NOW OPEN! AWWW YEAHHH! I received a rooted cutting of this brilliant Nepenthes thorelii x aristolochioides earlier in September from Nepenthes master, Paul Barden. Check out his posts here and here on this truly remarkable plant. I’m glad that it’s doing well and happy to report that one month later, I finally got one pitcher open with a few more on the way! So excited! 🙂
Tagged aristolochioides, Barden, carnivorous, nepenthes, Paul, Pitcher Plant, Plant, thorelii
Earlier this month, Nepenthes master Paul Barden sent me some Nepenthes to try out in The Dome. Now mind you, I don’t have much Nepenthes experience, and with the few Nepenthes that I do have, I just kinda leave alone to do whatever they see fit. Anyway, one of the things that Paul is letting me try my hand at is growing Nepenthes from cuttings! SO RAD! I’m excited to report that a few weeks later, I see the cuttings showing some signs of life! In the photo to the left, you can see the garbled mess of Nepenthes that I have. A few in the photo are pots of cuttings that I chopped up from a N. fusca hybrid vine from Paul. When I checked the pots, one of the cuttings just went all crispy and didn’t do much. It’s the pot in front with that sorry mess of brown foliage – I tossed that one. But as far as the rest of them, I’m seeing positive signs of growth. Awesome!
The cuttings are in a 50/50 mix of long fiber sphagnum moss and perlite. Conditions in the dome are humid and cool. High during the day are in the mid 70’s, and then it dips to 50 during the evening. These are conditions that highlander Nepenthes like. I also have a sprinkler system set up to go off once every hour only during daylight for 2 seconds just to keep it cooler, and humid. Now I don’t know if I should change this frequency but so far, so good.
Something that Paul mentioned to me that another experienced grower told him: Nepenthes don’t live in their roots the way other plants do. In fact, in the wild, many species abandon their terrestrial root system once they have grown advanced vines into the tree canopies, where they become epiphytes. N. truncata and N. veitchii typically do this, and I suspect most species are capable of it, since they need to have a “contingency plan” for times when climbing vines get damaged and cut off from the earthbound roots.
Dude. This really helped me to kinda digest and conceptualize their growth habits. Now, I know I won’t fully understand until I probably get a few years of experience behind me to work and play with this genus, but so far, that really helped me to go in the right direction. I’m all new to this but am having fun so far!
Paul, thanks again! I am looking forward to the awesomeness that your Geinhouse 2.0 has in store!
New growth looking promising for this piece of vine!
On many of the cuttings, a little node/growpoint thing started to appear! If you look close, you can see a small spur type thing forming. I think this is a good sign! YEAH!
Tendril that I left on one of the leaves now getting nice and twisted!
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.
Earlier last week I received some new Nepenthes from most excellent Nepenthes guru, Paul Barden! (THANKS PAUL! DUDE — YOU ROCK!) If you haven’t already seen his amazing blog, it would behoove you to do so: Nitrogenseekers.
I do have a few Nepenthes that I’ve kind of just let “hang out” in the garden – and they actually do ok. You see, I live by the coast and it’s very mild here – and quite hospitable for the highland varieties and other plants that like it cool. I haven’t really focused on growing Nepenthes really but now that I have the dome set up, I can explore this genus a little bit more. I am hopeful for these new additions, and will update the blog from time to time showing how things develop. This is just what I need, right? Another obsession in the carnivorous plant niche? (But don’t worry, Sarracenia for me still and will always hold that special place!)
The plants arrived at my door in great condition – packed perfectly! Wrapped in cellophane, Paul’s Nepenthes looked like a shipment of large chrysalises. They contained savage primordial beauties waiting to branch out and consume in their new habitat.
I brought the plants over to the greenhouse and got ready to pot them up. The mix I used was a rough 1:1 ratio of perlite and long fiber sphagnum moss. I thought I had some orchid bark left over, (which I’ve also used in this mix with other Nepenthes) but turns out I used it all up. DOH! Anyway, I hear that this mix should be fine. Paul also gave me the opportunity to practice Nepenthes cuttings on a cane of a N. fusca hybrid. I was directed to RTFM on Nepenthes cuttings here. I am trying one, two, and three node versions and hope a few of them strike and root for me.
Unwrapping these babies! As you can see, they came in EXCELLENT condition. I mean, that pitcher is still looking good after spending a couple days in the box! I carefully removed the cellophane and potted them up hoping and praying that they would enjoy their new home.
Here are the first Nepenthes under the dome! The shade cloth makes it look like a cave in this shot. (Eh, it was getting late here anyway…) Keep in mind that when the sun is overhead, the cloth does a great job of keeping it cool and diffusing the light in there. I know that the house looks kinda empty right now and that’s the sheer beauty of it. Almost like a blank canvas; and I am eager to watch it grow. If you’re wondering, I had extra cement mixing tubs that I used here as humidity trays. I figure a little added humidity wouldn’t hurt these plants as they get acclimated to their new conditions. I also imagine that the extra humidity would be beneficial to the cuttings that I’m practicing on. As I watered the plants, I let the water run down through the pots down into the tray.
I moved the rest of the Nepenthes in, along with a couple Heliamphora and Cephalotus. (I took this photo the morning of the following day, by the way. It looks a little brighter.) It will be a fun journey to see this space slowly get filled up! For now, this is a quick look into the humble beginnings of life under the dome.
Paul – again, thank you so much for your patience and kindness! I hope that your plants make themselves at home here and grow for me as well as they do for you! Thank you! 🙂
Tagged Cuttings, nepenthes, new plants, Paul Barden, shipment, SO RAD, something new, under the dome, unpacking
Howdy! Just a few shots from around the greenhouse… enjoy!
Nepenthes jamban
Pinguicula medusina
Dionaea muscipula
Drosera binata var. multifida
Sarracenia (leucophylla x oreophila) x ‘Adrian Slack’ – select clone
Sarracenia ((rubra x oreophila) x flava var. rugelii) x ‘Adrian Slack’
Sarracenia ‘Leah Wilkerson’ x ‘Adrian Slack’
Sarracenia “Pink Eye”
Posted in Blog
Tagged 2012, Adrian Slack, Binata, Carnivorous plants, drosera, flava, jamban, Leah Wilkerson, leucophylla, multifida, nepenthes, oreophila, Pinguicula, Pink Eye, Pitcher Plant, rubra, rugelii, Sarracenia, September, Shooting around, shots, white top
Hello September! Crazy to think that this year is already winding down. For me, it feels as if my season has only begun. After all, it’s the first time this year where I can actually let the plants grow correctly! It’s been a busy these past couple of weeks, but I’ve finally had time to get a little work done in the greenhouse. I’ve begun to get things covered! My two projects as of late have been the water tables and the dome. The dome will serve as a Nepenthes house. Here’s a few photos from Saturday, 1 September 2012 documenting some progress. YEAH! Finally!
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The dome got covered. I don’t have all the greenhouse clamps in for the plastic so it’s still a little rough looking. It will all get tightened up once greenhouse snap clamps arrive. I originally ordered 20, but quickly found that it was not enough for something of this size.
Inside the dome. Still a little bit of clean up but it’s looking a lot better than when I first moved in. Weeds in this area are now under control and the shade cloth is up, but not completely fastend. The shade cloth will be secured once those clamps come in.
Naked water tables! Before I moved in, these were previously covered with plain ol’ painting plastic. I mean, that’s fine for like — five minutes. The UV and direct sun will bake that and the stuff will go crumbling like I mentioned here. That’s one mess that I do not want to deal with. I got special UV treated greenhouse plastic to use for these giant watering tray tables and the stuff can last for years.
Plastic cut to the width of the tables. Time to unfold!
With the help of my awesome wifey, Dahlia, we got 5 tables covered in about an hour or so. There’s 2 more tables on the other side of the greenhouse but I just need to pick up some more specialty screws/fastener thingmabobbers that secure the plastic to. I’m not sure I need the other tables covered just yet – but being that the carnivorous collection already covers about 5 tables, I may just go ahead and cover those other 2 tables soon. I still have to level a few of these tables but as far as I’m concerned, I like this set up much better! No more watering many many trays, but rather just one large tray at a time.
Posted in Blog
Tagged cover, Coverage, greenhouse, Greenhouse snap clamp, nepenthes, Plastic, Sarracenia, September 2012, Shade Cloth
Last weekend a few of the carni-heads got together to assit fellow grower and carni-phile Drew Martinez in constructing/covering his greenhouse. It was nice to get together with Mike, Mike, Josh, and Drew & Selina to take part in this greatness. I know first hand what it’s like to move and expand the grow area – always fun stuff and know that an extra set of hands can be useful. I headed over to Mike Wang’s place first to see how his crops were doing before we headed off to help Drew. Mike’s crops indeed were blingin’ as usual and a nice prelude to the full work day ahead of us.
Below are a couple slide shows and highlight photos from that day. The first show is of Mike’s blingin’ August crops. The second show is a photo documentary of Drew’s greenhouse being pieced together and partially covered. Drew and Selina – thanks again for having us over. 🙂 Can’t wait to see these new greenhouses packed!
Full screen show of Mike’s blingin’ August crops here.
Full screen show of the work day at Drew’s here.
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1: Prelude – The Wang’s Crops
2: Drew, We Got You Covered. Almost.
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Posted in Blog, Out and About
Tagged Assembly, Carnivorous Plant, Construction, Drew Martinez, greenhouse, House, Mike Wang, nepenthes, rad, Sarracenia, We gettin' put to WORK
