Super Duper!

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There’s a new anthocyanin free Sarracenia in the collection. Sarracenia purpurea f. luteola ‘Super-duper’! A huge thank you to Bob Ziemer for this fantastic plant. This is an incredible large growing luteola. The official cultivar description can be found here: https://cpn.carnivorousplants.org/articles/CPNv49n3p139_142.pdf

Upon opening the box, I was shocked by the impressive size of the plant. The other luteolas that I grow have not gotten anywhere close to this size. The last photo below the gallery shows a size comparison between the freshly potted S. purpurea f. luteola ‘Super-duper’ and another pot of a typical S. purpurea f. luteola. It is winter so things are dormant and I’ve already cut some pitchers back on the typical one. The plants will appear more full and larger once the growing season is in effect. That should be quite a sight to see! One of the divisions I potted up in a 2 gallon pot to give it room to grow, but it already looks like I might need a larger pot. Another division that was sent has a bud forming! If possible, I’m hoping to work with it this upcoming season. Thanks again for hooking it up, Bob!

Size comparison: Freshly potted Sarracenia purpurea f. luteola ‘Super-duper’ with a 4 in pot of typical S. purpurea f. luteola in the middle.

2022: First Flower

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2022: First Flower
S. purpurea montana x flava var. ornata – lidless

The first flower of 2022 goes to an interesting plant that resulted from 2016 cross I did: S. purpurea montana x flava var. ornata – lidless. This is the first bloom from anything of this batch. For the winter season this, along with a few others plants, have been under lights which has helped push some growth along. Outdoors is a different story; plants out there are still dormant and covered in frost most mornings. Those blooms will follow closer to April/May.

Since no other flowers are available at this time, I selfed this flower. When I didn’t see any lidless plants from the initial cross, I figured it could be a recessive characteristic. The subsequent crosses from this set of plants are ones I have my sights on. By self pollinating this flower, I’m anticipating it will unlock that lidlessness in some of the next generation. One can hope, right? Shorter/stocky lidless plants maybe? Is this approaching heliamphora-esque territory now? Who knows. It’s certainly interesting to think about what those could look like.

Even with the unknown lidless potential, I thoroughly enjoy these plants. They’re interesting and have a great shape and vein pattern about them. Some of the plants that came out of the S. purpurea montana x flava var. ornata lidless cross can be seen here and here.

Sarracenia moorei – ERT Select Clone

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Early last year, fellow Sarraceniaphile and friend Mike Wang sent me a small division of a really nice moorei with an outstanding prominent throat splotch. It is rather a recent addition to the garden, but so far I am really enjoying how it is turning out. Looking forward to seeing this at full maturity. Photos from Jul 2021.

Purps

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S. purpurea are pretty neat Sarracenia. I admit, I was not such a fan of them starting out but they’ve slowly started to take a hold. I am a fan of their compact growth habit and overall pitcher form. There is a wide range of color and forms to be found within the S. purpurea group. From the deep dark reds, to the very porcelain like veinless ones. Some are smooth to the touch while others are fuzzy. They can withstand the PNW winters and look pretty cool (literally) with a touch of frost. (A few photos below.) Most of the pitchers from last season have burnt out, but there are a few decent ones still lingering. Below are a few snapshots of different S. purpurea forms. (Click on photos to enlarge.) Photos from Jan 2022.

A Bowl of Contrast

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Bowl. June 2021.

Sarracenia have such a wide range of form and hues. One particular set of Sarracenia I am very drawn to are the AF (anthocyanin free) types. Anthocyanin (that red pigment) is absent in these plants. They may not be as flashy as some of their more colorful counterparts, but they do have a certain aura about them. Without the competing hues, I start to pay attention to other nuances of the plant. Things like the form and structure start to stand out to me more. Plus, AF plants just glow!

A couple of years ago, I had potted up a bowl (barrel liner) with mostly AF Sarracenia. I threw in the upright types in the center. Those are plants such as the AF versions of S. moorei, S. leucophylla, S. flava. Then outside of that, I moved on with the more stocky types like S. mitchelliana and S. catesbaei to name a few. On the outskirts are the decumbent types: S. purpurea, S. psittacina, and S. courtii. For a splash of contrast, I added a couple plants that are rich in anthocyanin like S. ‘Royal Ruby’, S. “Chaos”, S. ‘Saurus’ as well as a couple of S. purpurea. The dichotomy of hues is quite intriguing. I like it! The photo above was taken in June and by the time autumn rolled around, those others turned a deep crimson. To finish it off, I threw in some live sphagnum as a top dressing. So far, it has filled in pretty nicely and I’m loving how this bowl has come together.

Happy New Year

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Happy New Year! 2022 is here! Wishing you all a wonderful year ahead filled with happiness and health!

Winter is here. It is cold and work outdoors tends to go on the back burner until things warm up. It is currently 28°F out and the high temp today will be 32°F. Yes. The high today will be freezing. I am not too fond of working with frozen peat and icy water troughs. I’ll opt to do some work indoors while things are chilly out. This includes catching up on various projects and finally getting to photos from the last season while waiting for things to thaw. (Stay tuned!) The snow and ice is still pretty scenic and I’m thankful for it.

Photos below are from a light snow event a few days ago. I am always amazed at the resilience of these fantastic plants being able to survive the cold.

All the best to you and yours. Happy New Year!

Seedling Spotlight: Lidless Moorei

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S. leucophylla ‘Bris’ x flava lidless giant

A very special seed recently germinated. It may not look like much now, but this is one that I’m pretty excited about. As some of you may know, I’m into strange and interesting looking plants. This recent sprout is no exception and is one that I’m really looking forward to watching develop. The parentage uses two lidless plants – S. leucophylla ‘Bris’ as the pod parent and the pollen parent is S. flava “lidless giant.” (Photos of the parents below.) This is the second successful pollination I’ve done using S. ‘Bris’ as a pod parent. In 2020 I successfully crossed the strange lidless leuco with S. flava var. ornata – lidless. That year there was only ONE seed in that pod. That one did germinate — but unfortunately that seedling died shortly after germination. It was due to my neglect though. Hashtag facepalm. I had left town for a few days and that seedling got cooked outdoors during a heat wave. Perfect timing, am I right? (GAWD so frustrating! DOH!) Lesson learned. This year I’m playing it safe growing these seeds under lights until they’re large enough to go outdoors. Only five seeds came out of this cross this year. As of 15 Dec 2021, three out of five have germinated. It is still very early but I’m glad that there was something that came out of that cross. Stay tuned, I’ll post updates on how they develop here.

Hope everyone out there is doing well. Stay safe, stay healthy. Happy growing!

Darlingtonia Basket

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Darlingtonia. In a basket. Hey – why not? I recently planted this basket up in the greenhouse as a test run. Will it work? Let’s find out. It has been a little over a week and the plants in the basket are still alive and throwing out some new growth. Encouraging, yes. But I need to observe long term effects. I decided to test out how they’d grow suspended in the greenhouse, being inspired by growing these plants in unconventional manners. (See previous post: Darlingtonia on the Rocks.) So far, the Darlingtonia on pumice has been growing well; I figure might as well take it a step further to test out established plants.

Honestly, it’s pretty interesting to see them growing alongside the Nepenthes, air plants, aroids and other tropicals. The round basket I am using is from Orchidmate. I like the look of the round/cylindrical type. Very nice.

First I placed a small jar filled with kanuma at the core of the basket. This jar acts as a water reservoir and the kanuma prevents the media from sinking into the jar. Next I backfilled the basket with a mix of sphagnum moss, perlite, and kanuma. I did not measure exact ratios. Instead, I kept a feel for an airy mix that can hold water (thanks, sphagnum) while being well draining – allowing air movement to the root zone. Next I threw in a handful of Darlingtonia and finished the basket off with a top dressing of live Sphagnum moss.

I’ll post an occasional update on this in the future. I plan on growing this in greenhouse conditions for a while to see what kind of growth (or non-growth?) will happen. Looking forward to seeing that sphagnum fill in and runners dangling all over the place.

Unboxing: Nepenthes Edition

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Some pitcher plants of the tropical flavor comin’ at ya! Decided to try something new and put together an unboxing video. I recently got a box from Roger (ig: @magknite) of some outrageously fantastic plants and figured, hey – why not?

I’ve been getting more into Nepenthes lately and thankful I have the opportunity to grow Neps again. These plants are really something else. Their shapes, forms, colors are ferociously beautiful. I’m grateful for all the amazing growers who have helped me in this botanical journey. (Seriously, y’all are awesome.)

Roger – thanks again! I’m really excited to grow these out. 😀🌱

Happy growing!

Darlingtonia on the Rocks

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Darlingtonia rock planting in the mist – July 2021.

Planting in rocks? Radness. I’ve planted rocks in the past, but with succulents. So … it was finally time for a carnivorous one. Sometime ago (maybe late 2019 or early 2020?) I planted a small Darlingtonia in a pumice rock. I had an extra rock (thanks Nina!) and Darlingtonia would be perfect for this. I’ve observed them growing in a similar manner in their natural habitat. (See previous Darlingtonia posts in the archives.) At the end of last season the one in the rock seemed to grow stronger than the potted ones growing in waterlogged peat. This rock planting (right) is grown year round outdoors – photo from Jun 2020.

I never had any major issues growing Darlingtonia in peat, but I’d still occasionally get one or two rot out on me for whatever reason. The one in the rock was looking good, so late last season I did this to the Darlingtonia collection. (Update on those plants later…)

I had some extra pieces of pumice laying around. Those bonsai rock plantings reminded me of trips out to Darlingtonia country and thought it would be a cool way to grow seedlings. I had some seedling darlingtonia and threw some on the rocks. I placed the rocks on a nice looking drainage dish and added a little gravel and sand at the bottom.

Next up, I threw in some Darlingtonia seedlings. There were some seedlings that were a product of crossing various red forms together. I wrapped the seedling roots in sphagnum moss and that was able to cling pretty easily to the crevices in the pumice rock. I then took some live sphagnum and used that as a live top-dressing. The Darlingtonia adjusted well to the planting. Perhaps growing them in greenhouse conditions was helpful for their transition and continued growth on rock. There are still a few Darlingtonia in their ant-eater looking stage. They’ll grow out of that soon and develop those forked tongue on later growth.

Some Drosophyllum seedlings eventually found their way to one of the rocks too. There were some spare baby Darlingtonia at the time so tried a couple out there. I don’t think they liked the sudden transplant and didn’t last too long. I’ll try again though because the only Drosophyllum I’ve been able to grow to a larger size from seed was planted on another pumice rock. Go figure. Photos below from Dec 2020.

Fast forward a few months and the mini Darlingtonia mountain ecosystem has been settling in nicely! Below are a few photos of how the set up is doing. I surrounded the display with a few ferns for that nice aesthetic touch. In their natural habitat, I recalled seeing native Adiantum ferns growing along with the Darlingtonia. I surrounded this planting with a type of Adiantum raddianum (I think ultragracillimum …er sumfin’?) and it gives the entire thing this really cool look. The rocks look like their rising out out a misty cloud of fern fronds. Very Shan shui esque. There’s even a few ferns sprouting from spore on the rocks. I top water this set up and the water collects in the round dish to be soaked up by the pumice. I really love how this set up is evolving.