Re: CPs

Clarke Brunt (clarke@brunt.demon.co.uk)
Mon, 28 Aug 1995 21:46:45 +0100

On 28 Aug 95 at 8:29, Steven Klitzing wrote:
> I was at a flower show in Golden Gate Park yesterday, and California
> Carnivores was there selling plants...mostly Sarracenia. They seem to
> have quite a collection of Sarracenia...plenty in fact. And most of
> the plants looked very healthy. I asked about Darlingtonia plants, and
> they said they are growing their own stock from seed, so they don't
> add to the depletion of native plants. Interesting thing about
> Darlingtonia, they said, was that the plants remain small for about
> 5 years and then they start growing to much larger size...and you must
> be very patient for seeds to sprout.

I rather hoped that this 'growing from seed' idea was the norm among
nurseries! (Unless of course you can get quicker results from tissue
culture).

I assumed that the fragment of Darlingtonia I bought at a garden
centre some years ago was tissue cultured, but now I've seen
seedlings, it was indistinguishable from a bunch or seedlings a
year or so old.

I find that seed collected fresh from the plant and sown immediately
germinates freely and quickly. No cold treatment seems necessary for
fresh seed - I did keep a pot of seeds outside over Winter in the
U.K. but that just delayed germination until spring, whereas the ones
inside germinated within a few weeks. Indeed I would say that it
takes about three years to get anything that starts to look like
a Darlingtonia - the juvenile leaves are still pitchers, but they
are different shape - not really any 'hood' and only one 'tongue'/
'fang' or whatever you call those bits. I'm used to Cacti and
Succulents so three years to grow a plant is common!

I've never got commercial seed of Darlingtonia to germinate at all,
so maybe the freshness is important.

-- 
Clarke Brunt (clarke@brunt.demon.co.uk)