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.

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.

Nepenthes rafflesiana Brunei Giant aka BE clone #99

 I hunted down this Nepenthes. N. rafflesiana is a very variable species and popular, so there are many clones and forms to chose from. I'd have a few different forms by now if it wasn't for the fact that they get very large. This species has squat, winged lower pitchers and the peristome is taller than normal, elevating the lid. N. rafflesiana also has a distinct upper pitcher that forms from leaves as the vine gets taller that become more funnel shaped.

The 'Brunei Red' cultivar is from Borneo Exotics, clone #99

Nepenthes rafflesiana is species that is fairly widespread, growing in Borneo, Peninsular Malaysia, Singapore, and Sumatra. It's a lowland species growing at elevations from sea level to 1500 meters above. The younger plant's leaves are covered in hairs, giving them almost a fuzzy appearance.

It was getting increasingly hard to take pictures of the lowland Nepenthes that I grow in the terrarium. Here's what it looks like after I spent a good amount of time chopping down vines. I have yet to clean it out, that comes next weekend.

Lowland terrarium

Back row from left to right: N. x Ventrata, Vanilla planifolia (variegated), N.globosa/'Viking', N. Judith Finn, N. Miranda.

Front row from left to right: N. bicalcarata, N. rafflesiana Brunei Giant, N. ampullaria 'Brunei Red'....the rest on the right front is N. Judith Finn's vine. It's flowering so I'm waiting to cut it down.

Just a general idea of what's going on in there. I'll make individual posts for the one's I haven't yet now that I can get in and take some pictures again.

Drosera spatulata 'Tamlin'

This was a difficult one to get a picture of the bloom. It's not very spectacular, but I felt the plant on a whole deserved a post. The regular form of Drosera spatulata is a small growing carnivorous plant, however the 'Tamlin' cultivar is about 3-4 times larger.

I grew these from seed about 2 years ago and they've really done well. This is the second flowering for them, (the 2 littler ones are putting out stalks too.) Seed to maturity took about a year. Drosera in general are fast growers. I had 25-50 seeds but only 3 germinated. They may have been older, any fresh seed I get has an almost 100% germination rate, so maybe that's why. I'm kind of glad about that though, because I'd be giving one to everyone I know to get rid of them if I had 25-50 of this size!

They're growing in a 10 gallon fishtank, 1/2 open glass top, and an 8,000 K aquarium fluorescent bulb for "sun." I was going to bump it up to a 10,000 K as they're a little green still, but they seem happy so I'll wait until the bulb needs replacing again to bother. I didn't even need to add a fan to this tank as it's in a well traveled area, the air exchange is surprisingly fine. It looks a little crazy in there as it is primarily a seedling tank.

D. spatulata 'Tamlin' putting out a flower stalk

Missed the first two flowers

Close-up