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!

DuneCraft Dusty Desert Cacti Microterrarium: A Review!

Years ago, on a request from a friend who was looking at buying a few of this product for her kids, we figured I'd try it out first, the DuneCraft Dusty Desert Cacti. I've successfully grown cacti and succulents from seed before, so may have of cheated with some knowledge that the typical consumer would not have, (explained later below.)

First, I spent a lot of time online looking for reviews, mostly to see if it was even worth trying. I couldn't find one single review with pictures of successfully grown cacti from this product. So here I am, apparently it's gonna be me. There were a mix of satisfied and unsatisfied customers reviews, but only about germination, nothing long term. What about if the novelty doesn't wear off? So I bought one. For $2.99 I figured no big loss if it didn't work. These can be purchased online or most hobby stores like Hobby Lobby or Michael's.

When I opened up the product it's basically a plastic egg, (actual egg sized) with a clear top, a tiny disk of peat wrapped in some netting, and a package of seeds. I'm sorry I didn't take a picture, but Click here for one. The one I bought had 6 seeds. From reading the reviews it's variable how many you'll actually get, but the package said it's supposed to have 5 types of cacti. I decided to follow the instructions as close as possible. If I'm going to be the one to review the thing, I have to do it right.

Ok, so what are the seeds it comes with?
1.) Giant Saguaro (Carnegia gigantea)
2.) Organ Pipe (Lemaireocereus Thurberii) nope, it's Stenocereus thurberi. The packaging was off here, along with typos, I'll let the taxonomy slide.
3.) Golden Barrel (Echinocactus grusonii)
4.) Fishhook Barrel Cactus (Ferocactus Wislenzeni) nope, it's wislizeni, but close.

I know, I shouldn't be a pain over typos and taxonomy errors, but come on, that's 3 errors in 4 sentences. Seriously, it seems like no one over there even bothered to google the names or look them up in a book. I will give them a huge round of applause for attempting to give the consumer the scientific names though, and not just the common ones. Then there's the fact that the label says "5 types of cacti seeds included." I don't know if anyone else has been counting thus far, but I only count 4.

Back on 5/5/12....It begins....

I guess the species they picked germinate fast or I got a fresh batch, as these were up in about 1.5 weeks. Not much to photograph, but a little green was a good sign.

7/5/12.... 3 months later....

I moved the terrarium out of the windowsill and under artificial light, as I got some eliotated (stretched) seelings. The instructions say windowsill and I tried to follow them as close as possible to keep this as close to what the average consumer has to go on, but my windowsills were too shady.

I lost one seed. It didn't germinate and started to mold so I had to get it out of there. I only took the top off to add a tiny bit of water once in 3 months.

But there's good news! They are finally starting to look like cacti. These seedlings start off looking like little green nubs with a forked top. Now they're starting to get some spines.

Without flash. You can see one falling over from getting eliotated.

With flash to see the spines better

I originally wrote this up years ago, and then decided against publishing it for various reasons. Then, I got an email from my friend and her daughter with pictures of  many beautiful baby cacti that her daughter is absolutely in love with. We may have created a cacti fan for life due in part to this experiment with this product. So although this product review is a little critical, it is a positive one because we all do have cacti growing.

A little under a year old, 4/5/13:

A little taller than my now dirty finger

The egg terrarium was knocked over by a cat and I was forced to repot. One was knocked off it's roots entirely, hence the rebagging. It'll be just fine. Still dealing with the results of the eliotation, but they will grow out of it as they're in an appropriate amount of sun now, ( the slightly pink tint.) However, they could have totally stayed in that egg for the year.

1/7/2015:

Same pot as 2013 picture above, needs repotting badly!

For anyone interested in this product review, I'll continue to update on this page as growth continues. If anyone reading this finds something unclear or has any questions about this product, feel free to leave a comment here (anonymously or otherwise) or email me. I will do my best to help, even if you're coming across this years later. I figure at least now there is an actual product review out there at all. Despite my initial criticisms I think this, and the other DuneCraft products, are a wonderful way to teach kids about growing things. I think it's a valuable experience for people of all ages really no matter how you chose to do it. Hey, I'm an adult and I am still having fun growing them! Also I love trying these products, so if there's something you want me to try and grow, let me know and I'll review it for everyone.

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.

Better-Gro Bagged Orchids No Longer Sold At Lowes :(

Have I mentioned lately how much I love Florida? Seriously, it is the best for finding cool things in at regular, seemingly run of the mill garden centers. Many of this year's hauls came from Lowe's or The Home Depot. Unfortunately, I just read on Better-Gro's Facebook page, that Lowe's went with a different supplier for orchids and they won't be carrying Better-Gro bagged orchids anymore.

Although Better-Gro says they are working on "expanding their relationship" with Home Depot instead, I have only seen them show up in one store here that I haven't seen these orchids carried in the past. I'm kind of more upset than I thought I'd be about this. We went from an abundant supply of cool orchids all the time, to 2 Home Depots in the area carrying them. Sucks big time, and that's the nicest way I'll put that.

Cat inspection of a Lowe's haul at the old apartment

The following are Better-Gro orchids purchased this year only, well below average of my typical year's purchases of these orchids as I think the hiatus I took was the entire summer through fall, about 6 months? I'll apologize in advance, as the photos on this post have no theme, and some of them just aren't any good. I didn't take pictures specifically with this post in mind at the time so some are also iPhone photos. I just wanted to show you why I'm disappointed these won't be available at Lowe's anymore.

This "Bag Baby" orchid is C. Caribbean x lawrenceana. I couldn't find a single picture of the bloom on the internet, but it sounds like it might be a cool flower. It is an H&R cross, so maybe I'll email them for a picture to see if this is something I'm willing to grow out. I'm hoping the flower has that lawrenceana shape to it, but if nothing else we'll be surprised.

C. Caribbean x lawrenceana bagged Better-Gro orchid

This year I also picked up Myrmecophila tibicinis. Please excuse the Monster can. The photo was taken with something a friend would recognize for scale (LOL.) An entirely different purpose than showing it off here.

Myrmecophila (Schomburgkia) tibicinis

I'm also trying to rescue this Oncidium ampliatum. It looks like it had been sitting around a while, it's dehydrated. New roots are starting and it should recover nicely. I'll have a better picture of it in 2015.

Oncidium ampliatum

Encyclia steinbachii below (mislabeled steinbachiana, because it probably originally came from H&R and that's what they mislabel it as?) was in bad shape too, but it's turning around quick. Look at all them roots!

Encyclia steinbachii

Encyclia guadalupeae, in new-shipment-great-shape. Got this one 2 days ago at The Home Depot that just started carrying Better-Gro bagged orchids. HOORAY for this Home Depot!

Encyclia guadalupeae

I especially couldn't resist these species orchids for so cheap. These are all really great species, purchased for about $12.98 depending on the tax in the area I bought them.

Lately we've been making many, many, trips to Lowe's. There's one fairly close to to our new home, and we're re-painting, re-landscaping, and re-whatever-else needs-work here. People tell me that never stops when you own a home, so I guess Lowe's will be losing out on my money this coming year. I tend to agree to run errands to pick stuff up for the house under the guise of being helpful, but in reality I don't pass up an excuse to go see if they have any new bagged orchids. Oh well.

And yes, I realize with the internet and all of Florida's orchid shows, there is almost any orchid I want ever, shipped to my door, pretty much whenever. It just isn't the same as digging through the bags in the display at a local store. It's like a treasure hunt for adults, sorting through for cool species or hybrids to take home that day, in hand, for super cheap so there isn't even any guilt that I've spent too much of our money on plants again.

Edit: Update 2016. Occasionally I see these at Lowe's. With far less stock and far less frequency, so maybe it turned out to be a cut back, who knows. Still disappointed it's mostly unlabeled generic Phals, and the occasional unlabeled Vanda 90% of the time anymore :(

Some Fall Blooming Orchids & An Update

Sorry for the lack of new content guys. Thanks to everyone who emailed to check in, you all are some of my favorite people. Still alive, still have the majority of my plants. We've been busy, like buying a house and moving again busy. That stuff I'll get to, after some flowers for those that just like the pretty pictures here.

It was a bit too warm for my Cattleya walkeriana fma. flamea 'Tokutsu-S' to bloom correctly. The flares on the petals should be much more pronounced, but apparently those that say it should be cool out for this one to bloom true, are correct. I'm sharing it anyway because I'm still happy it bloomed, maybe next year it'll wait for cooler temps. The scent it puts off stinks like that one lady who put on too much perfume then got into an elevator with you in the morning.

Cattleya walkeriana fma. flamea 'Tokutsu-S', close up of one flower

Cattleya walkeriana fma. flamea 'Tokutsu-S'

Another bloomer is Dendrobium moniliforme 'Himeginsetsu', a cute little variegated Dendrobium.

Dendrobium moniliforme 'Himeginsetsu'

Dendrobium moniliforme 'Himeginsetsu' flower close up

Well, the good news is we now own a house, with a nice sized backyard. I got my 150 gal. terrarium back out of storage, have the grow tent, and our house has a "Florida Room" with removable windows, so it turns into a screen room when we want it to. This gives me more options to grow things than most people have, so I'm pretty excited about the possibilities and extra space for more plants! The bad news is I had left many plants in my grow tent for a week while we were moving. It was during this week that my husband upped the temp in the apartment, not wanting to pay extra for AC we weren't using, and the exhaust fan in the tent stopped working. This turned out to be the perfect combination to bake the plants in the tent. As a result I lost a lot of Nepenthes and a few Orchids. I was down about that for months maybe, didn't feel like updating this blog or frequenting any forums you'll typically find me on. I'm somewhat over it now, and in the rebuilding process. At some point here, I'll update the grow list for those that like to trade with me. More updates to come as new and old plants settle into their new home.

Oncidium Space Race 'Coco' Blooming

Onc. Space Race 'Coco'

I have to give this Oncidium credit. It blooms like clockwork every year since my husband picked it out for me. I barely do anything for it, I let it get sunburned last summer, it sat outside all winter, and yet here we are again with a whole bunch of flowers.

At some point I'll divide it, as it's getting to be a large plant. If anyone is interested in a division of a not so pretty, but super easy going orchid, let me know.