My first "real" bog planter :D (and some local mire Sphagnum shots :D)

[Cunka]

Okay, I know it's not much to look at atm, but it's mine and it's going to be pretty.



Also, I'm the best photographer in the world, I know.

But yeah, as I mentioned in another thread, I decided to green up my place a bit and Sarracenias are some of my favorite plants ever, just because of how they're pretty and insanely hardy they are. I used to have two rectangular planters with some no-ids years ago but they've since gone the way of the dodo. Let's hope things go down differently this time around.

Here it it last week after it's newest addition: a Sarracenia purpurea ssp venosa. A bit on the pale side, but the veins are showing and I'm sure it'll color up nicely. It was sold as small, but it's as big as the S. x readii 'Farnhamii' that used to be the queen of the castle, taking up the middle spot until the purp arrived. Then I moved the Farnhamii closer to the edge since since I expect it to to get taller than the purp (it really is on the tiny size atm, not sure how tall they get but with I expect some height in a year or two). I remember reading something about tall plants outshading shorter ones so. I followed that advice and moved it closer to the edge. Both are still pushing out new growth which is great. The purp didn't have much of a root system, I think it was three straggly, tiny little roots, but it's looking great none the less for a new plant. The Farnhamii on the other has has a ginormous spindly root system about half as big as the above ground part, pretty impressive for such a small plant.
Things are likely to stay this way at least until springtime (although I'd really like to get another tall-ish Sarr for the planter. I refuse to buy anymore no id Sarracenia mixes though (the VFTs I made an exception for since they were TC plants (but probably several different random no-id clones) and I wanted a few to fill in some of the space so it's different in my book anyway). I ended up buying four. I forgot whether I got two tall ones and two short ones or three short ones and one tall one :x
In any case, I don't know why but I was under the impression they're prone to root rot and like to dry out between waterings. Boy was I wrong lol. The very next day I bought them (I had them in a saucer of water at first) I saw the bottom of the saucer still wet (but no water in it) before I headed out for work that day and figured they'd be fine and I'll water them the next morning. Granted, it was a hot August day (38°C - just over 100°F) but I got back home only to find them burned to a crisp. One made it fine and is pushing out new growth like mad, should be nice and cozy for the winter, one is down to two green stems and a somewhat healthy rhizome, one may or may not regrow from a rhizome/pseudobulb (I doubt it) and I'm pretty sure the 4th one rotted away - there was like half an an inch of white left, doubt that will amount to anything). So if two of the 4 make it I'll be happy (although I'm pretty optimistic for the green one even if it's not pushing out traps yet, I'll give it another month, would be nice to have something to keep it photosynthesizing over the winter. The tall one made it for sure and is growing like mad *knock on wood*. One of them was just amazing though, had a rainbow effect with a pink stripe at the bottom and a dark red just above it for the rest of the leaf - fricking amazing).

Oh, and I also have some Sphagnum growing

This was the next day after a good soaking.

Two weeks later:


And I don't have a recent shot, but it's completely green now and almost at the brim of the tub and ready for a haircut and a transplant to the bog planter (I'll leave half of it in the tub to grow endless amount of sphag ).

This is the second tub. Same story as with the VFTs :/ Saw there was still some water left in the tub and left for work. Same exact day. It was scorching hot, I was barefoot and my feet were burning how how it was around 4pm. Sadly it dried to a crisp, but looks like there's some life left in it yet.



Fingers crossed for the best.

And as a bonus for bearing with me, a couple of bonus shots of a local mire and some Sphagnum (I think it's rubellum) in situ:



This is the piece I took home:


The one that greened up nicely. A decade ago it was a half a meter tall dark red/burgundy red mound surrounding the entire stump. Now it was down to an inch or two of bone dry sphag. So I said ***** it and took it with me. I also took a chunk of the smaller of the two mounds in the photos previous because I wanted some red for myself. I'm not sure if it's protected by law lol, hope I'm not a poacher xd I do plan on returning more than what I took, although it looks the entire place is on the way out. IIRC, the entire place was Sphagnum'd by one of the local Nature authoties as an experiment some 15 years ago and in the hopes of restoring the native Sphagnum population in either 6 or 8 locations. Going by the way things were a decade ago and a month ago, it's gone nothing but downhill sadly. I managed to find three locations, and one was decimated :/

But anyway, back to the planter. I refuse to get any more no id VFT's. I'll be happy with just one, two would be great, anything else is a bonus. We are a part of the EU now however, and I found a couple czech and polish webshops that ship and stock 99% I could ever wish for so we'll see what the future brings. I'll definitely be adding a couple more planters, as much as space allows. I want mostly Sarracenias, but I won't be opposed to having some named VFTs for the first time in my life

And I do have a spare room that could easily house a grow rack or two

Also it would be amazing to get in touch with a local national park and getting a lead cutting or two of a Drosera rotundifolia or a leaf pulling of a Pinguilcula vulgaris. I'll try xD

 

[adnedarn]

Very cool! Here is my Sarr planter ter post, maybe it can help you out with some ideas. Ive done basically the same for VFT and Drosera planters, all are doing well.
Thread 'My outdoor Tucson, Az Sarracenia' My outdoor Tucson, Az Sarracenia

 

[Cunka]

Very cool! Here is my Sarr planter ter post, maybe it can help you out with some ideas. Ive done basically the same for VFT and Drosera planters, all are doing well.
Thread 'My outdoor Tucson, Az Sarracenia' My outdoor Tucson, Az Sarracenia

Love the barrel idea. And the propagation area looks pretty sweet as well. Looking at mine now, the soil level seems too low :/ I was thinking it would provide cover from the harsh freezing winds we get every so often. Should I add some more soil (peat and perlite mix)? And ofc I want more plants But this is all I could get my hands on (somewhat) locally for the time being. That said, I did find two webshops that probably ship to my country now that we're a part of the eu so virtually the sky is the limit at this point (and limited amounts of space but yeah ).

I do want a live sphagnum dressing on top which will add an inch or so but I don't want the plants choking in it either, and I kinda feel that even with the sphag it would still be on the low end. Not too keen on disturbing the plants (again) while they're actively growing but I wouldn't disturb them too much, just grab as much of the soil around the roots and water them in afterwards to get rid of the air pockets. And I'm thinking it's better to do it sooner rather than later before they go into dormancy? To give them time to settle in (again). Or should I wait until they do go dormant? (root rot gives me the heebie-jeebies)

Maybe it would be best to wait until spring time (but the sphag ).

 

[adnedarn]

I don't have really "harsh" winters, we get down into the 20s(f) sometimes and below that to the teens rarely but for a very short time as an overnight low and days usually rebound into the 40-50s. As your pot settles it will get ever lower, but if you want to wait you could probably get a helper next year, flip the pot in your hand and have someone add media to the bottom to raise it and then fill in the sides. I think the best parts about my barrel setup are the big pot helps buffer the temps and holds lots of water. Also the built in water reservoir helps keep things moist between watering. Sarrs seem to be fine as long as they have 30 or more days of nice weather to settle in, but I'm not much a fan of bothering the same plant too many times in a short period of time.

 

[SubRosa]

Okay, I know it's not much to look at atm, but it's mine and it's going to be pretty.



Also, I'm the best photographer in the world, I know.

But yeah, as I mentioned in another thread, I decided to green up my place a bit and Sarracenias are some of my favorite plants ever, just because of how they're pretty and insanely hardy they are. I used to have two rectangular planters with some no-ids years ago but they've since gone the way of the dodo. Let's hope things go down differently this time around.

Here it it last week after it's newest addition: a Sarracenia purpurea ssp venosa. A bit on the pale side, but the veins are showing and I'm sure it'll color up nicely. It was sold as small, but it's as big as the S. x readii 'Farnhamii' that used to be the queen of the castle, taking up the middle spot until the purp arrived. Then I moved the Farnhamii closer to the edge since since I expect it to to get taller than the purp (it really is on the tiny size atm, not sure how tall they get but with I expect some height in a year or two). I remember reading something about tall plants outshading shorter ones so. I followed that advice and moved it closer to the edge. Both are still pushing out new growth which is great. The purp didn't have much of a root system, I think it was three straggly, tiny little roots, but it's looking great none the less for a new plant. The Farnhamii on the other has has a ginormous spindly root system about half as big as the above ground part, pretty impressive for such a small plant.
Things are likely to stay this way at least until springtime (although I'd really like to get another tall-ish Sarr for the planter. I refuse to buy anymore no id Sarracenia mixes though (the VFTs I made an exception for since they were TC plants (but probably several different random no-id clones) and I wanted a few to fill in some of the space so it's different in my book anyway). I ended up buying four. I forgot whether I got two tall ones and two short ones or three short ones and one tall one :x
In any case, I don't know why but I was under the impression they're prone to root rot and like to dry out between waterings. Boy was I wrong lol. The very next day I bought them (I had them in a saucer of water at first) I saw the bottom of the saucer still wet (but no water in it) before I headed out for work that day and figured they'd be fine and I'll water them the next morning. Granted, it was a hot August day (38°C - just over 100°F) but I got back home only to find them burned to a crisp. One made it fine and is pushing out new growth like mad, should be nice and cozy for the winter, one is down to two green stems and a somewhat healthy rhizome, one may or may not regrow from a rhizome/pseudobulb (I doubt it) and I'm pretty sure the 4th one rotted away - there was like half an an inch of white left, doubt that will amount to anything). So if two of the 4 make it I'll be happy (although I'm pretty optimistic for the green one even if it's not pushing out traps yet, I'll give it another month, would be nice to have something to keep it photosynthesizing over the winter. The tall one made it for sure and is growing like mad *knock on wood*. One of them was just amazing though, had a rainbow effect with a pink stripe at the bottom and a dark red just above it for the rest of the leaf - fricking amazing).

Oh, and I also have some Sphagnum growing

This was the next day after a good soaking.

Two weeks later:


And I don't have a recent shot, but it's completely green now and almost at the brim of the tub and ready for a haircut and a transplant to the bog planter (I'll leave half of it in the tub to grow endless amount of sphag ).

This is the second tub. Same story as with the VFTs :/ Saw there was still some water left in the tub and left for work. Same exact day. It was scorching hot, I was barefoot and my feet were burning how how it was around 4pm. Sadly it dried to a crisp, but looks like there's some life left in it yet.



Fingers crossed for the best.

And as a bonus for bearing with me, a couple of bonus shots of a local mire and some Sphagnum (I think it's rubellum) in situ:



This is the piece I took home:


The one that greened up nicely. A decade ago it was a half a meter tall dark red/burgundy red mound surrounding the entire stump. Now it was down to an inch or two of bone dry sphag. So I said ***** it and took it with me. I also took a chunk of the smaller of the two mounds in the photos previous because I wanted some red for myself. I'm not sure if it's protected by law lol, hope I'm not a poacher xd I do plan on returning more than what I took, although it looks the entire place is on the way out. IIRC, the entire place was Sphagnum'd by one of the local Nature authoties as an experiment some 15 years ago and in the hopes of restoring the native Sphagnum population in either 6 or 8 locations. Going by the way things were a decade ago and a month ago, it's gone nothing but downhill sadly. I managed to find three locations, and one was decimated :/

But anyway, back to the planter. I refuse to get any more no id VFT's. I'll be happy with just one, two would be great, anything else is a bonus. We are a part of the EU now however, and I found a couple czech and polish webshops that ship and stock 99% I could ever wish for so we'll see what the future brings. I'll definitely be adding a couple more planters, as much as space allows. I want mostly Sarracenias, but I won't be opposed to having some named VFTs for the first time in my life

And I do have a spare room that could easily house a grow rack or two

Also it would be amazing to get in touch with a local national park and getting a lead cutting or two of a Drosera rotundifolia or a leaf pulling of a Pinguilcula vulgaris. I'll try xD

I would definitely recommend raising the soil level in order to maximize the water holding capacity of the system. Plus mounding the soil in the center above the maximum water level creates a place for plants that like it constantly moist but not flooded. Dormancy would be the time to do it.

 

[Cunka]

Ty Rosa. I do think the water holding capacity is relatively decent already for what it is though, although I will agree that more would be better in this case. I picked the 2nd largest planter they had with drainage holes that looked somewhat decent / seemed like the best find at the time. I wasn't really in the mood to go shopping for a "perfect" planter, I just wanted/needed something relatively big that I could turn into a mini-bog. They had some elegant decorative pots and some "screamers", but I don't find those to match the bog look anyway (and I'm pretty sure most, if not all of the ones I looked at had no drainage holes). I think the three bags of peat were five liters each plus three bags of perlite, so there should be something like 20-25 liters of soil in total in there atm? The perlite bags were roughly two to three times smaller, can't say I looked at the litreage, I didn't see it written in big letters and I didn't really care, just eyeballed it. It won't fit another 5 liters of peat for sure, but maybe half that and another bag of perlite could work out. And it's just sitting in a saucer of distilled/rain water an inch or so deep. I pretty much rely on the water wicking of the peat, there's roughly two thirds of pure soil below the current root length.

I'm going to follow your advice and just let them enjoy the sunshine and the warm weather while it lasts (and enjoy them in the meantime) and do a light repot at some point during dormancy. Then add the sphagnum. So hopefully it'll look much nicer by the springtime.

Ty once again, I've gotten a bit rusty and to be honest I wanted to hear some advice from the people who know what they're doing. I used to be pretty big into plants a decade or so ago but then life happened. So I'm just getting back into things (got some Strelitzias nicolai as well, first one of which I almost fried to a crisp - got it the same day as the CPs and the day following must've been the hottest day of the year) and I placed everything at a spot where they were getting full direct sun from 8-5pm - straight outta the greenhouse - so that it would "grow faster" coz "she can take it". It pulled out fine though and pushed out a new leaf on each of the two plants that are in the pot so all is well. The other two are in another spot and are doing great as well. I hope I get to see them at 2 meters tall (and that they don't decide to grow taller than that xd).

Love both your name and your sig btw, sums up the last couple years/months of my life either perfectly or near perfectly.

 

[Cunka]

Here's a small update

The "tall" vft is doing great *knock on wood*. It dropped all of its old leaves, this is all new growth under my care Tho whole "bog (planter)" thing seems to work much better than those small pots they come in imho (but maybe it's just because mine dried out and I dunno, but they're awfully short that's for sure - and vfts get a long root system, easily twice what pot they come in for the size)). The one that had a bit of green stem left yet seems to have shrivered up as well though Which is fine, I don't mind this one spreading around, there's plenty of room for it atm. I'm not big on unnamed cultivars anyway, maybe it's for the best until I get some. But anyway, here it is in all its glory:


The purp just took over and is dominating the pot xD Nothing to add there lol:


The Farnhamii is throwing out the most amazing colored pitcher, the camera just doesn't do it justice (just wish it was bigger, it is gonna get bigger right? ):


And last but most certainty not least (as I still need to return the Sphagnum I took) - it's alive


The red coloring that was still somewhat left in the photos prior completely disappeared and turned yellow, but there are tons of new green growth points coming out from all over the place. They'd be even better visible but I just watered it a bit and submerged some but I'm super happy about it, especially since I know the location data and need to return it once I get some for my own use (in hindsight I could've just brought a pair of scissors with me but no). The other tub is full, lush and green and ready for it's winter haircut for when I raise the soil level in the pot. Reddening up this one is going to take a while though I also found a webshop that carries some live sphagnum (one that has location it was harvested from (for the most part). and another webshop that just has a brand name written on the bag - but it looks alive and red/green. I'd like to get a couple different species going. Then make friends with a bryologist that could ID them all for me xD

And I'm giving that National Park a call tomorrow morning Wish me the best! Getting Drosera rotundifolia, Pinguicula vulgaris and Utricularia minor with location data (from a National Park none the less would be amazing imho, let's just hope it's achievable :/)

 

[bluemax]

'Nice to see the progress. Most of my sphagnum is from the peat/lfs I have used in the past. It just starting growing from it. I don't know what you have available to you. We have winters with consistent freezing at night here but the sphagnum I grow continues to develop all winter long. Mine is probably all species from New Zealand and Chile. I'd like to get some local species just to spice it up a bit. 'Shouldn't be asking too much.

Good luck with your call to the National Park.