Well the living Sphagnum will help keep rain from splattering the peat
and sand all over your plants but some plants don't like the sphagnum
as much. The method of inclining the bog someone else is using sounds
like very good idea. 7" may not be deep enough for your area.
> Q. What is the most hassle-free media? Should I just stick with my
> current media and possible top-dress with sphagnum? Also, I would like
> to know what species people in the S.E. Pennsylvania region, and north,
> grow outdoors (e.g. how tolerant are the various Sarracenia species?).
The advice I get from most growers is that S.purpurea,flava,rubra,minor
are cold hardy. My advice is bah... I got every species and variant
growing (minus rubra subsp. alabamensis) in just north of central New
Jersey. I mulch them with snow when there is enough to scrape off the
lawn so they are mulched for about half the winter. The plants that
do seem to suffer (none have died from winter) are the S.purpurea
from Florida's gulf coast. They are growing in bogs that are dug into
the ground. I did this to simulate their natural environment which
probably allows species which some growers find hard to winter here
and north. Also the first bog is about 18" deep and the second is
atleast 24" deep. The mixture is pure peat moss topped with sand in
some places and sphagnum in others. It seems to me that depth of the
bogs helps in two very important ways. 1) as body of water it helps to
keep the plants from experiencing alot of temperture flux. 2) because
the bogs are deeper and filled with straight peat they hold alot of
water in the bottom (there is no drain) so I don't have to water.
These bogs are truely self-suffient. The only problems are weeds and
squirrels, the squirrels can be really bad sometimes.
> One more thing. This might sound crazy, but has anyone tried
> growing Cephalotus outside in the above mentioned region (either
> successfully or not)? |)
It's not crazy, I'm growing a Cephalotus outside this year in my bog
and I am going to winter it there. Kevin Snively, I believe, reported
that he wintered one outside and it lived with next to no protection.
It has been out there for several months now and I am going to mulch
it, and pray, so it might make it. I believe that many times Sarra-
cenia will die from *freeze drying* of growth point so it appears
that they died from the cold.
Dave Evans