Yellow Petals, Green Petals

Ah, here be a quick update on this cross. Now that a few plants are maturing, I’m able to notice some variation, not just in the pitchers, but the flowers too. Check it out!

Flower variation: in the anthocyanin free flavor of  S. (purpurea ssp. purpurea x rubra ssp. jonesii) x (leucophylla x rubra ssp. gulfensis).

Sarracena (purpurea ssp. purpurea x rubra ssp. jonesii) x (leucophylla x rubra ssp. gulfensis), AF clone - Yellow Petals
[S. (purpurea ssp. purpurea x rubra ssp. jonesii) x (leucophylla x rubra ssp. gulfensis) – anthocyanin free clone, yellow petals]

 

Sarracena (purpurea ssp. purpurea x rubra ssp. jonesii) x (leucophylla x rubra ssp. gulfensis), AF clone - Green Petals
[S. (purpurea ssp. purpurea x rubra ssp. jonesii) x (leucophylla x rubra ssp. gulfensis) – anthocyanin free clone, green petals]

The Gates of Hell and Abandoned Hope

Yo, you still there? I’m still here.  Chances are that if you are reading this, you’re still here too! Rad!!!

For those of you who haven’t heard,  May 21, 2011 – was supposed to be “Judgement Day.”  I won’t go into detail here on that subject. There’s plenty of info and opinion out there on the web. If you haven’t heard about it yet, feel free to look it up.

I really hope y’all had a good day anyway – regardless of what happened… or in this case, what didn’t happen.   For me, it was quite a very nice day actually. Good weather, spent time with the fam, got some gardening in, got an oil change, worked around the house a bit, and to  top it all off, the San Francisco Giants won! Tim Lincecum tossed a FREAKKKKKIN amazing complete shut out game! (AAANDDD…. most of you reading this probably don’t even care about that, but I just had to get that in there. The highlight of my day… GO GIANTS!)

Uh, ok… so back to Sarracenia…

I was inspired to share these two plants with you that I photographed the morning of this “Judgement Day.” And they pass judgement on their meals very nicely, yummm-ooo!

First up: Sarracenia “Gates of Hell”.  This cross was created by Brooks Garcia. The parentage – select clones of S. mitchelliana x flava var. ornata. I love the veins of this plant.  It literally was the only “Hell” that I’ve seen today. Hella nice plant! 😉

Sarracenia "Gates of Hell"
[Sarracenia “Gates of Hell”]

And looking at the pitcher, you can almost see the flames jumping out of the fiery pit about  to drag it’s meal into that eternal digestive damnation. *Yummy!*
Sarracenia "Gates of Hell"
[Sarracenia “Gates of Hell”]

The next plant is another one that I found fitting to be included in the Doomsday theme: Sarracenia “Abandoned Hope”. This is a cross that Peter D’Amato created in 1989 by crossing S. purpurea subsp. venosa var. burkii with S. flava var. flava.  More information on this plant can be found at the International Carnivorous Plant Society.  According to Peter, The name was coined in 1994 and was taken from the sign at the entrance to Hell in Dante’s Inferno: “Abandon All Hope, Ye Who Enter Here.”
Sarracenia 'Abandoned Hope'
[Sarracenia ‘Abandoned Hope’]

So bugs, be good and watch out, else your fate will end up in the depths of the Sarracenia abyss!

Seeing Double

Dude, I’m, seein’ double! Check out this lid!

S. 'Reptilian Rose' x (flava v. rubricorpora x leucophylla)
[S. ‘Reptilian Rose’ x (flava v. rubricorpora x leucophylla)]

I recently noticed this on one of the seedlings. It’s not a trait that is on all pitchers of this plant but just happened on this one pitcher.  I’ve seen this happen a couple of times in other peoples collection, but it doesn’t happen very much from what I can tell. Interesting though!

This double lidded pitcher is from one of the seedlings of S. ‘Reptilian Rose’ x (flava v. rubricorpora x leucophylla).  The cross was done by Dr. Travis H. Wyman and S. ‘Reptilian Rose’ was created by the master-hybridizer dude, Phil Faulisi.

Below is what the other pitchers of this seedling are starting to look like. It’s a photo of the same plant, just different “regular” pitcher.

S. 'Reptilian Rose' x (flava v. rubricorpora x leucophylla)
[S. ‘Reptilian Rose’ x (flava v. rubricorpora x leucophylla)]

 

May Day

Mayday,  it’s a May day!!!

[Clouds be rollin’ in! View from my deck. 5-15-11. A strange May day…]

Here’s a photo from my deck that I took this weekend. Strange weather. Rain, sun, rain, rain, sun, mist, sun, rain. Bleh. Dude. I mean, it’s freekin’ *May* and we’re gettin’ this? It should pass soon — I hope! Cold, rain, some spots of hail now and then.  Really.  Where I live I get a lot of wind as well and it’s only amplified by this wind tunnel effect I got going on with the coast and mountain range opposite of me.  Sucks for the Sarracenia I outdoors as they get blown over. Some of the other stuff in the unheated greenhouses are fine and this is one of the reasons I keep them in there. Wind shelter.
toppled
[Dude. Irritating.]

The photo above isn’t *too* bad actually. I guess I am just more irritated than anything.  Dude, really … pitchers knocked over due to wind irk me.  That one in the white bin (S. flava var. cuprea) was doing pretty well and got pretty pushed over, as well as a few other seedlings in the black tubs. Other than that, the plants are pretty much fine and will grow back… once this weather gets a bit better. Geez.

Flying Nun Baby

Back in January of 2008, I got some seed from fellow Sarracenia obsessed grower and Sarracenia pusher, Brooks Garcia. (Yeah, he be one of those dudes that got me addicted.)

He crossed Sarracenia “Flying Nun”* x flava var. rubricorpora.  All of seedlings are turning out pretty nice.  This one has some open pitchers now so just wanted to share a couple photos of the progress of this particular “Flying Nun”* baby. Check it out, yo!

Catesbaei "Flying Nun" x flava var. rubricorpora
[Sarracenia “Flying Nun”* x flava v. rubricorpora]

Catesbaei "Flying Nun" x flava var. rubricorpora
[Sarracenia “Flying Nun”* x flava v. rubricorpora]

*The Sarracenia “Flying Nun” used in this cross is not the catesbaei, S. “Flying Nun” as photographed in the link.  The link shows a plant that was named by Phil Faulisi, as Brooks Garcia noted in the comments.

Blooming

Ah, they grow up so fast… This is a cross I did of Sarracenia (purpurea ssp. purpurea x rubra ssp. jonesii) x (leucophylla x rubra ssp. gulfensis)  – and yes, It is an anthocyanin free clone.  It was only back in 2008 that the babies first sprouted. (You can check out my post here on this cross.) Today, we got flower buds getting ready to open, and so the cycle of breeding starts all over again…

The below flowers are outdoors, so their growth rate and flower schedule  a bit behind the plants in the greenhouse. This still works out for me, as I can still pollinate, if I wanted to, even “later” in the season with pollen that was stored from earlier blooms.

Just thinking about this – from when I first crossed it till now seemed to go by so quickly, however waiting for this moment almost seemed like an eternity.  I’ll feel the same way about some of my other crosses, but I guess part of the fun is the anticipation, right?

Sarracenia (purpurea ssp. purpurea x rubra ssp. jonesii) x (leucophylla x rubra ssp. gulfensis) - Anthocyanin Free Clone
[Sarracenia (purpurea ssp. purpurea x rubra ssp. jonesii) x (leucophylla x rubra ssp. gulfensis)  — flower buds!]

Mahvelous Montana

 

Sarracenia purpurea ssp. venosa var. montana
[Sarracenia purpurea ssp. venosa var. montana]

A fresh pitcher of this S. purpurea ssp. venosa var. montana opened up a little while ago, and the vein coloration is just starting to seep in now. I love this whole yellow/red contrast, and as the season continues, the veins will get bolder and eventually the outside will turn red. Quite frankly, dahhhlings, I find this splendid contrast quite maaahhhveelous. Mahhvelous montanas!

Sarracenia purpurea’s are pretty rad!   You can read up about some of the differences explained pretty freshly on Barry Rice’s site: http://www.sarracenia.com/faq/faq5538.html