Quesnelia marmorata 'Tim Plowman'

Any of you that have ever looked over my "want" list have seen Quesnelia marmorata cv. 'Tim Plowman' has been there since forever. As a purchaser of mostly Nepenthes, bromeliads are not often at the top of my list but after cruising eBay (terrible habit) one of the better looking ones I've seen listed had me finally pulling the trigger.

Quesnelia marmorata 'Tim Plowman'

Not only did I pay well under retail but the seller threw in an extra, a decent sized Quesnelia marmorata. How cool is that?! Rarely do many vendors do this anymore, so I certainly didn't expect it from an eBay purchase.

Quesnelia marmorata

Now, I'm no bromeliad expert so I read a lot about this species and ended up changing how I had originally potted it up. According to what few sources sounded like they had a clue about growing Quesnelia, they like it on the dry side. Normally I'd pot epiphytic bromeliads like Neoregelia in a mix with orchid bark or mulch, perlite, and regular garden soil. So I'm trying this one with orchid bark, perlite, and hydroton. Seeing as how these are epiphytes, you could just mount them and be done with it too for any epiphytic bromeliad. Mounted typically require watering more often than potted though, and I don't always have time for that so we'll see how my potting mix works out.

Quesnelia marmorata (left) & Quesnelia marmorata cv. 'Tim Plowman' (right)

There seems to be some conflicting information regarding the curliness of  'Tim Plowman.' I've read that the true cultivar will retain it's curly leaves despite cultural conditions, and then I've read that watering too much or various otherwise worse than ideal cultural conditions can cause it to lose it's curliness. I certainly have no plans on growing this any other way than you're supposed to, (dry and in the sunlight,) so it shouldn't be an issue for me. It does make me wonder if there are other curly leaved forms that maybe resemble the 'Tim Plowman' cultivar that people have either accidentally assumed are that cultivar or purposefully passed off as such to make plants more valuable. Seeing as how the 'Rafael Oliveira' cultivar was also found in the wild and also has curly leaves, I'd bet there's not only more out there, but many intermediate forms as well that maybe do react to cultural conditions more so than others.


In other news, I really need to create a black background to take plant photos in front of, one of these days.

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.

A Few Orchids That Bloomed Last Year

I hadn't gotten around to posting all the orchids that bloomed late summer through December 2015, so here are some that I remembered to photograph now!

This nice species Oncidium ampliatum decided to bloom, rather largely for being a 2 pseudobulb plant at the time.

Maxillaria tenuifolia had it's best bloom year ever.

Then  in December, this Cattleya lawrenceana I've had for 2 years finally bloomed. (Species cross with color forms 'El Hatillo' x 'Manantial') Hey, you think this one needs a repot yet?  ;)

There were so many that bloomed that I forgot to photo or was too busy to notice until they were fading. That was disappointing, but sometimes life gets gets in the way and I'll have to remind myself this year to stop and smell the orchids, or roses, or whatever.

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.

Edited: Catopsis morreniana (Originally Catopsis berteroniana )

Edit: Unfortunately this is a Catopsis morreniana. I'll leave the rest of the post as is, but wanted to put this at the top for people coming across this post. I purchased this from California Carnivores, summer 2015, if you've purchased yours around the same place same time, this note is for you. Catopsis berteroniana only produces one pup at a time, mine currently is working on it's 3rd from the same mother plant. Catopsis berteroniana also has larger flowers and it much larger at maturity, with a variety of other minor difference irrelevant at this point for a positive ID.

Thanks to a tip last spring from Natch Grayes, I got a hold of a Catopsis berteroniana. This is one of the few Bromeliads thought to be carnivorous. I decided I needed one when I learned part of it's natural range includes Southern Florida. So although I may have to bring it inside as the weather is starting to get cooler now, it should do very well here outside the rest of the year.

I totally forgot to post pictures of it blooming this summer. I've been so busy with other things, I haven't posted pictures of much of anything for a while :(

The flowers aren't particularly exciting, but the fact that it flowered is great because...

We've got pups! Only two so far, not sure if that's typical for these, but I'm just happy that it's happy.

Now that I'm forced to bring more cold sensitive plants inside for "winter" I'm reminded to take pictures, so more to come as I have quite a few things I'm excited to share. Happy New Year, hope you all are well and your plants grow spectacularly in 2016!

Garden Odds and Ends

An errant seed found it's way into the yard. I have no clue where this watermelon came from, but once I recognized what it was, I've been trying to keep it growing. It's producing quite a few little melons, so we'll see if they're any good or if the squirrels get to them first.

Canna Topicanna Black has been flowering non stop since I got it into the ground, (watermelon vine in the background.) I know these were heavily cultivated to have larger than normal blooms, but my one complaint about this cultivar is that the flowers occasionally get so large they become top heavy and bend the whole stalk to the ground. The humming birds, dragonfly, and occasional butterfly do love these Canna flowers though.

Still potted because I plan on overwintering this bananna plant inside this winter, Musa acuminata ss. Java Blue, aka "Ice Cream" banana. I bought this guy as a tiny little start from Wellspring Gardens and in the spring and it has done remarkably well this season. So far, at least quadrupling in size the past few months. I just left it in the middle of the sunniest spots in the yard, watered and fertilized it heavily. Next spring it'll go in the ground somewhere, in the mean time, I'm now realizing what I thought was overpotting it, turned out not enough. Needs another repot already!

I picked this banana specifically, as being in zone 9, if I grow bananas that flower early in the summer they have a chance to set fruit before it starts to get cold here. I've also read that much of the tissue cultured Blue Java is actually Namwah. Either way, both banana's fruit is said to be delicious, and both are fairly cold tolerant varieties, so I don't much care as long as it fruits. I'm just having trouble finding out when the Namwah flowers, and if it might be the dwarf or tall variety.

After flowering, I thought I killed my Sauromatum venosum "Voodoo Lily." I stuck the pot in the corner of the garden bed I haven't dealt with yet, thinking I'd dump the soil another day. I should have read, because then I would've known after flowering it dies back to the bulb and shoots up about a month later with leaves. Neat leaves.

Glad I didn't throw it out now, as it's a pretty cool looking plant, not in bloom.