A few flytraps

[Andrew]

A couple of people have been posting photo's of their carnivorous plants so I thought I'd post a few pics of my venus flytraps. A combination of breeding and more importantly selection of tissue culture mutations has led to a large amount of variation in cultivated plants.

A VFT with a typical growth habit




Dionaea 'Big Mouth' A prostrate form with large traps.




Dionaea 'No 3'. A green clone originating from Paradisia Nurseries in Victoria. It tends to divide quickly forming very dense clumps, although usually at the expense of trap size.




Dionaea 'Akai Ryu'. One of the red cultivars. AKA 'Red Dragon'




An unnamed dentate form (the teeth are triangular rather than long and filamentous)




Dionaea 'Cross Teeth'. The teeth on each side of the traps cross over each other, ocassionally becoming partially fused together.

[Emma Grey]

Oh those are cool!

[jsehorn]

I really like 'Big Mouth'! I'm definitely going to have to find that one this spring.

[Fishmom]

The Red Dragon is really neat!

[Andrew]

Originally Posted by jsehorn

I really like 'Big Mouth'! I'm definitely going to have to find that one this spring.

Originally Posted by Fishmom

The Red Dragon is really neat!

Not wanting to blow my own trumpet but the Big Mouth and and Red Dragon recently got 1st and 2nd place in their category in my carnivorous plant society's annual show and the Big Mouth took out grand champion as well.

[Ron]

Hi Andrew, very nice collection.
Thanks

[jsehorn]

Originally Posted by Andrew

Not wanting to blow my own trumpet but the Big Mouth and and Red Dragon recently got 1st and 2nd place in my carnivorous plant society's annual show and the Big Mouth took out grand champion as well.

I can see why! That was certainly well deserved.

[Anton]

Gee, you must have a lot of flies.....

So are so big and healthy.

[Daethen]

I was going to say that you must not have many flies anymore. How would they like mosquitoes?

[mothorchid]

Wow! I love the Big Mouth! I have never realized that carnivorous plants could be so pretty. What a collection.

[norris]

Very nice plants! How long did it take you to grow those clumps so large? Also, what is the growing medium you are using?

[orchids4me]

All I can say is WOW!!!!
I have never seen such massive clumps of fly traps !!! Those are amazing!!

[1joyceh]

What a wonderful and healthy collection!!!
Thank you so much for sharing,
gives me some incentive to do better with mine Andrew
Congratulations on the awards, they are well deserved!

[Andrew]

Originally Posted by norris

Very nice plants! How long did it take you to grow those clumps so large?

Different clones grow at different speeds. There's probably about 10 to 12 years of growth in the Big Mouth - I've had it for 15 years but I've divided it a few times. The others have taken between 5 and 10 years to reach their current size.

Originally Posted by norris

Also, what is the growing medium you are using?

I'm using a mix of 2 parts peatmoss : 1 perlite (about 2mm particle size).

[norris]

Thanks for letting me know what you're growing yours in. I have mine in pure Sphagnum moss, and I just don't like the way it looks, it gets a lot of algae from staying moist.

[jpyerry]

Very impressive, I can only hope my VFTs look so good in a few years! I grow most of mine in pure Sphagnum moss, I also like to top dress the sphagnum with some live sphagnum that I grow, and that keeps the tops looking nice and lime green, instead of the dark green cast that algae tends develop.

[Filb]

Originally Posted by jpyerry

Very impressive, I can only hope my VFTs look so good in a few years! I grow most of mine in pure Sphagnum moss, I also like to top dress the sphagnum with some live sphagnum that I grow, and that keeps the tops looking nice and lime green, instead of the dark green cast that algae tends develop.

How do you cultivate the Sphagnum? I've heard it's a little difficult to do from the dried stuff. What is your secret (if you're willing to share of course) ?

Oh and Andrew, you grow some fabulous venus fly traps!

[jpyerry]

Originally Posted by Filb

How do you cultivate the Sphagnum? I've heard it's a little difficult to do from the dried stuff. What is your secret (if you're willing to share of course) ?

Oh and Andrew, you grow some fabulous venus fly traps!

Of course I am willing to share how I grow my sphagnum. First I bought some live sphagnum moss from a vendor on ebay, I think it was like $10 for a 2 pint size zip lock bag of it. BTW, I know a lot people say that if you use high quality sphagnum (like AAA Sphagnum or Chilean) that someday the sphagnum moss fairy will visit you and you will get some live sphagnum moss, well I have been using exclusively AAA Sphagnum for well over a year now and I have not been so lucky as to get a single sprig of the stuff, my opinion is that once its dead, its dead (I'm sure some people have had different experiences on this one).

Then, I bought a 2 or 3 gallon glass jar, I think it was a Heritage something or other from Anchor Hocking, it looks like a glass apothecary jar. I put about half an inch of aquarium activated carbon on the bottom, followed by about an inch of AAA Sphagnum moss, and then I spread the live sphagnum on top of it. Then I filled the jar up to the top of the dead moss level with distilled water. I have the 'terrarium' about 1.5 feet away from my 4 foot 4 bulb T5HO light. The stuff grows pretty quickly, I certainly don't have enough to start potting orchids in it, but I do have enough to top dress my plants with the stuff. It just requires a lot of humidity and a lot of light and reasonable temperatures, I have had no problems keeping the stuff alive. One word of caution, Physan 20 will kill the stuff almost immediately. I applied Physan 20 to one of my plants and the live sphagnum was very dead sphagnum the next day, it even had the bleached white appearance of the stuff you get in the bags.

I hope this helps, if you have any questions on my methods, don't hesitate to ask.

Justin

[bumpman]

These are fantastic flytraps and pics of them! I'm absolutely green. Thanks for the post. I was wondering about these new cultivars so now I know I need to get some of them! For the thread question on growing sphag, I grow my live sphagnum moss in plastic net pots sitting in a half-inch of rainwater. Then I put my flytrap bulbs right into the live sphag. The whole thing then goes in a glass display jar with a glass plate as a lid, leaving some space for air exchange. When there's enough new sphag growth I trim and start a new culture.

[Anisa]

Very interesting. Thanks for sharing!

[krpot]

WOw! I would love to start a carnivorous plant collection too one day (when I have time for distilled water/fresh sphag. and such. lovely plants. thanks for the sphag growing tips too.

[pikkumyy]

now they are cool. i love the 'Big Mouth', you've now made me want to get some VFT's, i have a nepenthe's and a drosera, but not one of these...... yet

and congratulations on your awards, very deserved

[Andrew]

Originally Posted by bumpman

I was wondering about these new cultivars so now I know I need to get some of them!

A lot of the mail-order and online carnivorous plant nurseries in the US have sell a wide variety of cultivars so you shouldn't have much trouble getting some different types. Most of the Australian cultivars have made it overseas. Unfortunately, the American and European cultivars take their time getting into Australia due to our quarantine laws.