Just a couple quick photos of a Sarracenia rhizome, after clean up. I stripped away the dead crusty stuff and left behind this rhizome awesomeness. These were divided and planted in fresh new media.
Rhizome of Sarracenia leucophylla – Chipola, FL photographed below.
Cleaning, cleaning, cleaning… it feels like it never ends. I admit, last year I kinda let a few plants just go outdoors and they’ve become over run with weeds and all other sorts of nasty-ness! Now that I am in a greenhouse, proper Sarracenia hygiene is a must! I am working my way through the ordeal, one pot at a time, one tray at a time. Some pots looked like the below. (NASTY, I know…)
Here’s one of the plants I was growing in some obscure part of the old yard last year. It became over run with weeds. You can see how heavy those roots are coming out of the bottom of the pot.
So to clean this thing up, I simply took the clippers and went at it. I basically hacked all the pitchers away, and all pulled out as much of that grass as I could, and also stripped the rhizome pulling off dead pitchers. I used the clippers to also get down into the soil to help pull the weeds out from the root level. Nasty stuff. Again, I would of used my Katana blade (like this and plants beware like this), but I think that my sword is still somewhere packed up in a box from my recent move…
After pulling the weeds out, it looks much better. Ready for growth in the coming season. I trimmed the pitchers off and I also stripped the rhizomes down pretty clean. I did leave some of the foliage stubs from the pitchers/phyllodia. This will help them in the spring with photosynthesis. I think. I know some who clip it all off, but I figure, hey, it may help to leave some stubs on there.
Now this is only going to be the first stage of cleaning for me while these plants are dormant. What I’m going to next is actually repot the plants into fresh media. One of the challenges I have for the next couple months is that the water is harder than my old place. To help counteract the mineral build up, I’m repotting. (OK, shocker, but it’s reached up to roughly 270 PPM here.) So, while I don’t have an RO unit system, I am not really watering heavy as these plants are dormant anyway, and when I do water, it’s more of a top watering routine keeping the plants damp. I’ll write more about the water thing in a later post. That’s just one of the challenges I’m dealing with, but I’ll be OK for a little bit.
It’s good to keep it clean – especially in my new greenhouse environment. Here it’s more humid and the air circulation isn’t as great as the great awesome outdoors! Keeping things clean will help combat gross mold/fungi cooties from attacking the plants. Below is the same tub, but after I went through it trimming things back. I’ll leave it this way while I’m sorting and cleaning the rest of the tubs. Phase 2 will be the re-potting portion!
2012 has been off to an exciting start. With the majority of the transition behind me, I’ve had time to focus on the next big task: cleaning and re-organizing. Garden moves are not as easy as I would like them to be, and I anticipate a full season before I can really settle in and get things organized at the new place.
The greenhouse provides it’s own set of advantages as well as challenges that I hope to negotiate and document here. Honestly, I really do prefer growing Sarracenia outdoors; however – I’m thankful that at least the garden has a space.
Here’s a few photos from the past few days…
Overgrown seedling tray. Those seedlings are about a year old, and need to be trimmed, cleaned, then re-potted…
A tub of old pitchers. The blade is coming to slice em down soon…
Lots of trimming and re-potting ahead… and no, I really still can’t find stuff I want to find…
One of those nasty pots full of overgrown seedlings… This cross is a Sarracenia (leucophylla x oreophila) x catebaei – Sumatra, FL
Same pot as above – Sarracenia (leucophylla x oreophila) x catebaei – Sumatra, FL post cut. After trimming all these pots, the next step is thinning/shifting the seedlings out to let them grow out for evaluation.
Filllin’ the can up with dead pitchers full of bug guts… delicious.
And if you’re wondering why I haven’t used the katana blade – well, because of the move, I’m having trouble locating it at the moment. But not to worry, it will be in effect once found!
Looking cleaner! I managed to get through only a couple of benches thus far. And that’s only trimming. I still have quite a few more benches to finish with trimming — then it’s re-potting time! YEAH!
Another angle. Notice I left some of the phyllodia (those are the flat non-carnivorous leaves that aid the plant in photosynthesis), as well as a couple of pitchers that were still pretty good looking.
Speaking of pitchers… check out a few of these nifty pitchers that are still holding pretty well late in the season!
Recent addition – a couple of *bizarre beasts*, but yet kind of fun and interesting… this is Sarracenia “Smurf”! From what I was told, it originated as a tissue culture mutant of S. purpurea ssp. venosa, and later found at Carniflora. Special thanks to Kevin for these awkwardly insane and strangely weird beasts! (Uh, yeah… I do have a thing for weird pitcher shapes too…)
Sarracenia purpurea “Smurf”
Sarracenia purpurea “Smurf” — I guess there’s something about those weird pointy hood hook things that I kinda like!
As I was cleaning and trimming – I found some more pots of my cross of S. ‘Golden Red Jubilee’ x purpurea ssp. purpurea. These were growing in partially shaded conditions. Plants that I’ve distributed to others in the past year have shown some nice veins when they were able to be grown out in full blazing sun. Now that I have more space, I can’t wait to see what these things will do!
Sarracenia minor var. okefenokeensis x “Green Monster” – This is a collaboration cross between an idea that sprang up during a conversation between Jerry Addington and I. The mother plant supplied by Mike Wang, and pollen from the S. “Green Monster” I had. What you see is step 1 in an antho free project we have going on… good times!
Sarracenia minor var. okefenokeensis x “Green Monster”
Sarracenia courtii x ‘Adrian Slack’ – a select clone from a cross I did a couple years ago – late season pitcher.
There’s still a lot of work left to do. It’s unending, but it’s “work” that I find fun. As I remove the dead foliage, there are faint glimmers of hope that appear. Sometimes I’ll see the beginnings of a new pitcher, or perhaps a slight bulge at the growpoint on certain plants indicating that flowers are just around the corner…
Posted in Blog
Tagged Adrian Slack, Catesbaei, Clean, cleaning, Courtii, Golden Red Jubilee, greenhouse, I CANT FIND MY KATANA BLADE!, leucophylla, minor var. okefenokeensis, oreophila, purpurea, Sarracenia, seedlings, Smurf
A year ago – I told 2011 to bring it on. Oh boy… 2011 brought it and brought it good for me. There of course were the awesome and great times in 2011 – however the latter part of the year brought about a lot of rough changes. But hey, that’s life. We live, we savor moments and create memories, we move forward, and we grow. I am so forever thankful for my family and friends that were there to defend the silver lining through it all.
A new year – and a new journey set before me. I am grateful for all those who were able to lend their transportation, their hands, their angry backs, … oh and their beards. We’re almost done with only a few things left to move but a vast majority of the garden has been transferred. I’m leasing 1500 square feet of greenhouse space — and at the rate things are going, it mos’ def is not large enough. I’ve had to downsize quite a bit actually! This provides a new environment that I am not familiar with and it will be interesting to see how I will negotiate the challenges of growing plants here. YES, I do prefer growing outdoors, but under current circumstances for this new season of life, I’ll park my plants here.
This move would not of been at all possible without the support of family and friends. I wanted to share a few photos that I snapped throughout the moving process. YES – it was truly insane, but I have this faint glimmer of hope that it will all be worth it.
***
The first plants to move were courtesy of my friend Ruben. The bamboos and a few others plants were the first to go. He loaded up his truck with Phyllostachys, and Yushania anceps. It literally was a forest on wheels. I could only imagine what it looked like on the freeway with this thing so full of bamboo…
My homie Jenn let me roll with her Wildflower Farms truck. This truck has been put to VERY good use – rolling full of plants back and forth 15 or so trips – around a total of 300ish or so miles. (DDEEEEEYAAAAAMMMNNNN!!!!)
Drosophyllum lusitaniucm rolling shotgun.
Sarraceniamobile! Full of dormant Sarracenia that need much cleaning…
During a garage clean out, I found my old Godzilla toy thing from back in my elementary school days. This dude now has a new home with some anthocyanin free Sarracenia.
Jenn’s truck is indeed fully loaded…
Rollin’ down Linda Mar Ave. full of Sarracenia. I wonder what that dude behind me was thinking…
As more trips were made going back and forth, an eerie emptiness started to settle in. I was so accustomed to the yard being so full of plants. Now these spaces are being filled with memories.
As these places were getting more and more spacious, the new greenhouse started to fill up.
The door to new possibilities.
First plant I moved into the new greenhouse – Brighamia insignis.
Empty greenhouse – about to get pretty full. There is still A LOT of work that needs to be done. That’s all part of the fun though. The space I occupy is only about a third of this particular greenhouse. I hope to one day be able to occupy the whole thing!
A few bamboos and palms I’ll be keeping. I’ll probably look for some space on my balcony or something to keep a few of these things at my new place.
Derek, the furious beard, and the angry back.
Derek just finished a set of pull ups. Nothing like a good greenhouse workout. Just kidding, he was actually being an awesome friend and checked the roofing for me.
My homie Mike Wang helping out with a load of Sarracenia. Yeah, there’s S. “Green Monster” and a few other hawt plants that were rollin’ with the Wang.
Mid move In-N-Out snack thanks to Mike. We needed the calories. It’s not my typical 4 x 4; I took it easy and just did a double double.
Wiggidy-Wizzaang helping me trim!
My family came by and were kind enough to take some bamboo. Here my uncle is loading up my Black Bamboo (Phyllostachys nigra), Buddha Belly Bamboo (Bambusa tuldoides ‘Ventricosa’ ), Phyllostachys viridis ‘Robert Young’ , Phyllostachys ‘Moso’, and a few others…
Bamboomobile.
Sure would hate to be tailgating this thing…
Thankful for my family who helped me in this move.
This is a portion of what was once the mighty Dahlia garden. I trimmed them all back as they are now all dormant.
Dahlia pots cleared out…
Yes, MORE PLANTS!!
My cousin Sam seemingly thrilled at the concept of having this forest in the back of my uncle’s truck rollin’ down the freeway.
Dude.
Always thankful for family. You know, a piece of my garden will always be with them.
Slicing through my forest of Cyperus papyrus.
A void fills what was once the Dahlia garden. The greenhouse looks so… empty.
This place was once full of Sarracenia and carnivores.
I once thought that this place would be large enough for my collection. I started off with only a few trays of plants and it exploded. This place was once my sanctuary where I would go to get away from the daily grind. There were so many hopes, dreams, and ideas that were born here. It is indeed sad to see it go, but I hope it will serve it’s next owner well.
The new place, however, is filling up quite quickly…
I know. I need to trim. All these Sarracenia will be mowed down over the next coming months. Spring should be interesting in here.
Yes. I *am* smiling. (I’m just really tired actually. This is a lot of friggin’ movin.)
Uh… full, already?! … geez. Looks like it’s time to expand again! HAH!
2012 is off to a grand start already. Sure with all of these changes there is just a bit of trepidation, but also I recognize that there is also opportunity to advance. Let’s see where this thing goes. Cheers to the new year and to the new chapter in life that is yet, unwritten. Give me the pen and let’s do this.
***
[Roll the credits… A few special thanks]
Movin’ aint easy, that’s for sure. I am thankful for all my family and friends for their love and encouragement and who have helped us through this ordeal. As I mentioned before, they truly have defended the silver lining. A special and HUGE thank you to Jenn for the use of her rad rad RAD truck. I’ve made at least 15 trips with the Wildflower Farms truck *FULLY PACKED* over the course of several weeks. (Jenn – that thing is a gas monster!!) But this would not of been possible without you. Thank you to Derek of Plantgasm for volunteering his back, my fellow Sarracenia homie-thug-bro-dude-rouge Mike Wang (dude Mike, start a blog too bro! Ha!), Jerry Addington for all the encouragement – (you have no idea how much you have helped me, Jerry… ), Ruben G of Gomez Nursery; to my family – C.I.L. Jeff, B.I.L. Junior, Sam, Judy, Uncle Boy, Uncle Jessie, Aunt Delia, to Tom and Hep, to my Lolo and Lola… and to mah’ boys Luke n’ Jo, and my wife Dahlia for the steadfast strength, continual inspiration and encouragement to keep on believing, and to always keep on growing.
I am forever grateful for all of you.
It has been such a whirlwind of activity and emotion. Such has been life recently. So surreal…
Moving. It’s not always an easy thing. I’m so thankful to have awesome friends who lend their hands, their backs, and their vehicles. There’s still a few things to move out of the yard, but I should be finishing that up this week. (I’m still taking photos and documenting this move – more photos to follow in a later post…)
As of yesterday, all the Sarracenias and carnivores have been moved. I took this photo earlier today and just looking at it is so surreal indeed.
I’m thankful for the memories and the plants that were housed here. I can see that the ideas that were born in this small greenhouse and my little yard quickly outgrew the place. I’m moving forward, ready to embrace the possibilities and the new journey that lie behind this door…
Recently, one of my heroes passed away. My granduncle, Lolo Ondoy. (Lolo is Filipino for “grandfather”.)
A lesson I am learning and re-learning very well is that life is indeed full of changes.
Lolo Ondoy is one of my heroes indeed, and a strong garden influence in my life. As a child, I remember visiting him in his garden – (I’ll post photos if I can ever find or get the albums out of storage…) admiring the all of his fruit trees, orchids, and his insane rose garden. Even as a lil’ kid, spending these moments in his garden inspired me to do what I’m doing today. My Lolo Ondoy worked in the nursery industry, at Kitiyama Brothers Nursery for 30 years. Even after retiring from there, he still continued with his passion of gardening and also shared this love (and all of his harvests) with us.
I also remember him being fascinated by the carnivores running amok in my back yard. (*the back yard currently being deconstructed*) Sure, carnivores are just a little different, but he enjoyed seeing them and observing them in action catching and digesting bugs. He told me that I should probably have my own nursery one day. With all of the recent changes I have going on, I think that one day is drawing closer and closer… Below are a few photos from his visit earlier this summer. He will always have a part to play in my garden.
Roberto Devera
May 26, 1931 – December 14, 2011
Lolo Ondoy, I miss you. Thank you for all you have done and for your inspiration in all of our lives.
Plants are moving…
I know it’s been a while since I’ve posted anything – but I want to let you all know that I’m still here. The negotiation and execution of the logistics required in moving many plants can be quite daunting. But it’s getting done.
More details and photos in an upcoming post. For now, a quick glimpse of the increasing empty space in the yard. Once filled with carnivores – now filled with memories.
A special and huge thank you to Jenn for transportation, and to Derek (… and his beard, and his angry back…) for the help in hauling all the stuff. Oh, the fun continues tomorrow!
This space was once filled with carnivores…
