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Hello Terraforums,

In my time at my university, I have watched the bog garden in the school's conservatory dwindle in health and fade. As an underclassmen, all I could do is try to weed sadly, or maybe pick off a few mealy bugs. At the same time, I have been fortunate enough to have been allowed some space for my larger Nepenthes specimens to grow. Now that I have senior status, I offered to spearhead a renovation project to show my appreciation for letting me grow my plants here to the head of the horticulture department, and he gladly accepted.
So, here is a chronicle of the project thus far, I hope you enjoy it, and any constructive criticism and comments are very welcome!

The befores:
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First step: Remove the top six inches or so of media
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(My best friend doing some homework with me while I worked on this step)

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Then, replace the soil. I put some terra-cotta pipe in there to try and make a shelf effect. Ideally, it would allow for a difference in soil saturation, but it will probably just be a visual thing.
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Next, make the Nepenthes Basket. I lashed together these grid-baskets with some cable ties, and used a 1:2 perlite : sphagnum moss media to plant the Nepenthes in. Not too pretty, but should work. I might add in some coconut husk, or water-absorption crystals to help lengthen the time between waterings during the hot summer.
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Now, where it is today. They had a lot, a LOT of Sarracenia in cold storage for the water. This is sort of unfortunate, since I was originally planning on scrapping the idea of including temperates, and just stick to bomb-proof tropicals. But I'm stuck with 'em. As they wake up, I will properly ID them and sink the pots where they would look best. Around them I will have proper tropicals- mostly sundews and mexican butterworts. I have in propagation from my personal collection D. filiformis 'Florida All Red' and D. binata, hopefully they'll survive the transition into this garden, whenever that'd be...

Overview
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(They're all fairly beginner's plants, but if you want an ID, I'll answer in the comments!)

A little mound of mexican butterworts. Mostly P. x 'Tina' that I added to the original bog long ago, but they threw in some P. moctezumae.
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Here's a sickly N. albomarginata that was on the brink of death under the care of the university , but since putting it in this Nepenthes Garden, it has almost finished it's first pitcher here, and a new growing tip is clearly visible next to where the old one rotted away.
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On the west-facing side, I placed a D. prolifera, and a piece of U. longifolia, hoping they'll establish themselves nicely.
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I'll be updating this as I make significant additions. Thanks for looking!
 
Very nice. Yes definitely update with some more photos :D
 
Look great, I wish my university would actually listen to what I tell them. Maybe they'd be successful with plants other than ficus
 
Looks great! I'm hoping to speak to my university about starting a similar project, but I have yet to meet a faculty member who is involved in horticulture at PSU. Needless to say, I'd really like to gain some experience with greenhouses.
 
Wowww Nice! Yeah it's even rougher when you're not even in the plant and soil sciences/botany field and you ask to help out in the greenhouse... they sorta just roll their eyes at you :lol:
 
Very beautiful. Nice to see the progress an that you can show others the potential of these plants.
 
Wowww Nice! Yeah it's even rougher when you're not even in the plant and soil sciences/botany field and you ask to help out in the greenhouse... they sorta just roll their eyes at you :lol:

I had the added advantage of working at a Botanic Garden in high school, and the Head of Horticulture there knew the Department of Horticulture Chair at URI, so, they were already talking about me before I even got there!!

But I'm usually no where near the greenhouses academically. Plant Sciences classes meet there, so like Propagation, Disease Management, etc, etc (more horticulture and that kinda thing) meanwhile I like to study plants on a more molecular level. Gene signaling pathways? I can't get enough. So when I'm walking around the greenhouse complex looking for string or something, I get a lot of funny looks since no where there recognizes me/knows who I am aside from the Department Head.

Does anyone have any suggestions for other "bomb proof" tropicals that would go in there nicely? There is already a ton of D. capensis, and those butterworts. I plan to add U. sandersonii down with the U. longifolia, D. filiformis 'Florida All Red' and D. binata. Maybe some P. lusitanica down the road as mine start to bloom and set seed.
 
That looks awesome, great idea with the Nep rack. You'll have to go back and visit it when you leave, I bet it's going to look unreal in a couple of years! Maybe you could throw in some Helis or Cephs?
 
I plan to add U. sandersonii down with the U. longifolia...
Imo, U. longifolia should only be kept in a separated container (like hanging basket) as it will eventually infiltrate every square inch of the bog & resist every effort to eradicate it. Your successors will curse the day you placed it in there.

I love utrics but most are best shared from separate containers. Exceptions might be made for some of the epiphytes since they are normally easy to eliminate.
 
  • #10
Imo, U. longifolia should only be kept in a separated container (like hanging basket) as it will eventually infiltrate every square inch of the bog & resist every effort to eradicate it. Your successors will curse the day you placed it in there.

I love utrics but most are best shared from separate containers. Exceptions might be made for some of the epiphytes since they are normally easy to eliminate.

Yeah put something cuter in like nelumbifolia. Umbrellas!
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And bombproof for a Sarracenia garden - it will infiltrate every square centimeter of the peat, but it just looks like realllly short grass: Utricularia bisquamata. Cute little purple/pink flowers:
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In my minibogs in San Diego I have a Drosera spathulata x capensis - it gets a little smaller in the winter, but it pretty much just grows like a champ. D.filiformis red/Florida dies back despite the lack of cold (it only gets down to 45 at night over the winter) so I'm guessing it's maybe that and the daylight hours cues. P.gigantea keeps on growing throughout the winter and caught a TON of fungus gnats, and you might think about an infestation of pygmy drosera - D.roseana and D.scorpioides will grow like champs and re-gemmae themselves like weeds (you might lose the scorpioides if they gemmae because a lot of people do, but don't worry because they will re-gemmae themselves *all* over the place :ohno:).
 
  • #11
Yeah put something cuter in like nelumbifolia. Umbrellas!

...and you might think about an infestation of pygmy drosera - D.roseana and D.scorpioides will grow like champs and re-gemmae themselves like weeds

Thez_yo,

I think if I could get my hands on some U. nelumbifolia, I'd keep it for myself LONG before I'd put it at the mercy of the University's greenhouse!

And I like the idea of the pygmy drosera. I put some D. nitidula x pulchella long ago, but it was lost when they stopped caring for it. I still have my plants, and they just produced gemmae. I'll have to see if there are any in there that aren't too far developed and put them around there.
 
  • #12
As things slowly wake up, I decide where they should go. And as things realize they're actually being grown in a way they like, the start to look better :)

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This is the "wet" area. Here are low-growing Sarracenia, and Drosera, and Utricularia. Some Sarracenia plants include: Purpurea ssp. venosa, x 'Scarlet Belle,' x 'Love Bug,' and I think x 'Red Bug.'
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N. x 'Ventrata' pitcher, it is developing so much faster than it did before it was in the Nepenthes Basket.
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N. albomarginata pitcher
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Around the Nepenthes Basket I have put some of the taller Sarracenia species. Alternating alata and leucophylla 'Tarnok' in the front, with flava all around the sides and back. Should look good as they all wake up.
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  • #13
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N. albomarginata
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N. truncata
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N. sanguinea, this looks like it'll be a big one.
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N. x 'Ventrata'
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S. x 'Judith Hindle,' looking the best, first, for some reason. (Sorry this came out blurry)
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