We have several birch trees which produce copious quantities of seeds. Because of where my bog and outdoor cp’s are located, the seeds end up trapped in the space around the front porch. The wind causes them to swirl around and many of the end up in my cp pots!
I just spent 20 minutes the other day removing small sprouts from my pots with a set of tweezers.
As it turns out, the VFT that I thought had gone to that great bog in the sky has come back to life. After the near-death experience, it started to send up new leaves and now seems happy, though smaller than it was before.
I am happy to report that several adult pitchers have started growing from my Cephalotus. Last year, I got two adult pitchers. This year it looks like I should have four at least. I will post some pictures a little later on.
Other exciting news: Peter D’Amato, author of The Savage Garden (and proprietor of California Carnivores) is giving a presentation at a nearby Sloat Garden Center tonight. I will be attending with my friend and co-cp enthusiast Davemo.
If I get a chance, I will take some pictures of the event.
I also may pick up some new plants…
Well, it looks like one of my Dionaea did not made it through dormancy. It started growing, and even sent up a flower stalk (which I quickly clipped off) but now I see no new leaves coming up at all. Looks like bad news. I guess I will have to purchase a replacement (or two)! 
Spring is the worst time of year for me as far as water issues go.
During the late fall and winter, the plants don’t need much water.
During the summer, my air conditioner supplies all the water I need–I capture the water that comes out of the condenser pump.
But during the spring, we get a lot of fog and wind. Although the AC doesn’t produce much water, the plants need a lot of water due to evaporation. This means that I have to buy several gallons of distilled water per week.
I sometimes think about getting a reverse-osmosis unit, but I don’t think that the cost is justified as of yet…
As I mentioned in the previous post, I recently purchased two new Sarracenia from Lowes. I still don’t know what they are, but I finally got around to taking some pictures. Here are some pictures of the whole plants:
And here is a closeup of one of the new pitchers:
If anyone knows what this is, please let me know.
My first Nepenthes ventricosa has sent up two basal shoots over the years since I purchased it. Now the Nepenthes ventricosa hybrid that I purchased at Lowes has started sending up its first basal shoot. Here is a closeup that I just took this afternoon.
I will post some additional pictures as the shoot develops.
I just realized that this is my first blog entry in something like six months. Life has been very busy lately so I have not had much time to spare here.
Anyway, I just bought a couple of new plants a week or so ago from my local Lowe’s. They are some kind of Sarracenia, but I don’t know the species yet. They were marked as S. purpurea, but this they clearly are not.
I am no expert at identifying Sarracenia, but I will try my best.
I will try to post some pictures some time in the next few days. If I can’t figure out what they are, I may post a link to the pics on one of the cp forums.
Spring has arrived. The plants in the minibog stir. New leaves begin to appear. Blah, blah, blah.
Anyway, the plants in my minibog have started to come out of dormancy. The VFTs were first, followed by my Sarracenia. The Drosera don’t really go all the way dormant, but they are starting to grow more vigourously now.
Unfortunately, some kind of critter dug around in my bog during the winter and I lost several of my VFTs. A couple more seem to be coming back but don’t really look happy. Only time will tell…
My Cephalotus has produced a good sized pitcher (along with lots of smaller ones, of course). It developed too late in the year to get much purple color, but is much bigger than any that my plant has produced in the past.
Here are my latest photos (click for full-size image):
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