What's new
TerraForums Venus Flytrap, Nepenthes, Drosera and more talk

Register a free account today to become a member! Once signed in, you'll be able to participate on this site by adding your own topics and posts, as well as connect with other members through your own private inbox!

  • #22
Love your work. Those videos had me quite entertained while on lunch today. The suspense you feel when the bug is stomping around inside the flytrap is intense! haha
 
  • #23
Thank you! I try to keep it diverse with all different types of media and content.

The proper music can totally transform a video, couldn't do it without Kevin MacLeod's vast selection of royalty free music.

http://incompetech.com
 
Last edited:
  • #24
Yeah the music can really make or break it.
 
  • #25
About a month ago I received a root cutting of a D. 'Marston Dragon' that is now unfurling 5 leaves. Can't wait to see what this plant does in the next year.



The S. minor var. okefenokeensis (Ware Co, GA) (Unique seedling) continues to pump out new pitchers, about one every week or two. Hasn't shown any sign of slowing down for dormancy yet, and that's fine with me!



This jumping spider has taken up residence inside the top of one of the pitchers and has no problem catching food!



The Okee Giant also attracts other critters to the plants…like this grasshopper who was feasting on the nectar. I think this video does a great job showing the S. minor trap's light mechanism, dark in the front near the hood with bright light shining through the fenestrations at the back of the trap.


Here are some pictures of my S. x readei from May of this year as its first spring pitchers were just opening up. I'm still astonished by its growth this year. It has turned into a bush! The fall pitchers are opening up with a gorgeous magenta pink coloring and look amazing.

May 2014





Back when you could actually see the rhizome through the growth. (Note all the dead leaf stems that provided an excellent home for my mealybug infestation to take off…lesson learned.)



October 2014











And finally, a shot of a D. sessilifolia flower.

 
Last edited:
  • #26
woah, love your photos, keep em coming. love the S. x readei [not an accepted name]. the rhizome all look so healthy and fat ^_^
 
Last edited by a moderator:
  • #27
Thank you! It is definitely a fat rhizome. My plan for dormancy is to pull it up and break off any loose pieces while trying to keep the main part of it intact for repotting. I'm a little worried about what I'll find when I pull it up though. I'm hoping the middle of it hasn't decayed too badly, mealybug damage is also a concern. I've promised a division to two people already, but if I get an extra piece I will probably throw it up on here for a giveaway.

I had to do some emergency rearranging of my plants yesterday. We had some pretty high winds that knocked the Okee off the ledge 3' to the ground. I ended up grouping The Okee, S. leucophylla, S. minor, and S. flava together in a joint tray that is keeping them stable and moving some of the smaller plants to individual trays.

It also looks like the D. omissa x pulchella has some gemmae ready! I may try to plant those today along with the D. filiformis and D. intermedia seeds I have.

Still waiting for my S. x readei seed pods to crack open.
 
Last edited:
  • #28
You have a beautiful collection, very nice S. x readei [not an accepted name]. Love the video of the grasshooper.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
  • #29
Thanks DJ57!

Today was a Drosera project day.

Last June when I expanded my collection from my S. x readei I got a few D. capensis hitchhikers as well. Today I excavated one that came with my VFT and the one that was in my S. leucophylla and potted them in their own pots. I bought three Ecoform rice hull pots and used the middle pot for my D. capensis "wide" seeds I harvested from its flower stalk.

It's now a tray of D. capensis!







My D. omissa x pulchella put up a set of gemmae last week. I snagged this pot today, flipped the D. omissa x pulchella upside down and scraped about 50 gemmae onto the soil surface, there looks to be even more developing. Hopefully this pot is covered with little pygmy sundews in a few months! I'm a little concerned about rain throwing them out of the pot, if it starts to rain real hard I'll throw some saran wrap over the top.



Not the best quality peat moss…but it'll do. I spread out the gemmae after taking this picture so they wouldn't be quite so clumped together.



While continuing to battle the mealybugs in my S. x readei I spotted this jumping spider who has made a nest inside one of the pitcher tubes. He looked quite comfortable.



And finally a new overview picture. Sorry for the poor quality, I was losing light quickly.

Left to right:

S. x readei
Darlingtonia californica
Drosera capensis "wide"
D. muscipula "typical"
D. omissa x pulchella
D. 'Marston Dragon'
Quad tray holding D. binata, S. minor var. okefenokeensis, S. minor, S. leucophylla, and S. flava var. maxima x flava var. rugelii
New triple tray with two D. capensis and D. capensis "wide" seeds
S. x readei division and a D. sessilifolia
S. x moorei (Walton Co, FL) (From the Wilkerson's bog)
D. omissa x pulchella gemmae pot
S. x moorei (Walton Co, FL) (From the Wilkerson's bog)

 
Last edited:
  • #30
Time for a first day of winter update. Things are getting busy with repotting, sowing seeds, trading plants, and I'll be dividing my S. x readei soon.

It's beginning to look like Medusa with the pitchers starting to fall over.



I finally got my D. californica out of the dark green plastic pot it was in and into a lighter colored one. Should help keep the roots cool next year and it looks much nicer now as well.



I've enjoyed seeing my S. minor v. okefenokeensis darken up as the pitchers age. Getting a nice coppery color to the top of the traps.







The D. 'Marston Dragon' root cutting I received awhile ago has exploded in growth, though it hasn't produced any multi-forked leaves yet.



The VFT has stopped producing any new traps and is a nice tight clump right now.



A local nursery was having a 30% off sale on house plants and I picked up my first couple of "death cube" plants, a VFT and what appears to be a sorry looking D. spatulata. We'll see how they're doing in a few months.









Crazy to see how pitiful it looks next to my healthy VFT.



I traded some D. omissa x pulchella gemmae with TheCarnivoreGirl for a division of her S. flava var. cuprea. Doesn't look like much now but I'm sure it will put on a show in the spring.



My pot full of D. omissa x pulchella gemmae is looking great. Lots of little life everywhere.



Also seeing a lot of life from the pot of D. capensis "wide" seeds.



Speaking of seeds, I started stratification of 3 sets of Sarracenia seeds and two different Drosera.

S. (x readei) x self
S. (x moorei) x minor "red"
S. purpurea subsp. venosa var. montana x OP
D. intermedia
D. filiformis

I also have 5 new sets of seeds coming from hcarlton, looking forward to getting those started.

D. capensis 'Albino'
D. x tokaiensis
D. burmannii "pilliga red"
D. spatulata "white flower"
U. subulata

Finally, a wall of rain drops suspended around my old D. omissa x pulchella plants.

 
Last edited:
  • #31
I can't wait to see how my little S. flava var. cuprea will flourish in your care! :D
 
Last edited by a moderator:
  • #32
Thanks, and I'm looking forward to seeing your pictures of the D. omissa x pulchella in full bloom.

I may also be sending you another surprise in the next month, we'll see. ;)
 
  • #33
This has been a big week of potting, repotting, sowing seeds, and dividing. More work will be done tomorrow, but today I divided my big S. x readei.

I got 7 divisions out of it, many with multiple growth points, and a couple smaller ones. Even after taking the divisions the plant barely looks any smaller (which is a good thing.) After dividing it I moved it into a 15" pot from the 12" pot it was in. Should give it some room to grow for another year or two. I was quite disappointed to find some mealybugs at the root base. I was hoping that my doses of Orthene would've knocked them out, but nope. I killed the ones I did find, but I'm sure there are some more deeper inside the root ball and middle of the rhizome. I decided to keep the core of the plant intact for another year, I'll battle the mealybugs where I can. Next year I may have to break the whole plant apart to really clean it out which is a shame, I really like having one big mother rhizome. :-(

The new pot and the old.



What I started with.



LFS layer on the bottom to keep the peat moss from draining out of the hole.



After an hour of mixing and packing peat moss/sand, the pot was filled…and now weighs about 50 lbs. Oof.



Roots sticking out of the drainage hole in the old pot, time to move it to a bigger home!



Just a little root bound. The roots were lining the bottom and came back up the sides.



Fresh and delicious looking growth points.



6 of the 7 divisions I made. I got the 7th division by breaking a piece off the massive rhizome on the left.

A rhizome for TheCarnivoreGirl, YourRealMom, and Goodkoalie. One rhizome is being donated to Berkeley Horticultural to be added to their bog garden (quite an honor for me), one rhizome to giveaway here on TF (won by SubRosa), and one to give away on Sarracenia forums. The last rhizome (the big one on the left) I'm keeping for myself along with the little nub of a rhizome. :)



The mother plant all potted up in its new home.



Closeup of one of the divisions.



All 7 divisions bagged up before going to their new homes. The pitchers will get trimmed down before I ship them out.



I picked up a few sets of seeds from hcarlton that I sowed as well. I made two new triple tray sets, the red set contains three Drosera seeds and the white set my Utricularia.

From left to right.

D. spatulata "white flower"
D. burmannii "pilliga red"
D. x tokaiensis

The white triple tray set is for my Utricularia.

U. subulata on the left.
A pot full of U. bisquamata in the middle.
U. sandersonii will eventually reside in the right most pot, though it is empty right now.

The green pot at the end contains D. capensis 'Albino' seeds.



This week I won a division of S. alata var. nigrapupurea (a Mike Wang plant) and got it potted up.



Lastly, a quick update on the two death cube plants I picked up a a couple weeks ago. Both are showing a lot of red pigmentation now where there was none before.

VFT



The D. spatulata has had a pronounced change, it is MUCH more red now, but still has not produced any dew. Not terribly worried about the lack of dew as the sunlight hours are so few right now.

When I got it.



How it looks now.

 
Last edited:
  • #34
Beautiful. i love watching the repotting processes
 
  • #35
Thanks NemJones, I'm quite liking that picture of the root ball fresh out of the old pot myself. I'll have more pictures to post up tomorrow. I'll be turning the old 12" pot that the S. x readei was in into a small bog garden. Planning to put my S. flava, S. leucophylla, and S. minor in that pot along with a D. capensis and maybe some D. binata. I'll also be moving my Okee Giant into a ceramic pot.

I was looking forward to doing all the shuffling around and repotting, but now I'm looking forward to it being done. Can't imagine how much work people like Mike Wang, Rob Co, Jerry Addington, etc must put in to their collections.
 
Last edited:
  • #36
Did some more rearranging today.

I started off by repotting my S. minor var. okefenokeensis. I've had a jumping spider living in one of the pitchers for the last 3 months, unfortunately it was very loose at the rhizome and broke off when I was repotting it. Since I love seeing my little spider every day, I stuck the pitcher into the right edge of the pot.



I made my first little mini bog today using the pot that my S. x readei used to be in. I put a division of my S. x readii, S. flava var. rugelii x flava var. maxima, S. leucophylla, and S. minor in it.







While I was pulling plants up I got a good look at a set of U. bisquamata traps. Awesome little things! This was the first time I got to actually see an utric trap, very cool.



I also repotted my D. capensis, D. 'Marston Dragon', and D. binata.
 
Last edited:
  • #37
I'm awaiting the arrival of two more plants (S. 'Judith Hindle' and U. sandersonii) before I can call my dormancy time activities done. In the meantime here's a quick update.

I picked up some new plants in the last couple weeks.

- S. x excellens - (S. leucophylla "burgundy" x S. minor var. okefenokeensis) (pink clone) (Mike Wang)
- S. x excellens - (S. leucophylla "burgundy" x S. minor var. okefenokeensis) (green face) (Mike Wang)
- S. leucophylla (Baldwin Co, AL) (various clones) (Mike Wang)
- S. flava var. rubricorpora (Liberty Co, FL) (various clones) (Mike Wang)
- S. flava var. rubricorpora "agristats" x flava var. ornata (Phil Faulisi)











January is supposed to be our wettest month in CA but we haven't had a single drop of rain. It's also been in the 60s and 70s, not good for keeping the plants dormant and the first flower buds are starting to poke their heads out.

S. alata var. nigrapurpurea



My pot of D. omissa x pulchella is coming along nicely.





As are my D. capensis "wide" seedlings.



Plopped my VFT into a nicer looking pot. Still debating about whether I should divide it or not this year…





A couple weeks ago I trimmed off a pitcher from my S. x readei, slit it open, and let it dry out for a few days revealing the massacre inside.



A division of the S. x readei I made last summer is still showing great color, even while covered in spider webs.



I also moved my plants off the wall they were on for the time being so I can finish the fence in the backyard without risk of damaging my plants. When the fence is done I'll be making a communal planter of some kind. Watering this many plants individually is pretty annoying.



 
Last edited:
  • #38
All of it looks so good! I especially love that spider webby Sarracenia. Looks evil!

If you dont mind me asking, whered you get those square pots? I really need some.
 
  • #39
Thanks Sashoke!

All of the non-ceramic pots are Eco-form rice hull pots. I get them from my local nursery, but you can buy them direct from the manufacturer online.

http://ecoforms-store.com
 
  • #40
Oo I love your table, I think I'm going to copy both your water collecting system snd the set up of this table. Btw I couldn't stop looking at your plants and new acquired ones!!! Soooo pretty
 
Back
Top