I have plants!

[JennB]

A generous member of the forum (I don't know if they want their name known or not but you know who you are and thank you again!!) took pity on my plantless noob state and gifted me with some hardy starters which arrived yesterday. So I'm still a noob but now I'm a noob with plants! I've got Utricularia sandersonii, Pinguicula, Nepenthes albomarginata, and Drosera capensis babies (and I'm about as proud and nervous as any new parent lol). I'll have to get pics asap.

I've already narrowly missed two disasters! The ping arrived nestled down in some moss in a little cup so I figured it might be less stressful to let it stay in there for awhile but my supplier assured me it should be potted. Even worse, my husband brought home what he thought I would need to pot them, peat/sphag mix, sand, and perlite, so I went ahead and tossed a handful of perlite into my mix. Thank goodness the packaging caught my eye before it was too late because in smaller print under the name it said it had Miracle Gro in it That batch got dumped out with a quickness!

Now it's just a matter of tweaking their conditions till they're as happy as can be! I'm open to hearing any and all suggestions. I can't wait till I'm the one sending plants to some anxious but excited newcomer to the cp obsession

 

[jimscott]

Gotta start somewhere! Welcome to the hobby!

 

[dionae]

Congratulations!!!

 

[MICKEY]

welcome to the hobby

 

[DJ57]

Hey Jenn, that is great! Gotta watch that Miricle Gro stuff. I have not forgotten you, watch your collection grow come spring :grin:

 

[mato]

The curse has befallen you...

Good growing!

 

[tommyr]

YAY! Welcome to the addiction!

 

[UnstuckinTime]

Once you're bitten, there is no cure.


Welcome! Keep us updated on how your starter kit grows!

 

[mass]

It's alive.. ALIVE!!

Glad you like everything dear. If you ever need anything.. plants, advice, tips, ect. I'm here to help.

I must've forgotten to label the pings. They are P. gracilis x moctezumae. Now.. let's see a grow list! Final step of your initiation.

 

[lance]

Congrats! I just barely missed the miracle grow label on my perlite. Hope they do well!

 

[JennB]

Thanks everyone. I'll definitely keep yakkin about how the lil darlings are doing along the way. Their first full day here and they seem to be doing fine but that just means that none of them are shriveling up, turning funny colors, falling apart, or anything like that The only one I really expect to see a definite sign from sometime soonish is the sundew. If all is well about when should I expect to see dew drops on it?

I know you won't forget me, DJ, and I have every faith that in the Spring I'll adore anything you send my way just as much as I do these!

And yes, now that he's come out, you did forget to label the pings but I figured I'd get it from you one of these days soon. I really do appreciate the plants and the offer to hold my noob hand till I get the hang of things. I solemnly swear I shall start a grow list!

 

[Peatmoss]

Congrats! Sounds like a good starter kit.

You should expect to see dew from capensis in 2-3 weeks when it makes new leaves.

 

[JennB]

Aaahhh excellent, I'll watch for that. I study them in minute detail several times a day as it is but now I won't freak out and think it's dying for at least 2-3 weeks. Thanks Peat!!

 

[Peatmoss]

Capensis is practically unkillable. I once covered one that had aphids in a soap/tapwater solution then drenched it with isopropol alcohol and it still survived...

It may even come back faster than that, most of my capensis are seedgrown so I don't really know.

 

[JennB]

I made a grow list earlier so time for an update!

1 - The D. capensis is indeed doing great it seems! It's busy growing several new little stems with a curl at the end of each that look nice and healthy.

2 - U. sandersonii doesn't really look like it's changed much one way or the other. I'd like to see some positive signs of growth but I'm happy that I don't see any signs of problems either!

3 - P. gracilis x moctezumae I'm still trying to find the ideal placement and conditions I think. I've been putting it outside full time except for 2 nights now that I was worried the temps might dip too low for it and brought it indoors. I just don't think it's been consistently cool enough for it to change over to it's succulent leaved state. I'm a little concerned about it's water too. I know you said not to water it at all, mass, but I did sprinkle just 5 little drops onto it today It's already gone so bone dry at the soil surface and one of the leaves looks like it may be barely starting to brown it worried me.

4 - N. albomarginata is giving me the most fits so far. It looked like the leaves were starting to curl up on themselves so I pumped up it's humidity with the old cut-a-soda-bottle-in-2-to-make-a-tiny-individual-terrarium-out-of-it trick. It did seem to stop the curling up but now the leaves are starting to go brown! Should I just take a deep breath and wait it out?

 

[mass]

Are you getting the actual ping itself wet? If so, you don't want that. They rot out rather easily.

As long as the growth point on the nep looks okay, you're still good. The old leaves are expected to die off during a rough acclimation. But the new growth will come out nice and happy, as it's acclimated to the current conditions.

 

[jimscott]

I can supply you with more pings....

 

[JennB]

Sorry it took me so long to reply but everything seemed to break down at my house all at the same time, had Christmas going on, and frantically trying to get ready to take in two ponies that are going to become homeless mid-January One of the things that's suddenly not working is my husband's really fancy camera, of course, so I really apologize in advance, I had to take these with a crappy JVC video camera

 

[mass]

the dews ~ are getting there. I can see they're acclimated to REAL light again. Won't be too long before they're dewy and gorgeous. Just takes some time..

the nep ~ was expected. The old growth is going to turn ugly.. but the new upcoming growth will be nicely acclimated to your conditions. Should take off in no time.

the pings ~ look great. Don't change a thing.

the utric ~ WET WET WET!! Keep that thing friggin soggy. It'll love you for it.

All in all everything looks good. WELCOME TO THE COOL CLUB!!

 

[JennB]

I wanted to hurry up, get the pics on, and tell you in chat they were up so you could critique them for me before I said anything, mass Yes, the small area on the pings that I thought was turning kinda brown just sort of went away so it must've been my over anxious mind workin me on that one! The drosera you can see several places where new leaves are going to unfurl so as long as it's growing I figure it's ok. The tips of some of the old leaves browned up almost within a day so I thought they may be getting a bit TOO much sun (it's been VERY warm and sunny here!) but I pulled em back inside to my sunny window and that seemed to stop the browning tips. The utric looks fairly beat up to me but the good leaves look ok and are staying ok so I figure they'll pop back in time. Yes, I need to keep them wetter but it seems like I've poured a gallon of distilled water on them already so my old mindset of "don't over water" was starting to make me nervous! lol I'll dump another gallon on em tomorrow I'm still concerned about that nep but I won't give up on it, I trust ya that it will come back for me.