Sarracenias in April

[Chris_Himself]

I was wondering how everybody's plants are coming along and I wanted to say howdy to all the forum members as a new member. I took some pictures after class today so maybe we all can compare how our plants are doing?

I grow them outside literally right next to my tomato patch. So far it's been quite beneficial because tomato plants attract a lot of parasites, which then attract a lot of predators like my friend the ladybird beetle, which keep my plant alive and safe from scale, aphids, and the sort.

I began to feed all my plants weekly with 1tsp Maxsea per gallon which also aids my LFS in coming back to life as you can see. I really love the stuff. You might have to excuse my plants for being a bit slow, in San Jose we were cursed with a couple weeks of shat weather bringing them down to high 40's at night so they aren't where they should be!

All my plants are a year old from starters from the various nurseries I buy from.

This is my precious flower planter which I started this year. The Leuco 'Tarnok' is on the left. I actually was surprised to see the rhizome triple in size from last year considering it's a slower grower. The Rubra ssp. Rubra to the right of it was a personal gift from Dean Cook! I use a 2/3LFS and Peat/perlite mix, it's a darn pretty media once it gets growing.

In clockwise order; VFT green, S x Cobra Nest, S x Moorei, Danas Delight, Minor, and random Peter's rhizome (the plant was growing upside down so it's spent a lot of time and energy correcting)

These are my favorite S. Flava which are tagged and those three pitchers with hoods are actually from one rhizome!

This big guy I'm pointing my finger at is a random rhizome I bought from Peter during his spring cleaning. The rhizome was about the size of a golfball, and if rhizome size dictates pitcher size, I'm going to have a couple foot-and-a-halfers this year

Highlighting my best and worst grower, my S. x Moorei actually has like 5-6 growing points which somehow came out of nowhere. This guy used to only have 2 pitchers the entire season!

Oh boy someone is excited for spring!

First Sarracenia blossoms of my growing career. I'm so excited! S. x June Bug and S x Hummer's Hammerhead above

I believe this is my Oreo x Flava and Flava x Oreo on top.

If you guys don't own a Cobra Nest, please give it a try! There is some hidden charm I can't point a finger at in it's coloration... this is a division, I gave my mother plant to another forum member to take care of this season.

I'm so excited for this growing season! Do you think my planter will crowd or did I space them all correctly? I have more plants but they're awaiting division and repotting so they'll see some camera time later.

 

[Baylorguy]

Nice plants! I know some people might say it is too crowded, but I don't think Sarracenia mind. Mine are further along than yours. Almost all flowers are open and I even have 4-5 species with open pitchers. My Sarracenia flava is going nuts and already put out a 14 inch pitcher, with the newer growth already at 16 inches and still climbing.


The tall guy on the right is my leuco 'Titan' already 24 inches and still growing:
<a href="http://s294.photobucket.com/albums/mm112/Baylorguy81/?action=view&current=DSC01917.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i294.photobucket.com/albums/mm112/Baylorguy81/DSC01917.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket"></a>


My flava var. flava is on the right with the developing pitchers. The biggest one is already 16 inches. The pitcher on the left is my x Leah Wilkerson. Far from done growing and is rapidly catching up to the flava... should be 24+ inches! It flowered this season!

 

[Chris_Himself]

Oh man, I knew my plants we're behind but not THAT behind. But then again everything is bigger in Texas lol.

What temps are you guys getting out there? We are lucky if we even almost hit 80 these days. I'll catch up if it's the last thing I do!

 

[Hermopolis]

My s. x 'whip' is currently 18 inches. The s. alata x minor is around 14 inches. Both plants have 3 adult pitchers. What stage your sarrs are at is going to depend on the climate you are raising them in and when they went into (and came out of) dormancy.

 

[Brokken]

Chris: High temperatures don't make for better growth. All that you'll get with temperatures above 80 degrees here is scorched pitchers.

 

[Chris_Himself]

I assumed the the amount of sunlight they were seeing was proportionate to the temps they were getting really. Sorry for the confusion.

 

[Brokken]

My take is that the plants like a more humid environment than we can provide them here in the west coast. They have become naturalized and do fantastically well (from what I hear) in coastal marshland here in northern California. I've not seen them myself, but if you take Peter's nursery for example, the plants growing indoors which are kept cooler and more humid inside the greenhouse always look better than their brethren growing outside.

 

[Baylorguy]

Hi Chris -

Temperatures have consistently been 80+ during the day and 55-65 at night. Humidity has been averaging probably 65-70 %.

 

[billylh]

dang! im not that far NE of you near Pedernales Falls SP and mine are coming along soooo slow this year, im sure it has many factors including the move out here and the chickens, but I have yet to see an open pitcher, or atleast the first few pitchers were eaten by the chickens. Nice looking plants though, I hope mine come along quickly.

~billy

Nice plants! I know some people might say it is too crowded, but I don't think Sarracenia mind. Mine are further along than yours. Almost all flowers are open and I even have 4-5 species with open pitchers. My Sarracenia flava is going nuts and already put out a 14 inch pitcher, with the newer growth already at 16 inches and still climbing.

 

[scottychaos]

wow..you guys are WAY ahead of me!

my plants have been outside a few weeks now..and virtually nothng is happening yet.
even with the unusual warmth over the last week..
(although they did spend almost week in the garage, 2 weeks ago..because it was too cold out.)

so its a fairly normal, cold spring around here..
all the Daffodils just opened up a few days ago!
leaves on the trees are two or three weeks away still..
especially since its cooling back down now..
oh well..they will get there!
no hurry..

Scot

 

[Baylorguy]

That is strange. Not too far away.

Phil

dang! im not that far NE of you near Pedernales Falls SP and mine are coming along soooo slow this year, im sure it has many factors including the move out here and the chickens, but I have yet to see an open pitcher, or atleast the first few pitchers were eaten by the chickens. Nice looking plants though, I hope mine come along quickly.

~billy

 

[kulamauiman]

i can cheat. it is warmer here than most places:

 

[F R e N c H 3 z]

No fair Mach! Those are wonderful, it'll be June/ July here before I see anything like that : /

 

[kulamauiman]

No fair Mach! Those are wonderful, it'll be June/ July here before I see anything like that : /

indeed. I can cheat and then some. Even though it is cool it really isn't cold. cool enough that i moved some seedlings inside to warm them up and get them jump started. The first pic is a hybrid that has given me flowers 2X a year. Fall and spring. It doesn't really even loose all its pitchers. It does go dormant though, but hangs onto pitchers. Looks like flava X purpurea and maybe some of the purpurea heritage helps it hang onto pitchers to the bitter end. it does help though. Keeps on chugging along keeps on doing photosynthesis. Rhizomes keep on getting bigger. Very robust hybrid. The others are all pushing new leaves form feb-march. wonder if purpurea X oreo hybrid would hold leaves...... Long term people in Hawaii are impatient and don't like things that go dormant. Long term will be to make hybrids better suited to our climate and less likely to go dormant down to phyllodia.....

 

[Veronis]

Chris, mine are about as far along as those in your first picture, except my flowers are all almost completely open; couple more days. I have some tall pitchers but none are open yet.

 

[Chris_Himself]

My take is that the plants like a more humid environment than we can provide them here in the west coast. They have become naturalized and do fantastically well (from what I hear) in coastal marshland here in northern California. I've not seen them myself, but if you take Peter's nursery for example, the plants growing indoors which are kept cooler and more humid inside the greenhouse always look better than their brethren growing outside.

A bit late, but that is quite a good point. I just read that a lot of sarrs love heat in their descriptions, and I think the nursery meant the tolerate, not prefer hotter conditions now that I've read your post. I didn't really configure my subscription settings yet and I forgot to check back on this thread.