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Bittersweet Moment

My robcantleyi has been bothering a bit lately so today I decided to get a little aggressive with it. It made a gnarled leaf about two leaves ago which I didn't want to cut off because I'm usually of the mindset that if its green you shouldn't mess with it. The next leaf developed fine but this last leaf apparently got caught on the gnarled leaf/ stuck in the leaf before it and ended up unable to unfurl at all. By the time I realized the issue it was a little too late (permanently deformed the leaf) and after about 2 weeks of waiting I realized it might just be best to clip off as much of the leaf as I could so that the next leaf wouldn't also have issues unfurling too, letting the plant get back to normal. After making the tough choice, I made a couple of snips being careful not to damage the developing leaf. Once I made the snips I thought to myself what a strange leaf for a moment before realizing it wasn't a leaf at all. It's the first flower from my robcantleyi. Not sure if its a boy or a girl or if it will even develop after all the trauma I put the plant through but I thought it was worth sharing.

<a href="http://s279.photobucket.com/user/sotohpym/media/Nepenthes/IMAG1024_zpsvz5dyco8.jpg.html" target="_blank"><img src="http://i279.photobucket.com/albums/kk144/sotohpym/Nepenthes/th_IMAG1024_zpsvz5dyco8.jpg" border="0" alt=" photo IMAG1024_zpsvz5dyco8.jpg" style=""></a>
 
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Please, please please, for the sake of the hobby don't make anymore horrible robcanleyi hybrids ! hahaha !
 
Lol. I will say I'm not a huge fan of 99% of the robcantleyi hybrids out there but I think it could make a nice hybrid with a simple truncata or veitchii. Maybe even back crossed onto another robcantleyi hybrid? Something closely related anyway since these guys don't seem to offer many of their characteristic traits to their hybrids. I do like the talangensis x robcantleyi that I've seen though. All that said, it may be one that I just let flower and don't breed. Unless someone else lets me know their robcantleyi is flowering in which case there can never really be too much species seed in my opinion.
 
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I actually did see the talangensis cross today, it was not nearly as horrible looking as most of the others. Saw maxima crossed with it once too that wasn't too bad.
 
I bought THREE plants from Tony of the maxima X robcantleyi cross and they were all dreadful - one of the most uninteresting hybrids ever. I got rid of the first two in a hurry and the third one will be looking for a new home soon. Ugh.
 
Just looked up images of the crosses. To say they don't look good is a bit of an understatement.
OP, one of the things I do when I see leaf issues is manually pull the developing leaf out. I have to do it frequently with a maxima, and it's easy enough once you get the hang of it.
 
Maybe I'm the odd one out, but I don't mind rc hybrids, a lot of them aren't as flashy as the species but they have qualities I like (and admittedly if it's a male I'd love pollen from it....).
Sorry to hear about all the leaf issues, I often do the same thing as Cruzzfish if one seems to be developing oddly, but it doesn't happen often...
 
  • #10
The only Rc hybrids that have been done that I think there is some hope for are Rc x hamata and Rc x Ovata. I know they're quite new but anyone have pics of pitchers on theirs?
 
  • #11
I also remember seeing one good clone of Rc x ventricosa, someone posted a pic over a year ago, can't find it. It was probably a one in a hundred clone, all the others from that grex look like junk. Rc x densiflora is probably the first proven good looking Rc hybrid in cultivation and this is thanks to the dominance of densiflora.
 
  • #12
I also remember seeing one good clone of Rc x ventricosa, someone posted a pic over a year ago, can't find it. It was probably a one in a hundred clone, all the others from that grex look like junk. Rc x densiflora is probably the first proven good looking Rc hybrid in cultivation and this is thanks to the dominance of densiflora.

Agreed about the densiflora cross - that is the only one I've seen that I would consider growing. I did have the ventricosa X robcantleyi and grew it for a year - hoping and hoping it would become more interesting. In fact, it did the opposite - becoming more homely and awkward looking with every pitcher; reminded me of a cross between a giant pumpkin and the baby from Eraserhead.
 
  • #13
I remember people were saying similar stuff about hamata hybrids a few years ago; now I'm seeing some hit the market that are actually rather nice. Maybe we just need to find a robcantleyi with stronger genes?
 
  • #14
This is maxima "dark" X robcantleyi.
img_5165.jpg


This plant is up for adoption; pay for shipping and its yours. Yes - I'm serious.
 
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  • #15
Can confirm densi x rob:


 
  • #16
No es buweno! Ouch!

Ramon:grin:
 
  • #17
This is maxima "dark" X robcantleyi.

This plant is up for adoption; pay for shipping and its yours. Yes - I'm serious.

Wow, that's a pretty miserable cross. Basically made a worser maxima.
 
  • #18
The only Rc hybrids that have been done that I think there is some hope for are Rc x hamata and Rc x Ovata. I know they're quite new but anyone have pics of pitchers on theirs?

I'd like to see how those are turning out, too.
 
  • #20
I bought THREE plants from Tony of the maxima X robcantleyi cross and they were all dreadful - one of the most uninteresting hybrids ever. I got rid of the first two in a hurry and the third one will be looking for a new home soon. Ugh.

I would take it, but unfortunately I bet that plant would get big. Then again doesn't look too big from the picture yet. Maybe I gift it to my grandma when it gets big, she is growing nepenthes as well and I doubt she wouldn't like it.
 
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