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:
First step: Remove the top six inches or so of media
(My best friend doing some homework with me while I worked on this step)
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.
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.
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
(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.
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.
On the west-facing side, I placed a D. prolifera, and a piece of U. longifolia, hoping they'll establish themselves nicely.
I'll be updating this as I make significant additions. Thanks for looking!
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:
First step: Remove the top six inches or so of media
(My best friend doing some homework with me while I worked on this step)
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.
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.
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
(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.
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.
On the west-facing side, I placed a D. prolifera, and a piece of U. longifolia, hoping they'll establish themselves nicely.
I'll be updating this as I make significant additions. Thanks for looking!