Outside Stuff

[Crissytal]

Part of my out door grow area

B. liniflora

D. x Marston Dragon is a TRUE Dragon. It's making its first multiforked leaf

S. Lady Bug pitchers growing inside each other

Bog

Close up 1

Close up 2

Bog 2

 

[upper]

nice

 

[Capensis]

I absolutely love your outdoors stuff xD. If only I had more time in the growing season ><. Though, has teh S. x 'lady bug' gone canabilistic? :O

 

[Botanicadenta]

Wow! That's a great set of darlingtonias there! Or... are those sarrs?

Very, very neat

 

[nightsky]

Wow - your scarlet bell has the deepest red I've seen on one. Beautiful.

 

[jimscott]

Is that D. indica in the one pot?

 

[alec]

very nice plants
what rosetted drosera is spread throughout the circular bog?

 

[Crissytal]

Thanks everyone for the compliments! The bogs are in need of some work. I'll need to be redoing the blue one this spring. The plastic is already starting to crack. I'll be replacing it with another pond liner which is more suited to be out in the sun and weather.

I need to start getting my mini bogs and pots out of the trays. Some of my plants are already starting to go dormant.

Botanicadenta - I only have one pitiful pot of Darlingtonia. It had one pitcher when I received it. Must be Sarrs you are looking at.

nightsky - Thanks . I have a pot of scarlet bell on the other side of the picnic table that isn't pictured. It's red like that too.

Jim - I shouldn't have any D. indica outside. I have a few forms of D. filiformis and B. liniflora scattered around.

alec - The rosetted Drosera you are seeing were sent to me as D. sessilifolia seeds a couple years ago. There's a chance they may really be D. burmannii though. Does anyone know how to tell them apart? A friend mentioned D. sessilifolia appears more red while burmannii seems to stay all green. I appear to be seeing this, but I'm not 100 percent sure.

Crystal

 

[rco911]

Awesome photos Crystal! I think you have room for ... ahem ... "just ... one... more" hah! Are those the sarr seedlings in that one photo? My, how they've grown!!

 

[Av8tor1]

geeze crissy, when you post so many nice looking threads all at once how do I know which one to reply too

very nice plants crissy, nice collection...

 

[vraev]

wow! very very nice plants Crissy. Just spectacular.

 

[Crissytal]

Thanks everyone for your kind comments .

Rob - I can fit just one more, just ONE more....lol!

Av - Lol, see what happens with a little persuasion on posting threads? I won't post anymore for a while, I kinda flooded the forum .

vraev - Thanks .

Crystal

EDIT: Yep, those are Sarr seedlings. Some of them are from you Rob .

 

[SeanH]

If you don't mind me asking,
What are the PVC tubes for in the bogs?

 

[Crissytal]

Hi Sean,

The PVC pipes allow me to fill the water reservoirs that I added to each bog. The idea behind burying the containers is that they will hold more water than saturated peat; they will leach out the water as needed. The pipes allow me to see if the reservoirs are low, and allows me to easily fill them back up with water during droughts. I had no problems with the bogs this past summer. Temperatures often hit 105 or higher and had hardly any rain.

Here is a picture of the container before it was buried; this one went into the blue bog. The container is simply set in the bottom of the bog and is covered with peat.

They can't be seen, but there are a few small holes punched in the top of the container and a few in the bottom.

Crystal

 

[SeanH]

Wonderful explanation, thank you so much!

 

[DroseraBug]

What are the two pitcher plants in the top left corner of the first photo? I like the tall one. As always your plants look great. I like how you engineer methods that make it easier for you to keep up with your plant needs.

 

[Crissytal]

Glad I could help Sean .

DroseraBug - The one furtherest left (white pot) is S. alata 'Maroon Throat', the other I believe was just labeled as S. alata sp. Nothing too special, but I like them . The Sarrs I got from you already need dividing and repotting lol. Thanks for the compliment! I knew I had to do something because our weather can be awfully harsh. I only had to add water to the bogs about 2-3 times during the entire summer. When it did rain, it wasn't enough to wet the ground. The containers acting as reservoirs worked out pretty well, very cheap too .

Crystal

 

[upper]

wait, so when the soil is dry, the water just somehow comes out from the container to wet the soil again? o_o

 

[Crissytal]

That's right upper. The bog does not have drainage holes in the bottom. They are about 3-4" down from the top to keep the soil and plants from floating away (that was in case we had any hurricanes and flooding). So the entire bog will hold water except for the top 3-4". The reservoir that is buried only holds water. I think one container I used was a couple gallons, the other might have been a few more. That is a lot of water compared to what the bog would hold otherwise. As the water gets low in the bog, the water will seep out. There are small holes poked on all six sides of the reservoir. The peat around the reservoir has a wick effect. It's simple, and in beginning there was some controversy on how well it would work. It exceeded my expectations, and certainly suits my needs.

Crystal

 

[upper]

so its like this?

i might make one myself if it works that easily....