Carnivorous Plant Update. 6.12.2021

These aare the hardy, perennial carnivores, pitcher plants and a Venus flytrap. They live in 50:50 mix of perlite and peat moss, with the pots in about an inch of water all of the time. I change the water daily or every other day to eliminate mosquitoes. This has worked nicely for several years, and grown out of two sets of repotting. So Imrepotted them yesterday. This is the most the pitcher plants (Sarracenia) have bloomed. Very lovely and unique flowers.

The plant in the top photo was a seedling that germinated in a container of Nepenthes.   I potted it up on its own, now three years old.  The others are all commercial hybrids (Sarracenia NW).  
 

Sarracenia in bloom. 5.21.2021

 The others are starting to bloom too.  These get rainwater from the wellhouse roof.  Seems to work well.

Sarracenia Flower Buds. 5.10.2021

 This is by far the mpst flower buds these have produced for me,  Their full bloom will be great.

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.

Sarracenias. 5.11.19

The Sarracenias are coming to life.  The yellw flower is on "Extreme Green".  5.11.19

Sarracenias Waking Up. 5.1.19

Sarracenia "Extreme Green" flower bud.  5.1.19

Sarracenia "Tarnok" flower bud.  5.1.19

The two American hardy pitcher plants with flower buds, are gradually starting to grow.  It's warm enough now that I replenish the water basins daily.

This will be the first time I see them develop flowers in my own yard.

I think all of the others survived the winter.  Some are awakening faster than others.

Plant source - carnivorousplants.com

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.

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.

Carnivorous Plant Progress Report. 4.21.18

Pitcher Plants (Sarracenia) Starting to Grow.  4.21.18

Various Carnivorous Plants Starting to Grow.  4.21.18

Here's a progress report on the carnivorous plants that I bought in February.  Even though they require a different mindset, compared to most other plants, they seem to be taking off.  Each plant is growing at its own rate.

The main points that I have learned so far, are that these carnivorous plants want wet feet at all times.  So I'm keeping them in trays of about one inch of water.  The water can't be high mineral, so I'm using rainwater.  The need to be outdoors if possible, so they are.  They do not like being fertilized, so I'm not.  My source, and much more complete instructions for the beginner, are found here.  The author is my friend Jacob Farin.

An aside, I wrote a blog post on my learning-about-carnivorous-plants blog, regarding the neurotoxins that some American Pitcher Plants (Sarracenia) produce in tiny amounts.  The toxin is coniine, which is also found in poison hemlock
and which was what Socrates famously drank when sentenced to death in ancient Greece.  It's thought that Saracenia produce the substance to either attract or stun insects in its pitchers, so they die and decompose to provide the plant's nutrition.

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.