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.

Nepenthes Bio-Dome 'Lady Luck'

These Borneo Exotics Bio-domes started showing up at a few local garden centers here. I had been wanting to order a 'Lady Luck' from one of the various online retailers, so finding these down the street from my house before I had a chance to do that was an awesome surprise. I hope the wholesaler that picked these up continues to do so with all the bio-dome cultivars, (so I bought a few for myself and a friend to encourage and support this.) Plus, impulse buying a Nepenthes in person is one of the best things ever.

OOPS. Didn't read instructions.

Just kidding, mine was already busting out of the dome, not that I need it's help growing it here anyway. However, the Bio-dome system is actually pretty cool and really inventive for people that don't already know how to grow Nepenthes. Knowing next to nothing about Nepenthes, you could still grow one of these in a window or on a desk with good enough light for quite some time before having to eventually pot them up. It's fairly fool proof easy too, there's instructions all over the packaging and Borneo Exotics have also set up a FAQ website for the newer growers too. It's a very cool way to spread growing Nepenthes to the masses!

Now for those of us that have established preferences in regards to media, location, etc. maybe you'll break it out of the dome like I did as soon as you get one too. 

Only tiny pitchers at the moment to show, but larger ones will come.

Oh, and the one I bought for a friend that wanted just a single plant comes in the most adorable packaging ever.

There's a bow on that one excited looking cartoon pitcher. The mean looking one that's been Borneo Exotics' "mascot" for a long time looks like something currently alive is stuck inside it, which I've always thought of as funny, in more of a macabre kind of way. Adorable packaging, love it.

Anyone else growing one of these? Now that they're available online in the USA, and reaching local stores I figure there's got to be quite a few of you out there. I'll be growing mine in more lowland conditions, and that should be just fine for it. I'd also be interested to see if it will grow just as well in a wide range of growing conditions as claimed though, and can't experiment here unfortunately.

How's The Nepenthes Tank Doing?

A few people have been curious, so I took some photos of the smaller Nepenthes I have in my tank. I have unfortunately not been focused on doing anything to make it look nicer in there, but the Nepenthes don't care about that anyway though, do they.

N. bicalcarata Orange Blush

N. sanguinea (Death Cube seedling)

N. rafflesiana "Dark Form" and one pitcher "Pink Form" on the right

N. veitchii Pink

N. 'Judith Finn'

Some photos I could only take with my phone as it's a bit cramped in there at the moment. Until I move some of the larger plants outdoors, it's hard to get a camera in there at a good angle. I also got a few new ones so rearranging is in order again too.

N. mirabilis var. globosa (N. Viking)

N. sumatrana

N. ampullaria Bau Green

N. kutchingensis x Viking

So that's the tank as of today! I really enjoy having at least the smaller plants indoors to look at again. I stopped growing the seedlings outside as it was too difficult to water them regularly, and I've rotted a few letting them go dry then too wet. So this is working out for me, and although the tank isn't as aesthetically pleasing as some of the terrariums you all have, friends and guests enjoy it anyway too.

Some New-ish Nepenthes

As you may have read, I've made a lot of orders for Nepenthes the last few months and as they are all settling in, some are doing much better than others. My experiences lately in having to order from places I'm unfamiliar with have mostly gone well.

This was a small order I placed with Drosera Gemmae. I found them through a web search, and as you can see, the owner sells much more than just Drosera gemmae. I decided to place a small order to see how it went.

This Nepenthes longifolia was a TC import from Wistuba and has started to do very well. Look at that pitcher to leaf size ratio! So far this little seedling likes the terrarium.

Nepenthes longifolia (Kelog Sembilan)

Nepenthes longifolia (Kelog Sembilan), close up of the pitcher

In the picture below, to the left is the pitcher it came to me with and on the right is it's latest. I think this one will do well here.

I also ordered a Nepenthes danseri as I have not seen this one for sale anywhere else. This is also a TC plant from Wistuba originally, and it seems as they are the only one producing it. This one has also settled in quickly.

Nepenthes danseri

Nepenthes danseri with a tiny little pitcher and another on the way

I also made a small order from Predatory Plants for a Nepenthes petata. This was one of the plants I lost and am now able to replace, fortunately. Real tolerant for a highlander, does fine alongside the lowlanders, I'd call this particular clone from Borneo Exotics more of an intermediate. It'll be a while before it gets to the size of my last one, but it has settled in quickly, each leaf larger than the last.

Nepenthes peltata

Nepenthes peltata, tiny pitcher close up.

It's unfortunate that it seems we have lost my old favorite retailers, like the CP Jungle and Exotic Plants Plus. However, I'm glad to have found some other good retailers....now if only they would carry more lowland species!

Terrarium Back in Action with Some New Nepenthes!

I finally was able to get my terrarium out of storage and set up again. As much of a pain it is to move (excruciatingly heavy,) I'm so happy to have it back. It's been in storage for 2 years now, so I did unfortunately have to purchase a new glass top, and new set of lights for it. I ended up taking a chance on the AquaticLife T5 HO 48" 4 Lamp Fixture w/ Lunar Lights and an Aquatic Life 48" T5 HO Dual Lamp Fixture. I split the lamps up into 2 separate fixtures for easy access into the tank. I did NOT want to get a 6 or 8 lamp and have to take the whole thing off every time I needed to get in there. I already have to use a step stool to get up in there in the first place just to water as the only opening is down through the top. Big thanks to MarineandReef.com for swapping out the actinic bulbs these fixtures would normally come with for some 10,000 and 6,500 K bulbs that I could use.

The Lunar Lights are pretty neat!

Terrarium with AquaticLife Lunar Lights on

I'm clearly still working on setting it up, so I'll make an update about it in the future when it's "fisnished." So onto the some of the new plants inside...

This was my order from Native Exotics. Left to right, N. ampullaria "Bau Green", N. bicalcarata "Orange Blush", and N. sumatrana (variegated), just unboxed.

Nepenthes bicalcarata Orange Blush. Forgot to take some photos before I put it in the tank. It did come with that little basal growth point, thrilled about that. I wonder how the pitchers will end up looking as it came in a little on the green side, and there are no pictures on the internet of mature pitchers of this particular clone. The color temp of  the lights I bought should bring out the best in it, so we'll see. Either way, it's a bical I didn't have before.

N. bicalcarata Orange Blush

Nepenthes sumatrana was variegated. It's reverted back to normal, and I had fair warning about that, but I figured I'd give it a shot anyway. Sometimes lighting can have something to do with level of variegation, sometimes it's a mutation plants grow out of. More than likely it will be normal the rest of it's life. Don't care, love sumatrana, and if there's variegation somewhere it in genes it's not a bad plant to have.

Nepenthes smatrana variegated (not variegated)

Nepenthes ampullaria Bau Green. A nice all green ampullaria. I hope it likes to make basals. As much as I miss the amps I lost, neither of the other clones I grew seemed to be particularly fond of making them.

N. ampullaria Bau Green

I've got a whole bunch of new Nepenthes, and a terrarium to finish setting up, so I'll take some more photos here shortly.

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!

A Few of the Latest Nepenthes Pitchers

Nepenthes rafflesiana (q) squat x var. alata

Nepenthes sumatrana, juvenile pitcher

Nepenthes veitchii Pink

Not much to see yet, but the Nepenthes peltata I got last summer has colored up nicely and is starting to put out bigger leaves. I'm still not sure about how this one will do here, but it seems to do fine with intermediate/lowland conditions in the tent so far.

Nepenthes peltata (BE clone 3464)

Nepenthes peltata, juvienile pitcher