Hello! One of my nepenthes recently bloomed – exciting stuff! In the past, I’ve snipped those flower spikes off – but this time, I’ll be attempting some Nepenthes crosses in collaboration with other growers. This is my actually very first time collecting Nepenthes pollen and wanted to document and share what I’m learning.

Unlike Sarracenia, Nepenthes are dioecious. This means plants produce flowers that are either female or male. In cultivation, there seem to be mostly male Nepenthes plants. Female plants are given extra attention and value by those who breed Nepenthes. In order to have a successful cross, a blooming male/female pair is needed. Sometimes that can be a challenge as these plants have their own (seemingly sporadic) flowering cycles. Ideally you’d want a pair blooming at the same time to get the deed done. So, sometimes growers collaborate with each other and create some really fantastic crosses. This process can call for collecting, storing, and sending Nepenthes pollen to the grower(s) with the female plant(s). Fun stuff! Yes – there are other methods of collecting Nepenthes pollen, but for now I’m sharing the method I am currently using.

I gotta mention that an earlier first batch of stored pollen did not work out too well. The collected blooms from the first round still had lingering moisture. At that time, I used an old handful of silica gel packets – but that didn’t have enough oomph to draw out all the moisture from the blooms. DOH! So, I went to a local craft hobby shop and picked up a fresh jar of silica gel. (Safety first! Use precautions to avoid silica dust inhalation!) As you’ll see in the video – using plenty of fresh silica gel is important to get those flowers completely dry.

I’m hoping that the efforts with this pollen set will work out! A huge thank you to Drew (web: http://www.carnivero.com | IG: @carnivero) and Jeff (ig: @nepenthesgod) for these pollen collection tips!