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Nepenthes argentii

I received this plant as a gift and just learned how rare and expensive it is (one nursery sells 2 inch plants for 180.00!). since I am a novice at Nepenthes, I am sweating bullets for fear of losing it to my ignorance. Any cultural advice would be appreciated. I was told it grows as an intermediate highland species: can anyone tell me the particular conditions for this type of plant?
 
A loose well drained mix with a fair amount of chopped sphagnum moss. You could use fine bark, fine coconut chips, laterite, charcoal, perlite etc in conjunction with the sphagnum. Personally I use a mix of fine coconut chips, medium perlite and chopped New Zealand or Chilean sphagnum. Sorry I don't have proportion ratios...
They should get bright light with Day temps preferably below 88 and night temps low to mid 60s. Humidity in the 60-70% range should do, and keep moist. They do not seem to be difficult and have not given me any problems. They are not very fast growing plants however.

As for pricing... (not including any state sales tax): The one listed at 180 would cost 186 with shipping.. the one listed at 165 would cost you 194.70 and with shipping.
Tony
 
Hi Tamlin, Here's a link to some good cultivation notes.
http://www.cpjungle.com/nucarg.htm
You are lucky to be able to own this plant! The rarest thing I've grown was Heliamphora Ionassi, but I gave it away.
 
Wow, congradulations Tamlin!!!!! ^_^

It would be neat if you crossed it with something else rare!!!
 
Hey Tamlin, I have some advice.... give me a cutting, that way, if your plant dies, at least mine would be alive! :biggrin:

(Yeah I know it's a smart a&#36&#36 comment but i couldn't resist
smile.gif
lol )

But seriously, do you think that you could put up a picture of it up here? I think lots of us (or at least I) would like to see your new plant! Whatever you do, just don't let it die....that would be horrible. :eek:

Joel
 
Hey, midmaze, WATCH IT WITH THE MOUTH!!! You know tamlin... Hehehehe....
 
To all who emailed me and posted here, thank you for the advice. I feel ike I have a handle on this now and hopefully will be able to relax. The nightime lows will be a possible problem in the summer, but hopefully the cellar will be cool enough to get it through. The plant is very small, with no pitchers yet so there is really nothing to show in a photo, just a small rosette of leaves, lets hope that I can manage to raise a nice specimen of this plant without suffering a nervous breakdown. Are there really people out there who would pay this much for a wee bitty little plant? IMHO they would have to be very rich and very foolish in equal measure!
 
I purchased a Nepenthes hamata and campanulata, and my lack of finances is more than made up for by my foolishness (I like to call it "enthusiasm" ). My hamata had a short growth spurt (under intermediate conditions), and now refuses to grow under highland conditions. My campanulata has two developing pitchers (and only three leaves), but the leaves are burned around the edges. Of course all of my cheap plants are doing just fine......... Oh well. :biggrin:

Pat
 
Yes, I can appreciate your enthusiasm, but wouldn't it be nice if this didn't have to cost you a pound of heartflesh to grow this plant? Prices like this just amaze me, and it seems sad that the people who love them the most are the hardest hit. I wish you success with your other plants, I know what is it like to pay a lot and lose a valuable plant. I had one of the first introductions of Heliamphora minor back in the 70's, and lost it. I still remember the anguish. It was 55.00 back then, and a fortune to me. It also taught me a hard lesson about buying and accepting species which I did not have conditions to support. I hope this time things will be different. There is a corollary to Murphy's Law that states in any given instance, the most rare and expensive plants will always be the first ones to undergo damage. If a shelf falls, the rare plant will shatter. Bug infestations will hit the prized plants first, and any cultural mistakes will affect these plants more quickly than any others.
 
  • #10
One would hope someone considering purchasing an expensive plant would practice on less expensive plants of the same difficulty beforehand. Or at least study their conditions well and determine if they can provide them. In the end it's the customers decision. Prices however are determined by supply/demand and other factors such as difficulty, length of time to bring a plant to marketable size and all the overhead involved, difficulty and expenses in acquiring them in the first place, etc.

Would it be great if everything was free!!!! maybe.....

On the otherhand the idea to find something new and make some money was/is a huge driving force for exploring new areas and searching high and low for something different.
T
 
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