Hello all you beautiful people out there! Hope you all have been well! I’ve finished moving out of The Asylum and took the month of February to just relax a little bit from the wonderful fiasco of hauling an entire large greenhouse full of plants from point A to point B. (A huge thanks to the BAPP crew for the help!)
The new place is coming along well. I’ll slowly be putting the pieces together again and will be working on the new location throughout this year. It’s not as large or grand as the marvelous Asylum, but you know what – it’s something. The Sarracenia are growing outdoors now and that’s been brilliant since they’re now getting much needed rain. It just feels good to know that the plants that were once in the greenhouse for 3 1/2 years are now getting a much needed flush from the the rain.
I also wanted to report that on 29 Feb I was able to do my first pollination of 2016! I self pollinated an anthocyanin free clone of S. catesbaei. The parentage is S. luteola x S. flava ‘Suspicion’ – grown from seed, cross by Adrian Fawcett and you can see them when the first germinated back in 2013 here! (Thanks again, Adrian!)
Seeing the first flower is always refreshing sight. This neon thing broke the bleak ocean of trimmed and dead foliage like a beacon of hope for better things to come. This year will be a transition year getting to know all the nuances and idiosyncrasies of the growing spot, but so far it looks like the plants don’t have a problem with it. Looking forward to seeing how this year will turn out. Thank you all again for following along this crazy botanical journey of mine, y’all are just awesome.
Sarracenia catesbaei flower – anthocyanin free clone
The seeds (from 2013!!) have been sown! Yes, you read that right. These have been sitting in cold stratification for a year. A couple of weeks ago, my wife and the kiddos helped pot up all 202+ crosses. It was an extremely busy year for me last year and by the time I was ready to put them down, the year was half way over. I didn’t want to use supplemental lighting as with this many seeds, as that electric bill would just be nuts. Now that I finally have a little more space, I was able to finally put these down.
And guess what? Many pots have seeds that have are sprouting! Exciting! The one in the photo is S. purpurea heterophylla x leucophylla “Red” – these came from Jerry Addington and should produce a brilliant crop of anthocyanin free recessive plants to work with in the future.
The Asylum. Check out the Sarracenia alata flowers already opening up! And check out that other half of the greenhouse that needs trimming! Heh!
A few more Sarracenia alata buds about to pop!
One of my crosses from a maybe 3 or so years ago. This is S. ‘Alucard’ x ‘Adrian Slack’ glowing with the sun hitting it from behind. Notice one of last year’s autumn pitchers compared to this year’s larger spring pitcher. What a jump! You can see tell-tale signs of what the plant would be like from last year’s pitcher. However, with this year’s pitcher, you can see much more character shine through! The unknown of what comes out of the cross and how that plant matures is part of the excitement that comes with growing from seed. Anyway, I’ll post another photo later on so you can get a better view of this year’s most recent pitcher from this cross.
Sarracenia ‘Reptilian Rose’ x (flava var. rubricorpora x leucophylla) – Clone 14. New pitcher coloring up against last year’s wreckage. Cross by Dr. Travis H. Wyman.
Sarracenia ‘Reptilian Rose’ x (flava var. rubricorpora x leucophylla) – Clone 9
Another one of my crosses – Sarracenia leucophylla “Purple Lips” x flava var. rubricorpora x ‘Adrian Slack’ – new pitcher opening up! 
Sarracenia oreophila, awake and ready to devour insects!
Sarracenia oreophila
Sarracenia alata – Anthocyanin Free!
Young pitchers stretch towards the sky. Sarracenia flava var. rubricorpora x flava ‘Suspicion’ – an anthocyanin free recessive cross. This cross was done by Aidan Selwyn. I hope to use these AF recessive S. flava plants in future (anthocyanin free) crosses.
Ok, ok, ok… I’m totally geeking out here. This is a flower bud of an anthocyanin free form of S. flava – Colquitt Co., GA. YEAH. You know what this means… 🙂
S. flava var. rubricorpora x flava ‘Suspicion’
