>Hi Everyone!
>
> At the moment I am worried about one of my Cephalotus. Most of
> leaves and pitchers have withered and died, while one tiny
> rosette has survived in the middle. Can any suggest why this
> may be happening?
>
> I also need to repot my Ceph collection, and was wondering if
> anyone could give a mixture the find effective. Is it true that
> re-potting often sets back the plant markedly, and it often dies
> down after this treatment?
>
Hi Russell, Cephalotus seems to like a variety of soil mixes. I know people
who use a mostly peat mix w/ some sand, while I tend to the other extreme
using a perlite/fine orchid bark mix with a little peat resembling what many
use for Nepenthes. Ceph's often die back, and later send out new growth from
the crown so don't worry too much, though this has never happened to me. If
you repot, syringe some distilled water into the pitchers. Ceph's don't like
it when you turn them upside down and dump out the contents of their
pitchers (I can't blame them for that, I doubt I'd like it either). And I
would recommend giving them a high humidity environment. I cut the bottom off
plastic 1 gal water jugs and place these over tops of my Ceph pots. And I
keep the plastic caps on too. This gives them a very warm (when the sun
shines), very humid environment and they need to be watered less. Mine has
been growing and blooming for two years now since I started keeping them
this way.
Hope this helps,
John Phillips Email: phillips@library.ucsf.edu
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