Learning is NOT a bad thing!

[GrowinOld]

Experience is by far the best teacher, which is exactly why it is best to get a good amount of it BEFORE attempting some of the more delicate plants to try to grow. A good understanding of growing plants in general, goes a long way, and understanding plants well does not come from asking a bunch of people on a forum on how to do something.

So many people rely on this forum and others, in order to learn how to grow CP's, and that is no way to get a real good understanding of plants and their needs.
Plants are living things, and not just an object to possess. (I do hope some of the kids and new growers here are able to learn from what is happening here to others.) Here is a fine example:
http://www.terraforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=125274

Learn about growing these plants before actually subjecting one to the wrong environment (and then randomly doing the wrong thing with the hopes that something is right and will help it).

Sorry to sound a bit aggravated, but I see more and more people (kids mostly, with lots of Mom's money to spend) who buy some of the more rare/delicate/expensive plants and animals, and then don't even remotely provide the environment they need to thrive in.

My wife and I recently saw enough plants, lizards and other exotic plants and animals, suffering under the care of people who never even bothered to find out how to take care of them in the first place. Too many times plant and animal husbandry is about how to get something we want, for our own enjoyment and satisfaction, and not to even consider that when we buy a plant or an animal, that we are now responsible for another life form, ...and that we are now accountable for its needs, survival and for providing what it needs and wants, for it to thrive into the future.

Growing plants well takes patience, and the best way to get that is to learn to grow them... read, study, try some easy to grow plants, keep growing and trying, and work your way up to some of the plants that are "more complicated in their needs".
This is what will give you a good understanding of plants as well as the green thumb to understand their language, needs and how to grow them!

Good Luck all. And have a good Holiday!

 

[jimscott]

I wish the stores that sold CP's, like Lowes, Walmart, Home Depot,.... would put the easy ones out on the market (D. capensis, D. binata) instead of VFT's, Darlingtonia, Neps, and enigmatic ones like D. adelae & P. primuliflora. Just because they can TC them, doesn't mean they should be put out on the market, for certain death, from extreme lack of knowledge, dormancy requirements, and poor growing instructions.

 

[Dexenthes]

I agree with you, especially in regards to reptiles and amphibians and the like. It's tragic when people have these living animals only because they are cool and they don't truly know how to care for them. The same goes for rare or endangered plants of any kind.

However I do disagree to an extent. There are some plants that I simply haven't figured out how to grow, especially specific to my environment, without killing one or two first. Studying and learning is a good chunk of the growing battle, but trial and error is the most important.

Sometimes we even grow plants contradictory to how our studying may say that we should grow them. You can see this with people growing certain Pinguicula on 24 hr light cycles or certain Nepenthes that "supposed" to be grown in alkaline soils being grown in pure LFS.

There will always be carnivorous plants that aren't getting cared for correctly and are dying. Even experienced growers lose plants from time to time.

 

[dionae]

All I do is read and research on CPs...especially the ones I really like. I still read and use the search function more than I ask questions. Mostly because I don't want to get on peoples nerves but also because i know any question I have has more than likely been asked several times before.

I like to do things the hard way too. I want all the difficult plants. If I can keep those alive then I shouldn't have problems with the easier plants. I think reading and reading some more is a good way to prepare for CPs. Luckily, I haven't lost a single plant since I started...knock on wood.

 

[swords]

I think the mass market CPs survival rates could be dramatically increased with proper informational labeling, mentioning what type of water to use, possible dormancy issues, etc. Of course this would also depend on the customer actually reading and heeding it. Not to mention peoples homes/windowsills vary greatly in conditions. My windowsills all suck, I can get cool temps but I need to have lights over the tanks by the windows cos there's almost no natural sunlight. A lot of co-workers have asked how hard "picture plants" are to keep (yes they always say "picture") and I describe what conditions they do well for me in and they don't want to do "all that for just one plant".

But we are not thinking like mass marketers/florists. Mass market plants (CPs or Poinettias, etc) are all sold as "flowering/seasonal pot plants" intended to be enjoyed for a season and then disposed of. Proper care labels might dissuade customers who don't want to do all that or if the customers succeeded and kept their plants alive for longer than that, there goes the marketers repeat sales. Lose, lose to a marketer who's only looking at business quarter sales results. I am certainly not condoning this at all, just saying that's how the plant marketers think. I was told by both the florist and a book on houseplants I got at the florist shop that keeping my Calceolaria (inflated purse flower) was pointless because "it will never rebloom". I kept it in shade all summer and put it in a few hours sun in fall and I got a whole new bunch of blooms despite what they all said.

 

[RSS]

Sometimes we even grow plants contradictory to how our studying may say that we should grow them. You can see this with people growing certain Pinguicula on 24 hr light cycles or certain Nepenthes that "supposed" to be grown in alkaline soils being grown in pure LFS.

Well just because thats the way the plant is growing in its natural habitat does not make it the best growing conditions for the plants. Its just a starting point, you can take alot of the plants that were introduced into a better habitat and then started choking out everything. Its natural habitat was not idea for it, something else was. This is also the case for alot of the plants we grow. You "can" grow plants much better under artifical methods than in there natural homes. This has always been my goal, to remove the "limits" nature put on them and allow them to grow crazy .

 

[amphirion]

if this were facebook, i would totally "like" all your posts...seriously, it cant be emphasized enough that everyone should have a baseline from which to start off from. book knowledge can only go so far.

 

[lizasaur]

I fully, absolutely agree with every word you've said.
I feel the same way.

 

[Exo]

Same here, I study the crap outa my plants before I get them, and I study the crap outa them after I have them too.

 

[Kyle]

One word here: agreed.

 

[SDCPs]

I wish the stores that sold CP's, like Lowes, Walmart, Home Depot,.... would put the easy ones out on the market (D. capensis, D. binata) instead of VFT's, Darlingtonia, Neps, and enigmatic ones like D. adelae & P. primuliflora. Just because they can TC them, doesn't mean they should be put out on the market, for certain death, from extreme lack of knowledge, dormancy requirements, and poor growing instructions.

Now this I don't agree totally with. Many of use get plants from these sources! Just look at my beautiful n. ventrosica! If they had darlingtonia over here, I'd buy a few!

The following is not to dissagree as much as it is to share my experiences:

My first CP I grew successfully was a VFT. I grew it during the summer, and divided it even, and transplanted it like 5 times in a period of 3 months. Yet, however, both divisions thrived...due to my reading about them on the internet. So, there was a bit of trial and error in addition to the reading.

I should mention that I also grew one before in horrible conditions for a whole year. I had it in a bunch of ferns (extreme shade), watered it only with ~500 ppm tap water--and that only when I remembered it. I even kept it in the original 3" pot. I still have pictures of it flowering...but of course it didn't survive that

After this, I bought $70 worth of plants and had my first and only fridge dormancy. This was my biggest CP purchase. With a second 1/2 price and a few death cubes...rest obtained through trade.

So, VFTs can be very hardy, especially for someone used watering normal plants. They can take more salts and sometimes less water than most drosera...not to mention wider variation of temps...maybe even light! Some of the others mentioned can be also.

 

[jimscott]

My point is that the typical consumer of CP's, buying them for the first time, knows enough about them to be confused and dangerous. They put VFT's & Sarracenias on window sills, not knowing they need as much direct sunlight as they can get. They are totally unaware of dormancy requirements. They use tap water and even boil it, thinking that this is the way to provide good water. Plants like Darlingtonia, P. primuliflora, and D. adelae, even for us forum folk, find them to be enigmatic. They grow alright for awhile and then decline, without us understanding why. At least with something like a capensis or a binata, they have a fighting chance. Most people buy CP's without having prior knowledge about them, treating them as typical houseplants, subjecting them to a slow death.

 

[Sig]

My first vft did great when it was on a windowsill... or so I thought. My version of great fit it perfectly: It started as one leaf and became a ton, though they were small. I liked it. It was when I found that they needed a dormancy and I put Pluto in the fridge that he died. Poor Pluto...

If the newbies' method works, they shouldn't change it. If it eventually dies, you find out the hard way, so you know better. My best lessons happened because I did something stupid and there were consequences. Of course, throw the information out there, but they're not morons if they don't follow it. though a 200 dollar ceph might be bad subject matter...