Tag Archives: rad

Smurf’s Six Petals

Posted on March 19, 2013 | 3 comments

As I was working in the greenhouse yesterday, I came across something pretty unique. For a while I’ve been eagerly awaiting S. “Smurf” to bloom so that I could see how those weird genetics would play out with some of the other plants. I know that some think it’s a plant for the compost heap. After all, it is a freak. I, on the other hand, kind of like this plant’s odd character. (See photos here for example.)

At first glance, I didn’t notice anything out of the ordinary. However, I noticed something different as I began to harvest the pollen. Not only is this plant an oddball in foliage – it’s a bit of an anomaly when it comes to the flowers too. Smurf’s flower has six petals. It also has six stigmas. Furthermore, the style is funk-tified with grooves and slight frills on the edges. Sarracenia flowers typically only have five petals. (See flower chart for parts reference, here.) Time will tell if the flower and pollen prove fertile.

I do not know if this is petal count consistent with the other Smurfs that are out there, or if I just have a Smurf that had some sort of identity crisis and decided to do it’s own thing this year. Of course, there is a possibility that this is a one off occurrence and that it could grow a “normal” flower next year. My other S. “Smurf” divisions have no bloom this year, but it would be very interesting to compare if I had more blooms next year. If anyone else has a S. “Smurf” in bloom, please let me know your findings; would love to hear from you!

Sarracenia purpurea "Smurf" flower
Sarracenia “Smurf” – 18 March 2013
Upon my initial observation, I didn’t see anything out of the ordinary. When I went to harvest pollen, that’s when I noticed the flower was a bit different.

Sarracenia “Smurf” flower – 18 March 2013

Sarracenia “Smurf” flower – 18 March 2013
This plant truly has a unique style. Yeah, double entendre intended.

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Posted in Blog

Tagged 6, burkii, Carnivorous Plant, flower, mutation, odd-ball, petal, Pitcher Plant, purpurea, rad, rosea, Sarracenia, six, stigma, strange, venosa, weird

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 - veinless Sarracenia alata “veinless”

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Posted in Blog

Tagged alata, carnivorous, North American Pitcher Plant, Pitcher Plant, Plant, rad, Sarracenia, veinless

Wang’s Crops + Work Day With Drew

Posted on August 26, 2012 | 3 comments

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.

***

1: Prelude – The Wang’s Crops

2: Drew, We Got You Covered. Almost.

***

Sarracenias of Wang 19 Aug 2012

***

Martinez Greenhouse Workday 19 Aug 2012

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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

I Heart Sarracenia

Posted on July 5, 2012 | 3 comments

I HEART SARRACENIA.

Sarracenia 'Adrian Slack' Sarracenia ‘Adrian Slack’, view of lid.

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Posted in Blog

Tagged Adrian Slack, Heart, rad, Sarracenia

Hybrid Collaboration Update: S. minor giant x “Green Monster”

Posted on June 3, 2012 | 10 comments

Back in the Spring of 2009 I was in my old greenhouse in Pacifica on a phone call with Jerry Addington. We were talking about hybrids, tossing ideas around and I was trying to absorb as much wisdom as I could from him. Anyway, at the time I had a blooming S. “Green Monster” (an anthocyanin free form of S. excellens) and Jerry and I were throwing around ideas about the plant and some potential crosses. One of the ideas that Jerry brought up was that S. “Green Monster” could be used to create an AF minor giant looking plant. I thought that was a bloody awesome idea, and I had only half of the answer to that puzzle at that point time. Sadly I had no minor giant in bloom to breed S. “Green Monster” with. Soooo, I began asking fellow growers if they had any spare S. minor var. okefenokeensis out there. I’m so thankful that Mike Wang had a spare S. minor var. okefenokeensis plant with a bloom just cracking open — so he lent me the plant! SO awesome of him. I drove to his place pick it up, and then went home and did the cross right away.

There were only a few seeds that came from that cross, and a total of only 4 seedlings were strong enough to make it to this point. Only 4. Those 4 seedlings are photographed in the first photo below.

Here’s a quick summary through the years showing how this plant is evolving.

Sarracenia minor var. okefenokeensis x “Green Monster”
20 November 2010

Sarracenia minor var. okefenokeensis x “Green Monster”
26 August 2011

Now in 2012. Keep in mind that my lighting is sub par so the colors aren’t as great as they normally would be.

Sarracenia minor var. okefenokeensis x “Green Monster”
27 May 2012

This next photo is something monumental for me – the culmination of our efforts and ideas! (Well, assuming that the cross took, of course…) I had no AF minor giant in bloom, so I selfed the flower. I did this in hopes to unlock that recessive anthocyanin free gene, as well as have the size influence from S. minor var. okefenokeensis end up in at least ONE of those seedlings. The other thing that’s pretty cool that you can’t really tell from the photo above is that the S. leucophylla influence gives it a slight undulation in the lid. Hawt.

Sarracenia minor var. okefenokeensis x “Green Monster”
Pod after self pollinating – I HOPE that the cross took…
27 May 2012

Now you may be thinking – DAAAYYMMMNNNN Rob, how the f*ck do you get your plants to flower so fast? Well to tell you the truth – I was fortunate to have longer than average growing seasons in my microclimate. At my old spot, it was not unusual to pollinate, harvest, stratify, then germinate seed all in the same year! Combined with long photo periods, I was able to get a slight jump on growth. Long term though, I am not sure how that shortened dormancy affected the adult plants. Dormancy for these plants is important. I would notice that after a few years maybe a few of the plants were not as strong as in years past, but that could be due to several factors that were going on. Don’t get me wrong, they would still go dormant for about a little over a month to a month and a half in the greenhouses at the old spot. The plants outdoors would obviously get a longer dormancy time as it’s quite cooler and they didn’t wake up so fast. I can’t really See any major negative effects on the plants though, so the time I had them sleeping might of been “just enough.” I also wanted to mention that this year the plants received a longer than the past “usual” dormancy period due to lower light, so I guess that’s a good thing.

Keep in mind the other youngsters plants don’t have flowers yet. The plant photographed above with was simply the first of only four seedlings to get to this point. I look forward to cracking that pod open in a few months! So exciting to see something manifest from all of our cumulative efforts and ideas! Thank you Jerry and Mike!

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Posted in Blog

Tagged Combined Effort, giant, Green monster, hybrid, Jerry Addington, Mike Wang, minor, okefenoke, rad, Sarracenia

Flower Power

Posted on April 27, 2012 | 4 comments

I can’t help but post and share more Sarracenia flower goodness to kick this weekend off – enjoy!

Sarracenia courtii x ‘Adrian Slack’ – Select Clone

Sarracenia leucophylla – Anthocyanin Free

Sarracenia rubra wherryi “Chatom Giant”

Sarracenia ‘Abandoned Hope’

Sarracenia ‘Snorkle’

Sarracenia ‘Alucard’ “Prince of Darkness”

Sarracenia leucophylla ‘Tarnok’

4 Comments

Posted in Blog

Tagged Abandoned Hope, Adrian Slack, Alucard, anthocyanin free, Chatom Giant, Courtii, flower, Flower Power!, leucophylla, Prince of Darkness, rad, rubra, Sarracenia, Snorkle, Tarnok

Far Out Flora, Thank You.

Posted on April 21, 2012 | 3 comments

Last weekend I got a chance to stop by Meg and Matti’s – (Gawrsh durn it, I miss y’all!) and picked up some rad cuttings at their going away plant sale. I am going to pot up these plants and have a shrine dedicated to Far Out Flora. And for you readers out there that haven’t immersed yourselves in the Far Out Flora awesomeness, it would behoove you to do so. Right now. Go check it. Now.

Succulent cuttings from Far Out Flora!

See, my garden is a living and breathing repository where life’s events are recorded. Sarracenias and carnivores are at the heart of this, but I grow a few other things too. I’ve said before that each stem, each petal, and each leaf blade is a poem waiting to be discovered. One just has to watch and listen. My garden is my journal – the collection of my memories that is open and read by all. Each plant is an icon of an event: they are the witnesses, they are the scribes, and they are the story tellers. I am honored to have a few plants in my garden from Meg and Matti.

Check out a few shots of Meg and Matti’s garden deconstruction and transplant preparation in the slideshow below. I am familiar with garden tear downs and it’s never an easy task. But… packing plants up and road tripping them from the Bay to WI? Now THAT is so insanely hardcore and awesome…

FOF Transplant Preparation!

Far Out Flora [Transplanting] (Left to Right: Johanna, me, Matti, Meg, Derek)

One last group photo before Far Out Flora gets transplanted! I was honored to have met the awesome Johanna during the FOF sale. And dude, I seriously love Matti’s shirt. “HUG.” Kinda makes me want to indulge in this hugging awesomeness. ( <-Funny video.)

I know this post is a little bit off the carnivorous path. I wanted to thank Meg and Matti for their inspiration. See, without Far Out Flora, there really wouldn’t be the awesome inspiration for The Pitcher Plant Project. It was the first plant blog I stumbled across that really got me going.

My blog started when my rad wife, Dahlia, goes “You should start a blog about your carnivores.” I thought she was nuts. So I say,”What? Really? Plant blog? A carnivorous Sarraceniaphile plant blog? Eh, that’s just dorky.” Forreals, I was totally clueless. That ish just sounds so plant-nerdy straight up, right? Anyway, wifey knows best and I’m thankful for her encouragement to get me photographing and writing about them. Sooooooo, I go online and Google “Bay Area Plant Blog” – and lo and behold, I clicked on Far out Flora. “Ohh Em Gee. Damn, this was aweseome!” One thing lead to another. I was so enamored by their passion of plant radness that it prodded me to share my own addiction with you all. And from there I began to connect with all sorts of freakishly awesome folks who share the same plant-dorkiness I do.

I ran into this post on Gunnera soon after I started to follow Far out Flora. And that eventually lead to this. (And YES, Matti’s hair did amaze me.)

FOF Gunnera Gunnera. (Thank you Ingrid for taking the photo! 🙂 )

Through writing and sharing my passion with Sarracenias and carnivores on this blog, I began to connect with so many wonderful people, and fellow plant addicts from all over the world, as well as locally. (You know who you are.) For you, I am also thankful.

BAPP 6.25.2011
The BAPP (Bay Area Plant People) meets are always awesome, but it will never be the same without FOF up in the mix. Oh the memories – BAPP 1, BAPP 2, the grand BAPP 3 hosted by Meg and Matti! (Slideshow of BAPP 3 below.)

Without FOF, I wouldn’t know as much I would today about the awesomeness of loam. Check out as Meg and Matti clarify the loamy subject…

So, Meg and Matti — I wanted to say THANK YOU for all you have done and for your inspiration. Thank you for sharing your passion and your knowledge of plants as you spur us on to continue to grow. You truly are a blessing, and the SF Bay will never be the same without you. You will be missed. I look forward to reading about your new adventures, and being even more inspired as you and your growing family take root and grow in your new garden. Far Out Flora, thank you.

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Posted in Blog

Tagged Far out Flora, I'll miss them so freekin' much!, Matti, Meg, rad, thankful

Tag Archives: rad

Smurf’s Six Petals

Sarracenia alata “Veinless”

Wang’s Crops + Work Day With Drew

I Heart Sarracenia

Hybrid Collaboration Update: S. minor giant x “Green Monster”

Flower Power

Far Out Flora, Thank You.

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