################### From: Robert.Allen@Eng.Sun.COM (Email Mujahideen) Date: Sun, 5 Jan 92 13:52:19 PST Subject: CP stuff I was on vacation last week, so I went up to UC Santa Cruz to try and spy my old collection. Sadly, I got within one locked door of getting in. The person in charge of the greenhouses was on vacation so they locked the door to the roof :-(. However, I stopped by the arboretum at the base of campus and tried to find their few CP. I just found one, a large and bushy Nepenthes alata which had no good pitchers on it. I think it was underwatered. They seemed to be growing it in either pumice, or heavy perlite. Lack of humidity or sun could also be the problem. I'm going to make another attempt to get to the greenhouses in the next few weeks. On other fronts, Scott Brown, I, and his father got together for a pilgrimage to California Carnivores. Sadly the collection was about half or more dormant, so it wasn't as visually exciting, but I enjoyed it a lot. The tuberosities were coming up, and some of them were quite interesting. Peters' D. gigantea was dormant, it still is off sync, but supposedly its' tuber is about the size of a walnut. It was nice to meet someone from the list in person! Scott, I'm sorry you didn't get down to see my collection, but it should be growing more the next time you get in town anyhow. Friday I cleaned out my terrarium of the moss and scunge growing in the bottom, and it looks much nicer now. When I get paid next week I'm going to buy some lights and setup a propagating chamber here at work :-). I think I'll use the Crystal Lite indoor greenhouse my mom gave me for the growing chamber, and I'll use a PVC frame to support 2, 2 tube 2' flourescent fixtures overhead. (Don, do you still have those 2 extra 2' grow bulbs?). While cleaning the terrarium I noted the following: - my Nepenthes seed is still germinating, while some seedlings are looking pretty big. The dead, milled, spaghnum I planted them in has sprouted so I sat around for half an hour with little scissors lawn-mowing the moss so the seedlings could get some light. Do people transplant seedlings, or do you wait until they're non-seedlings before transplanting? What do you transplant them to? - I found 3 unidentified rosetted droseras, which I've put in the same pot together. They look like rotundifolia, but I have no idea how I got them. They are small, each only having 4 leaves. - I found (GASP!) scale on my N. khasiana leaf cutting which Mike sent me ages ago, which still hasn't struck. I swabbed some head cleaner (alcohol) on the things, then bagged it up in a baggie and put it back in my terrarium. So far I don't see any scale on my other plants. Here's hoping. - The D. adelae root cuttings Barry sent me a while ago have filled the small pot with plants. Barry, are these the red or white flowered variety? - The U. sandersonii in my D. collinsae pot are growing out of the bottom drainage holes. However, maybe the drosera realized its' peril, for it's now sending up some new leaves. - I have 3 new leaf bud plantlets growing in my D. prolifera pot. However I've yet to observe the plant-on-flower-stalk which this species is supposed to show. I'm leaving the stalk on anyhow. Question of the day: if I take a 4 node meristem cutting off my Nepenthes boissense, how many nodes do I bury in the rooting medium, and do I cut half of *all* the leaves off? Is it wise to use vermiculite for rooting, or should I stick with live moss? That's all for now, Robert ################### From: Robert.Allen@Eng.Sun.COM (Email Mujahideen) Date: Tue, 7 Jan 92 10:07:36 PST Subject: Name this nepenthes. The name was something like "manyie". The pitchers were shaped like champagne glasses, much like N. lowii, and the lids were much smaller than the open mouth of the pitcher. Peter D'Amato had one, and I forgot to ask him about it. It looks cool, and would go far in cooling my desire for N. lowii. r. ################### From: Scott Brown Date: Tue, 7 Jan 92 14:31:19 EST XSubject: Re: Name this nepenthes. I was reading through the latest issue of CPN last night and saw a letter (from Peter D'Amato ?) regarding a viscous secretion on one of his utric's. flower scapes. He said it had actually killed several small bugs and was wondering if anybody else had seen this in their plants. Well have any of you? This seem strange to me-- kind of like evolution occurring before his eyes. Over Christmas break, my father, Robert Allen and I took a trip to Calif. Carnivores. One of the few non CPs that he had was called a telegraph plant. This had small appendeges (1/2 inch long cylindrical) just below each leaf that he said would rotate around in circles (like the hands of a clock) in bright sunlight. He said the period was something like 30 seconds to a minute. It was overcast so I did not get to see this plant in action. Has anybody ever heard of such a plant or have any idea of how or why it would behave this way? Scott ################### From: mjc Date: Wed, 08 Jan 92 17:54:58 MST Subject: new address Well, I found my apartment. My new address will be 4530 E. McDowell RD. #288 Phoenix AZ 85008 Name is: Michael Chamberland The place has a fairly large balcony facing east south-east. It also has an average sized window in the same direction. I should be able to grow a good number of CP outside on the balcony year-round, but the space must be shared with my cactus collection. My orchid collection will probably get the inside window. I pay my own utilities so I don't expect to do much growing under lights: it gets too hot. I will probably grow all/most of my Nepenthes indoors under lights, as they can take the high heat indoors (and not the winter cold outdoors). I have already donated most of my larger Drosera (capensis, binata, adelae, etc.) to the Desert Bot Garden where they are being used in the propaga tion greenhouse for whitefly/fungnat control. I will probably give them most of my pings too, as these work like yellow pest strips in catching whitefly. The greenhouse is all airconditioned, has lots of space, and is great for CP. (I can always get leaf cuttings and start over with these plants if I want ;-) On my balcony I will make an attempt to keep up a collection of pygmies, AZ time-zone-converted tuberous, and a few niceties like Drosophyllum, Cephalotus etc. Indoors I think I can still keep a decent Nepenthes collection. The apartment is a one-bedroom; in bicycling range of the Des. Bot Gar. I will be in by Feb. MJC ################### From: dngess01 (Don) Date: Fri, 10 Jan 92 00:45:08 -0500 XSubject: Re: new address Does Allen Lowrie sell any Nepenthes seeds? There was talk about pooling together to get plants from Allen Lowrie. I wouldn't mind buying a D. falconerii or some S. African Drosera seeds like D. hilaris, or D. madagascariensis, or D. regia if anyone is interested. What is the best way to produce a "marl soil" to grow D. linearis? I woke up in the middle of the night a few days ago and turned on the TV. I started to watch an old 1935 horror movie called "Mad Love" on TNT. It was a horror movie starring Peter Lorre, who played a mad doctor that kills a bunch of people. On his desk, he had a Darlingtonia californica that looked to be in good shape! Winter is about half-way through. Took a peek at my Sarracenia and temperate Drosera outside and they seem to be in good health. It only snowed once so far this winter. I finally got the 1985 issues of CPN a few days ago and now have a complete set of CPN! There is a photo of a guy holding a HUGE pitcher of N. merrilliana in one of the issues. Brocchinia reducta is a carnivorous bromeliad that grows near Heliamphora sites. They look like yellow tubes, maybe a foot tall. ################### From: Robert.Allen@Eng.Sun.COM (Email Mujahideen) Date: Mon, 13 Jan 92 12:36:25 PST XSubject: Re: new address >>Does Allen Lowrie sell any Nepenthes seeds? There was talk about pooling >>together to get plants from Allen Lowrie. I wouldn't mind buying >>a D. falconerii or some S. African Drosera seeds like D. hilaris, or >>D. madagascariensis, or D. regia if anyone is interested. He does sell seed. As I recall it's $3.00 a packet. Let me look at the list and get back to you. There are a number of nepenthes seed listings. >> >>I finally got the 1985 issues of CPN a few days ago and now have a complete >>set of CPN! There is a photo of a guy holding a HUGE pitcher of N. >>merrilliana in one of the issues. Have you been subscribing "since when", or did you buy the back issues cheap? What they should do is come out with a bound edition of back issues. r. ################### From: ATLAS@JHUVMS.HCF.JHU.EDU Date: Mon, 13 Jan 1992 20:41 EST Subject: Backs, terraria, bugs I agree with Rob, they should sell back issues of CPN bounded and cheap. I bought the 84-89 backs, unbounded, and not very cheap ($72.50 I think). I don't know what plants to recommend you grow in your office, Rob...My terrarium has only one little 10 or 15 w bulb, and I grow all different species in it, but (importantly), the terrarium is in front of a window, so it gets a lot of natural light. BTW, if anyone considers putting a terrarium in front of a window, remember to "crack" the lid (i.e. leave open a cm), or the greenhouse effect will fry your plants. garding bugs, chances are, the gnats' eggs are in your plants' media, so they will probably crop up in your new terrarium, too. I remember an old CPN article talked about buying and breeding fruit flies as CP fodder, but that seems like too much work to me. But maybe worth considering. Plus, you can do genetic research as you raise food for your plants! doug ################### From: dngess01 (Don) Date: Mon, 13 Jan 92 22:19:40 -0500 XSubject: Re: Backs, terraria, bugs I started my first subscription with Vol. 4 or 5 sometime in the mid-70's when the CP book by Randall Schwartz mentioned the CPN newsletter. I let my subscription lapse several years ago, then re-subscribed and bought all the issues I missed last year about a month before the last issue of last year came out announcing the $5 or so increase per year for buying back issues. My D. glanduligera don't look too happy growing under flourescent lights. Same with the most of the pygmies. Hope they can hang on until it warms up and I can take them outside. Someone mentioned the indoor greenhouse advertised in the Orchids by Hausermann catalog. The cost is $300+. I got mine from Indoor Gardening Supplies, (write for a catalog to P.O. Box 40567, Detroit, MI 48240). Mine was a slightly scratched 3-tier model, with trays for $90. A plastic covering was $35 extra. My cover is still being used, but is fairly ratty looking with algae growing over a good part of it. I take it outside once a year for a good scrubbing, but the algae grows back soon afterward. Regarding food for CP, rotting fruit will attract lots of fruit flies. A couple overripe grapes should allow fruit flies to grow and multiply in a terrarium for a few weeks if you take precautions against fungus - keep the air moving and don't allow the fruit to get too soggy. ################### From: Robert.Allen@Eng.Sun.COM (Email Mujahideen) Date: Tue, 14 Jan 92 11:25:12 PST Subject: stuff >>I found a source for saucers in 12", 14", and 16" sizes. Catalogs are >>free from the Light Mfg. Co. at 1-800-669-5483. Are these hard to find? Out here I can get the transparent plant saucers in any of a half dozen sizes, and a couple of depths, at local grocery stores. >> >> >>Someone mentioned the indoor greenhouse advertised in the Orchids by >>Hausermann catalog. The cost is $300+. I got mine from Indoor >>Gardening Supplies, (write for a catalog to P.O. Box 40567, Detroit, >>MI 48240). Mine was a slightly scratched 3-tier model, with trays for >>$90. A plastic covering was $35 extra. My cover is still being used, >>but is fairly ratty looking with algae growing over a good part of it. >>I take it outside once a year for a good scrubbing, but the algae >>grows back soon afterward. You might try using replaceable poly, with plastic tape. I build a PVC greenhouse (the infamous $29.00 greenhouse) covered with this stuff and it did real good. >> >>Regarding food for CP, rotting fruit will attract lots of fruit flies. A >>couple overripe grapes should allow fruit flies to grow and multiply in a >>terrarium for a few weeks if you take precautions against fungus - keep the >>air moving and don't allow the fruit to get too soggy. Good point. I forgot "Time flies like an arrow, but fruit flies like a banana." ################### From: Robert.Allen@Eng.Sun.COM (Email Mujahideen) Date: Tue, 14 Jan 92 11:33:36 PST Subject: Lowrie order info. >Does Allen Lowrie sell any Nepenthes seeds? The following Nepenthes seed are listed: fusca COLLECTION #1 fusca COLLECTION #2 khasiana lowii 5 forms of mirabilis x mixta x maxima rafflesiana Kota Kinabalu vieillardii (2 forms) Of the drosera seed you mention, only regia is listed. Regarding the petiolaris species, they are $28.00 per species, which gets 4 plants. Orders must be placed by the end of January, at which time the orders will be filled all at once. Available are: Drosera petiolaris, dilatato-pet. falconeri lanata pet. "mini rosette" pet. "med. rosette" pet. "kununurra" I might be interested in splitting an order of falconeri, but I'm wondering what lanata is like. Robert ################### From: Robert.Allen@Eng.Sun.COM (Email Mujahideen) Date: Tue, 14 Jan 92 12:07:31 PST Subject: Re: Lowrie order info. I think I'll have to backoff on ordering petiolaris plants. My order is already upto $34.00 and this is the dreaded post-Xmas month. I'm ordering the following: D. gigantea tuber - $10.00 D. macrophylla tuber - $6.50 D. zonaria tuber - $4.00 D. regia seed - $3.00 N. lowii seed - $3.00 If anyone wants to order seed/tubers, let me know and I can include you in my order if you want. Given that shipping is $7.50 for tubers and seed, this can save you a bit. Robert ################### From: dngess01 (Don) Date: Tue, 14 Jan 92 22:17:12 -0500 Subject: CP talk }>>I found a source for saucers in 12", 14", and 16" sizes. Catalogs are }>>free from the Light Mfg. Co. at 1-800-669-5483. } Are these hard to find? Out here I can get the transparent } plant saucers in any of a half dozen sizes, and a couple of } depths, at local grocery stores. Around here, groceries sell very little plant equipment. Maybe some bags of top soil or grass seed during the warm time of the year, but that's about it. Even so-called garden centers don't have a very extensive selection. These usually have <20% actually useful stuff, and the rest is usually stuff like arts and craft items or plasic flamingos or some such. But, I have just found a good local source for plant saucers/trays. These are 11" square plastic trays, with planting inserts, and a clear plastic dome for $1 each. Looks like 10" will be the pot size of preference this year. They also have 19 gallon heavy plastic storage containers for $5. These make great sarracenia growing containers. } You might try using replaceable poly, with plastic tape. I build } a PVC greenhouse (the infamous $29.00 greenhouse) covered with this } stuff and it did real good. I'll probably get an outdoor greenhouse one of these days. I doubt if I can economically heat an outdoor greenhouse covered in plastic sheeting. My plants don't mind the crud on the old plastic covering and it's not in a place where a lot of people would see it, so I don't have a real need for replacing it at this time. > I might be interested in splitting an order of falconeri, but > I'm wondering what lanata is like. There is a line-drawing by Allen Lowrie of D. lanata in a 1990 CPN. Leaves are about the same length as D. petiolaris, but has thin petioles. Look like maybe a giant D. pygmaea, or a D. anglica that somebody stomped flat. ################### From: Robert.Allen@Eng.Sun.COM (Email Mujahideen) Date: Thu, 16 Jan 92 11:13:52 PST Subject: Tuberosity questions. Having violated the first fule of CP: never buy something you don't know how to grow, I'm looking for the dos/don'ts of growing the following species: D. gigantea, D. macrophylla, D. zonaria. All are of course tuberosities, and barring any negative comments I figure I'll pot them up in sandy peat mixtures, with maybe some perlite added. However, PoP says zonaria grows "always in deep white sand, typical of the coastal plain." Has anyone grown CP in straight sand? If so, what is the water table you keep? How did it work out? Re: my work plants. I've added D. x nagamoto, P. agnata, and D. coccicaulis. I'm hoping these tropical type plants will get more active than they've been outside in the cooler weather. I've moved D. aliciae and D. capensis "red" into my home terrarium to get them perked up. Tomorrow I'll bring in some D. auriculata seedlings to work. Waaaay cool. r. ################### From: barry@as.arizona.edu (Barry Meyers-Rice) Date: Thu, 16 Jan 92 13:21:41 MST XSubject: Re: Tuberosity questions. >(If gemmae is plural, what is the singular form? Gemma?) Yep. >- The D. adelae root cuttings Barry sent me a while ago have filled > the small pot with plants. Barry, are these the red or white > flowered variety? Red. I have some seedling plants called "green" but I don't know yet if that refers to the leaves or flowers. >I had a D. collinsae finish flowering about a month ago. When I inspected >the old flower stalk, I couldn't find a single seed anywhere. Mine produce seed copiously, but only in the greenhouse. >I was reading through the latest issue of CPN last night and >saw a letter (from Peter D'Amato ?) regarding a viscous secretion >on one of his utric's. flower scapes. He said it had actually >killed several small bugs and was wondering if anybody else >had seen this in their plants. Yeah I see these a lot on the chasmogamous flowers. The goo has a slight bitter flavour to it. >Over Christmas break, my father, Robert Allen and I took a trip to >Calif. Carnivores. One of the few non CPs that he had was called >telegraph plant. >was overcast so I did not get to see this plant in action. Has >anybody ever heard of such a plant or have any idea of how or why >it would behave this way? Also known as Desmodium motorum, not to be confused with the southwestern weed of the same common name. Well guys, I'm back from a little excursion to Jalisco State, Mexico. Mostly in the area of Puerto Vallarta but we also made many excursions into the mountains. My brother is a botanist, and so we had quite an enjoyable time together. We saw a lot of interesting things---zillions of epiphytic orchids and bromeliads/tillandsias, ground bromeliads, unusual agaves and tropical cacti, including some cacti that were exclusively epiphytic! Plenty of other interesting plants, but no CP. Saw Dodder for the first time, although I gather it's a common enough parasite. Also when we were walking I saw some of the characteristic flowers of a Mimosa. When I touched it, sure enough its leaves closed up and all. It was clearly the good old Sensitive Plant, but it looked a lot different from the Mimosa pudica I grew when I was a tyke. Much spinier. I wonder if its a different strain or even species? Also enjoyed snorkeling and boning up on my spanish. During one of our hikes in the mountains we found ourselves surrounded by streams of army ants---we avoided most bites by bravely RUNNING AWAY!! Well during the next few days I'll be hurriedly writing class syllabi etc for my classes which have already begun, but on the whole I'm back. The CP collection survived my absense well, and I'm getting some germinations in some of my other Tuberous Drosera. Also got some shipments of plants. Anyone have first hand experience with D. arcturi or stenopetala? Germination also in my U. nova-zelandiae and Sarr. hybrids. OK, looks like I've missed most of the petiolaris ordering action, but is there any chance I can get in on some D. falconeri or D. lanata? I'm interested in getting two plants of each. Anyone? BAMR ################### From: XKU@CORNELLA.cit.cornell.edu Date: Thu, 16 Jan 92 18:52:49 EST Subject: Longwood Well, I'm back from break. Had a good time while I was home. I met up with Rolfe Smith in Longwood Gardens. He showed me around the place a little then took me back to see his Nepenthes. He had some good stuff: hirsuita, ampullaria ,truncata, maxima, khasiana, and several forms of alata to name a few. It seems that Longwood is going to add another tropical room onto the greenhouse I think that he told me that the room will be suitable for growing Heliamphora, Darlintonia, and the higher elevation Nepens. So he's going to be on the lookout for them pretty soon. He also told me that he might be getting his computer hooked up to a modem soon, so I gave him my Bitnet address. Getting late guys, Davin ################### From: Robert.Allen@Eng.Sun.COM (Email Mujahideen) Date: Thu, 16 Jan 92 21:36:09 PST Subject: Re: VFT potting media >>I just bought a couple of VFTs that came in 3" pots >>with pure ground peat. Slack recommends repotting >>VFTs into larger pots which I will do soon. What >>is the best medium to use? If I remember correctly >>Slack says a peat/sand mix. I don't have any sand >>at the moment but could go buy some if it is what >>I should use. I would rather not get into buying >>a 20 pound bag since I almost never use it, so I was >>thinking of "borrowing" a >>little from a local construction sight. Are there >>any foreseeable problems with this (other than getting >>my butt kicked by the foreman)? Of course I would >>run lots of fresh water through the sand to leach out >>any salts. As for pots, are shallow pots preferred to >>deep ones or vice versa? Ahhh, a subject I have experience in... First, what not to do: what got me into the hobby again last year was buying some Dionea. I had forotten about soil mixtures, but I remembered peat. So, I bought a nice terra cotta planter about 5-6" deep, filled it with peat, and planted my flytraps. Although they did ok, they weren't real vigorous. Then they got dug up by bluejays. While replanting them I noticed the peat was dryer than I expected, warm, and, well, it felt dense. I wouldn't want to be planted in it. So, I dug up Schnells book, bought a bag of sand, and made a 50/50 peat/sand mix. I planted the plants, and put a layer of longrain live (you could use dried) spahgnum over the top to keep the moisture in. Plants were MUCH happier with that. I currently have my plants in an "American CP" planter. It's an undrained plastic window box about 2' long, 6" wide, and 6" deep. There's about an inch of pea gravel in the bottom, about 5" of peat sand, and some live moss on top. My flytraps were real happy in that when they were active, and now that they're dormant they're still happy. I also have a S. rubra, D. intermedia, and Barrys mystery pings in this planter. In one corner I have a small, drained, 2" pot buried (like you saw in the Ceph tray at C.C. Scott) so I can know the water level in the planter. Check local chain stores and garden stores. You can usually find 1-3 lb. sacks of sand next to the African violet mix, perlite, etc. In replanting my flytraps I noticed they had roots going a good 4" or so. A window box type depth is probably ideal. They're not fussy though. Give them 4-6". If you give them less, I'd be careful about watering because I don't think they like having their roots sitting in water. BTW, using pea gravel as drainage makes the pots damned heavy. Using sand in your soil mixes is almost as bad. Peter D'Amato uses peat/perlite for the mixes he sells his plants in because it weighs less. However, you get a different kind of mix. For lack of a better word, the perlite mix is fluffier, while the sand mix is well drained, but closely packed. I prefer sand, but it is really heavy, which is in issue if you have a lot of plants, or big pots. If you use perlite definately use life moss on top, and maybe on bottom, to keep in moisture. Robert ################### From: Robert.Allen@Eng.Sun.COM (Email Mujahideen) Date: Thu, 16 Jan 92 22:04:33 PST Subject: New CP society: review. I'm now a member of the Bay Area CP Society. I just got vol 1, #1 of the 8 page newsletter. No dues: you just have to show up for the meetings. Carl Wong is the president, Chuck Powell is the VP, Joe Mazrimas is the treasurer, and Geoff Wong [just down the street] is the editor. The charter meeting is Feb. 22nd, 12-3'ish pm, which will feature a display and sale, meeting, raffle and auction. Meetings and newletter are scheduled 4 per year. For '92, Feb 22, May 16, Aug 9, and Nov 14. Items: CP will be on display at the Concord Garden Show, last weekend of April. Volunteers needed. Conservatory in Golden Gate Park [a large glasshouse which is a scale "miniature" of the Kew Garden (as I recall) conservatory. It has a couple of BIG, OLD, Nepenthes plants in the hot rooms. They're probably about 20+ years old.] plans to establish a CP collection [They've been selling Gubler CP in the giftshop some- times]. They are looking for donations, which are tax deduct- ible [I don't know if this means plants or money, or both.] Contac Chris Hewitt at the Conservatory, Golden Gate Park, San Francisco, CA 94117, or call at 415-666-7017 between 7:30am and 3:30pm. One of the BACPS members, Hawkeye Rondeau, has just published a book on native CA CP. He describes all the native species and where they may be found. [I've met this guy, and he doesn't field collect CP. He's a character, reminds me of Grizzly Adams, or a Harley rider]. "Carnivorous Plants of California" is available from him at 37 Sunnyslope Ave, San Jose, CA 95127. 408-929-6529. 45 pages, 7 color plates, $15.95 + postage. He's also got a want ad looking for the location of more native CP sites. Will purchase @ $1.00 pg., or swap for equal portions of his database on CA, OR, and WA distributions. The newsletter will take submissions for the next issue if given by March 1. Shall I mention our little newsgroup here in case anyone else has net access? Robert ################### From: Robert.Allen@Eng.Sun.COM (Email Mujahideen) Date: Sat, 18 Jan 92 23:14:56 PST Subject: stuf I spent about 7 hours today at Chuck Powells helping to install a thermostat, fan, and wiring. Lots of work, but I learned some new things. I also got a few plants in payment. Among them, a seedling D. petiolaris :-). Yay. I saw all the plants of the petiolaris complex in one place, although most of them were dormant. falconeri is the only one which looks radically different. Chuck still swears that he's heard the halfs of the leaves close on prey, but he's never seen it. Another guy was helping to do the installation, and he may have network access. If it's ok, and if he does have net access, he's interested in joining this group. David seems like a nice guy, and he currently only has 4 (now about 14) plants. that's all for now, r. ################### From: Robert.Allen@Eng.Sun.COM (Email Mujahideen) Date: Sun, 19 Jan 92 21:39:45 PST Subject: re-potted today. I spent all day repotting. I transplanted my Nepenthes seedlings from the 6 packs I germinated them in (big mistake) to a pot w/ peat/sand/perlite. I think they'll survive though since my indoor setup is warm and very humid. I transplanted a few of the plants I got from Chuck Powell into larger pots. I'm of the "bigger is better" potting school, and sure enough, the D. natalensis I got had a root hitting the bottom of the small pot it came in. I also re-potted some of my plants into larger, square, pots, which fit nicely into the water trays I have. I hope they survive, but since I'm VERY fast and careful when repotting, I think they will. I love my plants. I "discovered" a neat way of quickly re-potting. Take the new, larger pot, put some soil init, then put the smaller pot into it, on top of the soil, so the level of the tops of the pot are equal. Fill in the space between the pot walls with soil, tamp it a bit, then remove the inner pot. Quickly dump the potted plant and soil out, drop it into the hole in the soil in the larger pot (just vacated by the smaller pot), and it should fit almost exactly. Cool... I got a really cool "pot" at a local garden store. It's a molded plastic terra cotta coloured square pot, about 12" square, with a removeable drain plug at the bottom, and 4 molded in feet at the bottom corners. I filled it with 2" of washed pea gravel for drainage, then about 10" of peat/sand, then 2" of live moss as top dressing. In one corner I sunk a styrafoam cup w/ a hole in the bottom into the soil, level w/ the top of the peat/sand. I covered the top w/ some wire mesh I had lying around, then put moss over that. Now I have a concealed cup in the soil, with which I can check the water level in the undrained container. If I could just figure out how to make little pungi pits to take out the birds and squirrels I'd be all set. Anyhow, this potted plant will look really nice when the S. leuc. comes up in spring. It will have plenty of root room, should get big, and it's heavy enough no ones going to walk off with it easily. I may get a couple more to do the other Sarracenias I have. The pot was only $6.99. I also potted up a S. flava in a 12" diameter round pot, with a layer of clear polyethelyne inside to create an undrained pot. This too got the cup in the soil treatment. I hope they don't have problems with the re-potting. But they needed it. The roots were already to the bottom of the 6"/155mm pot they were in. Now I also have more room in my table-top greenhouse too. While re-potting I found a slug, and an earthworm. Both made good food for my Nepenthes :-). Our wiring job at Chuck Powells seems to have some problems: it trips the breaker every time it's used. Next Saturday I'm going back to check it out. BTW, there's apparently a bog in Albion (up north?) that has a decent stand of planted sarracenias. Chuck Powell and Peter D'Amato are going there tomorrow: if I didn't have an appt. I can't get out of I'd have gone too... BTW, if anyone's familiar with greenhouse thermostats which have 3 wiring terminals, one set of 2 for heating and the other set of 2 for cooling, I'd like to hear from you. I'm wondering if we wired up the thermostat incorrectly and that's what's causing the problem. My terrarium at work is now full up. But there's still more space in my office.... ################### From: barry@as.arizona.edu (Barry Meyers-Rice) Date: Mon, 20 Jan 92 20:14:54 MST XSubject: Re: re-potted today. >Hey! (he says using his time honored saying) How tough can it be? >Well, uh, hopefully not too tough. So, what should I plant them >in? Should I take leaf cuttings immediately, or wait until they >come out of dormancy? Enquiring minds want to know. I'm no genius w.r.t. petiolaris plants, having successfully killed my falconeri from last year, but here's basic advice: Don't mess with your mother stock. If you have just one plant, nurse it to health. Sure, if any pieces break off accidentally---plant them up, but otherwise let the plant go its own course. I don't know if a plant regressing back into dormancy extracts some valuable chemical reserves from its dying leaves, but it might. Once you have a sturdy, healthy plant, then start propagating. This advice is of course modified if you KNOW the mother plant is going to die for some reason ################### From: Robert.Allen@Eng.Sun.COM (Ninja Squirrel Master) Date: Fri, 14 Feb 92 12:52:59 PST Subject: Re: Hello fellow carnivore enthusiasts, >>A little over a year ago, I was up at the Nut Tree restaraunt in >>Vacaville, and purchased a tissue-cultured VFT from "Vesutor >>Micro-Plants". This plant re-sparked my interest, and I'm proud >>to say that the little bugger is still doing great! I'm impressed. Someone gave me one of those and it died after transplanting. I don't think I got all of the agar off. The Tree Farm on El Camino near San Antonio has a couple of racks of VFTs in tubes, as well as some orchids in tubes. The display mentions sundews and sarracenias, but I didn't seen any in the box. >> >>I have been toying with the idea of building a small outdoor greenhouse, >>say 6'x8'. I think it would be much better for the plants, especially >>the S. leucophylla and D. muscipula. Unfortunately, my local squirrel >>population makes the growth of unprotected outdoor plants a risky >>proposition. The critters are always digging about trying to find or >>hide nuts. I would appreciate hearing about any experience that anyone >>has in building and operating such greenhouses. Heh heh, let me tell you about squirrels.... If you know Geoff Wong, you know he has his outdoor plants under screenwire. I live just down the street, and have the same. My girlfriend lives in Mountain View, and does the same. A few hints. a) save the hair from your showers and sprinkle it in your pots, this is supposed to keep squirrels away. So far it's been working for me, but we'll see how it does when spring comes. b) the bluejays are worse than the squirrels. c) a topdressing of live, wet, soggy, spahgnum seems to deter squirrels (but not bluejays) as they don't like either the taste, feeling, or smell of it. d) squirrels LOVE to eat butterwort leaves. Don't ask.... If you haven't been to the Junior museum lately, go check out the new outdoor setup. A week or two ago there were no plants in it, but basically they've construted a 3' X 6' X 4' (approx.) wire and plastic covered case to protect the plants. >> >>My most successful plant has been D. capensis. They grow so well >>that they are almost weedy. I have raised about 20 mature plants from >>seed and have given away many of them to friends who have shown interest >>in CPs. Capensis a is a great plant. Hardy, easy to reproduce, and it looks neat. Also catches a lot of bugs. I saw a capensis and D. binata multifida in the window of an ice cream shop up at Fishermans Wharf in SF. ################### From: Robert.Allen@Eng.Sun.COM (Ninja Squirrel Master) Date: Sat, 15 Feb 92 19:49:28 PST Subject: Trip to California Carnivores. I and my squeeze braved (and I do mean BRAVED) the winter storms and drove up to see Peter D'Amatos business today. Since the plants are starting to come up this visit was slightly more exciting than the winter trip Scott and I took. Scott, Peter has moved his home greenhouse into the big greenhouse, in the back-middle where he used to have a bunch of plants on racks. Inside he's put all his lowland nepenthes and other warm-loving plants. It's pretty nice. And now the area at the edge of the greenhouse which used to have the hot-area is totally clear; soon to be filled. He's hung up about a dozen or more potted D. binata multifidas overhead. And finally, he's reroofed the big greenhouse with fiberglass panels. The whole place seems a lot roomier and nicer now, and should be great when spring comes. Lots of his tuberous collection was up, and it looked very nice. I hope my tubers look half as nice. I saw something which I'd never heard about; the details of how new tubers form from undergound stolons. One of the tuberosities had put out lateral stolons ABOVE ground. It looked very alien. I bought a couple of plants for my planned bog garden, and more importantly, 2 years worth of back issues of CPN for $10.00 per year. There is a box of unused back issues which Peter is selling for CPN. I may buy more if I can afford it. I got the issue on D. petiolaris complex, which has lots of good stuff, and an issue about photographing your CP by a buy named Barry Meyers-Rice. I noted also a Mr. Maharaj with a want ad, and a mention of this group when it was only 3-4 people. Should I announce it at the BACPS meeting next week? Davin, I checked out Peters indoor bog garden. What he has is a rectangular setup on a table, with about 8" high wooden edges, plastic lined. In the back are some tall Sarracenia species, and in the front are VFTs, and some low sarracenia. Several little hillocks about 2-3" above the soil level were heavily planted with rosetted drosera and pygmies. The media seemed to be peat/perlite, with some live moss here and there. It looked nice. Tomorrow I go shopping for some plastic tubs. Robert ################### From: Scott Brown Date: Wed, 19 Feb 92 21:26:43 EST XSubject: Re: Trip to California Carnivores. > Strange. Many of my Sarracenia are showing signs of awakening for the > season (flower stalks appearing and new roots growing) and it's only Two of my Sarracenia's started awakening a couple of weeks ago and are growing quickly. Since this is my first winter growing these, I have no past experience to compare with. Hey, I'm just happy they didn't die in their sleep. I have been quiet lately because I have been trying to finish my thesis. I should have it turned in within a few days and then I can get back to the CP that I have been neglecting lately. I have lots of Drosera seedlings that need transplanting. Michael gave me some seeds when I visited ASU last May and I now have good sized plants from almost all of them. I did not have the patience to refrigerate them as I had read somewhere so I am especially glad that they germinated. They have spent their brief life in a plastic tray with one of those clear dome covers. The whole thing is under fluorescent lights and is very low maintanence. I had a little trouble with fungus early on but managed to clear that up with some benomyl. Before transplanting them into pots, I think I will gradually remove the dome so as not to give them ``humidity shock". I have had some friends express interest so I will give many of them away. If anybody is interested in some of these, I will post a list of what I have extras of (probably mostly common stuff). Speaking of seeds, I have been surprised at how fast the drosera have matured. How long do other CP take to mature (from germination to flowering sized plants)? I recently heard sombody say that the local orchids here in NJ (slipper orchids) can take 8--12 years from seed to flower. No wonder you don't see people hybridizing these. How would you like to make a hybrid, nurture it for 11 years and then get hit by a truck before the flower opens. But enough about my phobias. Plants are growing well in general, U. sandersonii is in continuous flower and overgrowing the pots. Does this plant ever not have flowers? I'm very proud that I have had some live sphagnum growing for quite a while now. It seems that my plants have greatly appreciated my new, and improved light setup. Rick, welcome to the group from a fellow bay arean. I grew up in Burlingame and am in NJ for grad school. Don't know when I will return to Calif. I guess that depends on who wants to hire me. Robert, you mentioned buying some Dionae. Shortly after I saw you in December, I bought a couple of Dionae at Orchard Supply hardware in Millbrae. They were largest ones I have seen for sale (at a reasonable price) and seemed in good shape. You might want to check a local Orchard Supply before buying any. Scott ################### From: Robert.Allen@Eng.Sun.COM (Ninja Squirrel Master) Date: Sun, 16 Feb 92 23:13:54 PST Subject: Re: bog garden plans >>I just bought a large terra-cotta colored plastic pot from the "Tree-Farm" >>nursery on El Camino. It's on the west side of the street a couple >>blocks before San Antonio Avenue in Palo Alto. >> >>These are the same containers that I have seen Peter D'Amato using for >>his bog gardens. They are about 12" high, and about 50" in diameter. >>The whole thing is sort of "Wok" shaped with a rim. There is a drain >>hole in the bottom which comes with a rubber stopper. This should be >>convenient for periodically flushing out salt build-up. I've looked at these, but the problem with them is that the deeper rooted plants must go near the center, and only shallow rooted plants can go around the edge. However, the Acro-Mills plastic window boxes are GREAT for mass plantings. BTW, Tree Farm is an OK place, but some of their prices are a bit high. Woolworths garden center on the corner of Middlefield and San Antonio has the same stuff, plus some neat square plastic planters. I prefer square containers because they are easier to situate up near a fence, etc. Rounde ones are harder to make optimal use of space with (which is why I prefer square pots). I currently have one undrained window box with Dionea, D. intermedia, S. rubra, S. psittacina, and some pings, and another with some Aussie CP, and they've worked well, particularly with a small pot buried in the soil to keep an eye on water level. Next weekend I hope to pick up some cheap sundews or butterwords (N. American species) for my mass planting. >>I also bought a regular terra-cotta pot to upend and use as a base >>for the bog planter. I'm hoping it will discourage the ninja squirrels >>from jumping up and partying.... Don't bet on it. You may well have to resort to a chicken wire cage. Also, try human hair. And don't forget, the bluejays can be worse than the squirrels. BTW, I was just at Tower Video and found a VHS tape (the last one as far as I could see) of Death Trap, the CP video by PBS. I just watched it and it has some beautiful footage of VFTs, aldrovanda, utrics, and drosera. I had forgotten how FAST utric traps work. Amazing. My appreciation for utrics is renewed. I need to get an American Terrestrial species for my bog garden... r. ################### From: barry@as.arizona.edu (Barry Meyers-Rice) Date: Tue, 18 Feb 92 16:28:16 MST XSubject: Re: bog garden plans Hey: You might be interested to know that D. `Esperance' has been described as D. seargentii. > D. petiolaris complex, which has lots of good stuff, and an issue > about photographing your CP by a buy named Barry Meyers-Rice. I *** (and my wife says I was a bargain) > noted also a Mr. Maharaj with a want ad, and a mention of this > group when it was only 3-4 people. Should I announce it at the > BACPS meeting next week? Sure! Why not? Strange. Many of my Sarracenia are showing signs of awakening for the season (flower stalks appearing and new roots growing) and it's only mid February. This is about 2---4 weeks early for me. Those I promised Sarrs to should expect them in the mail in about 2 or three weeks, unless you want to risk shocking them with an earlier awakening. My seeds from last year's crosses are starting to germinate too. Funny how the mature plants and the seedlings both wake up at the same time. Also my North American Pings are starting to flower. I'm getting scapes on my pumila forms, ionantha, planifolia, caerulea, and primuliflora. Zillions of chasmogamous U. subulata scapes coming up in my Sarr pots too. Ah, spring! OK, here's a good project for everyone. There are some who say that viable crosses exist between such widely separated plants as D. rotundifolia and D. capensis, and also between D. capensis and D. aliciae. This is not so impossible as it may first seem, since D. spatulata can cross with D. anglica (hence D. X `Nagamoto' and D. X `Watari'), and many crosses exist amoung the various U.S. species (rotundifolia X intermedia, intermedia X filiformis, etc). Anyone interested in trying this? I'm certainly going to try the D. capensis X aliciae cross this year---both are certainly free flowering enough. The trick would be to de-anther the mother plant carefully enough. Then look for D. aliciae-like plants coming up from capensis-borne seeds and visa versa. Should be interesting. I've even seen a photo of the purported cross in an old CPN. Anyone other than Rob M and I with S. rubra alabamensis of flowering size? An interesting observation from last year was that while representative individuals from all the Sarr species flowered for me last year (except my S. oreophila's), S. rubra alabamensis did not produce pollen---just empty anthers. This happened also to Gordon Snelling (Southern California) and Paul McMillan (Nogales Arizona). Keep your eyes open---this is clearly an indication of the coming armageddon! BAMR ################### From: Robert.Allen@Eng.Sun.COM (Ninja Squirrel Master) Date: Sat, 29 Feb 92 21:29:13 PST Subject: Re: CP update... My news: * D. regia seed from lowrie is germinating. It was planted on 2/5/92, and today I noticed 2 germinations. * N. boissiense has shown the first pitcher from a bud at soil level (this on a 2' vine). It's a ground pitchers, and looks a bit like N. rafflesiana. Thin lip though. * D. binata dichomata "Giant" has come out of dormany, and is sending up some real tall leaves. Big. Neat. * N. mirabilis outside is doing OK. Some plantlets showed withering at the edges of the leaves. I think this may be from too much water rather than cold, so I've backed off on the water. * Repotted some D. hamiltonii plantlets. I've had this species in peat/sand under a layer of live moss, and it hasn't been growing very aggressively, so I transplanted some small plants which Barry sent me last year (remember?) into straight peat/sand. * D. falconeri are growing slowly, under lights, at work. I don't believe this species is easy, despite what Lowrie wrote in CPN. Maybe they're going dormant. D. petiolaris seedling (pygmy sized) is doing great under the same conditions, and petiolaris aff. "Kununuura" is doing good as well, AFER I repotted it in a peatier peat/perlite w/ peat top dressing. The previous mix had too much perlite, and the plant didn't do well with that. I think perlite is an OK substitute for sand, but you should have more like a 60/40 peat/perlite mix at least, not 50/50. Robert ################### From: barry@as.arizona.edu (Barry Meyers-Rice) Date: Mon, 2 Mar 92 16:48:23 MST XSubject: Re: CP update... >Someone was asking about germination of the N Fusca and Tentaculata from the >seed bank. I haven't had much luck; I haven't had any germinations. >I have seen a herbarium sheet of D. madagascarensis. It looked like D. >anglica to me. The photograph of it in Kondo makes it look like the stemmy forms of D. intermedia. Now we have a real mix of answers! >Barry, I don't think CPN ever printed a picture of a P. cyclosecta flower, >or to my recollection have ever described it. I'll look in my notes. But until then I'm looking in a catalogue I just got from Marston Exotics (England) and they describe cyclosecta's flowers as being mallow. This Marston Exotics catalogue is interesting. The conversion from pounds (&) to US simolians ($) is about &1=$2.25 I think. Anyway, some prices... D. aliciae &4.3, D. capillaris &4.3, D. filiformis (X californica) &8.20, All pretty high! The highest price I saw is for S. oreophila @ &29.50! I find these prices also strange in that H. nutans and common Sarracenia all all priced at about &15. >* Repotted some D. hamiltonii plantlets. I've had this species Remember this winter I got all panicky because my plants died back? I took root cuttings as insurance (all growing well) and was relieved when they resumed growth? Well, something very good must have happened in all this because EVERY ONE of the original plants are producing scapes! I'm pretty thrilled, since photos of the flowers look big and lovely. >* D. falconeri are growing slowly, under lights, at work. I Well Mister Allen, my petiolaris `Kununurra' is in 50/50 peat/perlite and doing great. BAMR ################### From: dngess01 (Don) Date: Tue, 3 Mar 92 23:04:40 -0500 Subject: CP Nepenthes and watering: I grow all my Nepenthes in peat/perlite. I wouldn't advise letting them sit in water. If the humidity is high, it shouldn't need watering more than once a week. If they still dry out too fast, try adding more peat moss the next time you pot the plants. If the soil looks waterlogged at any time, I would repot immediately and put more perlite in the mixture. It's hard to find just the right ratio to give a soil that is neither too wet or too dry. Even for Drosera, my opinion is that letting them sit in water is more a convenience to the grower. All plants like plenty of oxygen in the soil and near the roots, and too much water drives the oxygen out. It may be ok if the water the plants are sitting in is refilled often with fresh water, but if the evaporation rate is low, the water will get stagnant . The smell is from anaerobic bacteria I seem to recall - that is bacteria that grows in absence of oxygen. Robert, it is ok now to send the seeds and D. falconeri any time. Try sending them near the beginning of the week so they won't sit someplace all day Sunday. Temperatures have been in the 70's for several days now. Barry, what kinds of Nepenthes does Marston sell? Any discounts for spending over a certain amount? I wouldn't mind buying a Heliamphora. We could get together for another mass purchase. ################### From: Robert.Allen@Eng.Sun.COM (Ninja Squirrel Master) Date: Wed, 4 Mar 92 08:37:58 PST Subject: Re: CP >>The smell >>is from anaerobic bacteria I seem to recall - that is bacteria that grows >>in absence of oxygen. Hmm. I`ll have to follow the "drain the plants for a day or so every week or three" regimen and see if that works out. 'Have to be careful 'though. >> >>Barry, what kinds of Nepenthes does Marston sell? Any discounts for >>spending over a certain amount? I wouldn't mind buying a Heliamphora. >>We could get together for another mass purchase. If you order H. I'd make sure it's shipped in the pot, not bare root. H. roots are notoriously brittle, and if they break the plants are a pain to re-root. Maries' also had H., and it was about $50.00 a plant as I recall. r. ################### From: Robert.Allen@Eng.Sun.COM (Ninja Squirrel Master) Date: Wed, 4 Mar 92 13:24:05 PST Subject: Re: Utric Question >>I am thinking ahead to spring and summer, and would like to, if possible, >>use aquatic utrics to control the problem of mosquito larvae growing >>in the few cm of water my CP pots stand in. So, since I know next to >>nothing about utrics, maybe you guys have some input: >> >>The main concern, I think, is that the bladders must be large enough to >>trap and kill the damn 'skeeter larvae. Are there species that fit >>the bill? Secondly, I guess I need a species that can tolerate heat >>and sun pretty well, since the water will get a lot of sun and thus be >>very warm, even hot maybe, on a hot sunny summer day. >> >>So, am I asking for the moon here or what?? Any and all suggestions would >>be welcome. I've considered the same thing myself. However there are a couple of problems that even non-taxonmist, seat of the pants growers like myself can see right off the bat: 1) slime - this stuf grows in the water in the trays and can suffocate the utrics. The only answer would be to build a surge tray type of setup with a recirculating water pump. 2) water depth. Usually trays only get 1" or water or less, which doesn't seem like enough. What about taking a plastic strawberry basket and filling it with terrestrial utrics? Might this be good enough? I'm not sure if there are any non-tropical terrestrials with big enough traps however. Regarding trap size, Lees lists (I think) U. purpurea as an aquatic with big traps, for sale. Based on what I saw in "DeathTrap", even small bladders can trap and kill a larger larva, even if they can't digest the whole thing. >> >>BTW, I got Lee's catalog yesterday, too. If I can scrape up a few $$, I'd >>like to buy a couple new Nepenthes this spring. I kinda figure Lee's >>or Orgel's orchids is my best bet. Anyone have a recent Orgel's Orchids >>catalog? Mine is over a year old. Maries CP and Orchids sells some rare Nepenthes, but they aren't cheap. Chuck Powell has also mentioned that he may be getting some tissue cultured rare Nepenthes for sale this year. Orgels and Lees are the best bets still I guess. Or try Gordon. r. ################### From: MAHARAJ@MCMASTER.BITNET Date: Wed, 4 Mar 92 13:24:05 PST Subject: Allen Lowrie Letter/Neat Seed Additions I just received a letter from Allen Lowrie in which he gave some useful hints regarding tuberous Drosera culture. I thought that the email gang would be interested in supplementing their own notes, so here it is: "Plenty of light. Fertilization (Miracid N.P.K. 10-10-10( is good in weak strenghts. *Don't* stand pots in water....keep just moist...soil mix well drained. 50/50 sand/peat or even 80/20 sand/peat. They will grow in pure sand. no worries also. When they die from surface...reduce watering *slowly* and over **2 months** until **bone dry**..." His seed update list (at 26/02/92) also has some neat stuff: D. collinsiae "Faryland" D. hilaris D. indica "Japan" D. lanata D. myriantha D. pauciflora "Yellow Flower" D. radicans D. ramentacea D. species "Small White Flower, South Africa" D. species "4" (South Africa) D. sessilifolia (Brasil) D. species (South Africa) - vigorous rosettes 2 cm, like D. dielsiana D. species "Auyan Tepui, South America" D. trinervia "Gifberg, S.A." D. trinervia "Pakhuispas, S.A." D. trinervia "Picketberg, S.A." D. villosa "Camino do Mar, Brasil" D. zeheri "Red and Pink Flowering Forms" Roridula dentata Roridula gorgonias P. alpina P. balcanica P. leptoceras D. capillaris "Giant" (USA) D. capensis "Crestate Form" plus other Drosera, Utrics (U. simplex), Nepenthes and Sarrs. Since the seed are listed as additions recently (26/02/92), they are presumably fresh and in the most viable state for germination. Seed packet are $3 AUS plus $7.50 AUS for P&H. All for now, Rob M. ################### From: barry@as.arizona.edu (Barry Meyers-Rice) Date: Mon, 16 Mar 92 16:01:14 MST XSubject: Re: Allen Lowrie Letter/Neat Seed Additions A good weekend for my plants! I got germination on my U. westonii and U. simplex from Allen. U. westonii is sort of an intermediate species between the subgenera Utricularia and Polypompholyx in Genus Utricularia. I had a long phone call with a guy named John Hummer, who runs Acid-Wetland Plants in Virginia. Don Schnell had recommended him as a good Sarracenia person. He seems to know his stuff. His catalogue is interesting and worth the $1.50. Also I got an excellent clone of P.lutea and S. psitticina `Giant' from Brucie Bender. I got this once before but before I really knew what I was doing with Sarrs and it rotted out on me. I was impressed when I opened the box. Leaves 8" long (mostly due to the pitcher tube), a very large globose hood that had a very interesting keel-shaped ridge to it. My wife looked at it and with her limited familiarity with CPs said, "It looks like it has part Cobra lily in it." That comment sums up its appearance very well. I did not find any indication it might be a hybrid. My bet is that in my typical Sarracenia culture it will revert to normal S. psitticina form. So, Mistuh Baumgartner, How long have you been growing your `giant' and does it seem particularly, er, giant? BAMR ################### From: barry@as.arizona.edu (Barry Meyers-Rice) Date: Thu, 9 Apr 92 11:19:29 MST XSubject: Re: Allen Lowrie Letter/Neat Seed Additions I've finally gotten some CP energy up and am planning out another Utric article for CPN (those of you who have received copies of my "Focusing on Utricularia---U. calycifida; prehensilis; uniflora; lateriflora/delicatula" are possibly cringing at the thought of Barry-gone-pedantic again). This one is on U. gibba (aka exoleta, biflora, sometimes fibrosa). I found out something surprising...U. gibba occurs in Hawaii. Earl, other than the Drosera, are you familiar with other local CP? BAMR ################### From: Rick Walker Date: Thu, 09 Apr 92 12:24:50 PDT XSubject: Re: Allen Lowrie Letter/Neat Seed Additions I went to California Carnivores this weekend and got five new plants: D. rotundifolia D. anglica D. alicia D. burmaneii P. esseriana The first 2 are old standards, but I didn't have them yet, so they are still fun. The alicia has is a beautiful 2" diameter rosette, bright red, with a 4" uncoiling flower scape. I'm looking forward to this one blooming. Does anyone know if it will self-pollinate? The D. burmaneii (sp?) is reported to be an annual that I should definitely try to collect seed from. It is really a juicy, succulent plant about 2" in diameter, with very long (1/2") tentacles on the outer margin of the leaf. I haven't seen it yet, but this sundew is supposed to have the fastest acting trapping mechanism, with the outer fingers closing in about 60 seconds. (fast enough to visually see motion). The Pinguicula esseriana is an interesting one. It forms small pale whitish-green-grey rosettes (1/2" dia) with slightly cup-shaped leaves, that look remarkably like the "hen-and-chicks plant". According to Peter, the succulent leaves are very easy rooters, putting up new growth at the base of the severed leaf. I'm looking forward to getting a colony of these things going. All in all, I spent about $35, or about $7.00/plant, which seems very reasonable since most of the pots have 5-6 small plants in them. Rick Walker ################### From: dngess01@vlsi.ct.louisville.edu (Don) Date: Thu, 9 Apr 92 23:03:07 -0400 Subject: Re: CP Does Don Schnell ever mention his Heliamphora? His Heliamphora article I loaned you mentioned he was successful in getting lots of seed from his plants. Ever try to beg him to send you any Heliamphora seeds? I STILL haven't received my new CPN either. Bob Ziemer used to compile a list of names with the species each was growing. The way he did it was to list the grower's names and addresses in the first half, numbering them in alphabetical order. The second half consisted of CP species, each species listed the numbers associated with the person who was growing that species. There would be a circle around the number if the person had that species for trade, an underlined number meant the grower had seed of that species to offer, etc. -- Rick Walker ################### From: s883351@minyos.xx.rmit.OZ.AU (John Taylor [The Banshee]) Date: Fri, 10 Apr 92 22:34:11 +0000 XSubject: Re: CP >The Pinguicula esseriana is an interesting one. It forms small pale >whitish-green-grey rosettes (1/2" dia) with slightly cup-shaped leaves, >that look remarkably like the "hen-and-chicks plant". According to Peter, >the succulent leaves are very easy rooters, putting up new growth at the >base of the severed leaf. I'm looking forward to getting a colony of these >things going. Hmm, sounds like our "species nova #4", (bought as something else...). Let me know what the flowers look like when/if it does. Ours only produce 1 per rosette just before they enter dormancy. BTW, in case I haven't mentioned it before, the D. intermedia "Cuba" seedlings have just produced their first flowers - very promising. Hopefully they will survive the winter and continue to increase in size. ################### From: dngess01@vlsi.ct.louisville.edu (Don) Date: Sat, 11 Apr 92 01:22:43 -0400 Subject: new CPN I finally got the new CPN today (Friday). Notice that the captions for the photos on the front and rear covers should be switched. I liked that one line in the S. alata article: "The flora is mainly graminoid with wetland forbs ..." ################### From: Davin Date: Sat, 11 Apr 92 16:08:37 EDT Subject: stuff Hey, I got germination on my drosophyllum. The seedlings have got the distinctive 'outward-curling' look about them. Hey, how dry should I let the soil become for this plant? I know it likes it dry and I have it double potted, but should I let the peat become light brown? Also on an up note, I got germination for N. fusca from the seed bank. Now I have N. maxima and fusca. Gee, what a variety of pitchers types. ;-) On the down side, I put some plants outside a few days ago and the temperature dipped to about 35F. Everybody was shocked, but only an unID'd african drosera actually bit it. Something nibbled on the S. flava 'Maxima' flower as well. Grrrr... Here's something off the beaten track: I'm going to try my hand at killifish. Got a guy from the net to send me a pair through the mail. Should get here any day now. I'll keep you guys posted. ################### From: dngess01@vlsi.ct.louisville.edu (Don) Date: Sat, 11 Apr 92 17:03:22 -0400 Subject: Re: new CPN On second thought, the captions on the new CPN, I think ought to be D. petiolaris "Kununurra" for the front, and D. petiolaris "type" for the back. I thought D. lanata and D. petiolaris "type" have similar-shaped leaves, but D. lanata has prostrate leaves while D. petiolaris "type" has erect leaves. ################### From: barry@as.arizona.edu (Barry Meyers-Rice) Date: Sun, 12 Apr 92 18:52:53 MST XSubject: Re: new CPN >still fun. The alicia has is a beautiful 2" diameter rosette, bright red, >with a 4" uncoiling flower scape. I'm looking forward to this one >blooming. Does anyone know if it will self-pollinate? Yeah, and it will proceed to shake the seeds all over into your other pots. Beware! I usually do not let my cappys, spathies, alicae, or capensis flower for this reason! >Does Don Schnell ever mention his Heliamphora? His Heliamphora article I >loaned you mentioned he was successful in getting lots of seed from >his plants. Ever try to beg him to send you any Heliamphora seeds? Never mentioned them. I would turn down the seeds if he offered them since my growing conditions are too warm. Or, more probably, I'd take them but would tell him I'd distribute them to growers in cooler climes. Oh oh. LISTEN UP! If any of you ever got any S. oreophila seedlings from me that I said came from Don Schnell, BEWARE! One of them is starting to produce pitchers with broadly flared erect pitcher lids---clear sign of S. purpurea influence. Looks like some accidental hybridization in Don S.'s G-house. I'll take him to task next time I write him. Now I'm eyeing my other CP seeds from him! This sort of irritates me. On the other hand, any S. oreophila seedlings you might have gotten from me, from Paul McMillan's crosses, still look good to me. Getting germination of some interesting forms of D. capensis from Allen Lowrie, such as a couple `Giant' forms. Rick: Not to throw water on the fire regarding your excellent CP-list idea, but (quite humbly) I've got a friggin huge CP list (well, at least 250+ entries of species, varieties, hybrids, etc.) and the idea of typing all this stuff in is sort of scarey. Now, granted it is already on this very computer, but it is in TEX format {which is ascii but with lots of extra characters} as anyone unfortunate enough to ask for this file from me knows! Also, it changes on a weekly basis with germinations, deaths, etc. etc. I don't know how to get around these problems. Keeping own list up to date for me is a job enough as it is! I was doing some major landscaping today. My wife and I removed this old weed-vine from part of the house---woody stem 4" across at the base. Anyway, this kooky woman next door (who wouldn't prune a bush---hurt it so!---if her life depended on it) came over and said, "OH NO! You're cutting down that poor plant! What gives you that right! Who do you think you are!" I looked at her and said, "Well as far as that plant is concerned, God, I guess." She was stunned by my response. She practically burst into tears as she hustled back into her house (probably to feed her 8 cats). My pleasure had no bounds. BAMR ################### From: dngess01@vlsi.ct.louisville.edu (Don) Date: Sun, 12 Apr 92 23:13:09 -0400 Subject: CP In reading over the previous articles, there was mention of premature death of D. glanduligera plants. Mine have all croaked just as they were putting up flower stalks! I had four plants - I cut the flower stalk off just as it was forming on the last plant when I saw the first plant had died when it was just about to open its first flower. This last plant then appeared to be a little healthier than the rest, but it eventually just died like the other three. What's the deal with U. nephrophylla and U. reniformis? The current CPN says U. nephrophylla has small leaves and U. reniformis has large leaves. I have a plant labelled U. nephrophylla (I think from Barry) that has large leaves at least 4 cm. in diameter. The article in CPN says U. nephrophylla has small leaves not larger than 1 cm. in diameter. My D. falconeri are growing strong. They looked to be dormant when I got them from Robert Allen, but they started growing when I put a plastic bag over the top of the pot. There is no lamina yet - just a little hairy knob at the end of the petiole, but they appear to be in good shape. ################### From: barry@as.arizona.edu (Barry Meyers-Rice) Date: Sun, 12 Apr 92 20:26:57 MST XSubject: Re: CP >What's the deal with U. nephrophylla and U. reniformis? The current >CPN says U. nephrophylla has small leaves and U. reniformis has large >leaves. I have a plant labelled U. nephrophylla (I think from Barry) >that has large leaves at least 4 cm. in diameter. The article in CPN >says U. nephrophylla has small leaves not larger than 1 cm. in >diameter. As nearly everyone knows, I get longwinded esp. regarding Utricularia. So I'll keep this very short. Aside from a variety of other differences between the two species (steady boy, no reason to enumerate them!) U. reniformis has much larger leaves than nephrophylla, as least if grown well. While U. nephrophylla's leaves rarely get much bigger than 3 cm across (the big leaves you're getting are quite admirable), the leaves of reniformis can get large enough to cover a good fraction of your computer screen! (Unless you're using a sun, then maybe a typical window). I'd like to say more, but I better not. My clone of U. reniformis is recently acquired, and is pondering if life is worth living. The stolons are thick and crisp, like fresh mung bean sprouts. BAMR Wow! That was short! ################### From: Robert.Allen@Eng.Sun.COM (Ninja Squirrel Master) Date: Mon, 13 Apr 92 09:14:05 PDT Subject: Re: CP >> >>My D. falconeri are growing strong. They looked to be dormant when I >>got them from Robert Allen, but they started growing when I put a >>plastic bag over the top of the pot. There is no lamina yet - just a >>little hairy knob at the end of the petiole, but they appear to be in >>good shape. Could you enumerate your water/temp for this species? Mine has gone dormant and has not come back out of it, and it seems that my falconeri X d.p. is cutting back on growth also. I'm thinking that they aren't happy with my 50 degree nighttime temps.... r. ################### From: ATLAS@JHUVMS.HCF.JHU.EDU Date: Mon, 13 Apr 1992 16:53 EST XSubject: Re: CP Davin, from what I've heard about Drosophyllum seedlings, supposedly you shouldn't let the medium get dry when the seedlings are young...once they get to be a decent size (like in a few months), then you can let the soil become relatively dry. I have had success this way, but my oldest plant is only about 8 months old, so you might want to seek advice from more experienced growers. Oh, yeah, I might be interested in a cutting from your N Maxima. Stupid question: is N Maxima a hybrid? Of what species? Is it a biggie, as its name implies? doug ################### From: Davin Date: Mon, 13 Apr 92 17:22:30 EDT XSubject: Re: CP N. maxima is a rather fast growing species with green mottled w/red pitchers about 6-10" under my conditions. The one that I have I got from Orgel's Orchids about year ago. I think that it's supposed to be a highland, but mine is going great guns under temps about 80F day and 60-70F night. I have it growing in live sphagnum. Now, I haven't rooted the plant. In fact, I haven't even cut it yet. I hope that it'll be OK to send it through the mail using the chop-and-ship method. ################### From: ATLAS@JHUVMS.HCF.JHU.EDU Date: Mon, 13 Apr 1992 17:38 EST Subject: N Maxima cutting Davin, The chop and ship method is okay, I suppose, but I have never had a try at Nepenthes cuttings. I have the technology (live sphag, rootone), so you think it's worth a try? If you think it's risky, maybe someone else could benefit more than myself from the cutting. doug ################### From: Robert.Allen@Eng.Sun.COM (Ninja Squirrel Master) Date: Mon, 13 Apr 92 14:45:10 PDT Subject: Re: N Maxima cutting >>Davin, >> >>The chop and ship method is okay, I suppose, but I have never had a try >>at Nepenthes cuttings. I have the technology (live sphag, rootone), so >>you think it's worth a try? If you think it's risky, maybe someone else >>could benefit more than myself from the cutting. Go for it, it's not hard if you have a terrarium with even halfway decent humidity. I've tried rooting two cuttings in the past year. The first one, I think from Michael, eventually rotted. It was two nodes as I recall, and appeared to be a terminal cutting from a previously truncated plant, which had activated a dormant node. Anyhow I trimmed about 1/8" off the cut end to get fresh plant area, dipped it in rootone, and stuffed it in a ventilated styrofoam cup full of live spahgnum. After many months it hadn't done much. Eventually it rotted, at which time I found out that an ant colony was living in the cup. To this day I have three relevant opinions: 1) don't ventilate the cup too much, just put some drainage holes in it, 2) don't bother using rootone, and 3) leave about 1/2" of the leaf on each leaf. The cutting I had had VERY thin leaves, only about 1/4" wide, and maybe this was part of the problem. I've since rooted a cutting from Don. I just trimmed the end, stuffed it in a cup of moss in my terrarium, and left it alone, pouring some water in the top of the cup, to drain through and out the bottom, when the moss looked dry. It's now rooted and activating several nodes. It's easy to do, or at least, if it fails it won't necessarily be because you blew it. Some root, and some don't. Don't let the moss get soggy. And DON'T pull on the cutting to see if it's rooted. You'll know if it's rooted when the leaf nodes start sprouting. IMHO of course. r. ################### From: dngess01@vlsi.ct.louisville.edu (Don) Date: Mon, 13 Apr 92 18:46:28 -0400 Subject: D. falconeri >Could you enumerate your water/temp for this species? Mine has gone dormant >and has not come back out of it, and it seems that my falconeri X d.p. is >cutting back on growth also. I'm thinking that they aren't happy with my >50 degree nighttime temps.... > >r. > I have them under flourescent lights, about 5 inches from the bulbs of a two-bulb fixture. The lights are on 18 hours a day. They are both in the same plastic pot - about 8" in diameter and about 6" deep. The temperature is in the low 70's when the lights are on, and goes down to the low 60's when the lights are off. The cover on the Sept-Dec 1990 CPN shows D. falconeri growing in habitat. The soil looks sort of sandy, so I used a mixture of equal parts sand, perlite, and peat moss. When the plant's weren't growing, this soil was just barely damp. I started adding a little water when the plants started growing. I'll keep the plastic bag over the pot as long as the plants seem to like it and there doesn't seem to be any mold growing. ################### From: barry@as.arizona.edu (Barry Meyers-Rice) Date: Mon, 13 Apr 92 20:05:04 MST XSubject: Re: D. falconeri >Davin, from what I've heard about Drosophyllum seedlings, supposedly you >shouldn't let the medium get dry when the seedlings are young...once they >get to be a decent size (like in a few months), then you can let the >soil become relatively dry. I have had success this way, but my oldest I've moderately familiar with this plant, and your advice is quite sound... Incidentally, before I dirty Don Schnell's name with rumours of S. oreophila and S. purpurea mix-ups, note that this sort of thing can just happen to the best of us! All you need is a less than perfect situation and a rogue pollinator (even wind) could screw things up. Also, it might have happened at the seed bank. Also, possibly a seed from one of my pots might have gotten into another pot (water splashes?). Some of my D. falconeri are trying to flower. I nipped those in the bud pronto. Also on the petiolaris front. I planted my falconeri/lanata/petiolaris plants in peat, peat/sand, or peat/perlite. Some are doing much better than others, but it is NOT correlated with soil mix. I.E. 1 falconeri in peat/sand is doing well, but of the two in pure peat one is doing great, the other poorly. So I don't think soil mix is too important yet. At least for my growing conditions. BAMR ################### From: Davin Date: Tue, 14 Apr 92 17:49:19 EDT Subject: Re: N Maxima cutting > > What are the temp rqmts. for Maxima? > > r. I grow it at about 80F day/ 70F night and its going gangbusters. Of course, this is at very high humidity in a terrarium. Its right under 4 4' fluorescents .. ################### From: Rick Walker Date: Tue, 14 Apr 92 16:37:19 PDT Subject: D.Capensis (thin-leaved) Robert, It's been awhile since we traded some plants... Has the D. capensis I gave you started to fatten-up like your other plants? I'm really curious to know if it really is a thin-leaved form, or if the difference is simply environmental. I talked with Peter D'Amato about the difference between the thin and regular-leaved capensis. His experience was that the thin-leaved form: 1) Had thinner leaves :-), 2) Always remained a low-rosette, and never developed a long stalk built of dead leaves, 3) was difficult to get seed from. The capensis that I have looks distinctly thinner and more delicate than what I've seen elsewhere, but my year-old plants have developed about 3/4" of a "trunk", and reseed like crazy... Does anyone else have any experience with ID'ing these things? (The reason I want to know is that Peter said that he would trade for my plants if they were thin-leaved, but that he was otherwise not interested) I'm planning to take a plant with me when Peter is down for the Palo Alto Junior Museum CP-show. Here's a run-down on the plants I got from you: I repotted the D. auriculata seedlings (marked from Bros. Taylor) in 50/50 sand/peat, and put them 16 to a pot on roughly 1/2" centers. They are just now breaking out of the basal rosette form and starting to climb. I've got them in a 2 3/4" pot. Do you think they need a deeper pot for tuber development the first season? The D. adeleae have put out two or three new leaves, and turned a nice red, but hasn't really taken off yet. I think I may lose the two D. hamiltonii. They haven't done much at all. They are in the original pot in my terrarium under four 4' fluorescents. I have them standing in 1/4" water. Temps from 60-70 F. Both the N. mirabilis seedlings and the mirabilis x ted payne have put out a few new pitchers and are looking pretty happy. The U. gramminifolia has filled up the pot, but the praelonga is really going slowly. I can just now start to see some new leaf development. Hopefully, it is doing a lot of work underground :-). -- Rick ################### From: Robert.Allen@Eng.Sun.COM (Ninja Squirrel Master) Date: Tue, 14 Apr 92 23:33:45 PDT Subject: Re: D.Capensis (thin-leaved) >>It's been awhile since we traded some plants... Has the D. capensis >>I gave you started to fatten-up like your other plants? I'm really >>curious to know if it really is a thin-leaved form, or if the difference >>is simply environmental. I definately don't think it's environmental. The plant looks pretty much identical to the way it did when you gave it to me, except it maybe has some more leaves. It reminds me of a what a mature D. capensis "red" looks like, except it's yellow. >> >>Here's a run-down on the plants I got from you: >> >>I repotted the D. auriculata seedlings (marked from Bros. Taylor) in >>50/50 sand/peat, and put them 16 to a pot on roughly 1/2" centers. They >>are just now breaking out of the basal rosette form and starting to >>climb. I've got them in a 2 3/4" pot. Do you think they need a deeper >>pot for tuber development the first season? Heck if I know. I'd leave them alone now and see if they come back next year from tubers. >> >>The D. adeleae have put out two or three new leaves, and turned a nice red, >>but hasn't really taken off yet. Barry can make many comments about this species :-). >> >>I think I may lose the two D. hamiltonii. They haven't done much at >>all. They are in the original pot in my terrarium under four 4' >>fluorescents. I have them standing in 1/4" water. Temps from 60-70 F. These things sometimes go dormant, or die back, and then come back from the thick underground roots. Some of my plantlets, originally from Barry, look like you describe, but another from the same group is putting up new, dewey, leaves. This plant is listed as tuberous, but is also ack'ed not to form tubers. All I can say is that it grows in wierd cyclces, and seems to not form much dew on the leaves. >> >>Both the N. mirabilis seedlings and the mirabilis x ted payne have put out >>a few new pitchers and are looking pretty happy. >> >>The U. gramminifolia has filled up the pot, but the praelonga is really >>going slowly. I can just now start to see some new leaf development. >>Hopefully, it is doing a lot of work underground :-). My praelonga isn't doing much either. Maybe it needs truly steamy jungle conditions. As for the g., I'm not surprised. What a weed. Now if it would only flower. Robert ################### From: Robert.Allen@Eng.Sun.COM (Ninja Squirrel Master) Date: Wed, 15 Apr 92 11:13:14 PDT Subject: Re: N Maxima cutting >>> >>> What are the temp rqmts. for Maxima? >>> >>> r. >> >>I grow it at about 80F day/ 70F night and its going gangbusters. Of course, >>this is at very high humidity in a terrarium. Its right under 4 4' Hmmm. It sounds like it might not be happy as an outdoor plant, which is where I'd be putting it longer term. We're still getting night temps which dip into the upper 40's once in a while. When that stops, I'll build a lean-to anti-rodent cage and move some of my Nepenthes outdoors. My N. ventricosa has been outdoors for a while now and is looking pretty happy. flourescents are definately no subsitute for the sun. r. ################### From: Davin Date: Wed, 15 Apr 92 16:25:13 EDT Subject: Re: N Maxima cutting Hmmm. It sounds like it might not be happy as an outdoor plant, which You grow your Nepenthes outdoors? In greenhouse? Where do you live again? I've tried growing the maxima outside under dappled sunlight and it slowed to a stop and then exploded (into growth) when I brought it back to the terrarium. If this is the case, what Nepens do well outdoors? Khasiana? Fusca? On another note, have any of you ever grown a plant called Voodoo Lily? I've got one right now. Wild flower. Smells like good rotted meat. This might compete with Stapelia gigantea, Barry. Great to show to friends ("This one smells just like chocolate. Take a big whiff.") Anybody know the latin name for this? ################### From: Robert.Allen@Eng.Sun.COM (Ninja Squirrel Master) Date: Wed, 15 Apr 92 14:51:35 PDT Subject: Re: N Maxima cutting >> >>You grow your Nepenthes outdoors? In greenhouse? Where do you live again? Nooooo, I grow mine outside, without a greenhouse. In the winter I take them inside and put them under lights, but last year, and again this year, I'm growing my N. ventricosa outside, in the open, inside my wire cover. In the cooler weather it grows a bit slower, but I get good colour, and it still pitchers up. The pitchers may be smaller than if grown in higher humidity, but then again, maybe not. If we start getting really warm weather I'll move the rest of mine outside and see how they do. Inside they are languishing, although I should be fertilizing them really. >> >>I've tried growing the maxima outside under dappled sunlight and it slowed >>to a stop and then exploded (into growth) when I brought it back to the >>terrarium. I think they can take more sun than you think. My ventricosa gets direct sun for a couple of hours a day. They do grow slower outside though, and then explode when you move them indoors. Long term however they seem to languish. >> >>If this is the case, what Nepens do well outdoors? Khasiana? Fusca? I think khasiana, ventricosa, and maybe some hybrids may be suitable for trying outdoors. I believe Gordon grows most all of his plants outside, at least during warm weather. >> >>On another note, have any of you ever grown a plant called Voodoo >>Lily? I've got one right now. Wild flower. Smells like good rotted >>meat. This might compete with Stapelia gigantea, Barry. Great to >>show to friends ("This one smells just like chocolate. Take a big >>whiff.") Anybody know the latin name for this? I've been wanting to order one of these. What I'm really looking for however is the bigger one, the "rotting corpse lily", which gets a huge flower and a huge stench. Maybe it'll keep the squirrels away. r. ################### From: barry@as.arizona.edu (Barry Meyers-Rice) Date: Wed, 15 Apr 92 19:31:43 MST XSubject: Re: N Maxima cutting >> >>The D. adeleae have put out two or three new leaves, and turned a nice red, >>but hasn't really taken off yet. >Barry can make many comments about this species :-). :| >>The U. gramminifolia has filled up the pot, but the praelonga is really >>going slowly. I can just now start to see some new leaf development. > My praelonga isn't doing much either. Maybe it needs truly steamy > jungle conditions. As for the g., I'm not surprised. What a weed. Nah. Just moisture and warmth. Give it a little while and soon it will be on your weed list. Remember it is dimorphic, and if big grassy leaves start getting produced in your pot, that's them! (I personally think "graminifolia" isn't particularly deserving of its name, considering others in the genus! >There is still a need for someone to write a nice info file, and maybe >a cultivation guide for beginners... Hey, I think something very important is for you guys to nominate someone, like Rick, to write something up for CPN about this now that it is getting "bigger." Also, readers of other plant-related news groups should make a little posting about this. I know I did this already myself several months ago, but by now there are new readers. I've since signed off the orchids and rec.gardens newsgroups. BAMR ################### From: dngess01@vlsi.ct.louisville.edu (Don) Date: Wed, 15 Apr 92 22:50:13 -0400 Subject: Re: CP >BTW, what happened to the messages from 02/91 to 09/91? I lost my network access in February, 1991, and then found a way to get back on in September 1991. My D. adelae from Barry is now flowering. It is the green-flower (also called "whitish flower") form. ################### From: Davin Date: Thu, 16 Apr 92 15:44:56 EDT Subject: Re: N Maxima cutting Nooooo, I grow mine outside, without a greenhouse. In the winter I ta Sounds great. I could use the room in my terrarium in the summer, but where do you live? From your node all I could guess is that you either live in England, New England, or the sun. ;-) My address: Davin Stewart Cornell University 25 Hurlburt House Ithaca NY 14853 Note that this will be changing around the middle of May. Just for the record, here's my permanent (read parents) address: 24 Euclid Ave. Pitman NJ 08071 I'll try to send the N.maxima cutting sometime next week. By then the weather should be a bit warmer (we still have nights dipping to 20-30's) and the package will miss the Sunday break. If I remember correctly, Doug is the only one who gets a cutting, right? >Everything was in great shape. What was your address again Davin? I'll try >ending a D. dielsiana seedling in the letter with the postage. Address above. Any tips on dielsiana culture? Also, could I get the plant list going around? I think Rick has the latest edition. I've updated my list. Does anyone want that? ################### From: Robert.Allen@Eng.Sun.COM (Ninja Squirrel Master) Date: Thu, 16 Apr 92 13:13:06 PDT Subject: Re: N Maxima cutting >>Sounds great. I could use the room in my terrarium in the summer, but >>where do you live? From your node all I could guess is that you >>either live in England, New England, or the sun. ;-) I live in the SF Bay Area, in CA. I live within a mile of the bay, which keeps my nighttime temps up. In San Jose, about 20 miles away, they get nighttime frosts rather often. I didn't realize how much effect a large body of water could have. >> >>Address above. Any tips on dielsiana culture? Ditto. And how big do these get? I have some that are about dime sized, and though they look OK, they aren't getting any bigger. I also have a mystery drosera which came with a D. intermedia from Michael Chamberland last year. It hasn't gotten any larger, and looks a lot like the dielsiana I have. r. ################### From: barry@as.arizona.edu (Barry Meyers-Rice) Date: Thu, 16 Apr 92 17:34:36 MST XSubject: Re: N Maxima cutting >My D. adelae from Barry is now flowering. It is the green-flower (also >called "whitish flower") form. Also, the D. collinsae is putting up >another flower SAY WHAT? I haven't got any white flower clones. My two mature clones of this plant (one was from Mike) have distinctly different growth forms but both are red flowered (at least in the G-house). I have some seedling plants called D. adelae `green' from the ICPS seedbank, but those might just be poorly named or could refer to leaf colouration. Are you growing these green plants in low light? I was fiddling around in my greenhouse today, just enjoying my plants and seeing the sights. So much time is spent repotting, dividing, hybridizing, getting plants to trade, watering, etc that I don't get much time just to pick up a pot and say, "Hey! What a cool looking plant!" Well I did that today! :) Some neato observations: My D. cistiflora red is around 3cm across and they are possibly breaking into erect growth! It took 2 years! On 11/90 Rob M sent me some seeds of D. linearis. I planted them, froze the pot for 4 months, and upon thawing the seedlings started to germinate. I prick them out for winter stratification, and now there are more seedlings germinating this spring! Roridula gorgonias germinates. D. macrantha `Wheatbelt' dies back. The tuber is successfully well formed! My U. resupinata is going to produce at least a couple flowers this year! My D. peltata `Kandos Area' is flowering profusely, and ovaries are plumping up without any intervention from me. The B. gigantea is entering a long internode growth phase. The plant's about 16" tall. The Drosophyllum seed pods are plumping up well. Even if they are not going to produce seed they do this {Mike take note :( } but looking through the tranluscent capsule I can see seeds forming inside. The capsules on this plant are very weird. Rob M, I'll get seeds for you soon from Paul McMillan. Now that tax time is over he'll come out of his hole. I have many plants I have to give him. My clone of D. binata multifida extrema from Paul is producing a flower stalk that's seven mm wide at the base! Humongous! Lastly, my P. lutea is flowering nicely. These N. American Pings are so goofy! As soon as the peduncle is a few mm long, the flower starts to open. Then, with the flower open, the peduncle daily elongates till it is a few decimeters long. I wonder what purpose is served? My Sarracenia are outdoing themselves this year, too. This is the first year I've let my rubra jonesii flower, and it's going crazy! The only plant over 4 years old that hasn't flowered yet is my minor `typical' and minor `Okee giant' and those have buds all over! Some of my hybrids are semi-mature now. The S. leucophylla X (flava rugeli X rubra gulfensis) is producing lovely coloured pitchers. Looks like a deeply veined leuc, lots of red, and a rugelii throat splotch! The purpurea X (minor X purpurea) has a compact rosette of a bunch of sharply curved pitchers, like a bunch of conspirators in a huddle. Lastly, a very precocious S. flava `red tube, yellow lid' from Rob M is already living up to its name, and it's only 2.5" tall! These CP are fun! BAMR ################### From: dngess01@vlsi.ct.louisville.edu (Don) Date: Fri, 17 Apr 92 19:55:48 -0400 XSubject: Re: N Maxima cutting >>My D. adelae from Barry is now flowering. It is the green-flower >>(also called "whitish flower") form. Also, the D. collinsae is >>putting up another flower > >SAY WHAT? I haven't got any white flower clones. My two mature clones >of this plant (one was from Mike) have distinctly different growth >forms but both are red flowered (at least in the G-house). I have some >seedling plants called D. adelae `green' from the ICPS seedbank, but >those might just be poorly named or could refer to leaf colouration. >Are you growing these green plants in low light? It's a fact, Jack! The flowers are identical to the top picture on p.13, CPN Vol 17, #1. No red at all in the petals. They are growing under flourescent lights under fairly low light levels. I measured the leaves at 16 cm. long. I took my P. vulgaris out of the fridge today. The three plants have all broken dormancy and have grown into small rosettes. They look healthy despite being wrapped in moss and haven't had any light. The D. linearis didn't look as good. I have seed of this species from the seed bank, but it's a bit late in the year to try this as the seed needs stratification to germinate. ################### From: Anders Ardo Date: Mon, 20 Apr 92 21:28:05 +0200 Subject: Novice, help needed Hello, I have been following this list for some time now without taking active part in the discussions. But now just in a few weeks I have obtained 6 different CPs (some gifts, some bought). I have previously only tried keeping our local Swedish CPs outdoors, and even that was several years ago. I have no experience keeping tropical CPs indoors in pots, so I need some advice from you experts! My plant list (names are from the labels, most plants are grown by a Dutch firm). All plants are kept with ~ 1 cm water on the saucer at room temperature and 60 - 65 % hudmidity: * Drosera capensis: My oldest plant (4 weeks). Repotted in half * peat/half sand. About to flower. New plants: * Drosera spp: 2-3 cm long, 1 cm wide leaves in a thight rosette close to the soil. * Pinguicula moranensis: Flowering large purple flowers. * Saracenia hybride: Long (20 cm), green, upright pitchers, new (small) pitchers are red. * Nepentes hybride: Collected in Florida: * Utricularia: aquatic, 2 species, one small single strand with bladders (gibba?) and one with a central stem with fine leaves and lots of bladders. Any hints or ideas are welcome. Even (especially) basic advice how to arrange a suitable environment for the CPs. Anders Anders Ardo Tel: int+46 46 107522 Dept. of Computer Engineering fax: int+46 46 104714 University of Lund, P.O. Box 118 Internet: anders@dit.lth.se S-221 00 Lund, Sweden ################### From: Robert.Allen@Eng.Sun.COM (Ninja Squirrel Master) Date: Mon, 20 Apr 92 12:34:37 PDT Subject: Re: Novice, help needed >>My plant list (names are from the labels, most plants are grown by a Dutch >>firm). All plants are kept with ~ 1 cm water on the saucer at room >>temperature and 60 - 65 % hudmidity: I'm surprised you know how much humidity you have :-). I don't. I rely on how my plants look to determine if they're getting enough water/sun/humidity. Your arrangement sounds OK to me, although letting Nepenthes stand in water is considered a bad idea by some. N. are not true bog plants, and so don't like soggy feet. >> >> >>* Saracenia hybride: Long (20 cm), green, upright pitchers, new >>* (small) >> pitchers are red I've noticed that the small, growing, pitchers on my sarrs. are red also, but this fades as they inflate. I have my sarrs growing outdoors, where temps are 70-80 F during the day, and down to the upper '40's at night. Are you growing under artificial light, or sunlight? r. ################### From: Davin Date: Mon, 20 Apr 92 17:32:10 EDT Subject: Re: Novice, help needed >* Drosera capensis: My oldest plant (4 weeks). Repotted in half > peat/half sand About to flower. This is considered to be a good 'beginner' plant. It's very hardy and has colorful flowers (for a drosera). It can soon become a weed (although a nice one :) under proper conditions. The flowers are usually a dark lavender with yellow stamens (?). I agree with Sensei Allen. It sounds as if you're growing this under good conditions. I'm growing mine under four cool-white flourescent lights in a terrarium right now and it's doing fairly well. An easy way to tell if your droseras are doing well is by the amount of 'dew' on their leaves. I think that this plant is from australia as mine has gone dormant in the summer. Is this correct anyone? >* Drosera spp: 2-3 cm long, 1 cm wide leaves in a thight rosette > close to the soil. At a guess, grow it like the D. capensis. Anything funky about this one that would help in an ID? > Pinguicula moranensis: Flowering large purple flowers. This is a nice Mexican Butterwort. If I remember correctly, it likes air around its roots and high humidity. It will grow under low light conditions. Mine always rotted though, so you might want to take someone else's opinion on this one. :) > Saracenia hybride: Long (20 cm), green, upright pitchers, new (small) > pitchers are red. I'm also growing mine outside with conditions similar to Robs. These tend to like lots of light (6 hours direct sun is good) and moisture (mine have water right up to the top of the soil). Also, none of these are tropical. Most are from southern North Amerca with one species extending up into Canada. They will require a cold dormancy of a few months every year. > Nepentes hybride: These are nice and tropical. There are two horticultural types: lowland and highland. Lowland like temps 70-80F. Highland like things cooler. All like lots of humidity, although 65% sounds fine. All like well drained medium and I think that live sphagnum is considered the best soil for these plants (somebody correct me if I'm wrong). I'm growing mine in the same terrarium as my D. capensis and it was going great guns until I cut it today, which bnrings me to my next topic. Doug, I cut the N. maxima today, but missed the Post Office hours by 15 minutes so I'll have to send it tomorrow. I had trouble fitting this thing in a ziploc it had so much foliage :-) My S. flava 'Maxima' is putting out its first pitcher now. Holy cats! This thing deserves its name, so far the pitcher is about 3 feet tall and just about ready to open. I think I'll like this one. ################### From: Robert.Allen@Eng.Sun.COM (Ninja Squirrel Master) Date: Mon, 20 Apr 92 15:19:14 PDT Subject: Re: Novice, help needed >>An easy way to tell if your >>droseras are doing well is by the amount of 'dew' on their leaves. That's my primary metric. >>this plant is from australia as mine has gone dormant in the summer. >>Is this correct anyone? This plant is from Southern Africa (i.e. The Cape Sundew). >> >>>* Drosera spp: 2-3 cm long, 1 cm wide leaves in a thight rosette >>> close to the soil. >> >>At a guess, grow it like the D. capensis. Anything funky about this >>one that would help in an ID? Does it have big fat roots (spaghetti thickness), or threadlike roots? Do you know if it goes dormant? During the growing season most sundews, perhaps not including tuberous and pygmies, seem to be able to take a LOT of water. I've got a few in my outdoor bog garden with Sarrs., and the only thing I did for them was putting them on little elevated hummocks which put them an inch or so above the level of the sarrs. >> >>> Pinguicula moranensis: Flowering large purple flowers. >> >>This is a nice Mexican Butterwort. If I remember correctly,it likes >>air around its roots and high humidity. It will grow under low light >>conditions. Mine always rotted though, so you might want to take >>someone else's opinion on this one. :) Others have said that most butterworts rot in terrariums. I have mine outside and it seems to be doing fine. >> >>I'm also growing mine outside with conditions similar to Robs. These >>tend to like lots of light (6 hours direct sun is good) and moisture >>(mine have water right up to the top of the soil). Also, none of >>these are tropical. Most are from southern North Amerca with one >>species extending up into Canada. They will require a cold dormancy >>of a few months every year. Note that I don't think you need water to anywheres near the soil level, although during a growing season it doesn't hurt to keep all the soil wet/moist. I keep a top dressing of live spahgnum on top of the peat sand as it keeps the soil from drying out quickly, as well as keeping it from splashing around from top watering. When these plants are really happy they will get good colour, and they will product very noticeable droplets of nectar around the traps. It can be so thick you'd mistake it for condensation. r. ################### From: Robert.Allen@Eng.Sun.COM (Ninja Squirrel Master) Date: Mon, 20 Apr 92 16:05:05 PDT Subject: Eyuuch. Can some of you more experienced CP types guess what this is about? Yesterday I let my mature Nepenthes outside for the day to soak up some rays and maybe catch some bugs. While doing this I noticed that the nectar covering the lip of a pitcher on my N. margareta X mirabilis was so thick that the lip no longer looked ribbed. It was quite sweet to the taste. While moving my plant outside I spilled the contents of the one mature, open, pitcher from this plant. Eyyyyyyyyycchhhhh!!! A giant phlegm-globber slung out from the pitcher, BARELY missing my hand (thank god). Fortunately this plant was in my terrarium and didn't have any dead bugs in it. Does anyone know what causes pitcher contents to do this? Disgusted, rja ################### From: barry@as.arizona.edu (Barry Meyers-Rice) Date: Mon, 20 Apr 92 19:49:58 MST XSubject: Re: Eyuuch. >>>My D. adelae from Barry is now flowering. It is the green-flower (also > >>SAY WHAT? I haven't got any white flower clones. My two mature >>clones of this plant (one was from Mike) have distinctly different >>growth forms but both are >It's a fact, Jack! The flowers are identical to the top picture on p.13, I don't understand this. I've grown this plant for several years and only gotten red flowers. I propagate by root cuttings only, and am pretty sure by now I have a monoclonal culture! Are you growing it under weak light? >I took my P. vulgaris out of the fridge today. The three plants have all I want to see if I can score any P. macroceras or P. macroceras `nortensis,' the Californian plants. I wonder how easy they are to grow? >BAMR, Roridula germinates? Neeto! I thought you didn't care for this plant >tho? I don't care for it. I got the seeds from Lowrie for buddy Paul McMillan. He asked me to plant it for him. I did and it grew. I'm heading down there this weekend, probably. Anders: Sounds like you are doing great. The soil mix and humidity sounds fine---my plants grow well between 50---80%. Only the Nepenthes really prefer humidity near 100%. Make sure they get plenty of light---at least 4 fluorescent bulbs (not incandescent) 12" or so away. The red at the base of your Sarracenia hybrid is not useful for keying the species. But it does mean your plant is growing vigorously! If it gets too tall and spindly, you will have to devise a means for getting it more light. >My S. flava 'Maxima' is putting out its first pitcher now. Holy cats! >This thing deserves its name, so far the pitcher is about 3 feet tall >and just about ready to open. I think I'll like this one. My maxima is huge too! A few years ago my wife and I were at the Field Museum in Chicago and were looking at a botany exhibit of different plant structures. A few things were real but most were oversize sculptures out of some mysterious material. The model of a Utricularia bladder was several cm across, and the Sarracenia flava model was significantly larger than life (about 20%) as I pointed out to my wife (even she could tell---but she's starting to learn the genus names by osmosis). Well, now my maxima is doing its magic and I can see I was wrong! In addition to being tall, it is tough and leathery, and very wide. Last year only one pitcher was so big, the others were normal. This year at least two will be monstrous. The flowers are oversize too. What a plant! It is available at Lee's, for the U.S. growers on this list. BAMR ################### From: dngess01@vlsi.ct.louisville.edu (Don) Date: Mon, 20 Apr 92 22:54:35 -0400 XSubject: Re: Eyuuch. I noticed two more seeds have sprouted on my old seed flat of N. x (ventricosa x (carunculata x bongso)). Barry relayed a message from Gordon saying N. sp (Talang) is actually N. x (carunculata x bongso). This seed is 11 months old. Good light may play a part in getting Nepenthes seeds to germinate. I had the flat on top of a heating mat for the past two months, but they didn't germinate until I took the flat off the mat and put it outside, where it got about an hour of full sun in the morning and light shade the rest of the day. I took it outside only about 10 days ago. I also have two seedlings sprouting of N. vieilardii (type) bought from Allen Lowrie. Also coming up are a bunch of D. madagascariensis seedlings. The Sarracenia still need a week or more till the first pitchers develop fully. My D. adelae is growing under lights right next to my D. prolifera. My D. prolifera flowers have all been dark red. The D. adelae flowers have all been greenish so far with not a hint of color on the petals. The color could still be environmental (very likely if all the plants I have are all root divisions of the red-flower form). I put my D. dielsiana outside over a week ago. The whole plant now has taken on a great orange color, with dark red tentacles. They look really neat. Not too big though - only a couple centimeters in diameter. ################### From: barry@as.arizona.edu (Barry Meyers-Rice) Date: Thu, 23 Apr 92 15:19:38 MST XSubject: Re: Eyuuch. Hey: In a short while I'm going to be doing some weeding of my Sarracenia seedlings. As you may know, in addition to trading I will sell my plants (but as Rick wisely pointed out...plants are better than money!). But anyway, if you want some Sarracenia seedlings here is my list of what's available. Now mind you, this crop of seedlings consists of TINY plants, just a few months old. But it's fun to grow them even at this age, watching them mature, etc. A Sarracenia takes about 4---5 years to go from a seedling to flowering size. The purp purp heterophylla are slightly older, somewhat larger, rather harder to grow. If you see anything you want, email me your requests, but don't send money until you get the plants. That way 1)You'll see which I could actually send 2)You can make sure they got to you in good shape 3)You can see how much postage I was charged---I'd appreciate if you'd add that to your check. I mail plants 1st class. Of course any cultural hints are F.O.C.!!! For a complete list of the plants I have for sale, mail me and I'll beam you my list. S. purpurea purpurea heterophylla.....seedlings---$3 each(very rare plant) S. leucophylla X (flava X purp).......Tiny seedlings, $1 each, 3 minimum S. (flava X purp) X alata pubescent......." " S. rubra gulfensis X purpurea............." " S. alata X rubra rubra...................." " S. alata `red-black' X flava `ornata'...." " S. alata X rubra gulfensis................" " S. alata X purpurea......................." " S. flava `ornata' X flava `atropurpurea'.." " BAMR ################### From: Robert.Allen@Eng.Sun.COM (Ninja Squirrel Master) Date: Fri, 24 Apr 92 23:05:26 PDT Subject: news from the garden Squirrels ate the first pitcher of the year off my S. flava. D. auriculata seedlings are finally going vertical. D. peltata seed harvested. Local rodentia on my s***list.... r. ################### From: dngess01@vlsi.ct.louisville.edu (Don) Date: Sun, 26 Apr 92 00:34:57 -0400 Subject: CP and earthquake So, what's the earthquake report from those living in the San Francisco area? My D. falconeri has produced its first leaf. VERY tiny - about 1 cm including the petiole. My Mexican Pings are successfully being propagated by leaf cuttings now. Since November, I had tried propagating them, but all the leaf cuttings failed. Before that, and since a few weeks ago, I'm getting a high success rate from P. kondoi and P. rotundiflora. Seems only leaves made during certain times of the year are able to reproduce by leaf cuttings. I've started the D. auriculata seeds a few months ago and have had them outside the past few weeks. Today I noticed something has been digging into the pots. It could be birds or squirrels. Also, the newest germinated seeds of N. (ventricosa x ...) have both died probably from damping-off disease. The oldest one that germinated last November has produced about 9 leaves. It's still small with pitchers about 1 cm. tall. I have 4 seedlings of this hybrid still alive and they seem to be doing well. ################### From: Robert.Allen@Eng.Sun.COM (Ninja Squirrel Master) Date: Mon, 27 Apr 92 09:01:09 PDT Subject: Re: CP and earthquake >>So, what's the earthquake report from those living in the San >>Francisco area? Bay Area in flames. Mendocino county falls into the ocean (drug war in that area called off). Martial law declared. Well, that's the news' perspective anyhow. But it has been a bit hairy. A 6.1 (?) in L.A. a week ago, then a 6.9 in Mendocino area (the '89 quake was 7.0-1), plus I caught an aftershock about 4:30am this Sunday. >> >>My D. falconeri has produced its first leaf. VERY tiny - about 1 cm >>including the petiole. Mine is finally coming up to. >> >>My Mexican Pings are successfully being propagated by leaf cuttings >>now. Since November, I had tried propagating them, but all the leaf >>cuttings failed. Before that, and since a few weeks ago, I'm getting >>a high success rate from P. kondoi and P. rotundiflora. Seems only >>leaves made during certain times of the year are able to reproduce by >>leaf cuttings. This is Peter D'Amatos observation also. As I recall he uses the smaller leaves which start to come up during the spring (?). I've taken further squirrel-protective (would that it could be anti-squirrel) measures. I've moved the pots on the ground and near the fence out to the middle of the yard, and I've wired the pots. One has wire across the top, and the others just have a wire fence about 10' tall around the edge. I don't think the little buggers will climb down inside, and this leaves space for the leaves to comeup. ################### From: Rick Walker Date: Mon, 27 Apr 92 18:36:10 PDT Subject: Re: Master Growlist We'll I went down to see Chuck Powell this weekend. Got some new stuff: GENUS Drosera burkeana [] #Chuck Powell 4/25/92 $6.00 coccicaulis (sp?) [] #Chuck Powell 4/25/92 $8.00 cuneifolia [] #Chuck Powell 4/25/92 $10.00 spathulata [] #Chuck Powell 4/25/92 $6.00 GENUS Pinguicula esseriana [] #Chuck Powell 4/25/92 $6.00 I got some good root cuttings off of the cuneifolia. I already had some P. esseriana, but my sister wanted some, so I bought a few more rosettes to break-up into individual leaf cuttings. They really look like they should root easily. Many of the leaves had already sent out secondary roots even while attached to the rosette. BTW, is it spathulata or spatulata - or are those two different plants? What is the story on Drosera Hybrids? Is there a list of chromosome numbers or other genetic info somewhere? Is there a rule of thumb as to which types will successfully cross & which won't. I've got plants flowering right now, and I wonder if it is worth trying to make some crosses. How about good *comprehensive* CP books: I've got Pietropaolo, Lecoufle, Slack, Rondeau & Schnell. Lowrie, vol. II is on order. Are there any major ones that I'm missing? About 10% of the plants I see on various lists are not listed or described in any of my books. It would be nice to have a one paragraph description of all known cp's. You could also pack alot of horticultural info into a concise table. Is there anything like this or am I dreaming??? On a different subject: I bought a light meter to check out my growing area. According to several books, (Pietropaolo & Lecoufle) most cp's like/need a light level from about 800 foot-candles to 1500 foot-candles. (Daylight is 10,000 ft-c) My terrarium uses *four* six-foot fluorescent shop lamps and only gets up to about 250 foot-candles. To get up to 1000, I have to put the light meter almost against the bulb. I don't think that my setup is atypical. Does anyone have any hints about getting better illumination? I think it is impossible to get these brightness levels from garden-variety fluorescent bulbs. Rick ################### From: barry@as.arizona.edu (Barry Meyers-Rice) Date: Mon, 27 Apr 92 20:04:20 MST XSubject: Re: Master Growlist >My D. falconeri has produced its first leaf. VERY tiny - about 1 cm including >the petiole. Don, just make sure the humidity is high enough. My first year of growing these I subjected them to too much cold, and not enough light. Grow one like you grow D. prolifera or D. schizandra and you may get better results. >What is the story on Drosera Hybrids? Is there a list of chromosome You can see from the list which plants can hybridize. Also look through Schnell. There are books which are just lists of chromosome counts---I've seen them. Ask Mr. Chamberland. You can also goof with chromosome #'s with colchicine, but only if you are insistent on giving yourself cancer. >How about good *comprehensive* CP books: I've got Pietropaolo, Lecoufle, >Slack, Rondeau & Schnell. Lowrie, vol. II is on order. Are there any If you've got both slacks, you're doing well. I would also get Jan Schlauers CP list----I consult it regularly (like for spellings of plants or locations in the wild or bogus synonyms). Also I think if you like Utrics at all you should get Taylor. Lloyd is moderately entertaining. >I don't think that my setup is atypical. Does anyone have any hints 1)I use 4---6 cool white bulbs, 12---20" from soil. 2)Reflectors are essential. Get reflective mylar from fish stores and coat ALL surfaces you don't use to look through. BAMR ################### From: barry@as.arizona.edu (Barry Meyers-Rice) Date: Mon, 27 Apr 92 20:14:03 MST XSubject: Re: Master Growlist Ahhh! My D. hamiltonii flowers. What a GORGEOUS flower! More than 3 cm across and deep purple red! Every bit as stunning as B. gigantea. Incredible! BAMR ################### From: Rick Walker Date: Tue, 28 Apr 92 12:49:45 PDT XSubject: Re: Master Growlist In message <9204280304.AA25334@as.arizona.edu> you write: Barry, > If you've got both slacks, you're doing well. I would also get Jan Schlauers > CP list----I consult it regularly (like for spellings of plants or locations > in the wild or bogus synonyms). Also I think if you like Utrics at all you > should get Taylor. Lloyd is moderately entertaining. I've only got one Slack. Is the other still in print? Also, how can I get Jan's list? ################### From: barry@as.arizona.edu (Barry Meyers-Rice) Date: Tue, 28 Apr 92 11:37:21 MST XSubject: Re: Master Growlist F.Y.I. Proper spelling is.... D. burmanni D. spatulata Reference is Jan's CP list. BAMR ################### From: ATLAS@JHUVMS.HCF.JHU.EDU Date: Tue, 28 Apr 1992 21:18 EST Subject: Pots, Slack Rick, The "first" Slack book (the one you probably already have) is "Carnivorous Plants," publshed in 1979. The second one was published in ~1986, titled "Carnivorous Plants and How to Grow Them," and was in print only for a few years, now out of print. As you might guess, the second one deals more with cultivation than the first. I am looking for a copy of the second one; if you find a cache of them, let me know. For now, I have to satisfy myself with the Library's copy, which I borrow occasionally. I called the publisher to see if they had any leftovers or returns, but they don't have any. Doug Atlas 4617 Schenley Rd. Baltimore, MD 21210 doug ################### From: rphjt@minyos.xx.rmit.OZ.AU (John Taylor) Date: Wed, 29 Apr 92 21:19:42 EST Subject: New E-Mail address Anyway, just a quick message before I get back to wading through all of the 80 messages I've missed. Our first set of tuberous drosera has come out of summer dormancy - D. plancholli (spel? - I think it's now classified as a subspecies of macrantha). I'm very pleased as we only planted the seed last year, and we weren't sure that the seedlings had managed to produce a tuber before they were dried out. ################### From: Robert.Allen@Eng.Sun.COM (Ninja Squirrel Master) Date: Wed, 29 Apr 92 09:06:21 PDT Subject: Bloomin' plants! It looks like my one year old Drosophyllum is starting an inflorescence. I could swear it wasn't there yesterday. Well, the plant is still not exactly huge, so I think I'll snip it off. D. spatulatha (?) is desperately trying to bloom, but I've cut off each of the 5 or so stalks it's trying to put up. Dionea are flowering their hearts out. BTW, what causes the bundle of flower pods to turn black and die before flowering? S. leucophylla put up one flower, well formed but smaller than the S. flava flower, and a small spider promptly took up residence in the flower bell. And finally, FINALLY, some of my utrics are starting to put up flower stalks. And the battle with aphids has become an ongoing thing. This is the single biggest drawback to growing outside, beyond even the squirrels in terms of pissing me off. I keep a bottle of poison spray near at hand nowadays. r. ################### From: barry@as.arizona.edu (Barry Meyers-Rice) Date: Wed, 29 Apr 92 19:43:19 MST XSubject: Re: Bloomin' plants! >I've only got one Slack. Is the other still in print? Also, how can I get >Jan's list? The newer one is out of print, although I've seen copies for sale from Marston Exotics (if you're willing to make the $200 order minimum). Jan's list is available by sending $20 US to his address: Jan Schlauer Zwischenstr. 11 6000 Frankfurt/Main 70 Germany It's about 90 pages long and very good. BAMR P.S. My U. monanthos flowered and keyed out easily to be correctly ID'd. Pretty little flower, similar to U. dichotoma but smaller in all respects. Only single-flowered, too. ################### From: rphjt@minyos.xx.rmit.OZ.AU (John Taylor) Date: Thu, 30 Apr 92 21:00:00 EST Subject: Re: My new address. The plancholli's are starting to open their leaf buds now, but the other (more expensive) tuberous sundews haven't surfaced yet - neither have half of the tuberous ground orchids :-( It's early days yet, so I'll keep on waiting. John Taylor. Optics Laboratory, Deptartment of Applied Physics, Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology, Melbourne, Victoria, AUSTRALIA. ################### From: rphjt@minyos.xx.rmit.OZ.AU (John Taylor) Date: Thu, 30 Apr 92 21:04:31 EST Subject: Re: The last great act of defiance. >A while back I was looking at some of last years pitchers >on my S. flava. I was trimming off the dead parts to keep >mold away. When I removed the top half of one old pitcher, >I found the remains of what seemed to be a honey bee. It >was face down in the pitcher of course, but in it's last >great act of defiance it had extended its' stinger :-). > > r. > Our pitchers don't often catch bees, but they have great success in trapping "Blowies" (Blowflies). Often you walk into the greenhouse and hear the frantic buzzing of their wings against the insides of the pitchers. And they're less hazardous when it comes to trimming the dead tops... John Taylor. Optics Lab. etc.etc. ################### From: barry@as.arizona.edu (Barry Meyers-Rice) Date: Fri, 1 May 92 17:36:10 MST XSubject: Re: The last great act of defiance. My D. peltata auriculata from the Brothers Taylor is flowering already. The sepals are glabrous and the petals barely flushed with colour---maybe almost pure white. In contrast, my peltata peltata `Kandos area pink flower' is producing pink flowers with distinctly pubescent and possibly dendiculate sepals. They certainly key out as being true! Oh Bros Taylor down under.... Any success with stem cuttings and B. gigantea? What is your method? Any best time for it? Both of the growth crowns of my biggest Byblis plant are in a long internode growth phase, and the plant is getting unmanageable (each branch is about 30 cm long). BAMR ################### From: rphjt@minyos.xx.rmit.OZ.AU (John Taylor [The Banshee]) Date: Sat, 2 May 92 13:45:26 +0000 Subject: Re: Byblis stem cuttings >My D. peltata auriculata from the Brothers Taylor is >flowering already. The sepals are glabrous and the petals barely >flushed with colour---maybe almost pure white. Is D. p. a. the new classification for D. auriculata? Ours haven't surfaced yet, but our erythorhiza has just hit the top of the soil, as have most of our Greenhood orchids. We're still waiting for the stolonifera too... Oh, yeah. The flowers are pretty pale, but they do definitely develop a pink tinge - maybe they need a bit more sun or time. >In contrast, my peltata peltata `Kandos area pink flower' is producing >pink flowers with distinctly pubescent and possibly dendiculate sepals. >They certainly key out as being true! [Searches frantically for "Plants of prey", and remembers that it is currently in Canberra, ACT - Rats!] Umm, yes, peltata should have hairy sepals. How does it compare in size with the auriculatas? The ones I've seen in the wild are only about 4-5" tall, at most, whereas auric. is often double this height. Which reminds me, I must plant out the peltata and auriculata (a red form, I hope) seeds I, er, obtained. >Oh Bros Taylor down under.... > >Any success with stem cuttings and B. gigantea? What is your method? >Any best time for it? Both of the growth crowns of my biggest Byblis plant >are in a long internode growth phase, and the plant is getting >unmanageable (each branch is about 30 cm long). No success with the one we tried (as the plant was beginning to die back - definitely NOT the time to try it). Our byblis's main shoot is about 50cm tall and the side branch is about 20-30cm now. We just stake them up to keep them from falling over and just let them grow. It's also a good idea to put them in some out-of-the-way corner. ################### From: Davin Date: Sat, 02 May 92 14:06:34 EDT Subject: D.zonaria wakes D.zonaria I got from Lowrie is wakening from dormancy. Hope I can provide the conditions for this one. I think I'm just going to leave it outside or on a windowsill and hope for the best. Amorphophallus is putting up its single leaf. Cute. About 2' tall and hasn't opened yet. S. leucophylla flower getting nice and maroon since I set it outside. U. calycifida 'Purple veins' is putting up a flower scape. >My D. peltata auriculata from the Brothers Taylor is >lowering already. The sepals are glabrous and the petals barely Really? Mine hasn't even broke from the ground rosette stage yet. Also, saw the Japanimation flick Akira last night. VERY good if you like animation. I think it's the #1 movie in Japan (non-animation included). Good stuff. ################### From: ATLAS@JHUVMS.HCF.JHU.EDU Date: Sat, 2 May 1992 19:27 EST Subject: Questions I've got a coupla CP questions that hopefully have easy answers: 1) Regarding the D. Auriculata seeds from the Bros. Taylor: I know this species is supposed to go dormant in the summer, with a dry medium. My seedlings are still quite small; should I just let the medium dry up, or wait for the seedlings to go dormant. Kind of a chicken/egg question... I'm surprised that barry said his have flowered, since my seedlings are growing VERY slowly. 2) I've got the N. Maxima cuttings from Davin. How long does it typically take to see new growth on Nepenthes cuttings? Oh, yeah, I noticed that one of the leaves is drying out and turning black...is it a good idea to cut out the black, dying part of the leaf? Is this sort of thing normal, or is it a bad sign? The cuttings are in a terrarium, with high humidity, and get misted at least twice a day. doug ################### From: rphjt@minyos.xx.rmit.OZ.AU (John Taylor [The Banshee]) Date: Sun, 3 May 92 21:58:37 +0000 Subject: Re: D. auriculata dormancy >1) Regarding the D. Auriculata seeds from the Bros. Taylor: I know this >species is supposed to go dormant in the summer, with a dry medium. My >seedlings are still quite small; should I just let the medium dry up, or >wait for the seedlings to go dormant. Kind of a chicken/egg question... >I'm surprised that barry said his have flowered, since my seedlings are >growing VERY slowly. Unless the seedlings are showing signs of dormancy (leaves yellowing/browning /dying) I wouldn't worry about trying to force them into dormancy yet. You can grow these plants into summer, but maybe consider keeping the soil a little drier than usual to reduce any chance of rotting the tubers (rather unlikely). As soon as they appear to be stopping grow or dying back, stop watering 'til next autumn. Alternatively, you could remove water now, which will encourage them to start dormancy, but if they're growing OK at the moment, why not let them? (There could be some risk in doing this, as the tubers may not have had time to fully develop). We did this (accidently) with our D. planchoniis, and they survived but I wouldn't like to try it again... P.S. Our whittakeris which are growing in our Cephalotus tray are doing very well and are now producing flower buds. Our Cephalotus isn't growing well at all :-( ################### From: Davin Date: Sun, 03 May 92 16:04:33 EDT Subject: Re: D. auriculata dormancy >unlikely). As soon as they appear to be stopping grow or dying back, stop >atering 'til next autumn. Hey, I thought this species were supposed to be easy because you could keep the medium moist yearround. Also, has anyone in N.America grown D.alpina? From what I hear, this is a tuberosity that grows in the mountains and hence its growth periods are reversed from normal tubers (active in summer & dormant in winter). This sounds good for N. America. ################### From: rphjt@minyos.xx.rmit.OZ.AU (John Taylor [The Banshee]) Date: Mon, 4 May 92 22:23:09 +0000 Subject: Re: D. auriculata dormancy >>unlikely). As soon as they appear to be stopping grow or dying back, stop >>atering 'til next autumn. > >Hey, I thought this species were supposed to be easy because you could keep >the medium moist yearround. No, like other tuberous sundews, it does need to dry out in summer. However, this species will tolerate wetter conditions during its growth phase than most others - hence it is easier to grow because it is less likely to rot on you... These plants are probably easier to grow than the humble VFT - at least they are for me. ################### From: barry@as.arizona.edu (Barry Meyers-Rice) Date: Mon, 4 May 92 19:38:35 MST XSubject: Re: D. auriculata dormancy >Is D. p. a. the new classification for D. auriculata? Ours haven't surfaced Yep, according to Schlauer's list. Incidentally, I mention this list from time to time. It is a compendium (about 90 pages) of information on what the current dogma is regarding the species names of plants. This information is a list of what the plants are published as, using botanical law. So while there are D. peltata and "D. auriculata" in common usage, in terms of what has been published in the appropriate literature it is D. peltata ssp. auriculata. >How does it compare in size with the auriculatas? The ones I've seen in the >wild are only about 4-5" tall, at most, whereas auric. is often double this >Also, saw the Japanimation flick Akira last night. VERY good if you like >animation. I think it's the #1 movie in Japan (non-animation included). Good >stuff. The missus and I enjoy animation. It's worth the rental? A lot of japanese animation is sore of Speed-racerish in appearance. Yuch. How's this? >How does it compare in size with the auriculatas? The ones I've seen in the >wild are only about 4-5" tall, at most, whereas auric. is often double this >I'm surprised that barry said his have flowered, since my seedlings are >growing VERY slowly. A few of you have acted surprised my plants have flowered. Well this ties into Mister Taylor's size question. I don't trust size stuff w.r.t. these plants because it is starting to get warm here. I have a working hypothesis that when it starts to get warm, the tuberous plants dash into dormancy, sometimes making a little erect growth first. Last summer my D. peltata germinated during the heat and responded to the high temperatures (which said, "dormancy dormancy") by making diminutive rosettes and erect stems. Then this fall others hatched and all winter grew into luscious big rosettes and tall stems. The aurics are smaller then the peltatas but again it's the summer sequence. It may also be relevant that my plants are in bright (but not full) sun, and get doused once a week with a foliar spray of label strength miracid. They love the miracid and the first miracid-treated tuberous drosera (a menziesii menziesii) produced a nice big tuber. Mike: You're the Nepenthes person, not me. But it sounds like you're light situation is pretty low. Considered adding reflectors? Mylar? >On a better note, my tuberous Drosera (mostly from seed) seem to have success- >fully gone dormant and set tubers! :) Also, I have a botanical question for you. I've been looking through this cool book called "Plant Form," and I've been trying to figure out just what do the thorns of citrus fruit represent. They aren't clearly stipules or petioles. WHAT ARE THEY? Driving me crazy ################### From: barry@as.arizona.edu (Barry Meyers-Rice) Date: Mon, 4 May 92 20:06:51 MST XSubject: Re: D. auriculata dormancy OH YES, now I remember. A note to you out there growing D. coccicaulis from Allen Lowrie---I know Rob M is. Are your plants still flowering? I have some plants from Gordon called "D. villosa `Orgelgeburge'" which are clearly not that plant. Well the latter is flowering BUT I FORGOT to make notes of what the flowers of the D. coccicaulis were like. Here's the colouration of the "villosa"---do they match? Petals pink---elliptical. I didn't note if they were notched. Ovary---fat and green Filaments---close together in cylindrical bundle, almost look like they're fused like a hibiscus. White. Anthers/pollen---yellow Style---about 6---7 (some forked near base). Branched at tips to produce 3-5 endpoints. Style/stigma pink. A very colourful flower. The petals weren't strongly reflexed like I recall on the coccicaulis, but it wasn't as clear a day. Vegetatively the two plants are very similar. BAMR P.S. Yay! Germination on my S. psitticina `anthocyanin free' seeds! P.P.S. Senor Taylor. I have a U. monanthos which has flowered and turned out to be the genuine article. Do you know if this plant is chilled in cultivation? It's a New Zealander from the Lewis pass area. I know this area gets cold, but I don't want to chill my plant if it might kill it. Cute little flower. ################### From: Davin Date: Tue, 05 May 92 14:43:37 EDT XSubject: Re: D. auriculata dormancy >P.S. Yay! Germination on my S. psitticina `anthocyanin free' seeds! Damn man! Where do you get these things? I've never even heard of anything being anthocyanin free besides S. purpurea. Amazing :-) ################### From: barry@as.arizona.edu (Barry Meyers-Rice) Date: Tue, 5 May 92 16:12:45 MST XSubject: Re: D. auriculata dormancy >>P.S. Yay! Germination on my S. psitticina `anthocyanin free' seeds! >Damn man! Where do you get these things? I've never even heard of anything >being anthocyanin free besides S. purpurea. Amazing :-) Network! Network! Network! Don't stay satisfied with just talking on the net. Write a note to CPers who write articles for CPN. Introduce yourself to CPers in your area. Network network network! The psitticina `anthocyanin free' came from John Hummer. There's also antho free forms of rubra jonesii, leucophylla (plant of my dreams), and rubra gulf. I don't have the leuc, but I have the other ones. BAMR P.S. I went into the G-house this a.m., and the U. longifolia flower had