I've had a few die last year from crown rot when they were growing in
baggies. The problem could be drops of condensation from the top of the
baggie dripping onto the plant; or condensation forming directly on the
leaves and crown when the temperature drops at night. I removed the
baggies and they're now doing much better. Humidity is usually 60 to 70
percent outside the baggies. Also, if there's a mat of moss on the
surface of the soil, it is a good idea to repot. A heavy mat of moss
often signifies that your soil isn't draining properly and staying too
wet. My plants often produce a spurt of growth immediately after
repotting.
Difference between N. alata and N. mirabilis:
If you're sure you have a plant that is one or the other; N. mirabilis
has thin leaves with a fuzzy/slightly hairy leaf margin (you may not be
able to feel the fuzz with your finger but the fuzz is visible in good
light), and the pitchers are usually cylindrical and "hipped" (an abrupt
narrowing of the pitcher from bottom to top), and are usually uniformly
colored green. There's a lot of different clones of N. alata being
grown. One attribute of most of these clones is a slightly concave
pitcher lid with a keel (little bump) on the underside of the pitcher
lid toward the back, close to where the lid is connected to the pitcher.
The bottom half of N. alata pitchers is usually bulbous (i.e. fat), with
a cylindrical upper half. The CP web site has descriptions of these
species from Danser's monograph.
D. chrysolepis:
I started with seeds from Allen Lowrie. It looks to me like a mini D.
capensis but the stem grows much longer.
D. villosa:
I don't have much trouble growing this species. I grow this outside in
deep 10" pots with about 12-20 plants per pot. My plants are flowering
now and took 3 years from seeds to flower. It probably does require
cool roots.
-- Don Burden New Albany, Indiana, USA donb@iglou.com