Flower stalks, good and bad

Drosera madagascariensis is blooming again.

Blooms on D. madagascariensis seem so precarious.

This flower stalk first popped up a week or so ago. Last time around the bloom ended in disaster when the extra weight pulled the plant down and the stalk ended up burning up in the lights. Not this time though! I've put in an extra straw for support, and also the pot is in the middle of the tray, away from the lights.

D. madagascariensis in a rather full tray.

I've got 2 solid leaf cuttings of D. madagascariensis going in the Summer Batch, but I hope to get a good seed set from this flower, since seeds are a lot easier to share and multiply.

Unfortunately, all of my bloom news isn't so good. My Drosera venusta and Drosera aliciae have aborted a couple of flower stalks recently, and I'm not sure why.

D. venusta just giving up on this flower.

Two aborted flower stalks on this one.

As you can see, the unfurling tips of the flower stalks are crispy and brown, and they haven't grown at all in the last couple weeks. I don't know why! I guess we had a sort of warm spell for a couple weeks, which may have freaked them out. Also, the D. venusta is looking really, really red and isn't very dewy, so it's probably under some sort of stress right now. The D. aliciae is a bit more unexpected, because it's looking fantastic over all.

At least the plant still looks beautiful.

At least there's another flower stalk forming right there in the center. Life goes on!