Price question

[Tim]

Yesterday I ran across a nursery with neps that must have been there for years. Most didn't have names, and most only had a few pitchers, as they are using city water. There were several that were, execpt for the lack of pitchers, very healthy looking. They are in very small pots, but were 10 to fifteen feet long, with very thick stems. The leaves are huge, and internodes are short. They have several growing points. They want 80 dollars for the huge ones. Some were labeled coccenia, but others had different shaped pitchers.

What do you think about the price?

 

[swords]

Those are pretty large. 80 is not too bad for a plant of such dimensions but Coccinea is not a rare hybrid. It is probably the one I see most in the garden shops, so it basically depends if you think it's a good bargin or not. I would personally take 4 different 20 dollar 3" size plants over one big one as I like a variety and to watch the plant evolve into a monster! To me it seems like smaller plants adapt/settle in faster than large plants.
One place I (used to) buy neps from (leaving name out of it) has mature size plants from 100 - 500 and cuttings from 40 to 100 but now I preffer to shop by mail and get "more for the money" as they say.

 

[The Griffin]

Tim,

I think those sound pretty cool, actually. yes you can get them cheaper, but you also have an opportunity to make a bunch of cuttings and after rooting them, can sell/trade them. Even if you made 20 cuttings and sold them for a mere $5 each, you would come out ahead and still have a nice mother plant with large pitchers.
Can you reveal to us where you saw these?

Regards,

Joe

 

[Tim]

They are in San Luis Obispo County, California. There seem to be about 7-8 varieties, but only the coccinea are marked.

 

[Guest]

Get the large unknown varieties

.

 

[Tim]

There's one that I've never seen before, even though through Google.com I've seen basically every picture of a nep posted.

It's actually velvety grey (the pitchers) and about 6-8 inches long, and cylindrical in shape. It was quite striking. It was one of the only one's with lots of pitchers, which given the hard water around here makes it very intriguing to me, given the fact that I'm hoping to use them in my landscaping business for courtyards and fountain areas. This distilled water business seems more than the cold to be the main limiting factor here.

Thanks for the replies, and keep them coming. Maybe I will get a couple, and can trade unrooted cuttings with some of you.

Regards
Tim

 

[Guest]

Yay

.

 

[The Griffin]

Tim,

The only Nep I have ever seen that was velvety grey was a N. sanguinea. It's peristome was kind of metallic coppery too, which made it very attractive.

Regards,

Joe

 

[Tim]

Thanks, Joe

I think I'll go back and take some detailed notes of the different pitchers.

Is sanguinea difficult to grow? In my greenhouse, the ventricosa, alata and coccinea do well, but the gracilis and rafflesiana do not, as it get down to 55 or so at night.

 

[mindmaze128]

Velvety grey pitchers sound more like N fusca to me.
http://www.malesiana.tropicals.com.my/nep-fus.html
N sanguinea pitchers are typically red or green, although there is a black variety of this species.

If the plant is N sanguinea though, it'll do well with your other neps.

Jœl

 

[Tim]

Thanks Jose

It was a lighter grey and more cylindrical.

Thanks for the tip about easy growing. Creo que voy a comprar uno or dos.

 

[The Griffin]

There was a picture on the cover of an old CPN that had a grey, velvety N. sanguinea grown by Ray Triplett(sp?). If somebody has that and the ability to scan the pic, that might be useful.
Grey is not a common color for sanguinea but I have seen it twice. I thought they were really cool looking clones , too. Phill Mann has photos of black sanguinea. Unfortunately, to my knowledge, it did not due well in TC.

Regards,

Joe