I got this at Lowe's today. It's just labeled "Drosera," but it looks to be adelae to my newb eye.
All their CPs were on a bottom shelf in the indoor room of the garden center, getting NO light at all, let alone sunlight. They had a few "red pitcher" plants and smaller Drosera. They all looked rotten or dead except the one I got. There was one that just said "Butterwort" that looked like nothing more than a pot of rotten, damp moss. Maybe some or all were dormant - I don't know. But they looked terrible, had no water in their boxes except drops on the sides, and some were moldy inside. This does not surprise me, because these boxes are airtight and are taped shut.
This is my first CP, but I've been reading up and preparing for a few weeks. The local university's botanical gardens have lots of CPs, including several outdoor bogs. They tell me just about every CP can live outside here (Charlotte, NC) year-round if planted in a bog, and outside in pots as long they're brought in on the very rare sub-15F night. So, I decided I had enough knowledge and lucky climate to attempt a rescue on what's supposed to be a pretty hardy Drosera, and this one actually looks pretty healthy to me, all things considered.
Please chime in with suggestions, advice, bossing, questions, ridicule, or whatever.
Ok, pics:
The execution chamber. Most of the leaves are plastered to the sides. The only water is the condensation you see:
The grower is Botanical Wonders. Here are the instructions:
Just got home. I set up an Intensive care unit of an open top, vaporizer and the shade near an open window for about an hour while I did other things:
I used needlenose pliers to take the pot out. The pot is 3 inches tall and 3.5 inches across the opening. The inside of the box is completely coated with mucilage. No water, just some damp dregs of moss:
This plastic sleeve covers the bedding and lines two sides of the box. It is also coated thickly with mucilage. This sprout was stuck to it. Not wanting to kill my first CP the same day I got one, I placed it back onto the bedding with the (many) other sprouts:
This root is about 4 inches long. It was curled up around the bottom of the deathbox. It looks like it's about to drop off, and another healthy-looking root has started to poke out of the hole with it. I'm guessing this is a desperation tap root, growing frantically in a plastic desert in search of precious water:
I put the plant into the sun for a minute to get some decent light for close shots. You can see two flower stalks - maybe half-inch tall - and some of the babies sprouting up. Are these all offshoots? I thought they might be capensis as well, but I don't know:
The stem is surrounded all the way to the bottom leaves with a very thick wad of dead/dying leaves, sphagnum (which seems to be the only bedding - that is sphagnum, isn't it?), and baby plants. There is really no separation between this clump and the rest of the bedding:
I suspended the pot in some distilled water, just covering the bottom. I didn't want to damage the long root until I knew more. I also misted the plant lightly with distilled water after I took these pics:
There is almost no dew on the leaves, but they seemed to want to perk up nicely. This sunlight is, again, just for pics. It's still sitting in bright shade under a window just out of the sunbeam's wrath. This is about 20 minutes after leaving the box:
Handy cheapo thermometer/hygrometer. I've got this clipped to the plant's water dish now. I'd slip a CO2 tube up its nose if it had a nose:
I've got it stable in an open room at about 77F and 40-45% humidity, but I have lots of things I can put it inside if it should have a more of an enclosure. At the very least I can put a plastic bottle or jug over it (with room to spare) temporarily. I'm keeping the deathbox, too - with some ventilation I think it would be a very nice mini-terrarium for a smaller plant (or all these babies?).
I'd like to keep it outside as much as possible. My back yard borders a creek and stays very warm and muggy and buggy, with lots of afternoon sun. I think the plant will be able to live there once it stabilizes. In the meantime, I have some strong fluorescents I can rig up over it to nurse it along. My thought was to start slowly mixing some rainwater I just collected the last two days (I told you I've been planning...) into the mix with the distilled water as it gets soaked up, to help the plant get ready to try the great outdoors - and to give it a little more sunlight over a few days until it gets used to coming out of the cave it was in.
As I finish this post, the plant has been out of the box about 7 hours. We have about one more hour of sunlight for it to sit near, then I'll put it under some lights or whatever needs to be done.
Now the's time for advice! Is there anything pressing I should do? Not do? What about the long root? What about the baby plants? The flower stalks? The substrate? Clue me in, people. I appreciate all thoughts and pointers. A life hangs in the balance. Don't leave it in just my hands!
All their CPs were on a bottom shelf in the indoor room of the garden center, getting NO light at all, let alone sunlight. They had a few "red pitcher" plants and smaller Drosera. They all looked rotten or dead except the one I got. There was one that just said "Butterwort" that looked like nothing more than a pot of rotten, damp moss. Maybe some or all were dormant - I don't know. But they looked terrible, had no water in their boxes except drops on the sides, and some were moldy inside. This does not surprise me, because these boxes are airtight and are taped shut.
This is my first CP, but I've been reading up and preparing for a few weeks. The local university's botanical gardens have lots of CPs, including several outdoor bogs. They tell me just about every CP can live outside here (Charlotte, NC) year-round if planted in a bog, and outside in pots as long they're brought in on the very rare sub-15F night. So, I decided I had enough knowledge and lucky climate to attempt a rescue on what's supposed to be a pretty hardy Drosera, and this one actually looks pretty healthy to me, all things considered.
Please chime in with suggestions, advice, bossing, questions, ridicule, or whatever.
Ok, pics:
The execution chamber. Most of the leaves are plastered to the sides. The only water is the condensation you see:
The grower is Botanical Wonders. Here are the instructions:
Just got home. I set up an Intensive care unit of an open top, vaporizer and the shade near an open window for about an hour while I did other things:
I used needlenose pliers to take the pot out. The pot is 3 inches tall and 3.5 inches across the opening. The inside of the box is completely coated with mucilage. No water, just some damp dregs of moss:
This plastic sleeve covers the bedding and lines two sides of the box. It is also coated thickly with mucilage. This sprout was stuck to it. Not wanting to kill my first CP the same day I got one, I placed it back onto the bedding with the (many) other sprouts:
This root is about 4 inches long. It was curled up around the bottom of the deathbox. It looks like it's about to drop off, and another healthy-looking root has started to poke out of the hole with it. I'm guessing this is a desperation tap root, growing frantically in a plastic desert in search of precious water:
I put the plant into the sun for a minute to get some decent light for close shots. You can see two flower stalks - maybe half-inch tall - and some of the babies sprouting up. Are these all offshoots? I thought they might be capensis as well, but I don't know:
The stem is surrounded all the way to the bottom leaves with a very thick wad of dead/dying leaves, sphagnum (which seems to be the only bedding - that is sphagnum, isn't it?), and baby plants. There is really no separation between this clump and the rest of the bedding:
I suspended the pot in some distilled water, just covering the bottom. I didn't want to damage the long root until I knew more. I also misted the plant lightly with distilled water after I took these pics:
There is almost no dew on the leaves, but they seemed to want to perk up nicely. This sunlight is, again, just for pics. It's still sitting in bright shade under a window just out of the sunbeam's wrath. This is about 20 minutes after leaving the box:
Handy cheapo thermometer/hygrometer. I've got this clipped to the plant's water dish now. I'd slip a CO2 tube up its nose if it had a nose:
I've got it stable in an open room at about 77F and 40-45% humidity, but I have lots of things I can put it inside if it should have a more of an enclosure. At the very least I can put a plastic bottle or jug over it (with room to spare) temporarily. I'm keeping the deathbox, too - with some ventilation I think it would be a very nice mini-terrarium for a smaller plant (or all these babies?).
I'd like to keep it outside as much as possible. My back yard borders a creek and stays very warm and muggy and buggy, with lots of afternoon sun. I think the plant will be able to live there once it stabilizes. In the meantime, I have some strong fluorescents I can rig up over it to nurse it along. My thought was to start slowly mixing some rainwater I just collected the last two days (I told you I've been planning...) into the mix with the distilled water as it gets soaked up, to help the plant get ready to try the great outdoors - and to give it a little more sunlight over a few days until it gets used to coming out of the cave it was in.
As I finish this post, the plant has been out of the box about 7 hours. We have about one more hour of sunlight for it to sit near, then I'll put it under some lights or whatever needs to be done.
Now the's time for advice! Is there anything pressing I should do? Not do? What about the long root? What about the baby plants? The flower stalks? The substrate? Clue me in, people. I appreciate all thoughts and pointers. A life hangs in the balance. Don't leave it in just my hands!