Re: Growing Nepenthes outside

From: Susan Farrington (sfarrington@ridgway.mobot.org)
Date: Mon Sep 11 2000 - 07:10:03 PDT


Date: Mon, 11 Sep 2000 09:10:03 -0500
From: "Susan Farrington" <sfarrington@ridgway.mobot.org>
To: cp@opus.hpl.hp.com
Message-Id: <aabcdefg2771$foo@default>
Subject: Re: Growing Nepenthes outside

To Leon who is trying to grow Nepenthes outside in San Francisco...

I have grown Nepenthes outside (for the summers only) here in St.
Louis, Missouri. We are "lucky" to have the high humidity that
Nepenthes like, so it's easier for me most likely (unless you're well in
the fog belt, I suppose, but even so, your afternoon humidity is
probably pretty low). In our humid climate, I grow mine on a north
porch, where they only receive a little early morning sun, and about an
hour of late afternoon/evening sun. Even so, the leaves facing the most
sun get a fair bit of reddish coloring to them. So I suspect you're just
giving your Nepenthes too much sun... keep them in that first location
that only gave them an hour of sun. That should be plenty, given how
much brighter the conditions are overall outdoors than indoors.

Good luck!
Susan

> I have been wanting to grow some
> nepenthes outside and this seemed like a good time to start. I tried
> it on a scheduale I have used succesfully with some sarracenia. For
> several days I would place it in shaded area in my protected patio. I
> slowly extended the exposure, bringing the baby inside @ night. I
> watched carefully and the plant seemed to be coping. After a week I
> moved it into a spot that recieved a little direct sunlight for about
> an hour a day. Still fine, no new growth but no signs of damage.
> After another week, I moved it into an area that got slightly more
> sun. The sweetie burned in two days, the whole plant turned the
> coloring of drying blood and the older pitchers began to shrivel. I
> moved it inside and it is recovering nicely, thank the gods!

Susan Farrington
Missouri Botanical Garden
P.O. Box 299
St. Louis MO 63166-0299
susan.farrington@mobot.org
(314)577-9402



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