A couple of weeks ago we had our annual BACPS (Bay Area Carnivorous Plant Society) show and sale. It’s always great connecting with fellow growers during the BACPS meetings… and winding up with a few more plants in the process too! Here are a couple of Nepenthes that found their way into the plant haul from the show and sale.
Nepenthes densiflora x glandulifera – from Predatory Plants (Thanks Josh!)
Nepenthes lowii x campanulata – from Carniveo (Thanks Drew and Jesse!)
Tagged BACPS, campanulata, densiflora, glandulifera, lowii, nepenthes
Nepenthes. Yes, they live!
A few months ago, we had a relatively nasty cold snap (hey, cold for us at least) that the Nepenthes didn’t appreciate very much. I think it got down to the mid 30’s or something. I had the Nepenthes growing out in the unheated greenhouse with no protection like this.
With lack of a better plan, I moved them to the corner of the greenhouse and just threw overwintering film on them. For the past few months, there they stayed. I didn’t pay much attention to them as they were kind of depressing to look at. Crispy brown all over the place. Not good. Dahlia or I would water them every now and then by lifting up the overwintering film and just aimlessly hosing everything down. I had my fingers crossed hoping I would get something that would survive. And survive they did!
I wanted to do a better job this year. If I left that monster dome up, the plants would of had better protection. But nooooo, I was ambitious and brought that house down in December (DECEMBER!) of all months. Geez. Hey, that dome took up 3 tables worth of space! I didn’t need anything that big. So my plan for this year was to provide them better shelter that didn’t take up a footprint of 20′ x 15′. That’s too much and I need that space for Sarracenia.
So, I picked up a sweet 6 x 8 greenhouse find on Craigslist and that would be the new Nepenthes house. (Thanks Steve!) This is a great size. It doesn’t take up a lot of room, and come winter I can insulate the small greenhouse with greenhouse bubble wrap, or something of that nature. This should keep it a little warmer and offer a little more protection from the cold. I had my eldest son Josiah help me put the greenhouse together. It reminded me of when I put my first greenhouse together with my grandfather when I was about Josiah’s age.
This last week I spent some time cleaning the Nepenthes up and moving them into their new home. The photo below is very depressing. I had thought this plant was a goner for sure! If you look closely, a few months under the overwinter film proved helpful. There’s a couple basal shoots in there!! Yeah!!
The Nepenthes took a beating from the cold a few months back…
I know, that’s just nasty up there. Fortunately after trimming all the dead crap off, I found signs of life! YEAH!
The Nepenthes lives! Yes. Yesss… YEAASS!!
I did have a lot of losses though and I’m still mourning those plants. As my friend Kinjie told me regarding these plants, “Hey, you gotta learn somehow!” Yes, true, but losing plants is a sucky way to learn! To the left is a Nepenthes densiflora x truncata. You can see some of the cold damage that this baby took. The center of the plant is still alive and there are new growpoints forming where the cold turned the main growpoint into mush. In any event, I’m so very glad that many of the plants survived. Some of the surprises that I found under that overwinter film provided some great comfort, hope, and solace.
Nepenthes cleaned up and just moved in!
***
They have survived.
Nepenthes spectabilis x singalana
Nepenthes peltata – new foliage looking good.
Nepenthes spectabilis
Nepenthes boschiana x densiflora – new pitcher forming.
Nepenthes “Dormouse”
A very pleasant surprise – pitchers on Nepenthes jamban!
Nepenthes tiveyi – “Red Queen”
Nepenthes Poi Dog – Maxima Hybrid
Last year’s cuttings with new growth!
Nepenthes ventricosa x tiveyi – new pitcher just opening.
Tagged boschiana, cold snap, Cuttings, densiflora, Dormouse, greenhouse, hybrid, jamban, maxima, mini greenhouse, nepenthes, peltata, Pitcher Plant, Poi Dog, Red Queen, singalana, spectabilis, survived, tiveyi, truncata, ventricosa
So I finally got “The Dome” constructed (a few photos in this post) – the area that will house the Nepenthes, and some other plants — and so far so good. What I didn’t mention to you was that from the time I moved greenhouses, I just kept all the Nepenthes in a large cement mixing bin and kinda just let them hang out in some random corner of the greenhouse. They were doing their own thing this whole time though and when I moved them to “The Dome” (for lack of a better name at the moment), I had a few pleasant pitcher surprises. See, they were pretty crowded and there was so much stuff just going on in the tub that I didn’t really care to pay attention. Kinda cool cuz when it came time to move em, I was pleasantly surprised with some of my findings. Here’s a few photos of what they’ve been up without me really knowing. Interesting stuff! As the collection grows, I’ll update you with more photos. Enjoy!
Nepenthes spectabilis
Nepenthes spectabilis
Nepenthes densiflora x truncata
Some random Nepenthes hybrid – no idea what it is.
Hope you all are doing well. I grow a few other pitchers outside of the Sarracenia genus. Nepenthes are a very beautiful and stunning genus of pitchers – hauntingly beautiful. I have a few Nepenthes here and perhaps once I get more space and better facilities, I’ll explore and dive into this genus a bit more! Here’s a couple of photos of Nepenthes pitchers for your enjoyment.
Nepenthes densiflora x truncata
Nepenthes jamban
