Darlintonia heat intolerance

From: Steven Stewart (steven.stewart@worldnet.att.net)
Date: Sun Jun 25 2000 - 06:44:50 PDT


Date: Sun, 25 Jun 2000 09:44:50 -0400
From: "Steven Stewart" <steven.stewart@worldnet.att.net>
To: cp@opus.hpl.hp.com
Message-Id: <aabcdefg1895$foo@default>
Subject: Darlintonia heat intolerance

Hello,
Steven Stewart here,
To Sylvia,
There is an incredible difference in the humidity here in Florida compared
to Colorado. I was in eastern CO, Greeley, to be exact. The humidity in the
plains gets lower than in the mountains. In winter outside humidity often is
below 20%, when dry heat is added levels go even lower than that. I don't
believe it is only humidity involved with Darlingtonia's difficulty with
water uptake, because of the plants we distributed and problems customers
had with wilt. Sarracenia in the same conditions would survive and often
thrive. I do not know of many people keeping Darlingtonia with success
through the summers,even though humidity is higher at that time of year.
Here in Florida I have never seen Darlingtonia thriving. (I do _not_
consider my plants thriving)
To Russ, hello neighbor!
>From what I have seen in the past, Florida has not been the best place for
Darlingtonia. Pure water is a must. The cooler the temperature and higher
the humidity the better. Live Sphagnum seems to be a plus, but not the only
factor involved with survival.
I have seen some giant sundews here in Seminole County! The seeds key out to
be Drosera capillaris, but the plants can be nearly 5" across. I have heard
them to be D. capillaris * D. intermedia, but I have never seen D.
intermedia in this county. We also have Drosera brevifolia. At least we used
to before the drought. THANK GOODNESS FOR 3" OF RAIN YESTERDAY.
Sorry for that, but many endemic scrub species of plants on our property are
dead from the lack of water.
Take care,
Steven Stewart
Sanford Fl, USA

>Isn't there more humidity in Florida than in Colorado? Might that not make
>a difference?

Russ wrote:
Steven,
>I bought what looked to be a healthy Darlingtonia californica and it
appears to
>be burned. I have not moved from the pot I received it in but I was
attributing
>is problem to the dry heat that we have had lately. I am in Chuluota



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