Belgian Bog garden

From: Fred C. Heller (fred.heller@skynet.be)
Date: Thu Jan 06 2000 - 14:45:14 PST


Date: Thu, 6 Jan 2000 23:45:14 +0100 (MET)
From: "Fred C. Heller" <fred.heller@skynet.be>
To: cp@opus.hpl.hp.com
Message-Id: <aabcdefg51$foo@default>
Subject: Belgian Bog garden

I have started a small bog garden in my back yard which contains two
Sarracenia hybrid, two Sarracenia Leucophylla, Three Sarracenia
purpurrea ssp. purpurrea, three Sarracenia psittacina and three Venus
Flytraps.

It's about half a square meter big ! two third of it are a pond (Where
I set some U. Vulgaris) a foot deep, the remaining third is a mix of 2/3
peat and 1/3 sand.

The Sarracenia are in the back, a bit higher up, near the water's edge
I've placed the S. psittacina and a VFT. The one VFT that was partially
shaded by some leaves thrived whereas the one enjoying full sun died.

I planted them back in March, and had quite a fit with birds destroying
my Sarracenia to get at the insects trapped inside.

Then a VFT and a Sarracenia purpurrea ssp purp. died off for no
apparent reason.

I wanted to remove one Sarracenia psittacina and but it in the garage
for the winter but I was too lazy to do it ;-) It's doing just fine !
Actually it kept getting more and more colors with time. My Sarracenia
purp. ssp. purp. actually were quite beautiful in October, being
green with deep purple veins, but only turned completely deep purple red
color in November (I don't know why).

The Sarracenia Leucophylla kept look healthy and protrude from the heap
of leaves that I set on top of all the bog plants.

All are going well . As it is winter I have covered them with a stack of
birch tree leaves from my yard, they've been under snow already, the
pond has frozen over a couple times (for a few days at a time) but they
seem to be doing ok , all of them.

I'm not sure if the VFTs are gonna survive the winter here in Belgium
but it has been a mild winter so far.

I also scattered some D. Intermedia and D. rotundifolia in late
September, those come from the Ardennes near Spa, from the "Fagne de
Malchamps", those are the wild form ;-)

I still have seeds collected in late august and kept in the fridge since
if ever...

Fred

At 14:07 06/01/2000 -0800, you wrote:
>Howdydoo, Peter here at California Carnivores.
> I enjoy reading about John and Rich's plans and experience with
>Sarracenia outdoors in cold temperate climates. I keep getting reports
>from customers who tell me things I mentioned in The Savage Garden
>concerning cold hardiness. It may be the mild winters of late, but
>there are folks as far north as Chicago who have been having success
>with Sarracenia in bog gardens outdoors. At the last Bay Area meeting,
>Joe Mazrimas showed outdoor bog gardens in Vermont that for years have
>had S. flava and other plants survive year after year. Here at our
>nursery I've been breeding Sarracenia for cold hardiness. One plant we
>have in stock is S. purpurea ssp. purpurea x flava (mature plants for
>$20). I also have a single large plant of the Virginia S. flava (not
>for sale yet) that I hope to use for breeding purposes. After I
>received this clone, I was amazed at how beautiful it is, and very
>tall. It's a very veiny form of S. flava, and should make a nice match
>for other cold hardy Sarracenia like S. rubra ssp. jonesii and
>oreophila. I would like this year to cross it with the purp purp x
>flava I mentioned, which is a purple but small plant.
> Th-th-th-that's all folks!
>
>
>
>



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