Mid-Summer Temperate Carnivores

 As you can see, my husband is in the process of putting together something nice to display the temperate carnivores in the yard. Pics to come when it's all finished. In the mean time, while we were out there I took some photos of some of the carnivores outdoors that felt like being photogenic today.

S. leucophylla 'Tarnok'

S. rosea f. luteola

S. rosea, Mobile Co., AL, Clone K

D. filiformis var. tracyi

S. leucophylla Hurricaine Creek White, clone E x F, juvenile pitcher

S. purpurea ssp. venosa var. montana (F1, Transylvania Co., NC.)

Here's two I received from Rob Co of The Pitcher Plant Project as freebie seedlings added to an order I made 2 years ago that are starting to look good. Very interesting lids on both so far. I'm curious to see what they'll look like this fall with cooler weather.

S. Black Widow x flava rubricorpora

S. catesbaei "Grande" x Bud Wilkerson

 The plants I received from Mike King are all doing well.

S. leucophylla f. viridescens, Perdido, AL (MK-L46C)

The rest of the smaller seedlings from Mike King

This unidentified Drosera must've hitchhiked it's way into the collection as it doesn't resemble anything I've ever grown before.

Unidentified Sundew hitchiker

S. rosea 'Fat Chance'

VFT B52. Not a lot of color right now, but some huge traps.

Here's one I picked up from the local Hardware store. Too young to ID, but I'm guessing maybe 'Judith Hindle' or 'Daina's Delight?'

Hope all of your plants are doing well too!

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!

Update: Order #2 VFT & Sarracenia, and Some More Spring Carnivore Stuff

New Plants! Dionaea muscipula 'Akai Ryu' and Sarracenia leucophylla 'Tarnok'.

These were shipped quickly, and packaged well. Everything was in order when I opened the box. A relief after last week. They both look like they were recently, or are, dormant and I'm basically just photographing rhizomes at this point. Big things worth photographing coming soon once they get adjusted.

All potted up:

VFT 'Akai Ryu'

Sarracenia leucophylla 'Tarnok'

In other carnivore news, here's the singlular flower on the strange split flower stem on Drosera sp. 'South Africa' that I had mentioned last month. They only open in full sun, making the flower hard to capture the color appropriately, (for my digital camera at least.) It's a slightly darker pink than the photo shows.

Drosera sp. 'South Africa' flower

We're waiting on flowers from Sarracenia purpurea ssp. venosa to open. I previously said my husband counted 4, now it's clear there will be 6. This plant's best showing yet. Occasionally online, (as recently as yesterday on reddit's r/savagegarden,) I will see people tell new growers to only spend their money at specialty carnivorous plant nurseries, and not waste it on garden center/big box store/hardware store plants. Anyone who tells new growers this is an elitist plant snob. This was a big box store rescue, and one of the best plants I've ever had. Five stars, would grow again. I didn't have to pay to ship it, cost under $10, and came out of a square plastic box, *GASP*, how plebeian.

Sarracenia purpurea ssp. venosa

A Mix of Things

I love working nights, and I love working 12 hr. shifts. It's easiest for me to do three 12's in a row, but that means I don't get to see my plants for 3-4 days, as it's pretty much work, shower, sleep, and nothing else. I miss looking at my plants, and enjoying a cup of coffee out on the deck with them when I wake up. It is nice to see what's been going on now that I've got a few days off again.

Drosera sp. South Africa is going to be blooming for the 1st time, yay! Growing these from seed has been totally worth it. Drosera species typically only take about a year to grow to maturity, this species took more like 2 years, (that may have been my fault though.) At least now I can be 100% positive it is this is D. sp. "South Africa" , I always am a bit nervous about mix-ups as seed all looks the same. This species has the unique characteristic of the flower stalk splitting in two and one of the ends only having one flower, the flowers also have six petals instead of the usual five, can't wait to see. They aren't looking too dewy at the moment, it's been a little too dry and windy lately to have kept them out on the deck.

Drosera sp. South Africa

The Oncidium my husband got me for my birthday 2 years ago, is in spike again. I was under the impression that you had to stake Oncidium spikes to get them to stay upright so the flowers would open well. I didn't stake this spike, not that I ever stake spikes because in the immortal words of Sweet Brown, "Ain't nobody got time for that." I usually don't even notice them until it's a little late to start anyway. Maybe it's this particular hybrid that grows straight up without one, or maybe it's because it's potted a little off center and had tipped over. Can't repot it now, I'll just have to suffer the embarrassment of you all judging my bad potting job on this one.

Onc. Space Race 'Coco'

I did get lucky and had the right day off to go to the St. Augustine Orchid Society meeting this month. Dr. Ruben P. Sauleda, of Ruben In Orchids, was there to talk about breeding and flasking orchids, which was massively more interesting than I thought it would be. I also got to add to my Myrmecophila collection, which I was thrilled about as I cannot figure out why they are not more popular and why there are very few nurseries that have them available. I mean, I know they get large and have ridiculously long spikes, but come on, those flowers! I cannot be the only one who loves them.

Myrmecophila christinae

Now, if only I could figure out if my other two Myrmecophila are both M. tibicinis, or one or both is a albopurpurea. They look different, even as seedlings to me, but that's a whole other post.

Drosera sp. "South Africa"

These little sundews I grew from seed about a year and a half ago. There's not a lot of information out there about them, and there's some disagreement as to whether it's a species or possibly a form or hybrid of other species. The problem is the plant was distributed from a collector and has since been lost track of. The only reliable information I could find was that it's identified by a flower stalk that splits into two as it grows and the flowers have six petals instead of the usual five.

They were the slowest growing out all all the species I've grown from seed so far, but so worth it, whatever it is.

Below, my thumb for size reference. D. sp. "South Africa" stays small and won't get much bigger than they are now, so it's nicer to have a pot full of them than just one or two. These are in a standard 3" plastic grow pot.