Tag Archives: Sarracenia

Divide and Conquer

Posted on January 27, 2011 | 6 comments

‘Tis the season for dividing and conquering.

I’m really… REALLY behind in my dividing, but that’s fine. *Sigh* unfortunately not all of my time is dedicated to the Sarracenia. Would be pretty awesome though.  Anyway, I’m only dividing the plants that need dividing and letting the rest grow out for another season … or three.

For those unfamiliar with the dividing process, here’s a quick example of how to divide and propagate Sarracenia.

The photo below is of a multi-multi growpoint Sarracenia, about to burst into growth. (This, by the way, is a fantastic red moorei)  and it’s on the verge of busting out of the pot.  Those leaves you see are the non carnivorous winter leaves that the plant produces to photosynthesize during the darker winter months. They be called phyllodia.

I like to have a small work area when dividing/repotting. Keeps me focused on the plant I’m working on.  I also have a little tub to work in to keep the work area somewhat clean preventing too much dirt from going all over the place.

After removing from the pot, I loosen up the media a bit.  Here’s a couple shots of the rhizome/roots and what goes on beneath.


Notice the awesome root system action going on below the surface of the soil. That’s hawt.

I look/feel for a place where I can break a good sized piece of rhizome off. See figure below —  my plan of attack will be separating the rhizome at the point where the skizzors will be following the dotted line.

Now, some people do use a sharp knife, or clippers to separate the rhizome. It’s all personal preference. With a plant of this size, I can actually break off a piece by hand pretty easy.

Grab life by the rhizome. Oh, and when dividing, I do like to try to get as much root in there as I can.  However, I have had plenty of success dividing these things and planting them without any root at all (just growpoint)– and they still do survive and eventually grow roots of their own.

Freshly divided rhizomes below, ready to be potted up.

… And after potting up, I trimmed the phyllodia (you don’t really have to, but it just looks cleaner for me…) and now it’s time to just sit back and wait for the new growth to explode.

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The Mix Up

Posted on January 25, 2011 | 6 comments

Last weekend I finally had some time to mix things up.  Now, I am a believer in keeping things simple — such as my media.   I know that for whatever reason, media can be a hotly debated subject in some carni-circles. All I can say is — do whatever works for you. Seriously.

I have grown plants successfully in nothing but pure peat moss. And it’s good and great!   My FAVORITE brand is Sunshine peat moss.  Great stuff. I’ve used other brands of peat in the past and it was all effed up.  Weeds, twigs, dead bugs, dried leaves, and other schtuff was just hanging out in the moss. Oh… and one time, there was one brand where mold was a problem! Seriously! I bought a bag and there was all this fuzzy stuff growing in the bag! Nasty. So right now, I favor Sunshine. But again, use whatever work works for you. Don’t be afraid to try things out.  Just be sure it’s not that MiracleGrow brand or any other brand that has fertilizer in it.  Well… you can try it out and tell me how your plants fare.

Like I said, I’ve grown plants successfully in pure peat.  However, I needed to make the peat stretch, so added a few things.

This year, I am using sand in my mix.

Now, I don’t know if the below brand of sand is really any good, but my test plants have had no horrific results.  I picked this up from (ugh, sad to say… the Depot…) I typically like to go to the quarry and use Oly Sand, (Oly for Olympia, Washington State, I guess…) and that has worked fine for me last year.  We’ll see how the plants fare this year with this new stuff.  If they all crash and burn and die… then… I’ll blog about it, cry for a while,  and then warn you NEVER to use this brand!

Perlite.   It adds a nice airyness to the mix. The general CP go-to-catchall mix is 1 part peat to 1 part perlite.  Now, I do have to warn you NOT to breath any of this dust in. Don’t eat it either. I know some folk may be tempted.  If you use this stuff, please wear a mask. Or moisten the contents of  bag. Do not get it in your lungs, because it can cause weird things to happen to you. Seriously.   I do wear a dust mask, and also — if you moisten the contents of the bag, it really minimizes the dust from flying all over the place.

So… on to the mix.

I dump the sand in my handy dandy wheelbarrow. I then wash the sand several times over removing some sediment and residue so that it’s cleaner.

Washing sand!

Next thing, below, I dump the moist perlite. This mix is roughly 1:1:2, sand, perlite, peat.  A few more additives in there to stretch my media…

Then, I toss in the peat.  Yes, I know it’s chunky and a block of hardened stuff in the photo below. The fun part is getting in there and mixing it all up. I get in there with my garden gloves and mash it all up. The sand will actually help break it down so much faster.


… and a few minutes later, a mix ready to fill those pots.  I actually went through this wheelbarrow of media very quickly… ah, so much to do. So little time.

Another good friend of mine (Hi Mama Lo!) uses a concrete mixer to mix her media in. I should really invest in one…

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Dude, Got Pot?

Posted on January 23, 2011 | 1 comment

Howdy!

Been quite busy over here with all sorts of plant stuff; dividing, repotting, trimming all sorts of Sarracenia and other  plant insanity.  I recently got a shipment of some square pottage-stuff — and so the quest for dividing and conquering can continue.

I friquin’ love square pots – I can pack plants in nice organized manner and be space efficient at the same time. I usually scope out ebay or for square pots –  but I got these from Novosel Enterprises.  If anyone else has any other place they can suggest on where to find some nice square pots,  (for a reasonable price…) lemme know!

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Sarracenia Samurai

Posted on January 17, 2011 | 3 comments

You know, one day when I grow up, I want to be a Sarracenia Samurai…

Being that I am behind in my trimming, I had to resort to a more unconventional method today, relying on my carbon steel hand forged Musha katana to trim some pitchers back…  (Kids, don’t try this at home…)

Sarracenia Samurai!

It was fun slashing through a few plants… but I think my next session will use the shorter tanto blade  for more detailed work, or perhaps… I’ll just stick with my regular clippers. 🙂 Heh heh!

(And, a very special thanks to my wife who was brave enough to stand behind the camera as I slashed through the madness…)

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Burn Baby Burn!

Posted on January 13, 2011 | 2 comments

Fire.  The awesome and fierce element of renewal. The following photographs are taken by and are courtesy of Bob Hanrahan taken earlier last year from his Carnivorous Plantation in Alabama.  Fires do happen naturally in the Sarracenia’s natural habitat (sparked by lightning , for example), and are beneficial for their growth. The burns remove the competing weeds, dead vegetation, and pests allowing the Sarracenias to grow and be merry. Bob does controlled burns at his plantation to simulate this, and no doubt the plants are still very happy!

VERY Important: Kids please DO NOT try this at home!

(Photos by Bob Hanrahan)

Hanrahan Burn
[Sarracenia purpurea ssp. venosa v. burkii f. luteola, toasted!]

***
However, as you can see below — a few months after the burn, the Sarracenia are doing just fine.

[Bob, a very special “Thank You” for sharing these photos with us, they are simply amazing and give me such a deep appreciation for all you do there. Thank you!]

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Behind Glass

Posted on January 11, 2011 | 6 comments

To break up some of that monotony of dead foliage and seeds, here are a few current shots of some seed-LINGS that I am growing indoors under lights, behind glass.   I grow my plants mostly outdoors or in an unheated greenhouse (to protect from wind and such), but I have started seed successfully indoors under lights. These seedlings will be shifted and grown out in the unheated greenhouse once it gets a tad bit warmer. And those flowers are from Mexican Pinguicula (another carnivorous awesome plant.)

Now don’t get me wrong, I do love this season, but it’s seems like there is never enough time for all I want to do with the plants. Winter is a great time for me to work on all them since they be all dormant! Once they’re up and growing/blooming, I don’t like to bug em. Trips em’ out.

Anyway, basically the photo below is in a 50 gallon terrarium/grow chamber with lights.

These babies are just over a year old and as you can see, have been growing in rather cramped conditions.  Yuri in the earlier post commented:

“… I just sowed something like 50 different crosses, and needed space is really a problem…”

Yep. I have that problem too! LOL!  No way I can grow all these seedlings, so what am I doing with them? Compost some (the very weakest ones), or distribute some as gifts, give aways, or sell some off to help offset my growing costs.   These plants above are ready to be thinned out.

Being that I am new to this, I am finding my way and trying to get somewhat even more-so disciplined in the art. It’s hard though. You have a seedling that you’re about to toss, but yet, that nagging voice says “OH, but you don’t know if it will have some insane beautifulnormous pitchers in a couple years, after all you can’t really tell what it will be like at this point in time…”

This is true.  But it’s also dangerous especially with limited space and resources. So I tell the voice to “Shove it.”   Then, I just plod along, composting some and transplanting even this early (which, isn’t too early for me…) shifting them to roomier abodes.

In the background here are some Mexican Pinguiculas. They are great for in the terrarium gnat control! I haven’t had any gnats so the leaves are nice and clean. During the first week of set up on this terrarium, the leaves were chalk full of those lousy fungus gnats. Cycle broken. Yay.

And… standing head and shoulders above the rest of it’s fellow seedlings is this one UNKNOWN plant.

It’s a plant that my good friend Jerry Addington crossed. The exact parentage is uncertain.  The plant is S. [(leucophylla x rubra) x minor giant] crossed with the pollen parents of either S. “Nadine” or S. “W.C.”   Unfortunately I do not have a photo of either parent plant, but can tell you that S. “Nadine” and “W.C” both have the Sarracenia leucophylla (white top pitcher) influence which is very present above. It’s kinda hard to tell and will probably be impossible to really determine later as it gets older. Who knows, we’ll see.  It happens.  This was an “Oops cross”, as Jerry called it. (Hey, it’s all good Jerry, it’s showing a lot of promise to be an interesting and beautiful plant already…)

Sarracenia, I am told, can accept pollen from several different sperm donors, and the seeds will of course be all mixed representing characteristics of pod parent + sperm donor A, or pod parent + sperm donor B… or donor C… and so on and on.  Digest that for a while and then a new world of madness opens up.  Fun stuff, this breeding thing!

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2011, Bring it on!

Posted on December 30, 2010 | 4 comments

I still can’t believe that there are only a few more hours left in 2010.



Ok. A box. So it’s a Vans shoebox. Yes, I know.

For me, 2011 is kinda like this unopened box.  A great culmination of stuff from this year building up to bigger and better things. At least, I hope I’ll get some bigger and better things. What is IN that box is something I look forward to. (And no, it ain’t shoes.)

What is in that box will grow.  The results of the work I did this past year will become tangible.  Some things may NOT be all that great (and will be tossed and composted), and some things will be simply spectacular.  Some things will be nurtured, and some things despised. Who knows. All I gots to say is BRING IT ON.

And to all of you out there, I would like to wish you a Happy New Year! Have fun and please be safe. Wishing you all continued health and success in 2011!

Cheers!
-Rob

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