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This is what happens when you leave a terrarium unattended for 3 months

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V

Viribus

So I left for a trip abroad about three months ago, and dropped my terrarium at my mum's house with two instructions:

- Make sure the lights stay on the timer
- Always keep 1cm of water in the bottom

This is what happens when you leave some lowlands nepenthes to their own devises:

http://i.imgur.com/aXk3b.jpg

Note this picture was taken after they were "trimmed".
 
i double that on horror stories .......def what i was thinking!
What size terrarium is it?
 
Thanks for the feedback!

I can't remember exactly but I'm pretty sure the ampullaria is a hybrid (N ampullaria x talangensis). I have no idea what the other pitcher is. The tank was my gecko's old habitat, I think it's 40 gallons or so? It's designed for arboreal reptiles so it's a lot taller than a regular fish tank.

Here's a picture of the terrarium a couple weeks after I set it up, about 10 months ago. For some reason the drosera capensis of all things died off where I planted it but reappeared seemingly at random. I can't see from the latest photo but it looks like while I was away, the Pinguicula moranensis either died or became enveloped by moss.

I tried pretty hard to get together a bunch of plants with similar needs that don't need wintering, maybe I should just stick to Nepenthes :P

When I get home I'll be ripping out handfuls of moss; I'll probably have enough spare to make a whole new sundew-only terrarium.
 
Looking good. That other Nepenthes almost looks to me like N. gracilis 'nigropurpurea'. Or it could just be regular old N. gracilis.

Also that ampullaria x talangensis cross, I owned that for a while and I'm still pretty astounded that it doesn't look even remotely like a hybrid at all. I've yet to see any specimen that made me think it is anything other than pure ampullaria.
 
Nice! I was also expecting some kind of horror story...

I always find it depressing when I leave my plants with someone and they do better while I am away...
 
It does look like N. gracilis, I'll have to take a closer look when I get home.

The pitchers have been growing like crazy since I set up the tank, I guess it's just ideal conditions (always 18-25 degrees, 75-90% humidity). I've only fed them once, and that was just from a flightless fruitfly culture. I just happen to keep them better trimmed when I'm at home, heh.

Last semester when I was in school I supplied my entire botany lab class with pitchers to dissect, and I didn't even take half of them.
 
Ah! The amazing affects of time & patience!
It's like they grow overnight,
when we are away!
That is why I encourage people to have other hobbies, so they can give their plants the time they need to amaze us!

Nice! :-D
 
haha wow impressive indeed, i thought either everything would be dead or the tank would be so over grown that even with a trim it would still look worse then it does now :P
 
It definitely looks like a regular form n. gracilis and a nice one too. Makes me miss the gracilis that I had. But your plants look great.
 
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