Date: Fri, 20 Mar 1998 10:33:29 +0100 From: Wim Leys <Wim.Leys@vlm.be> To: cp@opus.hpl.hp.com Message-Id: <aabcdefg977$foo@default> Subject: Re: Sarracenia Questions...
Dear Richard
> I recently purchased some Sarrencenia species ... Now it's been 3
> weeks
> and it seems I'm only getting limited results. ...
I wouldn't worry about the things you observed, they all seemed normal
to me. Besides, it is still very early in the growing season.
Plants invest a lot of energy in producing flowers. So if a Sarracenia
decides to start the growing season with a flower, it will have less
energy left for making pitchers. If it decides to skip the flower, you
will notice faster growth of more pitchers that will become bigger.
Apart from the energy, there is also the matter of competition between
catching insects and using them for pollination. An upright Sarracenia
will start the growing season with a flower, as after the winter most
old pitchers will be brown and inefficient in attracting prey and
probably lay flat, so unable of holding any caught prey. So when its
flower opens (at about the same height of the openings of the pitchers
it would normally produce), te plant will not catch its own
pollinators. Once the flower is pollinated, the plant will develop
pitchers that can catch the insects that previously were appreciated for
their cross pollinating activities. Yes, Nature can be cruel.
Sarracenia purpurea's produce pitchers that withstand the winter very
well. Their flowers open +- 30 cm above the opening of their pitchers
that are still "active". They do "not" catch their pollinators, as
insects reportedly fly on a certain altitude (perhaps someone can fill
me in on that one). So simply stated, the crawlers and the low altitude
flying insects are caught, the higher flying insects are used for
pollination.
I can not predict which plants will produce a flower. I first thought
that any big, full grown rhizome would produce a flower with a 100 %
certainty, but this isn't always so. Thought in this case, chances are
the highest. Sometimes such a rhizome decides to skip the flower
production and produces a bonanza of what will become the biggest
pitchers in my collection.
You may find a lot of warnings here and there about allowing VFT's to
flower as this would exhaust the plant to a life endangering degree. If
a VFT was badly attacked by aphids, very small or weakened in any other
way, I too would advise to cut the flower stalk when it reaches +- 5 cm.
In all other cases, make sure you keep the flowering VFT's well fed with
living insects and all will be well. At the end of the season you will
have plants that are bigger then those who didn't flower, but were not
constantly fed either.
Hope this helps.
Kind regards
Wim
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