Growing Darlingtonia without special care.

From: Richard Hyde (rah@netcom.com)
Date: Fri May 30 1997 - 14:26:59 PDT 

Date: Fri, 30 May 1997 14:26:59 -0700 (PDT)
From: rah@netcom.com (Richard Hyde)
To: cp@opus.hpl.hp.com
Message-Id: <aabcdefg2133$foo@default>
Subject: Growing Darlingtonia without special care.

Hi, All;

I thought I'd share my recent experiences growing Darlingtonia since
they seem to contradict some of the prevailing theories about this
species.

I cuurently have two plants in cultivation. One of the plants is
six or seven years old and is sitting in a six inch pot of live
sphagnum. The pitchers are about a foot high and a stolon extending
out of the pot has several three inch pitchers on it. There is
healthy new growth on both sections. I keep the pot in a shallow
tray and whenever the water level in the tray becomes low, I top
water the plant with warm water that has been sitting out in the
greenhouse. I top water just enough to re-fill the tray with
the drained liquid. The plant sits in a shady spot in the greenhouse
where it ranges from 98F during the day to 50F at night when the heater
kicks in.

The second plant is about two years old and has many 3 inch pitchers
and lots of new growth. This plant is in a 50% milled peat 50%
perlite/sand mixture that I used for my my Sarracenia and Drosera
at that time. The S. D. and Darlintonia are all living happily
together. In fact, a new Darlingtonia has just appeared from a stolon about
6" away from the parent plant. This pot is an 18" undrained plastic
bowl commonly used for CP bogs. The whole thing is in a sunnier part
of the greenhouse where it is perhaps 5 degrees F warmer than the other
plant.

I expect that the Darlingtonia would be happier with flowing, chilled water
about their roots, but these seem to be doing just fine. Just a hopeful
note for those who may have been put off growing these wonderful plants
out of concern for their care...

Cheers,

Rick 

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