As is almost customary the pitcher plants have responded to being repotted by throwing up the first of this years flower heads.
S flava var ornata showing new flower head
I’m particularly pleased with the S purpurea ssp vendor as these are from the plant that divided five times in my hands.
S purpurea ssp vensora first growth since dividing
In other news, some of the venus fly traps have started to form new traps and I’ve found a cobra lily that really needs to be put into a bigger pot.
Well it started out as a small task, divide one Sarracenia purpurea ssp venosa in half and repot a few others.
A few of the Sarracenias to be repotted
But it didn’t end that way.
The pitcher that was supposed to be divided in half, split into five!
S purpurea ssp vensora dived into five.
Half of the others divided in my hands as I tried to repot them and so needed to be dived too.
Some of the Sarracenias repotted
Two bags of compost later and I decided that I’d quickly repot the venus flytraps! About half of them divided as well!
A simple day of repotting has resulted in almost doubling my stock! I really need to do a proper inventory tomorrow.
Sarracenia flava var ornata
Petty isn’t it? Shame it’s not what I intended to order!
This deeply veined variety of Yellow Pitcher (S. flava var ornate) was ordered by me by mistake. I had intended to order a Parrot Pitcher (S psittacina) but messed up.
Sarracenia flava var ornate showing good rhizome structure
This is about the same size as the one that I bought a couple of years ago as part of a yellow trumpet pitcher collection. As I got them from the same nursery I wonder if they could be from the same gene stock.
Anyway I intend to keep it and see how it performs alongside my other one. The parrot pitcher will have to wait until later in the year.
This does leave me with a small dilemma, the addition of S psittacina to my collection would have meant that I had representatives from all the Sarrecenia species. I was intending to start collecting some of the hybrids next. Parrot pitchers aren’t by favourite looking plants so maybe it will have to wait a bit longer.
On a related note, the reason for the order in the first place was that I needed compost which has now arrived. Looks like an afternoon of repotting and dividing.
Sarracenia purpurea ssp showing new growth
Despite the snow a number of my pitcher plants have started to show signs of new growth. Most will need repotting this year. As will my seed grown cobra lilies and some of the venus fly traps.
Due to a mix up last year I only ordered venus fly trap compost. As a result none of my pitcher plants got repotted and as can be seen from this photo, at least one needs dividing. I’ll be interested to see how this one divides.
Napenthes sanguine
This monkey cap Napenthes sanguine has been in my collection less than a year. I bought it online at the very start of summer. I needed a plant to provide indoor fly control. It’s quite a fast grower having more than doubled in size in one summer.
It grows two types of traps, the smaller winter trap (as seen here) and a far larger trap. The traps contain a fluid that the plant produces itself. As an indoor fly control plant it hasn’t been too successful so far but it’s still very small.
Napenthes sanguine showing small winter trap
Unlike a lot of my collection, the Napenthes doesn’t like to stand in water but still needs a high humidity to form traps. You can see here how I have provided the humidity by using a large saucer filled with glass beads. In the summer when the water level was higher I had a problem with the large traps trailing in the water. To solve this I created a sort of collar from a fizzy drinks bottle which I placed in the centre of the saucer filled with the glass beads and then stood the plant on top. If I do it again this year I’ll be sure to get so photos.
I am not intending to repot it this year.
This post was written in November 2011 when I first had the idea for this blog.
On the winter gravel tray
Darlingtonia californica
A couple of Sarracenia sp
November 2011 all plants have been cut back and brought into my conservatory for the winter.
I have decided to try giving the plants an aphid treatment this year to avoid the problems to had last summer.
My sundews have seeded themselves into a number of other pots. I think I’ll leave them for now and put the seedling into their own pots next spring.
