Today I while I was observing and pampering my plants in my terrarium I discovered a stalk with a light green bulb of top of it coming out from the center of my only Sarraccenia, which I instantly realised it to be a flower stalk. ()
I, in my excitement, was trying to stop msyself from curiously poking the poor flower, when it suddenly dawned upon me that I have never had any experience in having one of my carnivorous plants flower before. So, before I start panicking, I would like to ask some questions concerning sarracenia flowering.
Does the Sarracenia species self pollinate, or does my plant have to go through cross pollination to produce healthy seeds, with fertile offspring?
I really want to get my Sarracenia to produce seeds so that I can return the favour to the many people who have helped me in this forum.
So, should I:
1) Pollinate the flower myself using any tools I can find.
2) Take the pollen carefully out of the flower, store it for future use, like to pollinate my future flower stalks, when my future sarracenia, or sarracenia(s) send up flower stalks.
3) Leave the fower alone and let the sarracenias pollinate itself.
Also, how long will my sarracenia take to produce fresh and ripe seeds?
How long do sarracenia seeds take to germinate, and are there any conditions such as stratification that I need to use for sarracenia seed germination?
Will my sarracenia be unhealthy and weak after seed production, like in the case of the venus flytrap?
Also could you direct me to any sites I might find useful, (while I spend the next day or so reading the whole internet's worth on the subject of sarracenia flowering) any books which I can read to gain infomation from (although "the savage garden is very hard to find here in singapore, I could try to order it, however by that time my sarracenia flower will be "beyond blooming" or rotting due to no pollination of the flower. Any other sources like help from anybody in this forum will be greatly apperciated, as I have done in the past.
Now I'll just go and poke at my sarracenia flower once again...
It is sooooo cute!
Thanks,
Jason
I, in my excitement, was trying to stop msyself from curiously poking the poor flower, when it suddenly dawned upon me that I have never had any experience in having one of my carnivorous plants flower before. So, before I start panicking, I would like to ask some questions concerning sarracenia flowering.
Does the Sarracenia species self pollinate, or does my plant have to go through cross pollination to produce healthy seeds, with fertile offspring?
I really want to get my Sarracenia to produce seeds so that I can return the favour to the many people who have helped me in this forum.
So, should I:
1) Pollinate the flower myself using any tools I can find.
2) Take the pollen carefully out of the flower, store it for future use, like to pollinate my future flower stalks, when my future sarracenia, or sarracenia(s) send up flower stalks.
3) Leave the fower alone and let the sarracenias pollinate itself.
Also, how long will my sarracenia take to produce fresh and ripe seeds?
How long do sarracenia seeds take to germinate, and are there any conditions such as stratification that I need to use for sarracenia seed germination?
Will my sarracenia be unhealthy and weak after seed production, like in the case of the venus flytrap?
Also could you direct me to any sites I might find useful, (while I spend the next day or so reading the whole internet's worth on the subject of sarracenia flowering) any books which I can read to gain infomation from (although "the savage garden is very hard to find here in singapore, I could try to order it, however by that time my sarracenia flower will be "beyond blooming" or rotting due to no pollination of the flower. Any other sources like help from anybody in this forum will be greatly apperciated, as I have done in the past.
Now I'll just go and poke at my sarracenia flower once again...
It is sooooo cute!
Thanks,
Jason