Propagation interlude

I'm still planning a follow-up to my BACPS Show/Sale post, but in the mean time I wanted to do a little update from home. Yesterday I finally decided to get one more set of lights to use in a propagation area, but stupidly forgot to buy a 2 dollar set of hooks to hang the lights. I'll have a picture of my setup later, but I did want to share a couple pictures of my current running propagation efforts.

First up, my Drosera 'Marston Dragon' flower stalk cuttings that sprouted in water transferred well to the media. Each chunk had a small root or two, which made it a lot easier. Here they are acclimating to the media in a humidity tent.

I've heard flower stalk cuttings work great, and they did well in water. On the media, not so much.

I'm gonna give them a few weeks in here and then start hardening them off. I also have some D. 'Marston Dragon' leaf cuttings that started on water, and transferred to media back at the end of April. I didn't mention it on the blog I think, but they rapidly declined and looked terrible. However, there are a couple of little strikes that seem to have made it. It was hard to get a picture with the angles and the humidity, but I've begun hardening them off.

The D. 'Marston Dragon' leaf cuttings are much slower going, but a bit more time and maybe they'll become monsters too.

I think I should have let them get a bit bigger in the water before transferring to media. We'll see with my next round of cuttings.

I also started some Drosera ultramafica x spatulata some time ago, and have gotten a few robust strikes. I've also started hardening these guys off.

I love the deep red color on this hybrid.

Finally, I wasn't able to get a decent picture, but in another pot I have at least 2 Drosera anglica CA x HI strikes. Hopefully they'll get easier to photograph in a couple weeks.

My Drosera capensis window box thingy is finally picking up some steam. There are probably 6 or 7 plants that have passed from the seedling stage to the plantlet stage and are starting to get nice and big. Also the moss is going crazy, but whatever!

It's a whole ecosystem in here.

I bet they'll be looking great by Christmas.

As a last note, I fed my whole collection last night, and my prize Drosera burmannii are super excited to be eating again (I avoided feeding them for about a month before the show to get the color right). Eat up guys, you earned it!

The flower stalk on that largest plant is enormous, like 18 inches (45 cm) tall.

BACPS 2014 Annual Show and Sale Part One: The Juried Show

I was sitting down to put together one post about the BACPS Annual Show and Sale, and I realized that it was way too big for one post. Instead, this post will be of the juried show winners. A subsequent post has a description of the event and other pictures. The categories for the show were as follows:

• Art
• Terrarium/Dish Garden
• Butterwort (Pinguicula)
• Sundew (Byblis, Drosera, Drosophyllum, Roridula)
• American Pitcher Plant (Sarracenia)
• Tropical Pitcher Plant (Nepenthes)
• Other Pitcher (Darlingtonia, Heliamphora, Cephalotus, Brocchinia)
• Aquatic (Utricularia, Genlisea, Aldrovanda, Polypompholyx)
• Venus Fly Trap (Dionaea)

 I have names/species for almost all the entries. When the BACPS publishes the results I'll update this post with any corrections.

Let's jump into it! The entries were truly fantastic – I've never seen so many beautiful plants all together in one place.

Art

First: Utricularia humboldtii flower at Mt. Roraima, photograph, Arthur Yin

Second: Sarracenia leucophylla, watercolor, Dana Gardner

Third: Nepenthes, metal sculpture, Benjamin Bailey

Terrarium/Dish Garden

First: Dish Garden, Stephen Davis

This amazing entry deserves a second photo. The dish is about 2 and a half feet (~75 cm) in diameter, and the plants are growing on a lovely mound. The border is fine sand.

Second: Dish Garden, Mixed Species, Dana Gardner

Third: Ping Trio, Doris Quick

Butterwort (Pinguicula)

First: Pinguicula gypsicola, Matt Byers

Second: Pinguicula immaculata,  Arthur Yin

This plant is 4 years old.

Third: Pinguicula moranensis, Doris Quick

Sundew (Byblis, Drosera, Drosophyllum, Roridula)

First: Drosera burmannii, Devon Peterson (that's me!). Also second in show.

Second: Drosera regia, Drew Martinez

This is another stunning entry that deserves two pictures. It's the dewiest sundew I've ever seen.

Third: Drosera spatulata, Charlie Simpson

 American Pitcher Plant (Sarracenia)

There's a bit of confusion for me in the 2nd and 3rd place winners. They're by the same grower, but appear to have the labels confused (I have pictures of the labels that I'm not including here). According to the labels, second place is S. purpurea venosa x flava ornata, and third place is just S. purpurea. I think it's the other way around. I'm going to label them based on my instincts, but call me out if you think I'm wrong.

First: Sarracenia hybrid, Larry Logoteta

Second: Sarracenia purpurea, Dana Gardner

Third: Sarracenia purpurea ssp. venosa x flava ssp. ornata, Dana Gardner

See what I mean about the labels?

Tropical Pitcher Plants (Nepenthes)

First: Nepenthes lowii (Kinbalu), Tom Kahl. Also third in Show.

Second: Nepenthes macrophylla x lowii (natural hybrid), Drew Martinez. This is the worst picture I took of a winning plant, and I'm sorry.

Third: Nepenthes maxima x talangensis 'Lady Pauline', Will Haines

Other Pitcher (Darlingtonia, Heliamphora, Cephalotus, Brocchinia)

First: Darlingtonia california, Chris Lew

Second: Heliamphora neblinae, Drew Martinez

Third: Heliamphora neblinae x hispida, Arthur Yin

Aquatic (Utricularia, Genlisea, Aldrovanda, Polypompholyx)

First: Utricularia alpina x endressii, Matt Byers

Second: Utricularia calcyfida 'Asenath Waite', Matt Byers (along with hitchhiking Byblis)

Third: Utricularia humboldtii, Arthur Yin

Venus Fly Trap (Dionaea)

There's also a bit of confusion in the ribbons shown in this category. The ribbons for first and second place were mis-arranged when I took these photos. Later on in the show they had been swapped, and Fernando Rivadavia (one of the judges) confirmed on Facebook that Larry's D. muscipula 'Ginormous' was actually the first place winner, and Dana's D. muscipula 'Jaws' took home the second. They're both beautiful plants in any case!

First: Dionaea muscipula 'Ginormous', Larry Logoteta

Second: Dionaea muscipula 'Jaws', Dana Gardner

Third: Dionaea muscipula, Benjamin Bailey

Best in Show

As I said, it was an amazing show. I'll end this post with a recap of the Best in Show winners, with the Dish Garden by Stephen Davis, my Drosera burmannii, and Tom Kahl's Nepenthes lowii in First, Second, and Third respectively.

Amazing plants, and congratulations to all the winners.

Thanks to Josh Brown and Fernando Rivadavia for helping me out with some names and clearing up some earlier confusion. Updated 7-9-14 with info from BACPS Spring 2014 Newsletter.

We had a big day today

I'm pretty tired after a long, fun day at the BACPS Annual Show and Sale, so this will be a brief post, but I just wanted to share one thing...

What an amazing surprise! I was tickled pink.

My Drosera burmannii that I've been growing so carefully really pleased the judges! I got first place in sundews, and second place in the show over all. I'll make a larger post in the next couple days (there were so many spectacular plants for sale and at the show) but for now I just wanted to celebrate here on the blog. Thanks to everyone who had nice words for my plants – I never expected them to do so well. It was really an honor :)

I really love Drosera allantostigma

I've mentioned it before, but I really love Drosera allantostigma. It was my first pygmy, and is still far and away my favorite. It's frequently a contender for "favorite plant in my collection."

Just look at this beauty.

There are like 20 active leaves on this plant. What an amazing rosette!

It's got everything – a beautiful rosette, lovely colors, delicate tentacles, and nice dew. It's also got a sort of mounded shape when mature that's difficult to capture in a photograph, but really stunning in person.

It's almost bigger than that Drosera tokaiensis in the middle. My favorite plant.

I've been growing this particular plant since January, when I received it as a hitchhiker in another pot. I also received some D. allantostigma during the NASC auction which are now in bloom!

I'm gonna get some gemmae out of these guys come September. Just you watch.

They're a bit smaller than the Drosera helodes flowers, but still super cute. And look how great the plants look too!

I need a proper camera for good photos of flowers, but these are so cute and cheery.

I really love this plant. If you grow only one pygmy, this is the one I recommend. It's wonderful.

Chores falling by the wayside

I started collecting carnivores this last autumn, and really got into it in the dead of winter. This meant I had a lot of time to spend with my plants, since I work in a restaurant and January/February is the slowest part of the year. Also I had fewer plants back then. Alas, now I have lots to do in my collection and less time than ever to do it in.

One of the things I really need to do soon is pot up the Drosera 'Marston Dragon' flower stalk cuttings I mentioned in the last post. They're even more well-developed now, but I couldn't get a good picture today.

There's also plenty other chores that are just not being addressed. For example, I have a couple pots I really need to separate out.

These Drosera intermedia 'Cuba' plants could probably get much bigger with enough room to grow.

I've been thinking about separating this clump of Drosera capillaris out for months.

I also need to get these pygmies into bigger pots before their roots get too unruly.

My Drosera dichrosepala and Drosera allantostigma are both flowering. D. helodes just finished, and D. pygmaea is sort of just hanging on.

I started hardening off these Drosera natalensis seedlings weeks ago, and once I finish I can start feeding them for serious growth. I just can't find my scissors.

Tiny baby Drosera natalensis look super red. A good sign!

This Pinguicula gigantea flower won't pollinate itself you know (alas).

This is now the fourth P. gigantea flower. I really need to pollinate one.

Cleaning the old food off these Drosera brevifolia would be trivial, but somehow it hasn't gotten done.

From now on these guys are getting the powdered food only treatment.

I don't even know what to do with this Drosera capensis window-box thing. Weed out the moss with tweezers? Feed the plantlets? Probably.

There are a couple plants in here that could totally explode in a couple weeks if fed heavily.

And don't even get me started on this weird little Drosera spatuhaha (get it?) that is in a small pot with weeds and long roots and it's flowering oh god.

This is a descendent of one of one of the sundews from this post, pictured with my dormant VTF. It's been doing pretty well with almost total neglect.

I am given to understand that having lots of plant chores is normal, but I'd really like to have a couple days in a row to take care of all of this business. Ah well. I guess life goes on. Even in a collection of weird plants.