Rick:
Sounds like you have some good criteria for a nice Ping, and I grow many
plants like this in my backyard. They are not part of my collection,
but are just the local flora. We call them cacti! Funny, though, the
digestive glands have been modified to spines. :)
I like your formulation of _P.moranensis/esseriana/agnata_ as all are
good performers for me. Regarding your trying to remove winter dormancy
in this fantasy plant, there is another way to look at it. If the plant
enters dormancy but has an interesting form even in the dormancy it can
be equally delightful in this stage.
I think a real breakthrough in _Ping_ hybridization would be if you
could tap into colours other than the usual ones usually available to
the Mexican species (i.e reds, pinks, and purples). An orange flower
(or better yet, a truely bicoloured flower) would be nice indeed.
Jan raises a point which has concerned me in the past, since I do a
great deal of _Sarracenia_ hybridizing. If we start spending a lot of
time growing hybrids, what will happen to the species? Especially as
habitats are disappearing so rapidly? In conversations with our
northern colleague Rob Maharajh, he argued convincingly that while
hybrids may become popular, it is unlikely they will displace species in
cultivation---rather just augment them. There will always be people
(like myself and I suspect Jan) who will be most interested in growing
pure species, while others will thrill in breeding or growing hybrids.
If hybridization produces a plant that could be sold (and not
sacrificed) at the grocery store next to the daffodil bulbs and violets
a lot more people would be seduced into growing CP, and we'd have more
growing pure species, too.
Tom:
Welcome to this newsgroup! I think you're right---most CPers began by
killing a few VFTs in their youth (the CPer's youth, that is, not the
plant's) I think you may be interested to look through some of the
archived messages that our considerable list-keeper Rick Walker keeps.
In there you should find lots of information about _Nepenthes_ etc. One
of the things you will see discussed at length _ad nauseum_ is
"D.coccicaulis" which after much electronic perspiration was finally
nailed down as being a vigorous form of _D.natalensis_ that someone,
somewhere, started to call "D.coccicaulis" for reasons known only to him
or her. This is a South African species. Rick also keeps a list of
species kept by growers so you can find just who is growing what
_Nepenthes_.
BAMR