF x “Green Monster” cross may eventually look like?
Sarracenia mitchelliana, Anthocyanin Free Clone
Posted in Blog
Tagged anthocyanin free, Excellens, ideas, leucophylla, minor, mitchelliana, purpurea, rad, Sarracenia
Oh, more interesting things are being found here and there! Here’s a couple young plants from a cross of Sarracenia “Savanna Fire” and Sarracenia flava “Cinnamon Tube”; this particular cross was done by my friend Wes Buckner a few years ago. He sent me some seeds from this cross and they’re turning out pretty nice. By the way, S. flava “Cinnamon Tube” is a cross between flava var. rubricorpora x flava var. cuprea. Bear in mind the photos of the young plants below are last year’s pitchers that I left from the trimdown; they’re tell-tale signs of what is to come in the future. Last year I had the seedlings growing somewhat under the deck, so they didn’t get as long of a photoperiod as I would of liked to give them. They would of had colors that were more intense if under sun all day. Anyway, the plants are dormant and will wake up in the coming month or two and I’m really looking forward to that.
Again, note the variation between the different siblings. There’s more siblings that I’ve trimmed back and I’m looking forward to what they’ll show off in the coming season!
Meet the parents:
left: Sarracenia “Savannah Fire”
right: Sarracenia flava “Cinnamon Tube”
Sarracenia “Savannah Fire” x flava “Cinnamon Tube”
Sarracenia “Savannah Fire” x flava “Cinnamon Tube”
Sarracenia “Savannah Fire” x flava “Cinnamon Tube”
Phyllodia awesomeness! Some Sarracenia produce these non carnivorous pitcher growth things called phyllodia – basically just flattened leaf-stalk-looking-thingmabobbers… S. oreophila, S. flava, S. leucophylla to name a few species, and their hybrids will throw these things up throughout the year. Typically as they approach dormancy. While trimming thru pitchers, I leave these things on as the plant uses them for photosynthesis during the dark winter months as well as during spring, when the plant jumps into growth.
A quick look at some phyllodia phreshness!
