Wilmington/Green Swamp visit
Rook, Victor (rookv@cmsmail.costman.com)
Thu, 08 Jun 95 11:07:00 PDT
Hey everyone! Just got back from a 5-day vacation in NC and SC to visit
many gardens, as well as the Green Swamp outside of Wilmington (home of
Venus Fly-traps). Well, the VFT's are all in bloom, and I could not believe
how few VFT's there were due to poaching. We only saw about 20! However,
there were zillions of sundews, and nice Flavas, and ticks (not so nice).
And of course, the only thing we took were pictures. I certainly hope that
we just missed seeing the VFT's, because if that is really how limited they
are, I would definitely suggest reintroducing/replanting more, if the Green
Swamp Conservatory is not already doing so. To anyone out there who thinks
that it is OK to take from the wild, I think a visit to Green Swamp would
change your mind real quick. If you have VFT's already and want more, try
propogating rather than buying more. I always make a habit of propogating
plants to ensure that I keep a species alive without buying another.
The other gardens we visited: Brookgreen Gardens, Cypress Gardens,
Middletown Place...all in SC, North Carolina Botanical Gardens, and
Dumbarton Oaks in DC. I would definitely suggest Brookgreen Gardens for the
500 sculptures (near Georgetown, SC), plus they had a mini bog with S.
Flavas and S. minors. The North Carolina Botanical Gardens (Chapel Hill,
NC) had several carnivorous plants on tables as they are renovating their
carnivorous plant bog. The only thing that I suggest for any of these
visits, bring Deer Fly repellant.