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Project with CPs

I am in a class that I am excited about. The assignment is to do something that impacts the environment. When I told the instructor about my interest in CPs, he got all excited and told me to do something involving CPs. He took me outside and showed me the pitiful little bog garden that is on campus that has a few straggly sarracenia in it. I didnt' comment on how bad they looked. I don't think there is actually anyone there who knows anything about these plants.

So I sent him an email with one project proposal, but it's not going to work if there isn't any funding for student projects. I am waiting for him to get back to me on that.

My idea is to start a new bog garden just for CPs on campus. Either with only native Mississippi plants (including sundews and pings) or any that will grow naturally in this environment, which would allow me to include VFTs in the garden. I would also put detailed information about each plant on a plaque (like you see in a zoo) with as much info about the plants as I can come up with.

Of course this idea takes some money, because I would need the plants and would need peat moss and whatever else it takes to make a new bed. If they can't pay for it, I need a new idea. It won't cost as much as you would think, because I have a lot of plants that I could donate, and I bet I could get some donations from forum members since this is a conservation/teaching project that would get information about these plants to a lot of people. The main cost would be in the construction of the bed.

If this idea doesn't work, I'll have to come up with another one. I am also into dart frogs, and love any type of frog, so I wouldn't mind doing a project with them, but don't have a clue what I could feasibly do, so I'm focusing on the plants for now.

What do you guys think?

Kristi

---------- Post added at 12:35 AM ---------- Previous post was at 12:26 AM ----------

I am reading through all the posts and stickies in the conservation section, many of which are years old. I see that some of you do talks and have powerpoints and other things already done to help increase public awareness of these plants. If any of you would share your powerpoints, or point me to some good research, etc I would appreciate it. I'm not asking you to do my project for me, but if you have something saved on your computer and know right where it is, drop it my way. I can put together an awesome project and presentation with tons of useful information. I'm in Mississippi and sarracenia habitats are regularly being destroyed. People here don't know anything about them and think they are just weeds. Like I said, the bog garden on campus is pitiful, and I would like to increase it and make it wonderful, something that people will come on campus specifically to see.
 
ThaT'd be Awesome. Take some pictures! Oh, if you need vfts, I can send some for shipping... I have too manyy.
 
I installed one at a museum with little placards, it went over really well. If you need any help give me a holler.
 
cool, thanks guys. I'm waiting to hear from the teacher if he likes this idea.

Halt, thanks for offering VFTs. I can add lots of sarracenia.

xp-connection, do you have pics of your project you did? What info did you put on placards?

---------- Post added at 01:54 AM ---------- Previous post was at 01:30 AM ----------

I have one question - what about the time of year? I have never transplanted my CPs in the fall. Will this be a problem?
 
It was one of the bog gardens I installed during my 3-month stint working for a native plant landscaper. You can't really see in the pic but there is a water fall across the entire right side of the building with a little pool at the bottom. The pool seeps into a 'C' shape bog garden. All the plants have metal stakes with common names. There are also larger waist-height kiosks that briefly describe carnivorous plants and the local cataract bogs. http://www.pbvoss.com/uploaded_images/Pickens-Museum-788411.JPG

Something that would work well on a budget would be to buy 20ft of butyl rubber (that they sell for waterfall water features). Make a little dry river bed with rocks with a peat bog at the end. The beginning should be at a downspout. Put a drain pipe in the bog and hide it with an old stump. Materials would be around $200
 
I can't see any plants in the picture, it looks like a pic of a church.

Can you forsee any problems with doing this in the fall? Will the plants have a hard time with their winter dormancy? I have always done my transplanting and dividing in the spring. I don't know how well a plant will take it being planted in the fall like this.
 
Its a jail from the turn of the century. I've planted a few bog gardens in the fall no problem. Good luck!

I can't see any plants in the picture, it looks like a pic of a church.

Can you forsee any problems with doing this in the fall? Will the plants have a hard time with their winter dormancy? I have always done my transplanting and dividing in the spring. I don't know how well a plant will take it being planted in the fall like this.
 
Kristi, which college are you talking about?
 
  • #10
The Tropical section of the Greenhouse at my College has two nice Nepenthes in it. I wonder if I will be able to get a pulling or cutting to start my own. XD
 
  • #11
University of Southern Mississippi.
I've heard about their bog garden, some people were bragging about it so I went to see it and it is pitiful. They only have about 6 Sars in it and nothing else, and they don't look particularly healthy. They need more sun, and I'm not sure about their soil. They are in a bed with other plants, and as we all know the soil/nutrition requirements are different. I think they are in soil that is too rich for them and are perhaps receiving fertilizers, so that may account for their poor condition. I don't think that anyone there really knows about these plants, but I certainly don't want to argue with the Botonist who has a Phd and I don't. Oh, and there are no name tags or anything to label the plants.

I am envisioning a bed just for CPs, maybe just the ones that are native to Mississippi, which would be the S. Alata (I think), P. Pirmulifolia, and a type of sundew, but I'm not sure which, I'd have to look it up. These are the ones I know of, there may be more. And of course just about any Sar would work and do well here, as well as VFTs. So I could make a really awesome bog garden for CPs complete with plaques to name each plant and show their native habitat spread, like the zoo plaques tell about the animals. That is what I'd like to do, but they probably arent' going to allow it because they would have to pay for it. I haven't heard back from them yet.
 
  • #12
Could you write a grant? That would be great if you could. You can get those plaques that way. I work at a community college and somebody got them for our nature walk through a grant.

Would you plant them in a container?
 
  • #13
catrus, I don't know, I have emailed the botany instructor and will have a meeting with him soon to discuss ways to make this happen. He's not even the teacher of the class that I will be doing this project for, but since this falls under his jurisdiction i was put in contact with him.

I could put them in containers if I needed to, but what I'm thinking about it a flowerbed/bog garden set up just for CPs. I can put some sundews and p. primulifolia in there as well.
 
  • #14
Well, so far my project hasn't been approved, but next semester I'm going to try to take an "aquatics and wetlands plant life" class taught by the Botanist, so I may be able to bend his ear then. Right now the project that I got put on is cataloging the trees on campus.
 
  • #15
How'd the next semester thing go?
 
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