The Sarracenia purpurea is also waking up nicely. Looks a little sparse now that it's all cleaned up and I cut out any dying pitchers. My husband found 4 flowers starting on this guy while he was watering it the other day. This plant...it's toughed out every year despite any adverse conditions and has even won over my "I don't care about plants," husband. All kidding aside he's adopted my mini rose bush too. Maybe being forced to endure them for so long a few have grown on him for one reason or another.
 | |||
| The starts of a few buds |
The best part about spring, (and now that I'm sort of settled in one place at least for the year,) IT"S A GOOD TIME TO START ORDERING PLANTS AGAIN! Yes, I'm shouting, deal with it. My brother is visiting from Maine and I got to take him to his 1st orchid show and sale. We went last weekend and he had a great time and bought some pretty cool orchids. Can you believe he only had a collection made up of orchids that other people gave him?! Oh, that 1st opportunity to be surrounded by plants and get to pick out the ones you want. It's overwhelming. He came back with five orchids....I didn't buy a thing. Odd how I've finally gotten to the point of having so much of what I want that there is little left and with little space, I have to stick to things I've fallen in love with. So I've placed two orders online so far, (and I think I might attempt to go to the Redlands International Orchid Festival in May.)
Order #1: Nepenthes veitchii 'Pink', a lowland.
Status: Arrived
Living in Florida now, lowland Nepenthes should do well here, highlands...not so much. There's really only two lowland N. veitchii cultivars available in America, 'Pink' and "Bau Lowland" from Malesiana Tropicals in Borneo, Malaysia. I've seen a few other forms, but rarely, so if anyone knows of any let me know.
This is why I order plants bare root. I've never received a damaged plant that way, and it wouldn't have needed the extra space of a larger box. So I wrote an email about the error and although the mistake was apologised for, I also got a lecture about why it's better to keep them potted, (basically, my choice of being willing to shock the plant by unpotting and repotting it was wrong, my bad?) So why even offer bare root shipping if you don't want to ship that way. Needless to say I repotted it as I want to grow it in what I want to grow it in, and sure, it'll set the plant back a month or so. Yes, I'm a monster. You all can see how awful I am to my Nepenthes, you've seen the pictures.
Order #2: Sarracenia leucophylla 'Tarnok', an American pitcher plant with a monstrose flower. Also, Dionaea muscipula 'Akai Ryu', a nice all red Venus Fly Trap cultivar.
Status: Ordered. Updates to come. I also used a nursery I haven't ordered from in the past for these guys, but I have been meaning to expand my Sarr and VFT collection for a while now. Ordered both bare root, let's see how this order goes...
Odd how I've finally gotten to the point of having so much of what I want that there is little left and with little space, I have to stick to things I've fallen in love with.
ReplyDeleteI know the feeling exactly. It's a weird moment.
It's almost like entering a maturity phase of collecting plants. It's got it's pluses and minuses, so I'm not quite sure how I feel about it yet.
DeleteLoving the pitchers. I have also looked at the main points & suggestions, but I, as you seem to indicate, also rather stick to what works for me with admittedly small adjustments here and there.
ReplyDeleteIt's funny how people's opinions can differ so widely even on the same subject. There are many nurseries that will only ship Nepenthes, orchids, etc. bare-root for safety. Then again, ask any two people how they handle re-acclimating a new plant to a new environment and you'll get two different opinions on what's best for that too.
Delete