Re: Help a Ping Planifolia / Sarrcenia ground cover

Eric Kamakea (ekamakea@haywire.csuhayward.edu)
Tue, 30 Jul 1996 21:41:26 -0700 (PDT)

Does anybody have a refereence for Pinguicula Planifolia? To my
knowledge theyt are a water loving species yet my plants have never made a
healthy transition from their shipment to my house. The
leaves lost th\eir purplish color and are now green and feeble? One
plant is definitely on its way out and I'm trying valiantly to preserve
the sole survivor. I have
them on a window sill behind opaque glass that gets about 5 hours direct
sun up against the opaque glass and about 4 more hours of radiant
indirect light in the afternoon. Seems like all the references that I
come across treat P. Planifolia generically, grouping it with a bunch of
other pings and don't give many specifics. _Any_ insights or corrections
to my current approach are appreciated.

Also, what do you veteran Sarracenia growers use for ground
cover? I've seen some plants with Sphagnum moss but whenever I try
Sphagnum it gets burned up from the sun. I'm imagining that the
Sarracenia plants that I saw must have been greenhouse grown in order to
keep the Sphagnum ground cover in the condition that it was in. I even
raise the water level to approx 1.5 inches _from the top_ of the pot but to
no avail. The moss stil dies. What should I do?

Speaking of Siamese Pings, One of my P. Caeruleas has a forked
leaf coming out. So far it is still sticking straight up and looks like
a snakes tongue. I'll have to watch and see how it unfolds completely.

Good growing to all. Eric Kamakea