Re: Novice, help needed

Davin (XKU@CORNELLA.cit.cornell.edu)
Mon, 20 Apr 92 17:32:10 EDT

>* 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.