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'all red' darlingtonia

kath

Katherine
I recently bought a young darlingtonia seedling, which is supposedly 'all red' or a very red form anyways. It is a genetics thing, because lots of the seedlings were 'very red' in the batch. I've heard that darlingtonia seedlings start out very red, but get greener with age, and was wondering just how old seedlings need to be before you can see if they're going to go green or not?
This seedling is 3 or 4 years old, and still displaying mostly red leaves, with only a tiny amount of green on the bottoms of some pitchers, where they were hidden by sphagnum completely.

Here is what it looks like:
Myredcobra.jpg


And even if it isn't all red, it's still my first darlingtonia seedling. Plants this size cost 40$ over here. Mine cost me 26$.
 
Darlingtonia start growing adult form pitchers after at least two years.

Pitcher leaves in mild climates can grow for two years. Coloration patterns should only be judged on the first years growth of a adult form pitcher leaf. Leaves over one year old tend to turn mostly red in all coloration patterns except the anthcyanin free plants.

So as long as the leaves are less than 1 year old it's a good chance that you have an all red form.
 
Wow... there as red as mine is green!
 
Pitchers should be at about 8 or more inches tall or so before making an "all red" judgment. Also, older pitchers from a season or more ago will at times be "all red" - the all red form will turn red that same year.

http://www.sarracenia.com/faq/faq5168.html
 
Awesome, but whatever happened to the white seedling you germinated?
 
It died. It wasn't its albinoism that killed it, it ended up being covered in fluffy grey mould, and it didn't make it. I had a hard enough time trying to keep it from killing the other seedlings. But this batch of seeds are weird. I had three baby plants, and the soil they were in dried out completely, for two or three days. All of the baby plants wilted, except for one little plant, which just kept on growing. It didn't wilt or anything. It actually grew a new pitcher during this time. And one of the other 'dead' ones which was completely brown started growing again. I guess I have 'tough' seedlings :)

I'll try and take a photo of my 'actual plant' I have here at home. Those are photos of the batch it came from. It is even redder than in the photos here. I'll check to see if it has any new shoots, and what colour they are.
 
Aw, sorry to hear that. But I'm glad to hear some of them survived :).
 
Here is a photo. I repotted it this morning from a green plastic square pot to...
this!
Sameredcobraseedling2.jpg


It is a glazed ceramic pot. The seedling is supposed to be quite hardy, but the 30+ degrees the soil can reach in summer might still be too much, I think. So hopefully the ceramic pot will help?

Here's another pic:
CopyofMyNewRedCobraseedling.jpg
 
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