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Creating a bog garden

Hi everyone im new, Ive recently been getting more and more interested in carnivorous plants and have decided to build a few container bog gardens but have a few questions first. From the reading ive been doing, the soil mixture should be 50% Peat and 50% Sand, is that right? I live in east TN and will Sarracenias be ok outside throughout the year? What kind of water should I use? Ive ordered some Sarracenia seeds and how should I go about germinating them? I will probably have a few more questions throughout the process of getting the containers ready and purchasing the plants.
 
Hey Aric,
welcome! :)

the soil mixture should be 50% Peat and 50% Sand, is that right? I live in east TN and will Sarracenias be ok outside throughout the year?

you can use that mix if you like, but it certainly isnt a requirement..
personally, I tried a sand/peat mix once and hated it..it became a hard lump, solid as concrete..terrible..I will never use it again.
some others swear by it though..there are many personal preferences in mix..

I now use pure peat in my mini-bogs, with a top dressing of LFS (Long Fiber Spagnum)
or pure LFS if growing in individual, smaller pots.

I live in east TN and will Sarracenias be ok outside throughout the year?

maybe...are you zone 6 or 7?
I see both zones are in tenn, in different areas.
IMO, zone 6 is too cold for overwintering outdoors,
but zone 7 should be ok.
check out my Zone system info at the bottom of this page:

http://gold.mylargescale.com/Scottychaos/CP/page2.html

What are your winters like?
how cold?
much snow?
describe a typical winter where you live..

What kind of water should I use?

distilled water, reverse osmosis water, or rain water you collect yourself.
nothing else.

Ive ordered some Sarracenia seeds and how should I go about germinating them?

personally I consider seeds a massive waste of time and effort..SOOOO much easier and more rewarding to simply buy adult plants from established CP nurseries..(of which there are many)

but since you already ordered some seeds, germinate them on a bed of milled LFS or peat..do you know if they have been cold stratified or not?

keep asking! :)

Scot
 
maybe...are you zone 6 or 7?
I see both zones are in tenn, in different areas.
IMO, zone 6 is too cold for overwintering outdoors,
but zone 7 should be ok.
check out my Zone system info at the bottom of this page:

http://gold.mylargescale.com/Scottychaos/CP/page2.html

What are your winters like?
how cold?
much snow?
describe a typical winter where you live..

Im in zone 6B, winters here are not much of a winter. The lowest temps here are in the teens. As for snow, we had one 2 inch snow this year that melted by noon.



personally I consider seeds a massive waste of time and effort..SOOOO much easier and more rewarding to simply buy adult plants from established CP nurseries..(of which there are many)

but since you already ordered some seeds, germinate them on a bed of milled LFS or peat..do you know if they have been cold stratified or not?

keep asking! :)

Scot

dont know if they were cold stratified.


Do you know of any CP growers in the East TN area?
 
if you have never grown CP before, starting out with a bog garden to germinate seeds will be very challenging to say the least. i agree with scot that you would be much happier starting with adult CPs. There are many websites available (including this forum website) that will ship CP anywhere in USA as well as your local Home Depot/Lowes/Wal-marts/and some supermarkets as Spring approach. GOOD LUCK and have FUN. =)
 
Im in zone 6B, winters here are not much of a winter. The lowest temps here are in the teens. As for snow, we had one 2 inch snow this year that melted by noon.


dont know if they were cold stratified.


IMO, "teens" is still really cold for CPs..(VFTs and Sarracenia.)
they might be ok, they might not..
its not clear-cut at that temp/zone.

personally, I wouldnt risk it..I would find someplace warmer for the plants for the winter,
someplace that stays 35-50 degrees.

Scot
 
Hello Aric! Another member on here (bucky78) and I both live in East TN also!

In October, I built my first bog garden with inspiration from bucky78's bogs and I am going to be planting several sarracenias, drosera, and dionaea in it this upcoming spring. Here is how I made mine, http://www.terraforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=111074. This is how it currently looks today, "bogged up," http://img516.imageshack.us/img516/8765/img4093ew2.jpg.

I do not know how the plants will do in the bog in the winter, but you can ask bucky78 and he can answer any of your questions because he has 5 large gardens with beautiful plants.

John
 
Glad to see another cp person from TN joining!! I am in east TN like Trek said and have 5 bog gardens that I built. All of my Sarrs, VFTs and Drosera stay outside with no problem. I do however cover the beds with plastic when the temps get into the lower teens. It got down to 6 degrees at one point this winter and the plants are showing no ill effects as with previous winters. I think they are more cold hardy than most think. A friend of mine lives in Atlanta and it got down to 7 degrees there this winter and he did nothing and he said all of the plants are fine. I do agree with Waycool that you should start out with some plants instead of seed so that you can really enjoy them. They can take 2-3 years before they get any size to them. Thanks for the kind comments John. I enjoyed building the beds!! I would be happy to help with any questions. PM or email me. Here is a pic of my bogs:

DSCN1441.jpg
 
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