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I don't know if anyone's seen my intro post but I am a professional research horticulturist in a major university's plant biology department. I manage 2 4,500 sqft greenhouses full of crop plants like corn, sunflowers, rice, millet, and anything else the researchers are interested in. I also manage a smaller greenhouse for teaching purposes, and it houses our CP and orchid collections as well as many other flowering plants.

I just wanted to show some pics of the plants that are a part of my daily life. We get lots of student groups of all ages, and since my specialty is CPs I love to introduce people to them and give away any stray Drosera seedpods when I can. I also haul the CP collection to a nearby botanical garden once a year as a feature for a big insect event. These plants get a workout! We have 3 Nepenthes that are over 20 years old and most of the species of Sarracenia. Since we don't specialize in CPs, there are significant holes that I have been trying to fill since I got here. I will be looking to trade in the upcoming months in order to achieve a better mix of Drosera, Dionaea, Sarracenia, and Nepenthes. We also lack Genlisea, Cephalotus, and Darlingtonia. However, I have masses of all kinds of tropicals and the ability to root cuttings on a mist bench.

I'll try to get some and more CP-specific photos later, but enjoy these for now! This was back in spring.

http://s960.photobucket.com/user/kevintheplantman/slideshow/Carnivorous Plants
 
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Apologies--I thought I was in the greenhouses forum, where this might be better suited.
 
Good looking stuff, must be fun!

Moved for ya. ;)
Andrew
 
The only thing better than running a greenhouse you pay for is running a greenhouse someone else pays for. I'm envious.
 
Really nice greenhouse!
 
Is the entire bench of Welwitschia mirabilis still in that greenhouse? Looks like the N. x Dyeriana is looking great as usual!
 
Is the entire bench of Welwitschia mirabilis still in that greenhouse? Looks like the N. x Dyeriana is looking great as usual!
The Welwitschias are alive and well. My first year at the greenhouses we had a crop of 14 babies born, and I nursed them along for 2 years in 4-inch pots and they've made their way to the big collection. Just last week we harvested another 27 seeds and, with fungicide, almost all have begun sprouting. It's insane how fast fresh seeds germinate.
 
Those are some beautifully-grown plants. Looks like you run a tight ship.
 
Thanks--you would not believe the amount of leaf drop in there!!!!!!!!!!! That particular greenhouse is over 40 years old. I'll have to remember to get some more recent photos soon.
 
  • #10
Excellent photos, would love to see more! looks like a great big Bical on the one table
 
  • #11
That is so awesome! Please share more pictures.
 
  • #12
awesome thread. I have been growing CP's for 2 years, so it is hard to fathom a nep. that is two decades old, really cool. I must ask what is the plant with the yellow/orange flowers with the white flared petals (10th picture). Thanks for sharing.
 
  • #14
Thanks for looking everyone! I do try really hard to make that one little room look nice. Being the only person curating it means I don't often have a ton of people to provide feedback on how it looks. I often just see the small problems--this has bugs; oops a spot of powdery mildew; need to prune that limb off....

So it's nice to know that fellow plant people enjoy seeing it too :)

I took a few more current pics today
http://s960.photobucket.com/user/kevintheplantman/library/Carnivorous Plants
 
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  • #15
This is just what I personally curate--we have an entire separate greenhouse full of non-CPs and I'll try to shoot some current pics of that whenever I get time in the next few weeks. The N. alata is big but I produced that amount of growth from a cutting in about 2 1/2 years.
 
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  • #16
Man! That is amazing stuff! I would kill for half of that greenhouse. I'm struggling to get funds to build one that's like 10x12... Also: theplantman, clear your pms. :)
 
  • #17
I just got some greenhouse space as well at Cornell, though not nearly as much. Day/Night temps are 75f/60f, so I'll be growing intermediate/highland Nepenthes. I just moved my first plants in yesterday(N.spathulata x bongso, N. spathulata x tentaculata, and N. spathulata x (maxima x(talangesis x tobaica)). They are still small, so I might have pics in a year or so. Hope it turns out half as good!
 
  • #19
Beautiful plants. Do the Sarracenia ever go dormant in there?
 
  • #20
Sort of. The lows never drop below 65F at night. They will keep pitchers until december, and then usually they'll get slightly brown but stay mostly green and photosynthetic. They stop growing, too. Then, in mid-Feb, two full months before anything happens to my Sarrs at home, they'll begin to bloom and leaf out. Their dormancy must be strongly photoperiodic, because they never get the appropriate temp cues. As far as I know, some of the Sarrs have been in that exact room/conditions 20 years or more and are still living and blooming regularly.
 
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