2012: Opening Day

Posted on March 11, 2012 by Sarracenia Dude| 1 Comment

The first two pitchers of 2012 have inflated and opened up! (Although, I’m still waiting for the 2012 opening day of the SF Giants… but anyway, that’s beside the point…) The below pitchers opened up sometime last week – I haven’t been to the greenhouse to be able be there as they cracked open, but these two were the first to do their thing.  It’s just a couple pitchers for now, but the deluge of pitchers (and SF Giant’s pitchers…) to soon follow! Bring it on!!!

Sarracenia (leucophylla x oreophila) Oudean Clone x purpurea ssp. venosa


Sarracenia ‘Nadine’

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Hello Sunshine

Posted on March 6, 2012 by Sarracenia Dude| 1 Comment

Hello Sunshine!

Hello Sunshine!  Here’s my shameless plug for the peat moss brand I use!   A few of you have emailed me asking about what kind of moss/media I use… so here you go.  Sunshine brand!  I’ve used other brands that were OK, but some other brands were just full o’ crap.  Twigs, bugs, weeds, and fungi, and mold were among some of the things that I came across with other stuff I’ve used. Anyway, I’m really happy with Sunshine brand.  YES, it can be a little bit more expensive, but I have a buddy at a local nursery who helps me and hooks it up.  I recently  replenished my stash of peat moss for my repotting project with a few more 3.8 cu foot bales! So far,  I’ve already gone through roughly 10.2 cu. feet of the stuff (YES, I am repotting EVERYTHING… it is quite cleansing!) and I hope the remainder of the stash will be enough to finish off the remaining tables.

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Also, a huge THANK YOU for those who’ve supported me in this project and purchased plants off of me!  (Oh yah, donations welcome too…!) The Sarracenia madness would not be possible without ya! And… If you are wondering why I haven’t updated the store lately — it’s because I’ve been busy repotting before the plants wake up.  Next couple of weekends are busy but I should have a few more things up … stay tuned!

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These Buds for You

Posted on March 4, 2012 by Sarracenia Dude| 5 Comments

A few Sarracenia buds for your Sunday… Enjoy!

Sarracenia (flava x willisii-Triffid Park) x leucophylla "Juju Lips"Sarracenia (flava x willisii, Triffid Park) x leucophylla “Juju Lips”

Sarracenia "Green Monster"
Sarracenia “Green Monster”

Sarracenia 'Alucard' "Prince of Darkness"
Sarracenia ‘Alucard’ – “Prince of Darkness”, a Phil Faulisi Select Clone

Sarracenia leucophylla - AF
Sarracenia leucophylla – Anthocyanin Free

Sarracenia willisii x flava var. cuprea
Sarracenia willisii x flava var. cuprea – California Carnivores

Sarracenia courtii x 'Adrian Slack' select clone
Sarracenia courtii x ‘Adrian Slack’

Sarracenia 'Abandoned Hope'
Sarracenia ‘Abandoned Hope’

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Awww Psitt!!

Posted on March 3, 2012 by Sarracenia Dude| 10 Comments

So, as I am organizing and putting plants together by their species in the new grow areas, I found one interesting form of S. psittacina, or psitt (pronounced like “sit”), that I forgot I had.   I find the S. psittacina species pretty interesting as they are unlike their other Sarracenia counterparts — the psitt species have a bulbous globular shaped head where other Sarracenia exhibit the trumpet/tuba/french horn appearance.

Eh, anyways — what I like about this particular S. pisttacina I recently uncovered from the jumbled mess is the large semi-half-circular wing-ridge it has (called an ala).  They are an interesting species for sure and I’m finding that I am appreciating psitts a little more these days! As with other Sarracenia, there’s a lot of variation within the species!  I hope to ramp up in my ps(h)itty psitt department in the coming growing seasons.

Anyway… check out this piece of psitt…


Sarracenia psittacina – Allanton – Bay County, FL


Sarracenia psittacina – Allanton – Bay County, FL

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Leuco’s New Home

Posted on February 27, 2012 by Sarracenia Dude| 3 Comments

Some more updates from the repottin’ madness!    Oh, it never ends, but I am enjoying it! One tray at a time!

I received a few select clones of S. leucophylla a while back from Dr. Travis H. Wyman — and they were getting a bit cramped in their current situation – so I decided that it was time to move them to a larger crib!

I am prepared the mini bog, filling it with some fresh media for the leuco’s!  I am using a sand/peat mixture.

Here’s one container of the plants – gettin’ kind of cramped in there as you can see! That’s a large pot of about 2 or 3 plants.

Here’s a larger container of the same S. leucophylla — cramped and in need of a good cleaning.  I just kind of let the containers run amok last year…

Here’s one plant.  There I go with the nitrile gloves again! (Use protection folks… it’s worth it…)  And see that mossy lookin’ crap?  I have no idea what it is – but one thing I know — it’s annoying as hell.  My homie Mike Wang calls it “bitch weed”, cuz it really is a bitch to remove!  I let it kind of get overgrown last year but this year I am doing my best to keep it clean.

Mini bogs now planted. True, it does not look like much now, but I am giving them room to grow — and believe me, they WILL grow!  I am looking forward to these bins filling up with some leucophylla awesomeness this coming year!

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Grow On!

Posted on February 26, 2012 by Sarracenia Dude| 1 Comment

Sarracenia hybrid – unknown parentage; new growth jumpin’!

A few weeks ago I trimmed a lot of the plants back – that was stage 1 of my clean up project after the move.  Stage two is repotting and divisions. (Which, seemingly is taking F O R E V E R.)  You can see how the new growth of this year is shooting up and the plant is deforming the pot!  This is a multi crown 3 or 4 year old young plant that’s flowering this year.  I grew this plant from seed that I obtained a while back from Karen Oudean – the exact parentage is unknown, but I am assuming that it has a flava/alata/rubra-ish influence.  Grow on, lil’ dude — grow on!

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Hopeful Abandoned Hope

Posted on February 25, 2012 by Sarracenia Dude| 5 Comments

Abandoned HopeSarracenia ‘Abandoned Hope’ – With a hopeful flower bud.

Busy day today in the greenhouse. I’m still doing a lot of repotting. HELLA repotting.  Couldn’t help but take a quick snapshot of S. ‘Abandoned Hope’ as I was getting ready to repot it. Just pulled it out of the pot and started to take some of the old media off… I fear that my repotting is starting to run a little behind as a lot of the plants are throwin’ up buds already.  I am tryin’ to get to them all before they really start to explode into growth.

I have some high hopes for that bud and the hybrids that could possibly come from it! I’m quite hopeful for some interesting stuff, that’s for sure.

By the way — yes, I am wearing some disposable nitrile gloves.  It is very true that I do like to get duh-duh-duh-DIRTY – but it is also very important to have good hygiene while working with potting media. It’s no fun to get stuff like this.   OK, so I don’t always wear gloves but am always sure to wash hands after working. I’m also careful to address any cuts/wounds that happen while working with plants/media.

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New Additions to the Family

Posted on February 24, 2012 by Sarracenia Dude| 5 Comments

I came home today to a very awesome surprise — a huge and special thank you to my friend Wes Buckner for sending a few nice plants over to me!  I got home late this evening — it was really was a great way to end a wonderful day for me.  It also means a start to a great weekend — lots of potting ahead!

Thank you Wes, I really appreciate it!


The box of Sarrs and it’s aura of awesomeness.  


Check out the way Wes expertly cushioned the plants!


Sarracenia rhizomes packed nice and snug.

Rhizomes arrived in perfect shape.  Oh man, I’m going to have a fun time potting them up this weekend!  It’s going to be fun seeing these new additions grow up with the rest of the Sarracenia family!

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Long Lid

Posted on February 19, 2012 by Sarracenia Dude| 4 Comments

Found this one plant on my recent trimming project…. Back in September 2010 I wrote about a cross I did with Sarracenia “Starry Night” and Sarracenia ‘Hummers Hammerhead’  here. (Check that link out to see some of the sibling crosses…) One of the plants turned out with a clear S. Hummers Hammerhead influence… Just an example of the variation that comes when growing from seed.


Sarracenia “Starry Night”x ‘ Hummers Hammerhead’

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Got Buds?

Posted on February 13, 2012 by Sarracenia Dude| 5 Comments

It’s that time of year again! I’m really encouraged to see some buds growing here in the greenhouse.  There’s been a lot of challenges here with lighting (… well it’s winter,  so what can I expect, right?), ventilation, and water — but the good news is I’m seeing some new growth.. and buds!  That’s  good sign, right?

Sarracenia “H1″ – Bob Ziemer Hybrid

Sarracenia rosea

Sarracenia courtii x “Adrian Slack”, Select Clone

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