Drosera graminifolia Diamantina

[Tamlin Dawnstar]

Its been 1 1/4 year from seed collected by Fernando and Robert Gibson in August 2002 to the beautiful plant about to flower with leaves about 10 inches long.  This is a great plant that deserves a place in more collections.  I hope to have seed from this event to share in the near future.

The plant is cultivated in a novel way: it is grown as a semi aquatic.  The pot is a full 10 inches, with an inch of redwood mulch placed at the bottom of the pot for a sump.  The pot itself sits in a jardeniere with the water level just below the potting medium which is pure milled live LFS.  The plant grows in ambient conditions outside during the summer, and on a well lit rack during the colder months, and has been problem free as far as culture goes.

I believe the redwood sump provides valuable discouragement to various bacterial processes that might otherwise attack the roots in such flooded conditions.  I use the same protocol with D. regia with great success, and D. ascendens also seems responsive to it.  All are growing in ambient natural conditions here with an average humidity of some 60% and with a good nightime differential in temperature of at least 5 degrees minimal, and usually more.

 

[cephalotus88]

Pickle over there, pickle over there, everyone say ho!

Congrats Tamlin!

 

[Tamlin Dawnstar]

You're on my list Zach . Uhh, bad news about the latest D. cuneifolia seed though, the seedlings have distinct petioles :-(. I just sowed another different batch of this and D. admirabilis so there is still some hope!

 

[PlantAKiss]

Yay for you, Tamlin the Plant Wizard.

It looks goood!

Zach....WHAT is that about a pickle

 

[Fernando Rivadavia]

GASP!!!!

I am very pleasantly surprised, to say the least! I guess I should say that I am in denial, not allowing myself to believe it's true!!

Congrats! You seem to have found the right way to cultivate these and other CPs from cool mountains seepage habitats, which until now have been a major pain in the *** in most CP collections!!

Not only did they grow extremely fast (only a year and a half to flower!!!), but they look great!!!

Keep up the good work and don't forget to use this recipe on all the Drosera, Utrics, Genlisea, Heliamphora, and others you can get your hands on!! As well as teach others the trick!

Congrats,
Fernando Rivadavia

 

[schloaty]

Wow, that's really cool, Tamlin! Novel idea on the potting mechanism, too. I'm going to have to try to find some redwood mulch....When you say "redwood," by the way, do you mean real sequoia, or simply red cedar?

 

[The Griffin]

Holy Handgrenades, Batman! Er, I mean Tamlin!
You have outdone yourself! That is the best pic of that species I have ever seen. It looks healthier than the ones in habitat on Fernado's page(Hi Fernando

)
Pickle, smickle, I want to know what a jardeniere is, lol.
You have to write an article on this method for CPN. God knows we need more cultivation articles in there.
How fresh does graminifolia seed have to be,?

Congrats!

Joe

 

[Tamlin Dawnstar]

Thanks for all the kind comments! I seem to be getting a good feel for the Brazilian species in general. It's always great to flower a species grown from seed!

To answer some questions:

The mulch is true redwood, but I surmise that red cedar would have the same properties. Both are known to have antimicrobal action.

A jardenier is an undrained container. In this case it is one of those motel ice buckets. I keep the water level even with the top of the resavoir and replace by topwatering when it gets down an inch or so.

Thanks go out to both Fernando and Robert for bringing back some of this seed, and especially to Robert who sent some seed my way.

 

[PlantAKiss]

A jardiniere is a large, undrained flower pot...usually rather rounded and made of glazed pottery but not always.  It is a two-piece set with the jardiniere pot and a pedestal base upon which the pot sits.  "Jardin" is French for "garden" and "jardiniere" means "female gardener".  You often can find the pots by themselves as the bases freqently got broken.

 

[JanW]

Nice plant, congratulations!

 

[SnowyFalcon]

Congrats! I'm still hoping to get my last two D. burmanni to flower. Come on little plants!

SF

 

[Seandew]

Beautiful plants Tamlin, I am indeed very envious. What is the maximum temperature that your plants reach in your conditions? Things are a little hot down here at the moment and I'm trying to work out a method of keeping my plants cool in the greenhouse whilst at the same time supplying them with enough light. I wish I had some sort of indoor setup in which to grow these great plants.

Sean.

 

[Joseph Clemens]

 

[Tamlin Dawnstar]

Hi Sean,

Maximum temps were about 85F: after this I put the plants into the cool cellar for the duration: good thing since the heat spell that claimed my Heliamphora and U. quelchii would likely have taken the Brazilian Drosera as well. I think that they can take the heat, provided that there is a significant night time drop in temperature along with a rise in relative humidity. Of all the Brazilian species I grow, this one seemed the least affected by heat.

BTW, I did not evolve this growing protocol. Our own Pinguiculaman taught me this method with the D. regia, and I applied it to this species. Also note that the redwood "mulch" is actually bark. I bet that euculyptus bark would work too.

 

[Tamlin Dawnstar]

Well, since you all like the plant, here is another shot of a more overview quality:

You can see the quarter coin for a sense of scale. The quartz cluster probably has something to do with organizing the plants aura or something equally as mystical ;-)

 

[The Griffin]

So, S. American Drosera are holistic, lol?
Redwood bark? Is that the same as orchid bark, or am I confusing confiers?

Regards,

Joe

 

[Joseph Clemens]

<span style='font-size:12pt;line-height:100%'>Orchid bark is nearly always either fir or pine, more often the former rather than the latter. This reference is to bark from Sequoia trees, (its appearance is much more fibrous than most other tree barks, one brand name was "Palco Wool") it was being marketed for use in orchid culture, usually as a minor ingredient in fir bark orchid media to reduce the rate at which the fir bark decomposes under orchid culture conditions. It is very strongly acidic and has strong microbe inhibiting properties.

A few vendors of orchid supplies still carry it, though it is much more expensive than it was 25 years ago when I bought a pallet load from the manufacturer (J.T. Dimmick out of Garberville, CA). For instance here is a link to one suppliers site:</span>Hummert's listing for the redwood bark discussed in this thread

 

[The Griffin]

So , is the best place to get redwood bark you local Home Depot type area(ie, mulch)?

Thanks,

Joe

 

[Joseph Clemens]

<span style='font-size:12pt;line-height:100%'>I have never seen actual redwood bark other than that available from orchid supply vendors, though I have looked diligently for several decades now. If anyone does, please let me know, thanks.

The "fiberized redwood bark" I use and supplied Tamlin with is just this:  Dimmick's Fiberized Redwood Bark

I wish I had a financial interest in this supplier, but I don't. I obtained my supply when it was about 1/3 the current price. Perhaps other materials will provide similar benefits, but I cannot vouch for this to be the case, you will need to perform your own experiments to determine this if you choose to use alternate materials.

I discovered these interesting abilities of redwood bark almost by accident.

1st; I had been growing orchids for several years before I learned of CP, and redwood bark was being used as an additive to basic fir bark for orchid culture, to slow the decomposition of the fir bark.

2nd; While on a trip outside my local area of Southern Califonria I purchased a Sarracenia purpurea plant and discovered it was planted in 100% redwood bark. The light went on and I contacted the manufacturer for information on the composition and characteristics as concerns using it for plant culture.

3rd; I purchased a pallet load from the manufacturer, deliverd by truck to my home, now in Washington state, pacific northwest.

4th; I was growing my many Sarracenia species and hybrids in gallon size pots or larger, and for convenience as well as to support my laziness, I had them floating in plastic wading pools of purified water, augmented by rain water. Sometimes the LFS they were planted in would turn "sour" rot rapidly and smell like sewage, often killing the plant growing therein. I extrapolated that perhaps the redwood bark (which was not being utilized at this time) might help reduce this tendency as the manufacturers laboratory analysis indicated that it had substantial anti-microbial properties. I simply placed a fist-full or two under the rootball of each floating plant and almost never had this issue again.</span>

 

[The Griffin]

Looks like great stuff. If I could walk in and buy a bag, I would. Roughly 1$/pound in the midwest is a good price, actually.

Regards,

Joe