Sarracenia Minor Habitat, Nassau County, FL.

Today we took a quick hike to see if we could find some Sarracenia minor in situ. I found a promising spot somewhat inland, in Nassau County, FL so we drove out there to see if we could find some. It was midday by the time we found where to go and a spot to park, so pardon the bright pictures.

The absolute second we got to a spot that the ground started to get flooded and I was looking down so as not to sink into the flooded trail, we spotted a ton of Drosera capillaris. They had started putting up flower stalks, but no flowers yet.

With the low, flooded areas also came the start of the Sarracenia minor. Success!

The  rest of the area looking around at this spot, green and brown Bromeliads and Cypress knees as far as the eye can see. Good thing there was a built up part of the trail, or this is where I would've been turning around. There are gators in Florida, nevermind whatever else lives down there. This was also mosquito central.

Then, I spotted something else... can you see it in the water in the next picture?

Utricularia! If anyone would be so kind as to identify these for me, I'd appreciate it! I am no Utricularia expert, nor will I attempt to hazard a guess.

They were everywhere in larger bodies of water with full sun.

More Sarracenia minor

Looking around again, a bit further in, it looked like some of this spot had been burned not that long ago.

Good for S. minor, as these in the sun had a lot more color, and were growing stronger than the ones in the shaded spots we came across earlier.

These below were my favorite of the whole day's discoveries. I'd like to think they are about to duel. They used to be bros, but now they are totally having a fight.

These spots were easier than I thought they'd be to find in the swamp and scrub because you couldn't miss those big yellow flowers. So now that I have some idea of where to hike, we're going back later in the season, (next time with 1000x more spray on Deet.) More pictures to come!

Help Support the NASC, Limited Edition T-Shirts!

The Sarracenia Forum has decided to create a t-shirt for two reasons. 1. To build awareness of our community and 2. To raise a small profit to donate to the North American Sarracenia Conservancy. This shirt was chosen as the best design, and will never be available again.

Profits go to support the North American Sarracenia Conservancy, a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization, dedicated to preserving the natural habitats and genetic diversity of the genus Sarracenia. The t-shirt is American made by American Apparel. A quality, well made brand, not the cheap stuff! The goal is to sell 40 shirts. Teespring, the company producing them works like a crowd funding site. If we meet the goal everybody gets their shirts and the NASC gets our donation. If we don't meet the goal then the shirts don't get made, you won't be charged, but you also won't get an awesome shirt.

So help us help preserve the ever shrinking natural habitats that Sarracenia grow in. Even as far back as 1993, estimates that 97.5% of Sarracenia habitats have been destroyed in the Southeast US. Three Sarracenia species are already listed as Federally Endangered under the USA Endangered Species Act, (S. rubra subsp. alabamensis  in Alabama, S. rubra subsp. jonesii in North and South Carolina, and S. oreophila in Alabama, Georgia, and North Carolina. To read more about why Sarracenia need special protection click for the Wikipedia Entry and The Carnivorous Plant FAQ.

Please click here to buy a shirt!

Designed by rmeyer

Women's T-shirts too!

Please share on Facebook, Twitter, your blog, etc.! We're already halfway to our goal and it's only day one!
Prices for different style shirts are between $19 and $20.50 USD.
Shipping:
Domestic (United States) shipping $3.85 + $.25 for each additional t-shirt. Your shirt will arrive within 7-14 days from the end of the campaign.
Domestic (Canada) $7.50 + $1 for each additional t-shirt. Your shirt will arrive within 14-21 days from the end of the campaign.
International shipping is $10.50 + $1 for each additional t-shirt. Your shirt will arrive within 14-21 days from the end of the campaign.

Parodia werneri ssp. werneri: 1st Cactus Bloom This Year

 Love this cactus, total of 8 flowers this round of blooming. Lots of other cacti budding up now...

Doesn't it look nice even when the flowers are starting to wilt? Like it's wearing a purple crown.

By Request: "How's Your Robcantleyi Doing?"

I do take requests for this blog and the most common one I get is for how my Nepenthes robcantleyi 'Queen of Hearts' x 'King of Spades' is doing for me and how I'm growing it. This being among the "newer" Nepenthes on the market, most hobbyists have not grown it to maturity yet and many are still figuring out how to best grow it at all.

N. robcantleyi 'Queen of Hearts' x 'King of Spades'

Here's what I've found out about mine. 

1.) It likes it's media wet.

Like really wet, wet. I've partially by accident, because it's been on a rack with another plant overhead, been watering it (from what I consider, having grown Nepenthes for many years now) too much. It seemed happy when I looked at it so I let the plant above continue to drip extra water onto robcantleyi. It's now growing better than it ever has.

2.) It has always grown better for me under artificial lighting in a semi-closed environment.

Back when I first got my robcantleyi it was expensive, still maybe the most I've ever spent on one Nepenthes. So I chose to grow it in with my Drosera and mini orchids in a 10 gallon terrarium. It grew well, and pitchered on every leaf in there. Then it outgrew my tiny terrarium and I grew it on a rack in a window or outdoors after that. It rarely pitchered and seemed to be susceptible to every mite attack possible. It looked and grew like crap, even when I wasn't stalling it out with pesticide. This winter when I brought everything inside for the colder weather I had the luxury of a grow tent. It's now growing better than it ever has.

This leads me to believe one of two things. Either it's the amount of light or it's the consistent temperarures. Or maybe a combination of both. The tent is consistent like the tank was back in the day. Warm, 85 F/29 C during the day, and room temperature, about 70 F/ 21 C at night. I would call that intermediate temperatures. Robcantleyi seems to be ok with this. 

Robcantleyi was not ok with the heat when I attempted to grow it outside here over the last year. It tends to be 90's F/ 30's C during the day and 80's F/ 20's C at night for months. Robcantleyi grew very slow with funky shaped leaves and small pitchers. Not happy, so back indoors it went.

On the other hand, robcantleyi does seem to be ok with inconsistent, wild swings in humidity. I am not the most diligent water-er and I tend to underwater by choice rather than over-water and rot something. Thus the tent has high humidity when I water and for a day or two afterward, then the humidity drops into the 40-50% range for a few days before I water again. The same went for the old tank.

So for all of you that have asked me how my robcantleyi is doing. The answer now is great. I hope what I have discovered about growing this Nepenthes is somewhat helpful to others. Now I don't advocate for any of the above methods for successfully growing yours, this is just what I've found mine to consistently like over it's lifespan and travels since 2010 with me. This being a seed grown plant it may be a stronger or worse grower than yours, or maybe it's pickier or more tolerant than yours.

Oldest picture I could find of robcantleyi in the 10 gallon terrarium, 3.5" pot, late 2010/early 2011. Drosera for scale.

Summer 2012, 6" pot, outdoors in NY

N. robcantleyi 'Queen of Hearts' x 'King of Spades' today. Had to wash it out a bit with the light, otherwise it was hard to capture the detail against the black pot.

N. robcantleyi, 4/6/14

iPhone photo, captures the color better than my digital camera

I'm excited to see what it looks like next year!