Tag Archives: Pitcher Plant

Let’s Grow

Sprout
[Sprout. The seed has cracked open, and a deluge of growth will soon follow.]

Is it me, or does anyone else have a garden that seems to echo life’s milestones? My garden is that living and breathing repository in which events are tucked away and recorded.

After 9 seemingly long/short years, I am leaving the escrow/title industry to work in another field (biotech) that will provide me room to grow – both personally and professionally.  I’ll also be working closer to home – which will afford me time to see my family. For this, I am so thankful.  I am also thankful for all of you who have helped me get this far. You all know who you are.

It’s a new season for me indeed.  After 9 years in that industry, I am leaving the security of it all. This I do know: that with change there is opportunity. Sure it can be kind of scary, but this is the thing that will stretch and expand my horizons.
Sprout
[Ready for growth.]

Three weeks ago, I pulled out the crosses from cold/damp stratification.  I actually left the crosses in a cold/damp stratification for several months.  This had me a little worried  as I typically do about a 4-6 week cold stratification and found that to be sufficient for Sarracenia seed.  Now, being that they were in there since the Superbowl, I do kinda slightly worry about the viability.  I think they’re fine though.  Yeah, life tends to get kind of busy and pulling 120 crosses out of cold stratification unfortunately couldn’t find time in my schedule right away…   That is, until 3 weeks ago. Knowing that I had to do something ’bout this delay, I set an entire weekend aside to get to this project.  (I’ll detail the process a bit later on…)

What’s funny though is that the Monday following the weekend I planted the crosses, I got the call for an interview.  A few weeks later on the day that I got the offer was the day that I began to notice a few seeds cracking open. That’s a good sign that a deluge of growth is right around the corner.  (And now that I think about it, I probably should of got those seeds out a little faster, heh heh!)

Looking back and drawing parallels – those 9 years were kind of like my cold stratification. (Or more like — a crucible…)  It was a time period to prepare me for oncoming growth of this next stage in life. I’m excited for this new opportunity and new season in life. Let’s grow.

Project Pollinate Tarnok – Update

Sup y’all. An update on Project Pollinate Tarnok.  Check it, here’s the first post from a couple months ago.  In the photo below,  I am just checking under the hood – I’m checking for swelling or… whatever the heck a S. ‘Tarnok’ pod is supposed to do at this time.  (I have no clue, it’s my first time doing this with Tarnok.) When I did this cross, I was doing a continuous pollen dump on the stigmas.  Honestly, I don’t know if there’s any seed in there or not. This could of been a complete failure, but heck, I tried. If no seed this year, I’ll try again next year.

I wonder…

Sarracenia leucophylla 'Tarnok' x flava var. cuprea
[S. leucophylla ‘Tarnok’ x flava v. cuprea – I wonder if it took?]

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!

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

Sarracenia ‘Royal Ruby’

So, I think a recent event had a few people talking about some royal thingmabobberish shindig thang… rrrrrrrright? I haven’t been watching the news or anything, so not sure what all the hullabaloo is about. I’ll probably hear about it sooner or later.  I’ve just been overhearing bits and pieces of “royal-this” or “royal-that”…

Anyways, since we’re on the topic of “royal-this and thats” – I might as well throw this into the mix. Sarracenia ‘Royal Ruby’! (Formerly the Sarracenia known as Prince,  no, I mean — “Big Red”) 😉

Sarracenia 'Royal Ruby'
[Sarracenia ‘Royal Ruby’]

Sarracenia 'Royal Ruby'
[Sarracenia ‘Royal Ruby’]

Sarracenia 'Royal Ruby'
[Sarracenia ‘Royal Ruby’]

Sarracenia 'Royal Ruby'
[Sarracenia ‘Royal Ruby’]

Sarracenia 'Royal Ruby'
[Sarracenia ‘Royal Ruby’]

The following info on S. ‘Royal Ruby’ can be found in the International Carnivorous Plant Society Newsletter:
(http://www.carnivorousplants.org/cpn/Species/v38n1p12_22.html#Ruby)
“Sarracenia ‘Royal Ruby’  is a natural S. ×moorei hybrid collected from northern Florida in 1991. Phil Faulisi obtained the plant in 1992. Even before the pitchers are fully developed and open they display a distinct pink flush that deepens as the pitcher matures. Overall the lower portion of the pitchers is coloured a deep olive-green while the upper portions are suffused in lush pink/red raspberry tones. The quality of this colour is best described as luminous or iridescent, and often makes clusters of pitchers appear to glow. Under intense light this raspberry colour can suffuse the upper three-fourths of the pitcher but more commonly it dominates the upper half to upper third of the pitcher. This plant shows a high degree of the S. leucophylla influence in the shape of the hood displaying significant ruffling. Likewise, fenestrations on the hood and upper regions of the pitcher expose the S. leucophylla influence in the cross. The pitchers of S. ‘Royal Ruby’ typically grow 76-86 cm (30-34 inches) in height, but pitchers over 107 cm (42 inches) in height have been observed (PF). The flowers are bi-coloured, the petals being predominantly red with orange/yellow tips. This plant must be reproduced only through vegetative means to ensure that its unique nature is maintained.

The name ‘Royal Ruby’ was chosen by Phil in May 2004 because of the regal beauty of the plant and how the colour is similar to that of Burmese rubies. S. ‘Royal Ruby’ was previously distributed by Phil as S. ×moorei “Big Red”.

http://www.carnivorousplants.org/cpn/Species/v38n1p12_22.html#Ruby