Hey everyone!
I took a few photos of some Neps grown here at the Frederik Meijer Gardens, in Grand Rapids, Michigan. This also serves as a preview of what the Erie Carnivorous Plant Society will see on their visit.
The curator of the carnivorous plants here is Steve LaWarre, and I, Amori Watanabe, am his helper.
Note that I am a volunteer here and also received permission to post these pics on this forum. I hope you like what you see!
This is our big N. bicalcarata. As you can see, it's starting to climb. This plant hogs 60% of the ants in the greenhouse, as well as the attention of disrespectful visitors who like to break off pitcher buds
. Either way, it's a really nice plant.
This is a very nice intermediate pitcher that opened on the big plant you see above. You can see by the coiled tendril and shape of the pitcher that this is an intermediate, along with the fact that it still has slight wings. Luckily, the ants you can see didn't bite me. I think they're too constantly inebriated to do so
.
Oh my gosh! This is what Steve and I said when we saw this upper pitcher once it fully opened. As you can see, the tendril had successfully grabbed a support bar of the greenhouse. On the right hand side you can see that another tendril has made its journey around the same bar. You can see part of the arid garden in the background.
This is the first nice lower pitcher the N. bongso plant in the greenhouse has made. This little plant has been vining all over the place for a long time, and it finally decided to put out bigger vines and pitchers. You can see from this pic that it is still a long way from a mature pitcher. That is an upper pitcher in the background on the right.
This small pitcher was developed by the only N. lowii plant we have. You can clearly see the exudates and the bristles on the underside of the lid - yum
! I don't know what form it is, but it's really nice, especially due to its dark colour. This pitcher is about 3" tall. We expect the next pitcher to be about 6" (1:1 ratio pitcher:tendril).
This plant was formally a long, thin vine (used for propagation), and as soon as we found basal growth, we hacked it off! The basal rosette of this N. maxima 'Pieriensis' measures over a foot in diameter, and the pitcher seen here is about 8" tall. A beaut.
This N. maxima 'SGS' plant is another proof of beauty in the maxima family.
These pitchers grow on two plants that are starting to climb. Not the biggest N. rafflesiana pitchers we've had, but a very nice example.
These N. truncata monsters are just amazing (the biggest female having been donated by Bill baumgartl). All these plants (2 males, 2 females) have flowered and produced copious seed, and have now recuperated from that ordeal. The females are much bigger than the males (though I don't think this is significant) and are making huuuuge pitchers (below). Ants love these plants as well. Really big plants!
The biggest Nepenthes pitcher I have ever seen and/or held. This N. truncata pitcher measures around 18" tall and was produced by the bigger female.
End of Part 1.
I took a few photos of some Neps grown here at the Frederik Meijer Gardens, in Grand Rapids, Michigan. This also serves as a preview of what the Erie Carnivorous Plant Society will see on their visit.
The curator of the carnivorous plants here is Steve LaWarre, and I, Amori Watanabe, am his helper.
Note that I am a volunteer here and also received permission to post these pics on this forum. I hope you like what you see!
This is our big N. bicalcarata. As you can see, it's starting to climb. This plant hogs 60% of the ants in the greenhouse, as well as the attention of disrespectful visitors who like to break off pitcher buds
This is a very nice intermediate pitcher that opened on the big plant you see above. You can see by the coiled tendril and shape of the pitcher that this is an intermediate, along with the fact that it still has slight wings. Luckily, the ants you can see didn't bite me. I think they're too constantly inebriated to do so
Oh my gosh! This is what Steve and I said when we saw this upper pitcher once it fully opened. As you can see, the tendril had successfully grabbed a support bar of the greenhouse. On the right hand side you can see that another tendril has made its journey around the same bar. You can see part of the arid garden in the background.
This is the first nice lower pitcher the N. bongso plant in the greenhouse has made. This little plant has been vining all over the place for a long time, and it finally decided to put out bigger vines and pitchers. You can see from this pic that it is still a long way from a mature pitcher. That is an upper pitcher in the background on the right.
This small pitcher was developed by the only N. lowii plant we have. You can clearly see the exudates and the bristles on the underside of the lid - yum
This plant was formally a long, thin vine (used for propagation), and as soon as we found basal growth, we hacked it off! The basal rosette of this N. maxima 'Pieriensis' measures over a foot in diameter, and the pitcher seen here is about 8" tall. A beaut.
This N. maxima 'SGS' plant is another proof of beauty in the maxima family.
These pitchers grow on two plants that are starting to climb. Not the biggest N. rafflesiana pitchers we've had, but a very nice example.
These N. truncata monsters are just amazing (the biggest female having been donated by Bill baumgartl). All these plants (2 males, 2 females) have flowered and produced copious seed, and have now recuperated from that ordeal. The females are much bigger than the males (though I don't think this is significant) and are making huuuuge pitchers (below). Ants love these plants as well. Really big plants!
The biggest Nepenthes pitcher I have ever seen and/or held. This N. truncata pitcher measures around 18" tall and was produced by the bigger female.
End of Part 1.
