Fortunately I don't drink local water anymore. For those
listees who aren't in the SF Bay Area, Silicon Valley has
ended up polluting the ground water here with all kinds
of fun industrial solvents used in making PC boards. It's
disgusting. My mom used to work at HP on the assembly
line, and the stories she could tell about vats of chemicals
open to the air are frightening.
>>
>>Is that the subulata that I gave you in some D. capensis? The little
I had some subulata of my own; I didn't know there was some in
the pot you gave me. I haven't seen it there yet. However the
little D. intermedia seedlings which were in the pot I put in
the bog, and I think at least one is flowering. There's another
which is rather large, and I'm keeping my eye on it as a giant
form.
>>flowers look like fanciful fighter-jet airplanes to me. There is
>>a pointy nose, broad delta wings, and a rounded tail. Should be
>>a nice, bright lemon yellow, with maybe a touch of orange. My experience
>>is that 90% of the flowers are cleistogamous, and never open. Usually,
>>I've only got flowers for the first season after replanting a new pot.
>>Once they get rootbound, they just stop flowering.
I haven't looked closely at the flower, but it's classical fairy
apron.
>>
>>I've put my P. primuliflora, and my P. moranensis back in the house. They
>>didn't seem to like the high temps/bright light in the greenhouse. Maybe
>>I should try them in the bog.
>>
>>I've also had to move D. collinsae and D. capillaris to work because
>>they were showing distinct wilting/browning from the greenhouse heat.
It sounds like you need to create/open more vents up high. Just
leave them open. Close them in the winter maybe. I cooked a
number of plants when I built my first greenhouse. BTW, if I
didn't mention it before, an excellent whitewash can be created
by a solution of hydrated lime and table salt. The salt causes
the stuff to stick to the plastic. It goes on clear but dries
quickly to a nice opaque white.
>>
>>I have to agree, though, that everything growing in the bog is much
>>more robust and healthy than equivalent plants in pots.
Long term I may move more plants to group plantings.
>>
>>I'm not sure if it is recommended, but it seems to me that the plant
>>can't digest properly unless it has some moisture in the pitcher. I've
>>gotten into the habit of squirting a couple drops of water into each
>>pitcher about once a week. If the pitcher hasn't had much luck catching
>>anything, I will occasionally give it a few drops of weak fertilizer.
I thought they were supposed to supply their own water, but I've
often wondered about this.
>>I just discovered aphids on my D. auriculata. After (nearly?) killing off my
>>Darlingtonia and my S. psittacina with malathion, I'm real leary of spraying
>>anything anymore. What are you using now for bug-spray?
I've only ever used one thing, and have had very good luck with it.
Use diazanon (sp?) in solution, at 1/2 str. I think full str is
1 tbsp per gal. This doesn't seem to damage the plants much, and
kills on contact. Note that wideleaved plants like D. prolifera
have bugs UNDER the leaves, and you have to manually lift the leaves
to get underneath.
I keep a quart of this stuff around at all times. When I need it
I give the spray bottle a couple of shakes to re-mix it, and spray.
I use the smell test on the fluid to try and tell when to mix a
new batch. When it stop stinking (after a month or two) I figure
it must be innefective. Scientific, no?
Robert