[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…
[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. 🙂
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]
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.
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!
October 2011: Greenhouse, after major trimming and thinning plants out.
Have you ever held your ground? Like seriously, really take a good long moment and just savored it? You ever just let your fingers run through it, and let the rich aroma penetrate your being? Have you really stopped and appreciated it’s life giving warmth? There’s so many “things” that we don’t give another thought — but should really be very thankful for.
You may be sayin’, “Oh dude, why so emo’ Rob?” LOL! 🙂 Just wanted to let you know that there are going to be quite a few changes on my side of the Sarracenia-universe. My apologies ahead of time if my posting frequencies seem to grow father apart. I’m still here though, just a lot of transitions going on. These times are really allowing me an opportunity to take a step back and just be thankful for all that I have. Oh man, these times and circumstances are for sure teaching me what to hold on to, and things I can let go of. (Hey, you notice – the “Shop” tab? Yeah, I’m going to start to “leggo” and sell off extra plants, so check back often! 😉 )
The photo above is one I took a couple months ago as I was mixing my peat/sand mixture. I took a moment and just held my ground. There’s something magical to think that from the soil, things will root and things will grow. From the earth we came, and one day – we will return. There’s a bond that’s formed when working with the earth one way or another. I can’t really describe it…. so be sure to take a moment, be thankful, and hug your ground today.
It was one of those days today that caused me just to look back on everything… I was just going through some old photos and saw some of the first successful “sprouts” from 2007. Made me kind of chuckle cuz who would of thought that these few seedlings would be the humble beginnings of some major Sarracenia insanity…
[Some of the first Sarracenia sprouts]
Thank you SF Giants for a good season. There were many memorable moments this year, one of which was that I was able to take both of my sons to their first baseball game – we witnessed the debut and the rise of VogelSTRONG. And my kids LOVED it.
Ahh… 137 days left until pitchers and catchers report to spring training. Refocus, recharge, and RECLAIM in 2012.
Yes, it was good. We’ve done so much and battled through a lot of injuries that were sustained this year. That combined with a lack of offense diminished our post season hopes… but hey, it happens. And yes, I’m still a little emotional about it. 🙁 Fellow gardeners, if you’ve been following me on twitter (@Sarraceniadude), you’ve probably been a victim of my in-game tweets/SF Giant tweets. Hey, I can’t help it. I love this team! (Go Giants!!)
But let’s back up here – baseball and gardening?!? Baseball. Really? Well… I do grow and hybridize my own *PITCHER* plants! So why not?! Get it? Pitcher? Baseball? HA! (Womp womp!) … But yeah, there were some SF Giant inspirations and parallels that could be drawn with my garden.
[RALLY POT WILL BE BACK WITH A VENGEANCE IN 2012.]
-#Rallypot worked some magic this season. Obviously not enough, but it will be back next year, with a vengeance. I ask you this faithful SF Giants fans — what should I plant in it? Something that would make Timmy proud? 🙂
-Injury plagued the SF Giants this year. Injury plagued my plants this year. I lost a lot of hybrids and flower buds in the hail storms, dashing my (post season) hopes of harvesting seeds. For example all the flower buds from S. ‘Adrian Slack’, S. ‘Leah Wilkerson’, — along with other buds of MANY select Sarracenia — gone. (Damn hail…) In looking back, it probably shocked the plants which caused many of them to abort their buds.
-It wasn’t my best year because of that. Lots of recovery being done this year… but next year looks promising.
-Although there were many injuries, a couple pitcher (plants) really surprised me this year with exceptional growth and pitching. Er, pitcher-ing I should say. They came outta nowhere! Quite inspirational… (Very Vogelstrong-esque!)
-I’m noticing more orange and black plants and themes appearing in my garden. (I wonder why…? Hahah!) and once I amass enough of this color scheme, I’ll have my own SF Giants theme section in my garden going on. I plan on taking my dark/black plants and breeding them with orange tone plants next season – once I can get ’em to flower. Perhaps name a clone of that after this team!?
-Facial Hair. That is all.
– The FINGER was used to successfully pollinate plants. The FINGER you say? Yeah, click that link. The FINGER.
-When hybridizing and there’s a hybrid I can’t create, my mantra is “There’s always next season.” Same thing could be said after the last out that sealed our fate this season on Chase field. After a few choice expletives of course.
-Later in the season, The SF Giants pulled up some young hopeful prospects that showed great promise. Later in the season, there were quite a few seedlings that showed great promise. From what I can see – there is a faint glow of hope for the future seasons. As I reflect on the happenings of the season on the diamond and in my garden… I can say that I’m excited and hopeful for what the future seasons will bring. There’s hope.
Posted in Blog
Tagged Baseball, Pitcher, reflections and ruminations, Sarracenia, SF Giants, there's always next season
