Done. These are a few flowers that I no longer have use for. I’ve either collected pollen from these and/or I simply won’t be using it as a pod parent.
Now, don’t get me wrong. I do enjoy their beauty. On some flowers, I will only use the pollen and extract the pollen as carefully as I can. If I have no plans on using it as a pod parent, I’ll enjoy the bloom for a little bit. Then I snip it off. It’s just personal preference, I guess.
Hi,
I know that flowers affect pitchers growth, so I cut them off when they are 5-8 cm high.
Doing like you did, the plant is affected from growing flowers or not?
Otherwise I wasted many flowers… -_-
TY
Hi Yuri!
You know, I don’t really know. I’ve have had this actually go both ways. What I notice is that if the plant is strong, well established, and healthy, (example: large multi-crown plant that had sufficient dormancy) then I typically won’t really see any significant difference in the foliar growth even with the flowering. However, if it’s a recent or newer division with the plant still trying establishing itself, I have had *some* cases where the plant’s did seem weaker. This was not every time though as some divisions I did this year were allowed to flower, and the plant overall still looks great.
An example of when I cut the flower buds, is when a fresh division is shipped to me. I’ll cut the bud off if the plant has one. My thinking is that it has to deal with the extra stress from the unpotting/packing/shipping/re-potting. I’ll only do this as a precaution though to try to direct the plant’s energy to establishing itself.
I guess it really depends on the strength of the plant. I don’t know if this helps you or not, but this has been my experience. Good Growing!
Boo Hoo Hooo i found the flower from the real Daniel Rudd bent over I tried staking it up to see if the flower will bloom If that doesn’t help, another year or two to see him in all his glory
AH MAN! That sucks! how far along was the flower? I hate it when that happens!!!
It is my understanding, and I might be wrong, that the flower is formed in the fall and the plant doesn’t expend any more energy growing the flower in the spring than it does in growing a new leaf.
Interesting! I’ve heard that most of the energy is spent actually producing seeds as well. Anyway, most time’s I’d rather have a pitcher for plants I’m not using in hybridizing, heh! How are your crosses coming Aaron?
eh, no crosses now until my outdoor plants bloom. they’re still in the garage, so it’ll be awhile. last year, i think the first ones opened in mid-May, with the majority opening closer to the end of May.
Last year I kept some of the flowers that weren’t actively used in the sarracenia sex slave trade of making hybrids. Partly I liked how the spend styles looked, but I also was curious to see what kind of seed set I’d get on plants left out in the open without wearing their little sarracenia flower condoms. I live way away from the native bees that pollinate the flowers but I still got something like 7-8 seeds on a couple flowers, which is more than on some of my less fertile crosses last season. I’m sure it taxes the plants at least a little bit to keep an empty pod alive for months. So…this year it’s either into the greenhouse or on with the little pouches for the crosses I want, and with the rest I’ll be snipping the flowers once the petals drop.
Yes, I agree! Some times I’ll just cut the flowers and make a bouquet for my kitchen table! Did you ever get to germinate those 7-8 seeds? What do you use for protection? In the greenhouse I don’t seem to need to use the protection as there aren’t really any pollinators that early.
Looking forward to what you’ll have coming in your crosses James!
Rob, I didn’t try germinating the seeds I got spontaneously but I wouldn’t be surprised if they were just selfings from the wind. As far as protection I made little pouches out of mesh…nothing official like reemay bags… I’ll do a more detailed post on them soon and let you know when it’s up.
Cool! I’m looking forward to your future post!