Hybrid Highlight: S. courtii AF x "Green Monster"

I finally get home at a somewhat decent hour today while there is light and while watering the plants, I noticed one of the seedlings finally throwing up some pitchers that are finally showing a little bit of character. The pod parent was an anthocyanin free courtii (S. purpurea ssp. purpurea x psittacina, both parents antho free)  and the pollen parent was “Green Monster” – which is an anthocyanin free excellens (A minor/leuco cross, not certain which was the pollen/pod parent, although it certainly involved both.)   I did this cross last year and the seeds were harvested on October 17, 2009.  Photo taken today,  August 24, 2010.  Now just gotta wait a few more years to see what the mature pitchers will be like… 😉

Sarracenia courtii AF x "Green Monster"[Photo: Sarracenia courtii, anthocyanin free clone x “Green Monster”]

Looking Back: The Early Years

Howdy y’all! I was just going through some old archived garden photos and found a few of my early Sarracenia ones!  Photos below from 2004 – 2006, when I used to live in San Francisco. I moved from one unit with a small patio,  to another larger unit with a slightly larger patio while living at this complex for a few years.  Anyway, given my limited space, I still was able to grow a lot of cool things there. Just wanted to share a few of these photos with you! 😉

The Early YearsMay 27, 2006.  This should give you an idea of what my patios were like when I lived at the 2 different condos in SF.  Lots of plant diversity could be found here. Notice the Sarracenia in the back, by the cacti.

The Early YearsMay 28, 2004. One of my first Sarracenia photographs. I was fortunate enough to have this Sarracenia catesbaei grow in this quasi terrarium for a couple years. Hey, I didn’t know any better! I did grow this plant outdoors though, so that did help a lot. I let the pitchers grow out of the top.

The Early YearsApril 11, 2005. More quasi open terrarium action. Sarracenia ‘Scarlet Belle’ in foreground.
Sarracenia catesbaei in the back. There’s even that little Drosera capesis flower stalk there too… yay.

The Early YearsAugust 24, 2005. Various Sarracenia around the garden.

The Early YearsMay 21, 2006. Again note the floral diversity and the Sarracenia pitchers growing behind the cacti/succulents and Ginko biloba. Yes, that aquarium is filled with water plants. Yes, so is that really cool moss lined barrel that I made in the back ground. (I made 2 of them the other is out of the shot.)

The Early YearsMay 21, 2006. Another view of the Sarracenia in the patio garden.

Harvest

seedpods[Sarracenia Seed Pods, collected 8.15.10]
Clockwise from top: S. flava “widemouth” x ‘Adrian Slack’, S. ‘Alucard’ x leucophylla anthocyanin free,
S. “Goliath” x ‘Adrian Slack’, S. oreophila – veined x ‘Adrian Slack, S. ‘Alucard’ x ‘Leah Wikerson’

***

It’s that time of year again – today I was out in the grow area harvesting some pods. I left some of the labels on them so you can see how I keep track of the crosses as I do them. I learned the hard way to cover the tag in tape as snails will eat the cardboard and you loose the ID all together.  That was one mistake I learned the hard way last year. I did all these crosses only to have the identity taken by snails.   DOH!

Anyway, I know the pods may not look like much now but I am hopeful for some of these crosses.  Over here it’s been on the cool side of things so many plants and pods seem a little behind.   More pods are forthcoming which means more seeds soon! I am really looking forward to some of the ones I did this year … now just gotta figure out where I can put them all… 😉

Reptile Crossing!

Sarracenia ‘Reptilian Rose’  is definately one of my all time favorite plants.  S. ‘Reptilian Rose’ was created by a good friend and breeding mentor, the legend: Phil Faulisi. (DUDE!) More information on the plant can be found here: http://www.carnivorousplants.org/cpn/Species/v38n1p12_22.html#Reptilian The following photo is an example of what S. ‘Reptilian Rose’ looks like. (Same plant as in my gravitar, to the right) 😉

Sarracenia 'Reptilian Rose'

[Sarracenia ‘Reptilian Rose’]

The following photos are seed grown crosses of S. ‘Reptilian Rose’ that were created by fellow carnivorous cohort, Dr. Travis Wyman. (Thanks Travis!) These photos were taken in June/July of this year (2010) and seedlings are just a little under 2 years old.  I began to germinate them indoors back during the December of 2008.  You can see some variation and some similarities.  Keep in mind that these plants are still young and still have a lot of growing up to do. Some are showing tell-tale signs of the angular nectar roll, but we won’t really know how pronounced that characteristic will be until these pitchers are fully mature.  And I haven’t noticed any scents just yet… but I’ll keep you posted on my findings and I’ll post photos now and then as the plants mature.  😉


S. 'Reptilian Rose' x leucophylla "Pale"

[Sarracenia ‘Reptilian Rose’ x leucophylla “pale”]

S. 'Reptilian Rose' x leucophylla "Pale"

[Sarracenia ‘Reptilian Rose’ x leucophylla “pale”]

S. 'Reptilian Rose' x leucophylla "Pale"

[Sarracenia ‘Reptilian Rose’ x leucophylla “pale”]

S. 'Reptilian Rose' x Leucophylla "Pale"

[Sarracenia ‘Reptilian Rose’ x leucophylla “pale”]

S. 'Reptilian Rose' x Leucophylla "Pale"

[Sarracenia ‘Reptilian Rose’ x leucophylla “pale”]

S. 'Reptilian Rose' x (flava var. rubricorpora x leucophylla)

[Sarracenia ‘Reptilian Rose’ x (flava var. rubricorpora x leucophylla)]

S. 'Reptilian Rose' x (flava var. rubricorpora x leucophylla)

[Sarracenia ‘Reptilian Rose’ x (flava var. rubricorpora x leucophylla)]

S. 'Reptilian Rose' x (flava var. rubricorpora x leucophylla)

[Sarracenia ‘Reptilian Rose’ x (flava var. rubricorpora x leucophylla)]

S. 'Reptilian Rose' x (flava var. rubricorpora x leucophylla)

[Sarracenia ‘Reptilian Rose’ x (flava var. rubricorpora x leucophylla)]

Sproutage!

Howdy y’all!  I was out checking some seeds that I started this year and to my delight, saw one sprouting!  I did this cross early on this year, harvested seed roughly a month ago, put through about 2 weeks cold stratification in the fridge and… viola!

Reptilian Rose x Adrian Slack

By the way…I did this same cross last year and only had a few seeds from that pod.  A few of those germinated but none survived. (Don’t ask…) I was so torn… anyway, hope to have better success this year.

A Young Moorei

Howdy y’all! So as I was thinning out some of the S. leucophylla x flava seedlings pots a few days ago, I stumbled across this one interestin’ lil’ fella.  This was from a batch of seeds that a buddy of mine sent in 2008.  Most definately, this is one of the kids that I’ll be watching in this group. This is the first juvenile pitcher showing these characteristics. The new pitchers that are coming up will be opening in a few days are exhibiting the same qualities – predominately white upper pitchers with nice green veins. Dude, you never really know what you’ll get with those lil’ seeds – and that’s part of what makes this breeding thing so fun! 🙂  Hope everyone has a good weekend!

Sarracenia leucophylla x flava

Sarracenia leucophylla x flava

Ares, unfolding…

Sarracenia "Ares" unfolding[Sarracenia “Ares”]

I’m standing somewhat at the threshold of my own “hybridization journey” since I’ve only recently started breeding a couple of years ago.  A lot of ideas have already taken root and put up those “seedling” pitchers.  Some plants are a couple years old and are showing a lot of promise as young juveniles.  And yet, some ideas are still locked away in seed pods waiting to be harvested.  This journey has just begun.  As I watch my own path open up before me,  I savor and enjoy the moment as it all unfolds before me.

Now, watching things unfold before you is pretty awesome.  Here’s Sarracenia “Ares” opening a brand spankin’ new pitcher!

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Sarracenia “Ares” is a plant that was created by a very good friend who has motivated me much in this Sarracenia creation madness/obsession/addiction – Jerry Addington. (Jerry – Thank you!) Countless hybridization ideas have been bounced off each other, and hopefully soon you’ll be able to see some of those things take life! Be sure to check out Jerry’s website: http://courtingfrogs.com/