Yeah, that must be it!
>Are nemotode (worms) harmful to Utrics? I removed a small tuft of moss
>from one pot and several nemo's wriggled out (ugh!). If only we had
>some carnivorous fungi....
I thought that nemotodes were practically microscopic? Anyway, I don't think
those little worms I believe you're talking about are harmful. Slugs can be
a real pain, though.
>some night in the next few weeks. Since this is
>my first winter growing CP I am a little concerned
>with how to properly rest the plants. I had almost
>all of my plants outside for the spring and summer
>and they did very well. I plan on leaving some of
>the plants outside all winter such as S. Purpurea
>which grows in the wild nearbye.
Important topic, hibernation, and one I don't think you should
disregard. Even plants that don't form real hibernacula or phyllodia,
but rather just slow down in growth, in my mind benefit from winter
dormancy. I take a very dim view of people trying to grow various
plants (i.e. tuberous Drosera) continuously. So, each year as winter
approaches I inventory all my plants and give each an appropriate
treatment. By far, most of the tropical Drosera and Utricularia in your
collections do not need any winter dormancy. This includes D. capensis.
The North American Drosera (excluding capillaris and brevifolia) can
take light frosts in my experience. Obviously, plants local to N.Jersey
etc can take colder temperatures during the winter---with an important
difference. Plants in the wild have a couple of feet of snow and ice
insulating them from the biting cold. Plants in an exposed pot do not.
In Arizona, I let them get down to about freezing for a couple of weeks.
They'll come out of dormancy when they want to. I keep a few plants in
the fridge if they like a very long dormancy (some D. anglica from Rob M
stay dormant 9 months out of the year for me!). I think what is
important here is to not interfere with them when they are trying to go
dormant---trying to prolong their growing time seems to exhaust them and
then they can't form large enough winter buds when they finally do bed
down. Same treatment with my Sarrs, except for northern or mountain
plants like purpurea purpurea, oreophila, or rubra jonesii. These I let
FREEZE SOLID for a couple of months. They LIKE it! What is more, scale
and pests do not! Freezing them is something I was worried about,
although grower Paul McMillan swears by it. This last winter I did it
and they loved it. I'm not talking about putting them in the freezer of
a refrigerator---that's probably too cold. Anyway, with these
exceptions, most of your winter plants will do well just being kept
chilly---you know, 40--50 F with occasional frosts
I've got three different clones of intermedia from the USA, one supposedly
`Giant.' But it isn't too impressive. I have recently gotten a clone that is
actually larger, and produces big stemmy plants. It's also producing seed
and I think I'll have enough to stuff the mattress AND feed the soviets.
As for my Cuba and also my `tropical' and `Mt. Roraima' forms, these are
all plants from seeds (I think) that Rob M. sent me some time ago. Not
anything remarkably different in any way, at least not yet. I'll be
interested to see if they form hibernacula this winter.
>Anyway, I seem to remember reading somewhere (Slack, maybe?) that this
>species' seeds usually germinate quickly and easily. So I wonder if maybe
>the seeds I got are either old or duds. Has anyone else got these seed
>bank seeds to sprout??
I've had a couple seedbank Nepenthes sprout but that was a batch from
long ago. None of this new stuff came up. I didn't do anything fancy.
Just put them on the soil surface and waited. I thought I remember
reading (Slack, maybe?) that Nepenthes seed were fast to germinate, but
that doesn't seem to be the concensus of the people I know.
Well some news from the (radiatively chilled) greenhouse. My U. calycifida
from Christoph Belanger flowered and, much to my boredom, turned out to be
a clone of my `spotted flower' form. Snore. BUT, some good news from the
Byblis front. I attacked many individuals with my tuning fork and found
the following:
1)B. gigantea seems to have some swelling ovaries. Seems some pollination
efforts may have worked.
2)My B. liniflora `Kununurra,' which Allen thinks is a new species, has
finally succumbed! Up til now I have been entirely unsuccessful in getting
pollen. The tuning fork did the trick.
3)B. liniflora `Darwin'---tuning fork also works, but may not be necessary.
This plant is really civilized---you touch the anthers with the fork, and
the pollen is released and falls directly onto the (female) stigma. Quite
cooperative, and this was appreciated by me.
Also I am thrilled to note my specimen of Genlisea (hispidula?) from
Christoph is getting quite large and my leaf cutting from it struck! I
immediately took three more cuttings. If I build up a base of plants I'll
be able to start distributing them, as long as I don't do anything stupid.
Lastly, something VERY STRANGE has come up in my D. banksii seed pot.
I have never seen this plant, nor do I know anything about it. Well,
Something is in my pot which looks like a cross between a tuberous and
a pygmy Drosera. It looks most like D. pygmaea, but instead of forming a
snug ground hugging rosette it is erect, holding its leaves like a tiny
D. capensis. What is more, the elliptical leaves (1 mm across) are
bright red (lamina, the petioles are green), and peltate. I've never
seen anything quite like this plant. It is surely very similar to a
pygmy of some sort, but I have about 35 spp of those and this is
different. Anybody ever grown D. banksii? Does this sound like it?
Well, gotta go. What a pisser---I got pick pocketed this weekend.
Really annoying.
BAMR