Tag Archives: Plant

Sarracenia rubra ssp. gulfensis “Black” x “Bug Bat”

Posted on October 14, 2012 | Leave a comment

This was one of those crosses I did back in 2009 where I was like, “Well, both plants are flowering so I guess I might as well cross ’em.” I didn’t really know what to expect but pollinated them anyway on a whim. The parent plants are photographed above to help visualise the gene mash up. Here’s a post in 2010 showing a “baby picture” of one of the plants. As noted in that previous post – there has been some question regarding the pod parent (S. rubra ssp. gulfensis “black”). There is some speculation that it is not a pure S. rubra ssp. gulfensis and could have some S. alata mixed into it. However, from what I am told – this particular form of S. rubra hails from the Yellow River area of Florida, and it is doubtful that S. alatas grow that far east. Whatever it is, it’s still pretty cool and I’m loving the dark purple/black shades.

Sarracenia rubra ssp. gulfensis "black" x "Bug Bat"Sarracenia rubra ssp. gulfensis “Black” x “Bug Bat”

This particular seedling above donned a purplish/black color, thanks to it’s mother’s genes. The father (or pollen parent) S. “Bug Bat” has a clear influence on the shape of the pitcher.

Sarracenia rubra ssp. gulfensis "black" x "Bug Bat"
Sarracenia rubra ssp. gulfensis “Black” x “Bug Bat”

Another angle of one of the pitchers from the first photos. I enjoy the color of this clone. Really looking forward to what it will do next year.

Sarracenia rubra ssp. gulfensis "black" x "Bug Bat"Sarracenia rubra ssp. gulfensis “Black” x “Bug Bat”

Here’s another clone – not as dark. Not as purple. At least not yet. It also exhibits some of the faint areoles – another influence from S. “Bug Bat”. It currently has this slight orange tint on the hood. Ideally, I’d like that orange to stay as I don’t see it too often in the plants (and I am looking for orange plants to work with for SF Giants inspired plants) – but we’ll see what happens as it matures a bit more. It’s always fun watching the changes as these babies grow.

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Sarracenia leucophylla “Purple Lips” OP

Posted on October 12, 2012 | Leave a comment

Sarracenia leucophylla "Purple Lips" - OPSarracenia leucophylla “Purple Lips” – OP

Here’s another one of those little surprises that I chanced upon while cleaning and organizing the seedlings. This is an open pollinated youngin’ of unknown pollen parent lineage. A promising spawn of Sarracenia leucophylla “Purple Lips” throws up a new pitcher above the fray of the old and decrepit foliage.

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Nepenthes thorelii x aristolochioides: Now Open

Posted on October 7, 2012 | 3 comments

Nepenthes thorelii x aristocholoides

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! 🙂

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Shadow of Former Glory

Posted on October 4, 2012 | Leave a comment

Sarracenia 'Leah Wilkerson' Former GlorySarracenia ‘Leah Wilkerson’
An old spring pitcher now fading into nothing more than a shadow of it’s former glory.
Off to sleep, now go… 

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Sarracenia alata “Veinless”

Posted on October 2, 2012 | 6 comments

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 - veinlessSarracenia alata “veinless”

Sarracenia alata - veinlessSarracenia alata “veinless”

Sarracenia alata - veinlessSarracenia alata “veinless”

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SF Giants + Sarracenia = AWESOME

Posted on September 22, 2012 | 6 comments

CONGRATULATIONS TO THE
SAN FRANCISCO GIANTS!
2012 NL WEST CHAMPIONS!

 

In honor of the SF Giants clinching the National League West Championship tonight, I wanted to update you on this project that I’ve recently completed. YEAH! So you may recall that back in May I started this little experiment inspired by the artistry of Japanese apple farmers. To the left you’ll see the photo of the plant before it colored up, with the SF Giants sticker applied to it. I wanted to see if the sticker would keep that area of the plant lighter as the plant got darker throughout the season. The result I had in mind would be to have a plant that represented the SF Giants nicely. Oh, by the way — a special thank you to fellow SF Giants fan homie Chris Nieman of Sticky Fingas Customs for creating these stickers! (Check his feed out on Instagram: @duffmanivxx.) I am glad to report that this was a success with this plant!

YES, there are awesome phenomenal parallels between baseball and gardening. If you haven’t seen it, be sure and check out John Markowski’s post: Why Gardening is Just Like Baseball. See, I wanted some way to combine and represent the SF Giants madness with my obsession with pitcher plants. Pitcher. Get it? Pitcher as in – baseball? (Womp womp…) Heck it even affects the way I pollinate my plants: see figure E in this post. And yo, in my garden, you will find a couple things that represent.

Catcher Plant SF Giants Huffii
Left: A Catcher Plant amongst pitcher plants, growing in the rally pot
Right: Sanfranciscogiantsaiea Aubrey Huffii

Funny enough, just like the SF Giants, my garden has gone through similar times. Had a rough year last season facing lots of adversity. This year was off to a slow start. Lots of changes and losses. Aaaaaand after going through a few adjustments, things all of a sudden look much brighter and better. My garden is finally coming to life, and the SF Giants just clinched the NL West Championship. AWESOME.

Back to the experiment: My little project first started out with 3 plants. The other plants didn’t do to well. Because of all the moving the plants underwent in the past few months, the pitchers got really torn up and the results weren’t too good. The other pitcher was accidentally torn up, and the Sarracenia rosea turned red even with the sticker. I will have to select a different plant next year. The one plant that did work out was this select clone of Sarracenia ‘Alucard’ – “Prince of Darkness”. This plant was created and bred by the legend,  Phil Faulisi. Below are two pictures, documenting some progress. Glad to know this works, I have some more ideas for next season! (Chris, going to have to hit you up again bro!)

Now I just gotta breed an orange and black Sarracenia… hah! 

SF Giants Alucard-1August 2012
Sneaking a peak!

Sarracenia 'Alucard' GiantsSeptember 2012
REPRESENT!!

Again, congratulations to the SF Giants!
2012 NL West Champions!
**GO GIANTS!**

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Update: S. ‘Leah Wilkerson’ x ‘Adrian Slack’

Posted on September 20, 2012 | 12 comments

Sarracenia 'Leah Wilkerson' x 'Adrian Slack'Sarracenia ‘Leah Wilkerson’ x ‘Adrian Slack’
Cross by Brooks Garcia

Just a quick update on this fighter of a plant. After suffering in the low light conditions earlier this year, it’s bounced back and is actually looking rather decent. Here are two recent pitchers that came up and a third is on the way to open up shortly. (Special thanks to the S. leucophylla influence on the fall pitchers.) In seasons past, prolonged exposure to bright direct light would cause the green veins and slight pink flush that’s currently are visible fade to white; this produced a very beautiful and haunting contrast with the deep red throat splotch. There’s still a little bit of season left, so I am hoping that this plant will show off more white in the upper portion of the hood before finally going to sleep for winter dormancy.

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