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):
It has been quite some time since my last post–having a new baby definitely limits your free time! Anyway, on with the post.
It looks like it is time for winter dormancy for the plants again. The Dionaea are definitely looking less active with slower growth and more dead leaves. Strangely, a couple of them started to put up flower stalks, which I quickly removed.
The traps of my Sarracenia have started to die back, with little new growth, but the Drosera are still looking fine as expected, though they are definitely growing more slowly than before.
Here is a picture of the bog as of this morning (11/30/2006):
I have had a Cephalotus for a year or so now, and it is finally getting some purple color to the pitchers. Last summer the pitchers stayed green the whole time.
Perhaps this is because the plant is a year older–not really sure. I’ll post some pictures as soon as I have a chance.
With the exception of one Dionaea (as mentioned here), all the plants that I put in the minibog appear to be doing well now. Several of the Dionaea died back significantly due to transplant shock, but are now sending up new growth.
All the Drosera capensis appear to be very happy. All are blooming and sending up dew-covered leaves. However, all of them appear to be sending out shorter leaves than they did prior to the transplant.
I have a Sarracenia rubra that I am thinking about adding to the bog, but I worry that the S. rubra along with my S. x ‘Dixie Lace’ might crowd out the other plants in my bog.
I need to stop going to Orchard Supply. I was there yesterday buying some paint and ended up in front of the flytrap display again. Needless to say, a couple more flytraps came home with me. I’m starting to think about setting up a VFT only minibog at some point during winter dormancy.
