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
Much ado about cleaning! Now that I have water tables built, I finally have the chance to spread the plants out. The pots used to be crammed into either those 10 x 12 inch trays, or cement mixing tubs. There is nothing wrong with that, those make flippin’ AWESOME containers to hold water. I have used those for years! Now that I’m here, I figure a larger “container” would help me cut back on the time spent watering. Now I can just flood the tables by letting the hose run whenever I want to water the plants, instead of watering tray after tray after tray.
I’ve been doing a lot of cleaning, weeding, and getting things organized. You can kinda see how some weeds have begun to slowly take over above. There’s also the sad looking long and lanky foliage – a result of the “dark ages” earlier this year. I’m clipping some of the dead pitchers off, well ‘cuz you know that good floral hygiene is great. The joy and rapture of cleaning and organizing never seems to end here. At least things are coming together…slowly. What is cool is that I’m finding so many crosses and plants that I totally forgot about. Yeah, every now and then I find pots that contained rotted out plants. Dude, it still sucks, but what can you do. I just close my eyes, shed a tear, and toss those out. As my friend Jerry Addington recently reminded me, I’ll have time to remake stuff as the years go by. Anyway, I’ll update my surprise findings on the blog every now and then. Stay tuned!
Getting plants grouped and organized! In the foreground are the younger seedlings. The group of plants behind that are various hybrids I’ve done with S. ‘Adrian Slack’ from prior years. They don’t look that great now, but I have high hopes for next season. Various other hybrids are in the back.
Another shot of the recent babies! Grow lil’ homies, grow! Can’t wait to see what you’ll look like in a couple of years! In the background, you see a fraction of the stuff I still have to go through, sort, and clean. WOOHOO!
Yeah, I know. It’s really messy looking, but some neat and interesting young plants here. All are on the road to recovery and doing well.
More seedlings! Finally having the ability to stretch and enjoy a little! Still more space to fill in, but that will be filled very soon as I continue going through the various jumbled trays of plants.
Posted in Blog
Tagged Adrian Slack, breeding, Carnivorous Plant, cleaning, expanding, hybrid, next generation, North American, Organizing, Pitcher Plant, Sarracenia, seedling, seedlings, Table, Water
Sarracenia ‘Leah Wilkerson’
An old spring pitcher now fading into nothing more than a shadow of it’s former glory.
Off to sleep, now go…
Posted in Blog
Tagged carnivorous, dormancy, Leah Wilkerson, North American, Pitcher Plant, Plant, Sarracenia, Shadow of former glory
If you’ve been following my blog, following me on twitter, or even had a 2 minute conversation with me about Sarracenia, you already know that my obsession is anthocyanin free plants. (Those are plants that lack anthocyanin, or the pigments that give the plants the colors that range from red to blue.) I know, I know… I am strange.
I must confess that I think I’m starting to have a little crush on veinless plants too. They’re hawt. (GASP!) Now, those are not anthocyanin free as there’s still some red/pink tones in the leaves. “Erm…OH GAWD ROB, THAT’S SO BLAND AND BORING!“, you may say. Well, yeah. Duh. It’s different. And I like it! I find that vienless plants have this delicate and elegant element about them. Perhaps it’s the hues of the pink and yellows that leads me to think this. It gives the plant this quiet glow. Such a nice contrast to all the face-melting loud coloration and patterns of many a fine specimen out there. (Hey, there’s nothing wrong with those either, love those too!)
Here’s a few photos of S. alata “veinless.” I know that there’s some faint veins in the photos below, but as it ages, I think that those fade out anyway. I received the plant this year. Along with the rest of the plants, it has had a rough spring/summer and now recovering quite nicely. It’s making a good comeback and looking forward to more veinless goodness next season.
Sarracenia alata “veinless”
Sarracenia alata “veinless”
Sarracenia alata “veinless”
Posted in Blog
Tagged alata, carnivorous, North American Pitcher Plant, Pitcher Plant, Plant, rad, Sarracenia, veinless
More fun stuff I’m finding as I’m wading through the seemingly endless mass of garbled pitchers. Here’s a pot of different clones of a cross I did of S. “Starry Night” x ‘Hummer’s Hammer Head‘. As you can tell in the pot, lots of variation going on there. In fact, check out the previous posts on this cross here and here. Fun stuff! (I just gotta find the other siblings… I am not joking when I say pots are all over the place still!) The thing that kind of caught my attention was this large freakin’ floppy hooded beast thing on skinny popsicle stick pitcher tubes. WTF. It’s kind of a freak. But that’s ok. Freaks are good. Happy Friday!
Sarracenia “Starry Night” x ‘Hummer’s Hammer Head’
Sarracenia “Starry Night” x ‘Hummer’s Hammer Head’
Sarracenia “Starry Night” x ‘Hummer’s Hammer Head’
Posted in Blog
Tagged breeding, Freak, Hummers Hammer Head, hybrid, North American Pitcher Plant, Pitcher Plant, Sarracenia, Starry Night
Sarracenia flava “Powhatan”
Sarracenia flava “Powhatan”
Recently acquired early this year, S. flava “Powhatan” is finally showing some promising form and color. It’s not as solid deep red as I would like – at least not just yet; given it’s current state and all it has been through, that is understandable. Along with the other plants, it has suffered quite a bit for most of this year due to the low light levels it had to endure. It’s very promising seeing this plant finally showing some color at this point and put out a healthy pitcher. I also attempted to seed it with pollen from S. ‘Adrian Slack’ but that proved to be unwise the first year. No seeds, and flowering probably ended up draining the plant of energy that it needed. Oh well, you know the mantra: “There’s always next year.” Still, it’s rather nice Sarracenia to have around. My fingers are crossed for a brilliant seasons ahead with this clone.
About S. flava “Powhatan” from Meadowview Biological Research Station:
This bold, solid clone reflects the power and pride of chief Powhatan. The flower is yellow, typical of normal yellow pitcher plant. The red color of the foliage is best developed under intense, sunny conditions. Powhatan was the ruler of the Algonquin tribe that occupied central Virginia when the colonists arrived in 1607.
Posted in Blog
Tagged Biological, Carnivorous Plant, flava, Meadowview, North American, Pitcher Plant, Powhatan, Research, Sarracenia, Station
While cleaning out the and organizing plants the other day, I stumbled upon a pot of Sarracenia ‘Golden-Red Jubilee‘ x purpurea ssp. purpurea. Always nice to find surprises like this! I did this cross back (I think) in 2009. Possibly 2008. Eh, gotta check. From what I recall, many of the seedlings were deeply and richly colored. (Example: see 5th photo in this post from June of last year.) Even some of the green ones exhibited a nice “chunky” veiny trait to them. In the photo to the left, you can see the older foliage just limp and blah all over the pot looking messy, however there are 3 recent pitchers that really stood out that stem from 2 of the seedlings in the batch. One plant decided to don a mischievous yet fiery pink. The other is cloaked in a sulfur and brimstone yellow backdrop for the web of dark veins. Seeing this color combination together made me think of fire and brimstone. Both young siblings, though different in color, display a similar and elegantly sinister facade.
Sarracenia ‘Golden-Red Jubilee’ x purpurea ssp. purpurea
Sarracenia ‘Golden-Red Jubilee’ x purpurea ssp. purpurea
Posted in Blog
Tagged brimstone, Carnivorous Plant, fire, Golden Red Jubilee, hybrid, North American, pink, Pitcher Plant, purpurea, Sarracenia, yellow
