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Cephalotus

C

cpwitch

Hi All,

I just ran across the cephalotus plant in a couple of books I got from the library on cp's. It's an awesome appearing plant, and was wondering how common they are. I have not seen any in local nurseries, nor do they seem to be available here at pft (?) or at a couple of other places I checked. I'm not ready for one now, as I want to make sure I can manage my other ones, but it is a plant I'd be interesed in finding in the future.

Anyone keep them and if so are they "easy" or "difficult" ones?

Thanks!

cpwitch
 
Hi Galen

Cephs are rather hard to find. They are slow growers and any plant like that is usually hard to find and expensive because of the slow propagation factor. Such is the case with these. You CAN find them at some nurseries but they are pricey. Every now and then you see one up for trade where someone propagated by cuttings. But they are in high demand. I don't think they are too hard to grow...you just have to have a lot of patience!
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Suzanne
 
Hi Cpwitch.  I had a similar experience with Cephalotus a year ago when i had newly rediscovered CPs.  They looked so cool, and i really wanted to have one.  I found one on Ebay for $8.50, but that's not likely to happen again.  The reason mine was so cheap is that it was fresh out of tissue culture - a little sub dime-sized clump of almost microscopic pitchers (i was SOOO disappointed) that probably shouldn't have been sold like that.  It has grown significantly but slowly since then, and you can see some photos of it if you do search for ceph on the NECPS web page photo album, as well as some photos of other VERY healthy and large cephs that aren't mine, unfortunately.
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They really aren't that demanding, but i have heard a lot of stories of them randomly declining and even dieing for no apparent reason.  Their light requirements are much more flexible than a VFTs (they can handle a lot less light than it requires).  If i didn't kill mine the first six months i had them, they can't be that hard to keep!
 
I sure hope you're right, Nathan! About them being fairly easy, I mean. I got my first cuttings of a Ceph about two weeks ago.
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With any luck, I'll have TWO in a couple more weeks....we'll see....

I HATE waiting....grrrr
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Hey Galen,

Cephs are overall pretty easy to grow. They're very tolerant of humidity changes. I often let my medium get completely dry - they don't care. I grow them next to pings and drosera.

One thing I've heard though is that they don't like to be disturbed. In my limited experience it isn't so much being uprooted et all, but more in light changes. I've noticed that my plant grows "faster" if I don't move it around the house and such.

They do grow painfully slow, especially when they're smaller. It's like a 3-5 year investment. This is a pic of one that is about 8 months old. In reality, it's 1" wide and comes from a natural division. Next year I hope it doubles or triples its size.

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Does anyone know if tissue culture with cephs makes a difference in growth rate? I know for vfts the growth varies depending on tc, natural division, seed, etc.
 
pm me and i'll give you some links to great places to get one at a reasonable price .
 
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