S. purpurea from Home Depot

[fdfederation]

I bought a couple of Sarracenia purpurea seedlings from Home Depot tonight. I thought I smelled fertilizer in their pots, so should I replace the growth media (looks like sphagnum moss, peat)?

 

[Brie]

Well, A: those definitely aren't purpurea.. and B: Yeah, I would prolly repot them into 50/50 peat/perlite..

 

[fdfederation]

The leaves do look too long, but that's what the label said. I don't mind good surprises.

 

[mluk27]

The labels tend to be wrong from what I have noticed at lowes and home depot because I just bought sars that are marked as pururea but definitely are not.

 

[fdfederation]

What species did your plants turn out to be?

 

[pappydew]

My guess is they are probably some sort of S. rubra...they probably mislabel them as "purple pitchers" even though that name is more common in regards to purps. That's the only other Sarr I know of Lowes selling, myself.

 

[Not a Number]

Pitcher plants are generically labeled Sarracenia purpurea. At one time this was all these companies sold.

Some of the most common suppliers of carnivorous plants in California are Gublers, Booman Florals and Nurserymen's Exchange. Knowing who the supplier is could narrow down your choices. If it's Gublers or NME it's a high probability that they are S. 'Judith Hindle'. Booman's normally pot their plants in pure Canadian Sphagnum peat moss and are mature enough that you can usually identify the species unless it's one of their hybrids.

 

[NewspaperFort]

What a funny, sad couple of plants.
I am sure you will enjoy seeing them shape up in your care.

 

[joossa]

I am sure you will enjoy seeing them shape up in your care.

Agreed! This will be the best part... whatever they turn out to be.

 

[fdfederation]

Haha! I hope they are acclimating well.

 

[pappydew]

Mine exploded in growth when I repotted them in a standard 50/50 mix. Noticed that there were some immature pitchers buried under the moss too that couldn't quite make it out yet so I'm sure that helped those ones develop/

 

[fdfederation]

Your plants yielded very good surprises!

 

[pappydew]

I'm actually starting to question whether I got a rubra AND something else ("J. Hindle" maybe)...there were two rhizomes in the pot and I'm seeing two distinct pitcher types being formed between them.

 

[Crofthulhu]

Weird looking.. def doesn't look like purps.

I guess they could be.. I mean.. I don't know what a completely light starved purpurea looks like that hasn't been getting pure water. I have this purp hyrbid that when I first picked it up, it had the craziest looking non-carn leaves. I really don't know though.

I must be lucky cause when I went to my local Lowes, everything looked pretty good; could have been timing, but I went back again and everything still looked good. I picked up a purp and it ended up coming with TWO separate plants. That was nice.

Should be interesting to see what they turn out to be though.. I have heard people getting things that aren't even seen by others at Lowes.

 

[Kyle]

I've picked up a few "S. purpurea" plants at Home Depot and Lowes,; only one turned out to be S. purpurea, and it was blatantly obvious when I bought it. Some have been what I guess are S. rubra, while others have been S. 'Judith Hindle.' My guess on the two you've got is the latter.