Just wanted to share a few assorted Nepenthes photos from the end of a bright winter’s work day. The setting sun was coming in at an angle that added a nice subtle glow to the deadly foliage.
Nepenthes thorelii x aristochiloides
(Thanks again Paul! It’s pitchering like mad!)
Nepenthes robcantleyii
Nepenthes hamata
A new baby pitcher on a very young plant, but it’s doing well.
So cute. But wait until it gets older, it gets soooo much cuter!
(Thanks Drew!)
Back in September, Paul sent me a vine of a Nepenthes fusca hybrid to try cuttings on. Later that month, the cuttings looked like this. Those little grow point things have been slowly but surely growing, and looking good so far! I managed to slice the vine up into 10 pieces and so far 8 still look ok. As referenced in the earlier post, here’s a great link on how to do Nepenthes cuttings. Thanks again Paul!
Nepenthes fusca hybrid cutting
Nepenthes fusca hybrid cutting
Tagged cutting, fusca, how to, hybrid, nepenthes, Paul Barden, propagation, Tropical Pitcher Plant
Earlier this month, Nepenthes master Paul Barden sent me some Nepenthes to try out in The Dome. Now mind you, I don’t have much Nepenthes experience, and with the few Nepenthes that I do have, I just kinda leave alone to do whatever they see fit. Anyway, one of the things that Paul is letting me try my hand at is growing Nepenthes from cuttings! SO RAD! I’m excited to report that a few weeks later, I see the cuttings showing some signs of life! In the photo to the left, you can see the garbled mess of Nepenthes that I have. A few in the photo are pots of cuttings that I chopped up from a N. fusca hybrid vine from Paul. When I checked the pots, one of the cuttings just went all crispy and didn’t do much. It’s the pot in front with that sorry mess of brown foliage – I tossed that one. But as far as the rest of them, I’m seeing positive signs of growth. Awesome!
The cuttings are in a 50/50 mix of long fiber sphagnum moss and perlite. Conditions in the dome are humid and cool. High during the day are in the mid 70’s, and then it dips to 50 during the evening. These are conditions that highlander Nepenthes like. I also have a sprinkler system set up to go off once every hour only during daylight for 2 seconds just to keep it cooler, and humid. Now I don’t know if I should change this frequency but so far, so good.
Something that Paul mentioned to me that another experienced grower told him: Nepenthes don’t live in their roots the way other plants do. In fact, in the wild, many species abandon their terrestrial root system once they have grown advanced vines into the tree canopies, where they become epiphytes. N. truncata and N. veitchii typically do this, and I suspect most species are capable of it, since they need to have a “contingency plan” for times when climbing vines get damaged and cut off from the earthbound roots.
Dude. This really helped me to kinda digest and conceptualize their growth habits. Now, I know I won’t fully understand until I probably get a few years of experience behind me to work and play with this genus, but so far, that really helped me to go in the right direction. I’m all new to this but am having fun so far!
Paul, thanks again! I am looking forward to the awesomeness that your Geinhouse 2.0 has in store!
New growth looking promising for this piece of vine!
On many of the cuttings, a little node/growpoint thing started to appear! If you look close, you can see a small spur type thing forming. I think this is a good sign! YEAH!
Tendril that I left on one of the leaves now getting nice and twisted!
Nepenthes hamata
Awwwww, isn’t it cute?! Roughly 2 months ago I acquired a baby N. hamata from Drew Martinez (Yo, thanks Drew!) and it’s been doing well despite all of the moving that I’ve recently done. It recently put up a new tiny pitcher and I’m excited to have this amazing plant as part of my humble group of Nepenthes. If you want to see a great example of the adult plant, check out this beautiful photo of Nepenthes hamata by Paul Barden on his blog, Nitrogenseekers. Can’t wait for this baby to start looking like that!
