Tag Archives: The Pitcher Plant Project

Sarracenia "Bug Bat" x "Diane Whittaker"

Posted on September 10, 2010 | 6 comments

One of my first planned hybrids was created a couple years ago. When I was really started to get into this thing, a couple of friends of mine were kind enough to really ignite the Sarracenia obsession in me. I received a division of Sarracenia “Bug Bat” from Wes Buckner, and a Sarracenia “Diane Whittaker” from Brooks Garcia. (Thanks guys!!) So a couple of years ago, they both bloomed for me — and you already know what I did with that… 😉

Photos below are of 3 different seedlings. Each has similarities and differences, but you can see both parent plants in the mix. 😉

This is in honor of two of the guys that got me addicted…

[Photo: Sarracenia “Bug Bat” x “Diane Whittaker”]

[Photo: Sarracenia “Bug Bat” x “Diane Whittaker”]

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Tagged Addiction, Carnivorous Plant, Garden, growing from seed, hybridization, North American Pitcher Plant, Pitcher Plant, Sarracenia, Sarracenia Bug Bat, Sarracenia Diane Whittaker, Sarracenia Hybrid, The Pitcher Plant Project

Come to the Light

Posted on September 8, 2010 | 2 comments

One of the many things I find so captivating (literally) and fascinating about carnivorous plants and Sarracenia are all of the many systems in place that lure in and capture their prey. Deadly beauty in both art and function. It’s all friggin’ awesome stuff!

The below photo is one that I managed to capture of a freshly opened Sarracenia excellens as the morning sunlight was filtering through this plants areoles. The hood will eventually fold over that opening. As the insect is attracted to the tube by the scent and nectar the plant will produce, it gets lured in deeper into the trap. Eventually, the meal wanders too far in and then tries to escape. Said meal sees the “windows” and thinks it can get out that way. The windows provide that “false hope” of escape for those bugs unfortunate enough to wander too far into the hole. As the meal tries to escape, the futile efforts lead to exhaustion and ultimately a nice meal for the plant.

Yes. Come to the light…

[Photo: Sarracenia leucophylla x minor var. okefenokeensis]

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Tagged Carnivorous Plant, Excellens, Garden, North American Pitcher Plant, Obsession, Sarracenia leucophylla x minor var. okefenokeensis, The Pitcher Plant Project

Stuffing Envelopes…

Posted on September 7, 2010 | 2 comments

Yeah. Tonight I was stuffing envelopes… Literally. I get enough paper-pushing at my desk during the day and then I get home and this is what I was just doing for the past 2 hours…

[Paperwork! AHH!]

But I didn’t mind too much tonight cuz I was taking this…

[Photo – Seed Pod – Sarracenia (rubra ssp. jonseii AF x minor var. okeefenokensis) x “Green Monster”]

Stuffing envelopes like this:

[Stuffing Envelopes!]

And getting something like this:

[The Sarracenia Files]

And that’s not even all of my crosses on the year so far – still have a few to go through that aren’t quite ready. Oh well. This is the “paperwork” I’d rather be doing though! Love it!!

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Tagged Addiction, Carnivorous Plant, Garden, growing from seed, lots of seeds!, many plants, MANY SEEDS!, North American Pitcher Plant, Obsession, Pitcher Plant, Sarracenia, Sarracenia Hybrid, seeds, The Pitcher Plant Project

Harvest

Posted on August 15, 2010 | 4 comments

[Sarracenia Seed Pods, collected 8.15.10]
Clockwise from top: S. flava “widemouth” x ‘Adrian Slack’, S. ‘Alucard’ x leucophylla anthocyanin free,
S. “Goliath” x ‘Adrian Slack’, S. oreophila – veined x ‘Adrian Slack, S. ‘Alucard’ x ‘Leah Wikerson’

***

It’s that time of year again – today I was out in the grow area harvesting some pods. I left some of the labels on them so you can see how I keep track of the crosses as I do them. I learned the hard way to cover the tag in tape as snails will eat the cardboard and you loose the ID all together. That was one mistake I learned the hard way last year. I did all these crosses only to have the identity taken by snails. DOH!

Anyway, I know the pods may not look like much now but I am hopeful for some of these crosses. Over here it’s been on the cool side of things so many plants and pods seem a little behind. More pods are forthcoming which means more seeds soon! I am really looking forward to some of the ones I did this year … now just gotta figure out where I can put them all… 😉

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Tagged Adrian Slack, anthocyanin free, Carnivorous Plant, create, Garden, growing from seed, hybridization, North American Pitcher Plant, Pitcher Plant, pod, Sarracenia, Sarracenia Hybrid, sarracenia seed pod, The Pitcher Plant Project

Reptile Crossing!

Posted on August 11, 2010 | 5 comments

Sarracenia ‘Reptilian Rose’ is definately one of my all time favorite plants. S. ‘Reptilian Rose’ was created by a good friend and breeding mentor, the legend: Phil Faulisi. (DUDE!) More information on the plant can be found here: http://www.carnivorousplants.org/cpn/Species/v38n1p12_22.html#Reptilian The following photo is an example of what S. ‘Reptilian Rose’ looks like. (Same plant as in my gravitar, to the right) 😉

[Sarracenia ‘Reptilian Rose’]

The following photos are seed grown crosses of S. ‘Reptilian Rose’ that were created by fellow carnivorous cohort, Dr. Travis Wyman. (Thanks Travis!) These photos were taken in June/July of this year (2010) and seedlings are just a little under 2 years old. I began to germinate them indoors back during the December of 2008. You can see some variation and some similarities. Keep in mind that these plants are still young and still have a lot of growing up to do. Some are showing tell-tale signs of the angular nectar roll, but we won’t really know how pronounced that characteristic will be until these pitchers are fully mature. And I haven’t noticed any scents just yet… but I’ll keep you posted on my findings and I’ll post photos now and then as the plants mature. 😉