Recent content by Beagle

Sarracenia are pigs. I notice the picture above shows the ?leucophylla? filled with love bugs. Love bugs are the little black bugs with orange heads that, eh, stick together for a while and die. That happens twice a year here in Florida. In the Spring and Summer I don't even look in the sars...

I don't know why that here in Florida, where a lowland nepenthes or hybrid has a fighting chance to survive outdoors for a couple years, I never find any for sale in regular nurseries. Most of the "tropical pitcher plant"(s) * I bought from Lowe's were ventrata (n. ventricosa x n. alata, I'm...

I grew mine in a plastic PFT terrarium with some other plants it didn't belong with.  I upped the light fairly soon by moving it to a new window.  It liked that.  I transplanted it into an aquarium with more appropriate neighbors.  Gave it even more light.  It liked that.  Said "the heck with...

I've been growing for over a year now and have noticed that ventrata seems to tolerate more abuse -- of every kind -- than any other nep.  I'm not trying to abuse them.  In Florida the humidity has gotten low (for us), it's gotten cold (for us), and it's baked the heck out of the plants (for...

I think all neps like a lot of humidity. Some will tolerate less. Others will tolerate a lot less. Some hybrids grow like ordinary plants in sub-tropical climates, tolerating much drier or colder conditions than a northiana will. Northiana will never be a porch plant, unless your porch is in a...

Cutting the plants back will often cause little growths from the woody looking parts of the plant.  Radical cutting back is a last resort, but one I get to more often than I'd like.   Notice how the stem where the growth is occurring is close to the medium?  I don't think that's a coincidence...

Well, after the "minor" frost damage on some ampullaria -- (Doh!, you guys tried to warn me) -- I'll be hoping for some cultivation miracles myself.  If the cuttings live I plan on growing them, not selling them.  When they take over my growing space, then... I'm dreaming. Anyway, the wind...

I guess our recent lows around 50 are NOT good. Drat! I do have the plants in their plastic growhouses now. I recommend those for people as one option for cover outside. My neps fit in them pretty well. I try to keep them just open enough to not bake in the sun during the day. As I move hedges...

As a relative newbie to neps just getting into my first dangerous period of potentially cold and dry weather, I just wanted to discuss light and "death" temps. Basically, what does too much look like? What does too little look like? What lows kill what neps? In other words, does it vary...

One thing I've noticed is that some of the top burned leaves on the Miranda would grow larger to protect the underneath leaves. The burned leaves often would grow large pitchers despite the damage. It seems pretty sun tolerant even if slightly injured. I would not leave any nep out in the open...

Miranda (N x Mixta, ?) grows LARGE. The pitchers get about a foot long. People that don't know what neps are always comment on the Miranda pitchers. I've got a couple in 16" hanging baskets on the porch. Mine looked a bit overwhelmed by the sun when I got them, red went to brown in some cases...

I'm not saying that people should not buy the big ventrata -- they are robust beautiful plants and reasonably priced out of mass TC. OTOH, those of us that got them before will be looking to unload a whole bunch of young TC plants for postage in the Spring. FYI. I can't throw the "babies" away...

Rescue is fairly easy here in swampy Central Florida. Put them outside for sun. Make sure they get plenty of rainwater. Sometimes they even catch stuff when they are outside. For spectacular famous carnivores, they sure aren't very good at it. One big ventrata pitcher will take out more bugs...

"Adaptive." I agree. Borneo's comments about insects outside for food made me think about how full all the pitchers get. I spend *zip* on nep or sarracenia food. Sarracenia of all types should be mandatory in Florida gardens. Sarracenia: It's The Law! I found the biggest fly twitching around in...

I noticed better results when our weather got amazingly humid for about three months. (60-100, mostly the higher end) I think the light was just right then also. It might be getting too low now. Time to go move the plants, after this post. Our humidity lows are down into the high 50s now, I...