Carnivorous Plants. 10.30.2020

 These are some of the Sarracenias.  This summer, with illness and hospitalization and catching up, they didn't get trimmed or repotted.  Even so, some still look pretty good.  This winter, I can work on them to clean them up and pot into larger containers with fresh growing medium.

Nepenthes, Growing Fast! 4.28.19

Nepenthes sanguinea

Nepenthes thorellii x aristollochioides

So far the tropical insect eating pitcher plants (Nepenthes) are growing very nicely.  The leaves are waxy and thick, like philodendrons or ficus.  I wondered if the would make pitchers in this location - bright sunroom, getting fairly warm - 80s during the day - but so far, so good.  Growth seems fast.

These are in full sun.  I'm watering daily, 1/8 teaspoon of general purpose miracle grow per 1/2 gallon of rain water.  I let the water run through the pot, catching it in a bucket under the hanging plants.  Environment is the same as my tomato and pepper and sweet potato starts.

Source of plants, growcarnivorousplants.com

Nepenthes x "St. Mercury"

Nepenthes x "Deroose alata"

Carnivorous Plant Updates. 4.23.19

Nepenthes sanginea.  4.23.19

These are some of the carnivorous plants now. The first are the tropicals, which are in my sunroom. I only have Nepenthes, which is a large genus with many types. This Nepenthes sanguinea just opened one of its new pitches. Very rewarding. It has a nice coloration, red tones on green, inside and out.

Nepenthes sanginea.  4.23.19

Emerging Pitchers and Flower Bud on Sarracenia "Extreme Green".  4.23.19

The hardy, American carnivorous plants are just starting to come out of dormancy, with some new leaves (pitchers) starting to grow on some, although most are still in deep dormancy.  Two have flower buds, growing before or with the pitches.  One is Sarracenia X "Extreme Green", and the other is Sarracenia Tarnok. 

Emerging Flower Stalk on Sarraenia "Tarnok".  4..23.19

Emerging Traps on Venus Flytrap.  4.23.19

The Venus Flytrap is also emerging from dormancy, with some new traps.  I wonder if I should repot it (and some of the Sarracenias) soon.

Nepenthes, Tropical Carnivorous Plants. 4.7.19

Here are a coupleof the Nepenthes that I bought this winter.  The small pitchered one was in my LED plant set-up until last week.  The other has been in my sunroom since buying it.  Since they are vines, I have them hanging from the overhead window struts. On the larger plant, the initial pitchers died after the move - stress from a new home.  The small pitchered plant actually had new ones growing from the outset.

I'll try to remember to add their names later.  So far, I'm more than pleased with these fun plants.

I think the larger pitchered plants will grow much larger pitchers.  It's fun to watch as they develop.

These were from Sarracenia Northwest.

Nepenthes. 1.22.18

 I can't take credit for these tropical Nepenthes.
They came from growcarnivorousplants.com.  The are very different from American pitcher plants, which stay outside.  I never know if something will grow in my hands, but these will be very interesting.

I hope they grow and flourish.  Right now, most of them are in the sunroom.  The temperatures there vary a lot, nights in the 50s and days into the mid 70s.  In the summer, it's much warmer and they'll have to go outside.

Pruning Sarracenias in Petaluma. 1.5.18

Among unpruned Sarracenia.  1.5.18

Midway Through Pruning.  1.5.18

Last weekend I accompanied my friend Jacob, of Sarracenia Northwest, to the nursery of one of his suppliers, Lois Van Ochs in Petaluma, California, to help with cleanup of her nursery stock.  The Sarracenia plants needed to have the pitchers from last year's growth pruned off, and general tidying. 

It was a lot of fun, and the plants are now ready for good growth in 2019.

After returning, I gave my own Sarracenia plants a nice haircut too.  I think this year, I'll come up with a better display for them on the front deck.

Carnivorous Plant. Sarracenia "Judith Hindle" Pitcher Plant. 11.1.18

This is one of the carnivorous plants I started growing late winter this year.  Growth has been excellent.  Beautiful form and color.  The cultivar is Sarracenia "Judith Hindle"

I'm happy with it as is but I'm interested to see if it will bloom next year.

This was much easier to grow than I anticipated.  I kept it in a dish of water, about an inch of water, all summer.  There might have been 2 or 3 occasions when it dried out, which did not appear to set it back too much. 

I used rain water, which we collect in a rain barrel from roof runoff.  I did give a small amout of miracle gro, 1/4 strength, in the pitchers.  I don't know if that did anything.

Carnivorous Plant Update. 10.15.18

These are the carnivorous plants that I posted on this Spring.  They were looking much better in June, pictured here.  I think that means they are soon going into dormancy.  Since they grew quite a lot this year, I think some of them will bloom next year.

This is my first time growing them, so it's hard to know what to expect.  . 

Sarracenia purpurea (NoID).  10.15.18

Several have sword-shaped leaves lacking pitchers, called "phyllodia."  Those leaves are able to provide nutrition during the winter, when insects are not available.

Sarracenia oreophyla.  10.15.18

Sarracenia flava X mitchelliana hybrid 10.15.18

I kept these in casserole dishes that I had bought at Goodwill.  They might look better in something else.  I will look around.  I generally tried to keep an inch of water in each dish.  On occasion, not many times, they evaporated dry.  However, the growth medium did not dry out.

In mid summer, I transplanted the two largest plants (S. oreophyla and S. "Extreme Green"), using sphagnum moss / perlite 50:50 as the growth medium.  I would have used peat moss, but could not find any that did not contain additives.  When I transplanted those, I added 5 pearls of Osmocote as fertilizer.  This is not original with me, but rather came from some web forums.  Regrettably, I did not write down the source.

Not pictured, the Venus Flytrap grew nicely.

The Drosera also grew nicely.  There were also volunteer Drosera in other plants.

Overall this is a fun experiment.  It's been about 6 months since I read the guidebook so I want to do that again now.  Like many orchids, these plants are not difficult to grow, but they do have their own particular needs and I am new to growing them.  The book is The Ultimate Carnivorous Plant Guide by Jacob Farin.

Sundew.  10.15.18

I may post more about these later.  This update is here because fall is coming fast, and I didn't want to miss this progress report.

It's possible that either the transplanting during hot summer, or the Osmocoat pellets, contributed to either some of the leaf burning, or production of  phyllodia, or both.

Edit 10.16.18:  I did read through the Carnivorous Plant Guide again.  IT takes a few times to absorb the information.  The drying leaves look typical for this time of year, so I'm not worried.  Repotting time will be in March.  I do think I should look for shallower trays, so the water level will be a little lower, especially for the smaller plants.

These are in a location that has full sun from late am through the rest of the day.  I don't think it's the 10 hours recommended.  Next year, I can move them to a different spot.  That will mean some risk for deer damage, but it's worth a try.  I can move a couple there, to see what happens, before going all out.

Sarracenia "Extreme Green" and a NoID Venus Flytrap ( Dionaea muscipula)

Carnivorous Plants. 6.4.18

Venus Flytrap

 Here are selections from my carnivorous plant collection.  It's a modest collection.  I'm a beginner.

The Venus Flytrap is highly magnified.  It's only a couple of inches across. 

They've all been catching flies and yellow jackets.

I've been following Jacob's instructions, in his ebook.  so far, with these plants, that means mainly they re in a shallow container with about an inch of low mineral (rain) water, and are in full sun, on the deck.

Sarracenia purpurea, I think.  It was unlabeled.

A Sarracenia hybrid.

 At this point, these are mostly fairly small plants.  I expect that as time passes, they will grow larger.  As perennials, they should increase in size each year. 

More Sarracenia hybrids.

The large one is Sarracenia oreophilia, I think.

Venus Flytrap. Cool Stuff.

This is an experiment to see if I can embed videos.  This one is from Youtube, not something I filmed or grew.  It shows a Venus Flytrap eating a fly.  These plants have their own kind of nerve-like responses, and grab their prey after a specific number of movements.  I couldn't figure out how to embed this even cooler video from NY times, but here is a link.  Scienceline describes how the plants create electrical impulses from their trigger hairs, that serve as mechanosensors, back to the mechanical energy to snap shut around their prey.  The scienceline link also shows a Venus flytrap catching a small frog.

Inspired by my friend Jacob Farin at the carnivorous plant nursery, Sarracenia NW, I've started a new carnivorous plant blog "Beautiful Carnivorous Plants" also on the blogspot platform.

Carnivorous Plants. 3.9.18

I decided to try a few carnivorous plants.  I don't know anything about them.  I bought via mail order, 3 pitcher plants (Sarracenia hybrids) and one Venus Flytrap.  Based on the nursery information, these can be grown entirely outdoors in this Western WA climate.  These plants require bog-like conditions, so are grown in containers in a peat moss based mix, half submerged in rain water or distilled water - not tap water or well water, which are too high in minerals.  We'll see if they survive or grow.  These are tiny, in 4 inch pots now.  They should grow quite a bit larger, I think

The old book print is what the pitcher plants should look like when they mature.  I use old vintage images because the copyright should be expired.  If someone thinks otherwise, please let me know.

The Venus Flytraps (Dionaea muscipula) seem smaller.   I couldn't find a good public domain print so that will have to wait until it grows, for a better photo.