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…
