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Darlingtonia growers

JB_OrchidGuy

JB_OrchidGuy

Cardiac Nurse
I have never sucessfully grown this plant. And think I have only tried once. I was under the impression it liked cooler temps. Would it survive outdoors in SC with my sarrs? Temps hit 100+ durring the summer. I am looking to aquire one of the mountain varieties. The bog it will be in is a circ bog and the water keep flowing. Will never dry out because of a min water level the bog keeps it at. The plant I am looking to aquire is a large flowering cobra. It had the largest leaves I had ever seen on a cobra. Rivaled the hight of a leah wilkerson in the pictures from previous season. I would hate to aquire a plant I couldn't care for and kill.

Thanks for the info.
 
Harry Tryon

has several cultivars of the plant you seek.
One of them has the tallest pitchers I have ever seen (nearly 48")...and I grew up hiking all around them in this area.
BTW he propogates them for a large supplier in Ca.
They love the heat, many days in the hills around here are at or above 100* in the summer time. As long as they have cool water for the roots.
 
I suggest you watch Jeff Dallas' YouTube video about his experience with this species. It can tolerate very hot weather as long as it has water flowing over the roots (emulating the seep-type soil/root experience it gets in nature) and the water should be kept as cool as possible. I found mine tolerated 85F water on hot days, at least for periods.
 
Thanks guys. My circ bog continually circulates the water from a rain barrel. I fill with tap when low. Always maintains a few inches if the power goes out or if the barrel runs dry. I haven't took a temp of the water.

I'm working a trade with a gentleman offering a large darlinftonia as part of the deal. Was just making sure I could successfully grow it here in SC and not kill it.
 
JB_OrchidGuy said:
Thanks guys. My circ bog continually circulates the water from a rain barrel. I fill with tap when low.
Click to expand...

Unless you have verified that your "tap" has less than 50ppm tds, then that is not a good idea when it comes to Darlingtonia.
 
This guy was just in an ordinary window planter on my porch and the temps occasionally exceeded 90F. I really didn't do anything special for it and it didn't seem to be fazed by the heat. My observation is that an well-established plant tolerates a lot.

Picture-3.jpg
 
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Paul my water hovers around 90ppm when I checked it.

So these guys are more sensitive than sarrs and vft? Everything else tolerates the water fine.
 
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I think Darlingtonia will do great in that set up. I think the oxygination of the flowing water is more important than cold water. As long as the water is cool, like not exposed to and getting warm from the sun, you should be fine. I think Darlingtonia are more tolerant of higher TDS than sarrs in my experience, but would keep it under 100 ppm to be safe. My pond at times gets in the 100 range and that is the water I have flowing through my Darlingtonia. As for sun, they do just fine in your temperatures and the mountain variety get temps to 100 or more in the wild at times.

Go for it and please post pics if you can, would love to see them :-D
 
Leo Song's research at CSU Fullerton indicated 80-81°F(~27°C) was the highest root temperature this species would tolerate. Earlier field studies indicated root temperatures remained at a near constant 52°F(11°C) even when air temperatures exceeded 85°F(29°C). This paper by Doug Burdic indicates root die off in cultivation will begin when rhizosphere temperatures reach or exceed 65°F(18°C) unless high levels of humidity are maintained and root temperatures are lowered.

All other indications seem to suggest this species also prefers well oxygenated roots.

You might be able to oxygenate the roots by placing it in a slightly elevated portion of your bog where the water levels fluctuate more during the day. And you can keep the roots cooler by shading or adding reflective material (white silica sand?) around the surface area of the bog where the plants will be.
 
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  • #10
Mine survived 90* in the summer, but it had 70* roots.
 
  • #11
Live moss growing around the base of the plant along with flowing water helps to keep the roots from over-heating. My pond set up gets full blazing sun at least 6 hours a day through summer with temps into the 80s to 90s with occasional bumps to 100 and seem to suffer no ill effects. I think they are more hardy than people give them credit for.
 
  • #12
I think that's due to the availability of nursery seed grown/cultivated plants reaching critical mass within the last 10 years. Before it was mainly crappy tissue culture/death cube or wild collected plants. Plants collected from the wild seldom survive in cultivation probably due to the loss of the commensal organisms in the pitchers that do the actual digestion of prey. Darlingtonia does not produce its own digestive enzymes. It probably takes some time for the plants to adapt or some other organism to take over the task.

Live Sphagnum moss makes excellent cover for Darlingtonia, it provides shade/reflective surface and evaporative cooling. The trick is keep birds from picking clean in the spring for nesting material.
 
  • #13
I always have a top layer of LFS and also have to deal with "angry birds".
 
  • #15
I have a 4 year old pot of them and I even successfully started some 2 years ago and they're doing very well.
It can get to 100 here, I keep them in dappled Sun - bright shade and pour rainwater on the soil several times a day in hot weather.

Here are my 4 year olds!

IMG_0973.jpg
 
  • #17
Exo said:
Actually...Cobra plants have since been found to create a form of digestive enzyme.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Darlingtonia_californica
Click to expand...

Interesting as I can find no other references to this except to the one book. I would think others would cite this research. If anybody has Pietropaolo's Carnivorous Plants of the World, I would like to know what study the author cites and obtain a copy of the study.
 
  • #18
Hot periods during the day have never been an issue with darlingtonia granted most of mine come from inland or higher level population origins, however I believe that good ol temp drop at night with us northern growers is a good key to all of it, like highland plants, we will see days in the upper 80s, mid 90s occasionally around 100 but rarely, and the plants suffer no I'll effect, wonder if this has to do with our nights never being above 60F?
In the years I've grown darlingtonia, my plants have experienced some crazy weather, and yet all i have lost are a few pots of young seedlings at no other fault but my own (too dry usually) this plant likes its feet cold and wet, that's for sure.
 
  • #19
The one plant I got died on me, but I found out afterward there were pests in the pot. I'll be trying again from some seeds I happen to have.
 
  • #20
Here's a photo taken a few minutes ago of my 2 year old seed started cobras. Again, I pour water over the plant several times a day. Ambient air temp. water.

IMG_1044.jpg
 
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