Quesnelia marmorata 'Tim Plowman'

Any of you that have ever looked over my "want" list have seen Quesnelia marmorata cv. 'Tim Plowman' has been there since forever. As a purchaser of mostly Nepenthes, bromeliads are not often at the top of my list but after cruising eBay (terrible habit) one of the better looking ones I've seen listed had me finally pulling the trigger.

Quesnelia marmorata 'Tim Plowman'

Not only did I pay well under retail but the seller threw in an extra, a decent sized Quesnelia marmorata. How cool is that?! Rarely do many vendors do this anymore, so I certainly didn't expect it from an eBay purchase.

Quesnelia marmorata

Now, I'm no bromeliad expert so I read a lot about this species and ended up changing how I had originally potted it up. According to what few sources sounded like they had a clue about growing Quesnelia, they like it on the dry side. Normally I'd pot epiphytic bromeliads like Neoregelia in a mix with orchid bark or mulch, perlite, and regular garden soil. So I'm trying this one with orchid bark, perlite, and hydroton. Seeing as how these are epiphytes, you could just mount them and be done with it too for any epiphytic bromeliad. Mounted typically require watering more often than potted though, and I don't always have time for that so we'll see how my potting mix works out.

Quesnelia marmorata (left) & Quesnelia marmorata cv. 'Tim Plowman' (right)

There seems to be some conflicting information regarding the curliness of  'Tim Plowman.' I've read that the true cultivar will retain it's curly leaves despite cultural conditions, and then I've read that watering too much or various otherwise worse than ideal cultural conditions can cause it to lose it's curliness. I certainly have no plans on growing this any other way than you're supposed to, (dry and in the sunlight,) so it shouldn't be an issue for me. It does make me wonder if there are other curly leaved forms that maybe resemble the 'Tim Plowman' cultivar that people have either accidentally assumed are that cultivar or purposefully passed off as such to make plants more valuable. Seeing as how the 'Rafael Oliveira' cultivar was also found in the wild and also has curly leaves, I'd bet there's not only more out there, but many intermediate forms as well that maybe do react to cultural conditions more so than others.


In other news, I really need to create a black background to take plant photos in front of, one of these days.

A Few Nepenthes Photos

Nepenthes ventricosa. This species slows growth through the hottest part of summer here, so now that it's been cooler, all of my ventricosa have been doing better.

A free plant Bruce Bednar (of Lee's Botanical Gardens) had put in with an order I made from him last summer, Nepenthes "Winged Grabilis" (N. mirabilis winged x N. gracilis nigropurpurea.) Was a little cutting that is starting to do very well now that it's had a few months to settle in.

Nepenthes trichocarpa (ampullaria x gracilis) x "viking." I like the yellow and red color combo on this one. It will unfortunately always have small pitchers due to the species that make up this hybrid, but it does keep it's pitchers a long time which is always a plus.

Nepenthes truncata, lowland variety. Starting to gain some size and more color in the pitchers.

Nepenthes mirabilis var. globosa x (ampullaria x rafflesiana)

Nepenthes mirabilis winged x [maxima x (maxima x mixta)]. This one's into one of my favorites. Besides the winged tendril, it's very pretty in it's simplicity.

N. bicalcarata Orange Blush. Still one of my favorite species.

Nepenthes veitchii "pink," newly opened pitcher

Nepenthes trichocarpa "green" x viking. Another compact hybrid that I just really like how pink it always is.

Nepenthes rafflesiana BE clone #99, older pitcher looking a little rough from living outside.

Nepenthes ampullaria x ??? It's grows quickly and makes tons of basals or such a young plant. So whatever it is, this should be a really nice looking plant when it gets larger.

N. albomarginata, Red, Gunung Jerai. A slow grower for me, most likely keeping a bit warm for it's tastes but it's growing larger finally.

Now that the outdoor temps have started to dip into the 40's at night, I set up the indoor grow tent and moved everybody that was outdoors either into the Florida room, or into the tent. It was a good 2 day project to move all the plants, clean up, trim, or repot, and reorganize everything. However, I still have room for more plants though, even with everything moved inside, so that was nice to find out.