Yesterday I was looking through some stuff and I found references to some
very strange hybrids. Has anyone ever seen in cultivation D. capensis X
spatulata or D. capensis X aliciae? There is a photo in an old CPN.
I think I may try to make a couple of these crosses in the spring.
Also, I know there are a couple of hybrids involving the N. american
Drosera, like rotundifolia X intermedia, filiformis X intermedia, and
so on, but there was a CPN article naming a LARGE number of other
hybrids, using a sort of hokey but effective naming scheme.
X linpil = linearis X capillaris
X angfil = anglica X filiformis
and so on. Do these mystery plants really exist?
Christoph Belanger claims Jim Bokowski made intermedia X brevifolia.
Hmph!
I wonder about P. pumila typica X pumila bushwellii?
Don, the plant is listed in Jan Schlauer's CP list as P. rotundiflora,
strangely enough. Incidentally, Jan is the same one who made the old
CPN plant list.
Mike sent me an article about a pathetic side to the US's
WAR ON DRUGS. This is the one we've probably all heard of---the
D.E.A. is trying to get the names of everyone who has bought
high-lumen light fixtures. Could be growing something bad! This
effort is called, get this, OPERATION GREEN MERCHANT. Ooh! Makes
me feel like John Wayne! (The preceding has been an editorial comment)
>If it's any consolation, none of the D. intermeda seeds Barry sent us have
>germinated yet either! Maybe its just a slow year for sundews...
And you probably won't see anything for a couple of months from the
D. intermedia. Those fall-ripening climactic plants like a stratification
period of a couple of months.
Oh, I almost forgot. In a recent letter Don Schnell said he thinks
S. minor "Okee" giant is indeed a genetically fixed plant but merits
no status beyond mere variety. He also agreed with my observations that
this plant often looks stretched out and lanky. Lastly on Sarrs, he said
a *secret* of his is to avoid root disturbance as much as possible. He
used to repot every year or two, but has since found that leaving them
alone for longer than this results in better, more natural and less
shocked, growth.
Since Don S. hadn't touched on my Sarracenia questions in a previous
letter, in this one I referred to him as, ``Oh Great Sarracenia Guru''
and it seemed to work! Heh heh.
BAMR