Introduction, and questions

Jack Elder (Jack.Elder@vuw.ac.nz)
Mon, 4 Nov 1996 15:36:52 +0000

Hi. I've been reading the list for a few weeks now, and I just thought
I'd pop up and say hello and ask a few questions. But first, the
ObIntroduction:

I'm a postgrad student at Victoria University (Wellington, New Zealand,
not Victoria, Australia), studying philosophy. I've been collecting CPs
for about a year or two now - started off with a VFT as a kid, then
bought one in my first year of university (it died when the friend I left
in with one holidays forgot to feed it), then bought another one last
year. The most recent one hasn't died; it flourished, it was fruitful
and multiplied (and is in fact flowering at the moment - but more on that
in a minute), and I love it dearly. Then one day I was wondering merrily
around the Botanic Gardens, and I happened to wander into the Begonia
House (large greenhouse style structure containing tropical plants). And
I saw some sarraceniae, and that was it... Got books out of the library,
haunted the garden centres, and finally managed to acquire a couple of
sarraceniae. Actually, yesterday I went on another trip to the garden
centre and found a huge display of CPs (every "standard" breed of
sarracenia, and a good variety of drosera), and bought a good few more
CPs. Ah, it's killing my student loan, but...

Anyway, the questions. As it stands, my collection at the moment contains:

-2 more or less standard VFTs.
-a sarracenia courtii (psittacina x purpurea)
-a sarracenia psittacina
-a sarracenia purpurea ssp venosa
-a sarracenia leucophylla
-a sarracenia alata
-a drosera capensis
-a drosera madagascariensis

Now, since it's summer down here (well, late spring, early summer) some
of my older plants are flowering. Specifically, the VFTs and my
sarracenia courtii. My questions are as follows:
-I've been carefully brushing the pollen onto the stamen of my
courtii, in an attempt to get it to self-pollinate. If this is
successful, when is the seed pod "ripe"? ie, when can I remove it from
the plant and sow the seeds? What colour, shape, etc should the
pod be?
-The VFT flowers are about to open. To try and get them to
self-pollinate, would it be more effective to brush the flowers
against each other, or to pass a brush over each of the flowers (and
hopefully carry pollen across that way)? Which of these would work
better? And again, how do I tell when the seed pods are ready?
-Oh, and on a different note: does anyone have any experience with
shipping plants internationally? Specifically, I'm thinking of
ordering some nepenthes (khasiana and alata, both of which I think
could stand the climate here), a cephalotus, some unusual VFTs
and a few drosera from Dingley Home and Garden in Australia. Anyone
have any experience with international shipping in general or Dingley
in particular? They seem very good...

Thanks for any help, and good growing!

______________________________________________________________________________
What does God say? Philosophy Department
-orbital Victoria University
http://www.vuw.ac.nz/~elderj