I joined this list a couple of weeks ago but just found time to introduce
myself. I started growing CP back in 1977 with high school classmate Phil
Sheridan (now frequent contributor to CPN) with a couple of collections
purchased from Edmund Scientific. We then bought plants from Armstrong
Associates, Peter Paul's Nursery, and eventually discovered CPN. Phil had
success with Sarracenia and other North American sp. in his backyard bog and
basement, while I had better success with tropical and pygmy Drosera and
terrestrial Utrics under lights. I also had a pretty good crop of Nepenthes
khasiana (from seed) and Nepenthes gracilis (from cuttings).
Unfortunately, I couldn't take proper care of my collection during my
college years (1979-1986), and lost the collection a few plants at a time.
After a lapse of several years, I rejoined ICPS and ordered all of the back
issues that I had missed (I still haven't caught up on the reading).
Frankly, the computer hobby got me in 1981 and has taken most of my time
since then.
I finally made the transition from dorm/apartment life to a townhouse with a
20'x20' backyard about a year ago. With homeowner's association approval, I
will put in a couple of small ponds with bog plantings in Spring '95. I
will also relocate a 4'x6'x8' aluminum-frame greenhouse that I purchased in
1978, and reestablish my basement growing trays (perhaps this winter). I'm
tempted to start over with seed from the ICPS seed bank.
As a final note (whew!), I work two miles up the road from Suitland Bog,
which has a nice (natural) collection of Sarracenia purpurea, Drosera
rotundifolia, and others. I believe it was the first place I saw CP in the
wild. I haven't been there in a couple of years, mainly because it is in a
high-crime area. I try to visit during the annual open house, which
includes tours by state naturalists. Over the past year, a massive housing
development went in less than a half mile from the site. Hopefully, this
hasn't affected the water table. Another problem has been with jerks on
motorbikes who enjoy riding through the bog and crushing the plants. The
area is surrounded by chainlink fence, but the gate is normally left open.
The future doesn't look good for this site.
On another note, I've been browsing the World Wide Web sites since this
summer, and have found a couple of sites that mention CPs. They are:
University of
Georgia http://dogwood.botany.uga.edu:80/greenhouse/gh3.html
Missouri Botanical
Garden http://straylight.tamu.edu/MoBot/welcome.html
and, as recently announced on this mailing list:
University of Connecticut http://florawww.eeb.uconn.edu/
Also of interest is:
Australian National Botanical
Garden http://155.187.10.12:80/anbg/anbg.html
What I'd like to see is a CP specific WWW site (possibly sponsored by ICPS)
with descriptions, color photos (scanned CPN material?), and growing
instructions for CP species. These could be hyperlinked to a clickable
world map to demonstrate the geographic range and diversity of CP. A Web
site could also have searchable databases of CP suppliers, CP public
displays, CP groups, and even individual growers (voluntary listing, of
course). The latter would be very useful for finding other CP enthusiasts
in your area. If ICPS participates, perhaps the membership form could
include a release authorization for this purpose.
Although we have a Web server where I work, it isn't available for
"personal" projects like this. By first quarter 1995, my local cable
company plans to provide high-speed (50+ Kb/s) Internet service to residents
through the cable system (it's already available to local schools and
libraries). Depending upon administrative decisions by the cable company
(rates, SLIP/PPP access, etc), I might be able to run a Web server from home
full-time. Lots of ifs, though. If you have access to a site which would
be willing to support such a project, let me know!
Look forward to your comments and further discussion!