Indoor plant collection [56k warning]

[vraev]

Hi guys,

I know its been quite a while since I did a photo shoot update of my plants. I have been telling myself that I will not post any pics until either my talangensis pitchers or my rajah pitchers. Well only one of those has happened, so here it is. Hope you enjoy them
TYPICAL FLYTRAPS

DROSERA x LAKEBADGERUP

CEPHALOTUS FOLLICULARIS

Note: All thanks to my buddy Av8tor1 [Butch] for the help in growing my ceph to what it is today.
DARlINGTONIA CALIfORNICA | NEPENTHES BICALCARATA

NEPENTHES MIRA | NEPENTHES RAMISPINA

Note: That ramispina small pitcher is dead and was fine for 8 months. Look at the size improvement.

And now:

NEPENTHES RAJAH

Note: Thanks very very very much to Robert Cantley for providing the plant as well as vital feedback and help which helped me cross the barrier. After 8 months...finally!! Also thanks to David Wong for the help and feedback that he provided in helping me with this baby.

thanks for watching,

Varun

 

[DerbyCityNeps]

OMG!!! THE DAY HAS COME!!!

great job dude! its all uphill from here!!

Alex

 

[vraev]

why is it uphill from here? lol

thanx,

V

 

[CPlantaholic]

great pics. your pygmies look great. Where did you get that bicalcarata? I can't seem to find that plant ANYWHERE.

 

[DerbyCityNeps]

uphill because you finally past probably the biggest obstacle for N. rajah. keep the condiditions the same and it wont stop pitchering!

what did you change as far as conditions go?

Alex

 

[vraev]

nothing changed actually. Rob and many other rajah growers whom I talked to told me to just be patient and wait for the plant to settle in. As they said...it has taken 8 months (2 months of acclaimatisation + 6 months) to make this pitcher. However, currently the plant is facing a nutrition deficiency as its fading away a few leaves as it makes this pitcher. Its basically recycling the nutrients. I am waiting for it to finish opening so that I can feed the baby.

@Cplantaholic,

Thanks! The bical was from a local friend in canada [David Wong]. I bought it from him around may last yr. The same time when I got the rajah and ramispina.

 

[Borneo]

Amazing colours in those photos Varun! Congrats on the N. rajah pitcher at last. After you feed the pitcher you will be able to eliminate nutrient deficinecy as a cause if you continue to have problems, but I really think you've got the problem cracked.

I was going to e-mail you about N. talangensis and then decided to post it here instead as it might be interesting to other growers.

After you mentioned the difficulties you are having getting N. talangensis to pitcher I checked the stock area in our highland nursery. There are many healthy plants there which are flowering and setting seed and all sorts but very few pitchers on the larger plants. On juvenile plants, many pitchers but as they get larger, there is usually only a single good pitcher or often none at all. I hadn't noticed this before (we usually ship relatively small plants with many pitchers) and wonder if we're both doing the same thing wrong or it's a characteristic of the species as it matures.

I have s low internet connection where I am right now and no access to photos of wild plants on this machine to check to see if the same thing occurs in habitat. The plants we have remind me of N. sibuyanensis, with healthy leathery tough leaves and tendrils that look as if they are still thinking of producing pitchers but the last pitcher is about 6-10 leaves ago.

I didn't have a camera with me when I was in that nursery but will take some photos when I go back there next week.

So, just maybe, you aren't doing anything wrong, or maybe we're both doing the same thing wrong I wonder what others' experiences are?

 

[Av8tor1]

Stunning pics Varun,

Man, what a change since last fall... your plants are looking excellent, very well done mate!!

The pics are beautiful, great color and sharpness... what camera did you use?

Outstanding V..
Av

 

[vraev]

Thanks Rob & Av. It means a lot coming from growers of your caliber.

Wow! Thanks for taking the time to check the talang's Rob. hmm.....interesting observation on the pitcher number. I also noticed something similar on Av's plant.....the pitcher forms on a leaf that is like 4 leaves before the growth point. Yeah! I understand what you mean about something we might be doing wrong as here is a pic from another friend of mine who has this talang that is pitchering on every leaf.

this plant has been grown by Andreas Eils from germany.

Yes! You are exactly right....the tendrils are sitting there in the moss as if they might still blow up suddenly. Thanks for the input & for taking the time to check Rob. Glad to see ya join in the topic here.


Thanks B! Its my same old Canon powershot A95. Basically I just changed the photo setting to VIVID from neutral and fooled around with the pics in photoshop to enhance contrast and tones a bit. Then used some manual blurring and sharpening to get some extra detail in the high res 2400 pix shot and then downsampled it.

cheers,

V

 

[Fryster]

Great pics V!!

I have the same camera.

That "vivid" setting is pretty cool, isn't it??

 

[vraev]

Thanks! yup dude! The camera sure has a lot of potential for a point and shoot. The macro dept obviously leaves a lot to desire...but it still gives pretty decent pics to play around with.

 

[obregon562]

Great pics man! gorgeous! The VFTs are amazinf in color! I hope they stay that way as they age!

CPaholic-i have a big bical up for trade right now...

 

[vraev]

Thanks dude.

 

[jimscott]

So vivid are the colours!

 

[Fryster]

Vivid the colors are!

 

[Av8tor1]

Wow! Thanks for taking the time to check the talang's Rob. hmm.....interesting observation on the pitcher number. I also noticed something similar on Av's plant.....the pitcher forms on a leaf that is like 4 leaves before the growth point.

V

errr Varun, that has changed LOL... the immature pitcher forming on the left side is second from the growth point... and for whatever reason, she is now starting to pitcher like crazy...

dont ask me, I dunno...

 

[vraev]

lol! thanks guys. Glad that you like the pics. I did have to take like a 100 shots overall and then select these from those. The reason being I needed to use as much light coming in from the lens as possible as I didn't want to use a flash. But that means the camera needs to be still. But most shots can be only made by hand as the stand isn't that adjustable. That means I needed to take like 15 shots to find maybe 1 that has no blurriness to it. But I guess the result is infact worth it in the end.

hmm....wow Av. thats looking fantastic. yeah...yours is on a roll. I guess I still need to figure this plant out.

 

[Borneo]

That is one absolutely beautiful N. talangensis!!! Thatnks for showing. Much better than any I've ever grown. But now you've got me all worked up. I'll start experimenting with conditions to see where it's going wrong. Strange since other species right next to our N. talangensis pitcer perfectly well, including N. talangenisis hybrids but not the N. talangensis themselves. We've got many clones from seeds, so it's not a genetic trait peculiar to our plants, so we're just plain doing somethiing not quite right...

 

[vraev]

yeah Rob! Andreas has a truly amazing plant collection himself. Yeah! fantastic talangs being grown by himself and Butch over here. All I can understand is that my light conditions are still low and maybe the temps aren't as constant as the ones that Butch has.

 

[wasted]

Hi Vraev..
Congrats mate..

Just dropped by to see your plants!

Party time for the rajah at last? i'll have a pint for you mate!