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!

Bug Biting Plants Terrarium Kit from Lowe's

I recently had a few conversations about these boxed carnivores on Instagram and a few places elsewhere online. It must be that time of year that the rest of the country is getting these in stores for spring. So, I was inspired to share my experience with them here as well. 

These are the dormant rhizomes in the "Bug Biting Plants" terrarium set sold (by Botanical Wonders  or Hanover Botanicals?) at most Lowe's stores. Last year I had picked one up to look and see if there was anything even alive in all the peat. We get them year round here, but the ones in this particular box looked good, fresh shipment good, like they were still trying so hard to survive.

Here's what these looked like when I picked them up last February, 2014, straight from the box. Small, but surprisingly healthy rhizomes for coming out of a sealed plastic bag.

I think I've passed by these boxed kits a million times over the years. Usually all you see is the brown of the packs of sphagnum  through the plastic boxes, but I could see the flower bud on the Sarracenia through the plastic and I was intrigued. I didn't already have the Sarracenia that comes in this kit. That's a good excuse to finally buy one, right? The package label leads one to believe it'll be a Sarracenia purpurea, but according to the internet and people that have grown these out, it's a Sarracenia rubra or rubra hybrid. The kit also comes with a little pack of long fibered sphagnum moss, and a little pot to grow your new rhizomes in.

"Terrarium Set" is a poor idea for growing these, as both the VFT and Sarracenia, (whatever species/hybrid the Sarracenia may be) are both temperate plants and need a dormancy. Not good candidates for a terrarium. You could grow them in a terrarium for a year or two, probably, without issue. That's assuming they are young enough and strong enough to forgo a year of dormancy, but eventually they will need to be given a cold dormancy period to rest. It's best to just put them outside in the first place and let them enjoy the sun, rain, and bugs.

I had decided to plant these traveling buddies up together. Last February I was short on space, and they were already friends, so why not. I mixed the sphagnum peat moss that came with the kit together with my own and mixed that with perlite, at about 1:1 ratio because I planted them in a larger pot than the one in the kit, (and therefore needed more than given.) Plus it's a good idea to use something mixed in to break up the peat, as it tends to compact over time by itself and that's a situation that encourages rot and smothered roots over time for species like S. rubra.

A couple weeks later and we had some solid growth. An encouraging start.

Different pot, but I promise the same plants. I ended up repotting them into an even taller pot.

Now, this February they look like something, despite still being dormant. The Sarracenia is a lovely shade of dark red, but certainly not the S. purpurea that's pictured on the side of the box. Definitely a Sarracenia rubra or rubra hybrid. Either way, I think we're ready for spring, and I need to repot again. Having all those pitchers still in decent condition should give it a great start as S. rubra is one of the few species that will bloom before it puts out any new spring leaves. It had already started two growth points by late last summer, so I can't wait to see how it grows this year after a good dormancy.

Bug Biting Plants terrarium set, almost exactly 1 year out of the box.

Have any of you all picked up this kit on a whim and grown the plants out? I would love to see what yours has grown to look like, so send me an email. Questions? Comments? Leave them below!

Edit/Update, Spring 2015:

It bloomed in March. The bloom is pretty red, so this very well may be S. rubra. Thoughts?

Here's how the plant looks in spring. Not as colorful yet, but this one definitely gets redder pitchers as the season progresses.

Spring Sarracenia 2014

The Sarracenia and Flytraps are all budded up, it's officially spring!

Sarracenia leucophylla 'Tarnok'. This is it's first flower for me, so I'm super excited to see it in all it's mutant glory!

Sarracenia leucophylla 'Tarnok' bud

Next up, but much further behind, is Sarracenia flava var. rubricorpora Red Tube.

Sarracenia flava. var rubricorpora

This year we also have some new additions to the family. You know those "Bug Biting Plants terrarium set," sold in Lowes this time of year? More on this in another post. Well, I decided to buy one because I didn't have the Sarracenia in the kit already in my collection. The kit comes with a dormant rhizome of a flytrap (and despite what the package leads you to believe picture wise,) a Sarracenia rubra rhizome. According to the internet identifiers, it's S. rubra ssp. rubra, however AG3 just lists this as S. rubra, so I'll wait for a flower + mature plant to ID. There's also reports of a green flower, which means it may be a rubra hybrid or even a mutation.

I made this first pot with the original box I bought. The flytrap isn't much to see at the moment but the Sarracenia rubra has the tiniest little flower bud I have ever seen on a Sarracenia!

S. rubra

Isn't it cute, next to such a tiny pitcher?

Then, one of the Lowe's here had started putting the kits on sale already so I picked up a few more. Mostly because I'm a total nut, I decided to go back and buy all the kits on sale. I gave the flytraps away and made a big community pot of all the Sarracenia. They are all a bit light deprived and squiggly from trying to grow in a small sealed package.

S. rubra compot

There's a few buds in there.

My Sarracenia purpurea ssp. venosa may not flower this year. It had started to dehydrate for no apparent good reason, so I unpotted it to find some mold and some evidence of insects munching on it. I treated it for both and it's now growing again, but I don't expect flowers unfortunately. I decided to forgo flowers for the flytraps and cut them all off. A healthy flytrap can flower and make decent sized traps throughout the year, but I decided to try and do some stem propagation with the flower stems instead. I have never had much luck trying this in the past, so I'm trying it differently every year until something works and I can claim some skill in this area.

Happy Spring! Wishing you all a productive growing year!

Some Carnivorous Plant Pictures

Hope you had a Happy Halloween all!

Nepenthes rafflesiana, Left: AG3 clone, Right:  EP (q) squat x var. alata seed grown.

Nepenthes globosa ("Viking"), finally making larger pitchers, but I read that until they hang over the side they won't make that "Viking" shape.

Some VFT 'B52' lunch

Sarracenia leucophylla 'Tarnok' looking better as fall approaches

Sarracenia leucophylla 'Tarnok' Update

This monstrose Sarracenia leucophylla was discovered 30 years ago by Coleman Tarnok in Baldwin County, Alabama. Mine's a little young, so I don't have pictures of the flower that makes this S. leucophylla unique but take a look at the ICPS cultivar registration for pictures: A New Cultivar of Sarracenia Leucophylla Raf. 

If you remember, about a month ago I got this plant as a small rhizome. Another month later, the 1st pitcher has already opened.

It's making juvenile pitchers, so I might have a few years to go for a flower.

Everyone in their window box. My typical VFT is going to flower soon. If you enlarge the picture you can see the stalk, but it's not much to look at yet.

Dionaea muscipula 'Akai Ryu' has come out of dormancy and started putting out some small traps too.

I also got this Sarracenia flava var. rubricorpora so the S. leucophylla can have something to be tall with. It's just breaking dormancy and has a flower bud growing at the moment. It''s mature so the pitchers it puts out this year should be much much larger. Both these species can be found growing as far south as Northern Florida naturally, so I figure they should do well here.

It's going to be a good summer for carnivores here.

Venus Flytrap 1st meal of the year

Well, that was quick. 1st spring trap out of dormancy and not a day later than it opened.

More spring traps in the making.

Looking ferocious.

Looks like it's going to flower again. I'm still not sure that this window box is going to provide enough light for them, so I'm on the fence as to weather I should let it flower or not. Stupid overhang, and no yard, here's to hoping the fact that they'll have stronger light down here will make up for some afternoon shade.

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