The Traveling Sarracenia

I was going through some old photos to dump off my phone to make some space and got a little nostalgic. One consistent thing throughout moving around so much has been my Sarracenia. Many of my plants have moved from apartment to apartment covering well over 1000 miles in a car and managed to be just as flexible and accommodating to change as my family has been. Sarracenia has been the one genus I have had zero losses from despite every move, changes in temperature and sunlight levels, occasional neglect, and being boxed up a few times. They have become my favorite plants to grow because they are so remarkably tolerant. Besides watering, there's not much I even do for them now. Here, I can leave them outside in the same spot all year. No more mulching, rubbermaids, refrigerators, or any of the other methods I used over the years to try and protect them while giving them a proper dormancy.

Back in NY on my cement stoop. This is the earliest picture I took of my first Sarracenia purpurea ssp. venosa. I can't even remember how many years this plant has lived with me, maybe 8 years now? It wasn't even mature enough to bloom in this picture and I had already had it for a few years before I even took a single picture of it.

S. purpurea ssp. venosa & typical VFT

Dragged that Sarracenia & VFT down to Florida, where the temperate carnivore collection expanded to what fit in a window box and on the edge of the apartment's deck for the next 2 years.

The view from the last apartment, 2013 or 2014.

S. leucophylla 'Tarnok' flower, spring 2014.

S, flava var rubricorpora "Red Tube", spring 2014

This is the last move for a while. The Sarracenia and the rest of the temperate carnivores have it good now. They earned the sunniest spot in the yard, so this should be their best growing year ever. I've been confined to apartment growing (lack of space) for so long, that I have been expanding the collection a lot more since last fall. Right now, my set up is a display shelf that's been taken apart and being used as a stand. Looks terrible, so maybe I'll take a group shot when I can figure out something functional that'll also look nice for them.

It's also been spring here now for a few weeks, so there will be flower photos coming up here shortly!