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  • #141
Ok Greg I am waiting.....you sure are a tantalizing guy, LOL! Hmmmm, if you are willing to accept Robert's diagnosis of my plants I can help you out with the D. venusta. Seed was sent to me as the "coccicaulis" variety but Robert says it looks more like the D. venusta he is familiar with. Let me know if you are interested. I confess I can not sense the differences between the various web posted photos of either, and generally regard both as local varient's of D. natalensis. Both are erect, but with a different coloration: one golden green (which I associate with the D. coccicaulis var.), and the other olive green. Both seem to have various degrees of truncate to spathulate lamina. I doubt that a completely flat form could be interpeted as other than typical D. natalensis, or am I missing something? I have a hard enough time seeing any special status to the more erect forms.

I hope you post those photos soon, the suspense is killing me!
 
  • #142
G'day Sean,

How are the plants? The D. curviscarpa???(I'm not near the plants sorry but you know the one) leaves you gave me have yielded three plants and I'm very happy with them and the method used.

I'm not real keen on root cuttings of African Drosera apart from those with dormancy periods (and the weedy ones) so leaf cuttings are a good option. I've done many using old leaves in distilled water but this is very slow. New leaves are much better and the good thing with these is that you can cut the lamina from the plant leaving the petiole behind avoiding damage to the parent. With the removed lamina you are almost assured a plant. Making sure it is free of prey it can be floated on distilled water in a sterile sealled jar or in damp shagnum at high humidity. If temperatures are stable 20-25 deg C is good the plantlets will grow in only a week or three depending on the species and condition of the leaf.

Does anyone use this method or similar or better?
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What do you all think?
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?

Thanks
Greg
 
  • #143
Sorry Tamlin, I just read your reply. Stefan's plants are definately different to my natalensis clone.

While Robert was at my house we went over several of my Sp PV this and SP. SA that and decided that D. aliciae is extremely variable and I've since added the thought that there are stacks of hybrids out there. Not 100% on this yet but some hybrids are fertile and self and breed true! Does this mean that a lot of the species we grow are not what we believe they are even though they seem to match perfectly the descriptions we have.

Many hybrids are created without us knowing! Have a look at a collection of African Drosera that is 10 or more years old. One that has not been had flowers removed and seed collected and "blow ins" removed. There are some very interesting unknowns growing amongst the obvious species.
I don't know about the rest of the world but here in Australia we have things called insects which frequent Drosera collections and attempt to destroy our collections by cross pollinating our plants. Seed from a plant is then past around and those seedlings which are close to the parent (female) are kept and obvious hybrids are discarded as weeds or repotted in the questionmark section of the collection. Before you know it there are lots of 'variants'

I'll give you an example. I've only ever received one batch of D. nidiformis seed several years ago. I now have three distinct D. nidiformis 'clones' These may or may not be hybrids.

Now I'm interested in collecting seed from everyone of all African Drosera species. Any of them! aliciae, nidiformis etc....
I want to compare all species from all collections under controlled conditions. Now that I have a new 18sq m glass house just for such plants I can do this experiment properly and publish results for all to benefit....... I hope.

If you can help with this please let me know.

Thanks
Greg
 
  • #144
G'Day Greg,

The plants are growing beautifully. The D. curviscapa? (I'm tending to think this may be a coccicaulis/venusta unfortunately) is flowering at the moment as is my coccicaulis (the flowers are very similar but seem to have slight differences. Flower colour is the same but the styles seem a slightly different shape- I must get a better look at them).

The D. collinsiae clump you gave me has been split up and the plants are growing beautifully, as are the D. admirabilis plants. I thought I'd lost the D. natalensis grown from the seed collected by Robert Gibson but I just noticed a new plant emerging from the roots.

Got some nice seedlings well on their way at the moment. There are a couple of varieties of D. cuneifolia as well as D. admirabilis 'Ceres', trinervia, cistiflora 'Pink', collinsiae, collinsiae 'Fairyland', D. madagascariensis 'Botswana' and D. X snyderi.

I've never had much of a go at propogating Drosera from leaf cuttings but I plan on doing so shortly. I reckon I'll go for the pure water method so that I can maintain a constant high humidity and keep the insects away. I'll try this and see how I go. I'll probably try a few in straight sphagnum as well.

I didn't realise you could remove the leaf without the petiole and still have good success. Last time I tried to rip a couple of leaves off my D. pauciflora I nearly ripped the plant in two. I'll get the scissors into action on my next attempt.

I imagine that your 'discoveries' were related to your WA trip, or am I wrong. Either way I am very keen on finding out what you've come across. Which society journal will you be publishing your finds in? Another good reason to get my act together and resubscribe.

Regards,

Sean.
 
  • #145
You got in just before me Greg. Very interesting thoughts and something that I've never considered. I guess you'd notice such things before myself due to the impressive collection you possess. Makes me think I need to have a close look at my entire collection and reassess which species I actually have.

Great to see you have a new glasshouse erected to increase your collection again to where it used to be. I'll have to come and have a look at some stage. Is the glasshouse still in Engadine or have you moved somewhere else?

Sean.
 
  • #146
G'day Sean,

The new glass house is not up yet. I will be moving south of Engadine in early December. I'd be interested in all of the plants you listed at some stage if you can help me out. I should have something to trade when I come down in December

Yes some (or one) of the finds was in WA

Thanks
Greg
 
  • #147
One of my Drosera admirabilis forms flowered for the first time a couple of days ago. It seems to match perfectly with the pictures that Vic posted all those pages ago. Here is a shot of the flower-

Drosera%20admirabilis%20121103.JPG


And here is a shot of the whole plant in flower-

Drosera%20admirabilis2%20121103.JPG


Do you grow this plant yet Tamlin or anybody else?

Sean.
 
  • #148
Yes I do, but it is MUCH smaller than this beauty. I think Vic also mentioned his plant was diminuative. I assume like so many of the other South African species that there is variation. My plants are still juvenille, but I'll keep you posted as to how they perform, but I doubt that they will reach this size. Nice work there mate!
 
  • #149
My plants will be in flower as of tomorrow. The same clone as yours Sean. I've crossed this with a few species including aliciae. This hybrid is very slow and not much good. I think it is best to let them self and spread it around. I'll have plenty of seed in a few weeks.
 
  • #150
Hi Greg,

The plant pictured is actually a different clone than the one you gave me. The one I got from you is just beginning to form a flowerscape now. I'm planning on letting mine self as well. There will be plenty of admirabilis seed going around between the 2 of us.

Sean.
 
  • #151
Hi,

Here are two pictures of a flower from my D. venusta :

 

Christian
 
  • #152
I am going to be getting N. admiralis from dean cook, you can see it on his website.
Tre
 
  • #155
I'll jump in here Christian. Don't know if we'll get much help from others as there doesn't seem to be many serious Drosera growers around here any more.

Have you managed to flower your D. ramentacea or cuneifolia yet? Do you find that they reproduce from the roots or have they remained as solitary plants?

I'd add a few photos of my own here but this forum doesn't allow remote linking.
 
  • #156
Hi Sean,

D. cuneifolia can easily, but slowly be reproduced by root cuttings. Lef cuttings did not worked for me. I have just tried the first root cuttings with Drosera ramentacea. I will let you know if i'm succesfull. I was told, that leaf cuttings do not work with D. ramentacea. My plants have not yet flowered, although i think they are mature.

Christian
 
  • #157
Nice plants, Christian!! D.affinis is especially fun-looking!!
And I am trying to become a serious Drosera grower, I am growing every species I have been able to acquire since my start last spring (except for D.binata and D.indica, so far it has taken me 7 months to grow a couple of fairly nice clumps of moss)
If I had a better camera I would post some pics as well, maybe my birthday in March will help me out on that one....

So maybe we're just having a changing of the guard
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  • #158
i would love to get more into South African species problem is i dont see much of a variety for trade. i have capensis, nidiformis, madigascarensis(its the Botswana form though), venusta, admirabilis and aliciae. these are about the only SA species i see offered though. i havent even heard of a couple of the ones you pictured Christian.
 
  • #159
I've noticed that also. Is there a commercial source for South African Drosera seed?
 
  • #160
[b said:
Quote[/b] (buster1 @ Feb. 09 2005,11:16)]I've noticed that also. Is there a commercial source for South African Drosera seed?
Unfortunately not really. Silverhill seeds in RSA sell a few species of Drosera at various times of the year. Most of the time they have D. cistiflora for sale (as well as capensis and aliciae). I have seen species such as D. glabripes and regia offered in the last couple of years. The germination rates of their seed is excellent and they are very generous with the amount they supply.

It's a bit of a catch 22 situation when it comes to acquiring some of the less commonly grown RSA species. If you have something interesting to offer you will find others to trade with. Until then you just have to be lucky enough to know the right people who are willing to share.

South African Drosera are by far my favourite group of CPs and I've been lucky enough to obtain a decent collection thus far.
 
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