My Carnivorous Plant Collection As Of January 19, 2012

[jpyerry]

Michael (pikkumyy) requested that I post pictures of my carnivorous plant collection. Well your wish is my command! Here are pictures of (almost) all of my carnivorous plants as of January 19, 2012:

Cephalotus follicularis:


Cephalotus follicularis - typical form


Cephalotus follicularis "Emu Point Giant"


Cephalotus follicularis "German Giant"


Cephalotus follicularis 'Hummer's Giant'

Dionaea muscipula (Venus Flytrap here to after referred to as VFT):


VFT 'B52'


VFT "Crested Petioles"


VFT 'Red Piranha'


VFT "Trichterfalle" (this one still hasn't produced its characteristic funnel traps, but unreliability tends to be a problem amongst the 'freaks')

Droseras:


Drosera aliciae


Drosera binata var. 'Marston Dragon'


Drosera capensis - typical form


Drosera capensis - alba form


Drosera filiformis - red form


Drosera slackii


Drosera spatulata var. 'Fraser Island'


Drosera venusta (Gift from JungleMel)

Nepenthes (I regret that not one of my Nepenthes has a mature pitcher at the moment):


Nepenthes maxima 'Tentena' (Gift from 1joyceh)


Nepenthes truncata 'Queen of Hearts' x 'King of Spades'


Nepenthes Ventrata


Nepenthes ventricosa (Gift from 1joyceh)

Pinguiculas:


Pinguicula laueana (this onee died back a bit after being over-watered, it is definitely the most finicky of the Pinguicula species I grow)


Pinguicula moctezumae (Gift from 1joyceh)


Pinguicula moranensis (Gift from 1joyceh)


Pinguicula primuliflora

Sarracenias:


Sarracenia "Dana's Delight'


Sarracenia 'Judith Hindle'


Sarracenia NOID (possibly S. minor or a hybrid)


Sarracenia oreophila


Sarracenia 'Scarlet Belle'

(continued on next post...)

[Emma Grey]

Wow! You have some very interesting plants! They are so striking to look at too, especially the all red ones.

[JudyC]

Wicked! Some great plants!!

[1joyceh]

Everyone is looking amazing Justin!!!!!!

[Reg22]

Cool. Those are so different. Do you feed them insects? Do they live outside? Sorry for my ignorance.

[Ron]

Thanks, a very nice collection

[jpyerry]

Originally Posted by Reg22

Cool. Those are so different. Do you feed them insects? Do they live outside? Sorry for my ignorance.

Don't apologize for being curious, I love carnivorous plants almost as much as orchids, and I am glad to help anybody expand their knowledge of these really interesting plants.

They all live in one of two places in my home, either in my grow tent or in my terrarium. It would be nice if I lived in an area where I could grow them outside, but alas, I live in the bitter cold of the Northeast.

I don't go out of my way to feed them insects, carnivorous plants can live their entire lives without eating insects, they evolved in areas with extremely nutrient poor soil and adapted by digesting insects, without insects they will live but they may not grow as rapidly (think having a houseplant and watering regularly but neglecting to feed it, so long as you do semi-regular soil changes it will be fine, but might not fluorish). In the beginning, I did buy crickets at my local pet store to feed them, but it turned into a labor intensive and unnecessary process. At the moment, they seem quite content to eat fungus gnats and any unfortunate insect that happens to fly into their midst.

Justin

[jpyerry]

Originally Posted by Emma Grey

Wow! You have some very interesting plants! They are so striking to look at too, especially the all red ones.

Thanks, I really like the red ones as well, my VFT 'Red Piranha' is still very young, but I think it came out as the best picture in the bunch.

I will admit that I have an affinity to red amongst plants, somehow when red coloration shows up, it is vibrant and very attractive, I suppose that is the point. There is a good reason plants have evolved red pigmentation. Speaking of the red ones, the Pinguicula laueana, if I ever get it to flowering size, will have a lovely red flower, it is the only species in the genus to have a red flower. I really can't wait to see it bloom! Of course, I have been saying that for a year and a half now (I killed my first one).

At the moment, I want my next acquisition to be a high quality red Phalaenopsis. There are a lot out there, I just need to do my homework and choose one.

Though it is not apparent in my CP collection, I also think that yellow flowers are quite striking.

Enough rambling from me now.

Justin

[Emma Grey]

Justin, I love red too! I'm eyeing a couple of red phals at Norman's as I type this! I'll have to go up there in person soon and see what they've got in bloom.

Your red carnivorous plants almost make me want to get one to try, mostly to eat the fungus gnats around my orchids. Perhaps I will do some research myself.

[jpyerry]

Originally Posted by Emma Grey

Justin, I love red too! I'm eyeing a couple of red phals at Norman's as I type this! I'll have to go up there in person soon and see what they've got in bloom.

Your red carnivorous plants almost make me want to get one to try, mostly to eat the fungus gnats around my orchids. Perhaps I will do some research myself.

They will not eliminate your fungus gnats, but they will bring the numbers down slightly. The Pinguiculas and the Droseras seem to attract a lot of fungus gnats. So, if fungus gnat reduction is your goal, they are what I would recommend. Unfortunately, they require much more light than an orchid, although they would do fine in Cattleya light. Another thing to consider would be Nepenthes plants, which come in a wide variety of colors, and can be grown in lower light conditions.

Definitely give it a try, I love the things.

[pikkumyy]

absolutely incredible, i wont post much of a comment now because i have to go to bed because i have to get up for work in 7 hours , but your photo's have really lifted my mood and i will definitely be dreaming of carnivorous plants tonight,

though just quickly, what are the benefits of growing them in sphagnum moss compared to the usual peat based mixes? thanks so much for going to the effort for me, i REALLY appreciate it, i'm just starting to dabble in the world of carnivors and i can really see myself getting more and more

[orchids4me]

These are all very cool!!
I don't have pitchers on mine either right now, they all dried up and the new one developing looks as though it may blast

[jpyerry]

Originally Posted by pikkumyy

absolutely incredible, i wont post much of a comment now because i have to go to bed because i have to get up for work in 7 hours , but your photo's have really lifted my mood and i will definitely be dreaming of carnivorous plants tonight,

though just quickly, what are the benefits of growing them in sphagnum moss compared to the usual peat based mixes? thanks so much for going to the effort for me, i REALLY appreciate it, i'm just starting to dabble in the world of carnivors and i can really see myself getting more and more

As to the benefits of growing in sphagnum moss, many CP's can be grown quite effectively in it. I am sure people have conducted scientific analysis of different growing media and there are very good reasons as to why they will grow better in media than another. For the most part, I like using sphagnum moss with my CP's, since many CP's grow in bogs, it is what they grow in naturally and for that reason live sphagnum moss is often considered the best, but it can be quite challenging to grow and fairly difficult to keep alive if conditions are not perfect for it (I do use it as a top dressing on some of my plants, in particular my N. truncata QoH x KoS has it as a top dressing). There are some CP's that are highly unadvisable to grow in sphagnum, like the CP's for them I use peat and sand mixtures. But, for the most part, I think sphagnum is a little easier and cleaner to use than peat, but the best part is having one media for most plants really simplifies things. It is much easier to just buy a big bag of sphagnum, than a bag of peat moss, a bag perlite, a bag of sand, etc, and you have to be so careful because manufacturers love to throw fertilizer in their products which will be deadly to CP's. So, I guess for me, the biggest overriding factor is convenience. It is kind of funny that it is my preferred media for CP's but I really dislike it for orchids.

Justin

[JungleMel]

Justin, your collection looks great, and the venusta looks happy. Very nice job!

How's the truncata/robcantleyi 'QoH x Kos' doing lately? It is officially N. robcantleyi now? Too much debate, but I think so.
Also- for pings, the reccomendation was peat and sand, but I like the way yours looks in moss. About how often do you have to water it in moss?

[jpyerry]

Originally Posted by JungleMel

Justin, your collection looks great, and the venusta looks happy. Very nice job!

How's the truncata/robcantleyi 'QoH x Kos' doing lately? It is officially N. robcantleyi now? Too much debate, but I think so.
Also- for pings, the reccomendation was peat and sand, but I like the way yours looks in moss. About how often do you have to water it in moss?

As you can see from the picture it still is not thriving, but it is doing better, you can see from the pics where the leaves were getting progressively smaller and the pitchers more deformed, since I have moved back to a place that gets greater temperature fluctuations it has started putting out bigger leaves but is not pitchering. I am hoping that with one more leaf it should start pitchering again, so I am hopeful for the plant. Thanks for informing me of the name change, I really need to keep up on things like that.

I know pinguiculas like peat and sand, I just hate peat. I am thinking of putting the P. laueana back into peat and sand, since it seems like it would prefer it.

I actually moved almost all of my CP's to a tray watering system, with the exception of my Cephalotus plants and my Nepenthes plants. I keep them all in about 1/2" of water, let it dry and then fill it up. Most of my plants really took to it well, D. filiformis and D. binata had an explosive growth spurt. A couple really did not like it, my P. laueana had a significant dieback, so I took it out of the tray and just water when it is starting to get dry, D. capensis also had some dieback but is adapting to the new watering method, my D. admirabilis actually died from it (of course, it wasn't my healthiest plant when I got it, I am going to give it a couple more weeks to see if it will come back, but if it doesn't I will be looking for a new one). But, other than that my plants seem to like watering by tray method.

Justin

[plantloverlisa]

Those are bizarre and lovely! They remind me of some of the plants in the movie Avatar.

[JungleMel]

Justin,

I'm going to hijack your thread for a moment to give you a public thank you for the trade. Everything came in awesome shape. Will be using the heat packs too, I owe you for those. The D. spatulata 'Fraser Island' is too cool. I have D. spatulata 'Tamlin' and was told it gets 3x the size of Fraser. It really does, it is huge compared. I had an extra one grow out from underneath the other if you want 'Tamlin' as well. I'm going to have my fingers crossed for a while with the ping, it'll be my 1st, and is way nicer looking than I thought they'd be. I should've tried them sooner!



Also, I have all my Drosera in peat/sand/perlite, and use the tray system for watering. They each have their own little tray though. I haven't tried any in spag, but the guys you sent look so much nicer in it, they'll stay that way. About how often do you find you need to fill the tray with the ones that are in spag?

[Orchidchick]

Hi Justin, your collection is impressive and so cool. Great job on growing them. I have always liked the looks and growth habits of carnivorus plants. I am more inerested in the active versus the passive traps. My favorite being the VFT and that all red variety looks amazing. Where ever did you get it?

[jpyerry]

Melody, they are looking good and I am glad you got them in good shape, I can kind of agree that Pinguiculas don't always look so great in pictures, but in person, I think they are awesome. Really enjoy them, and though I have been on a Drosera kick lately, I do want to expand my collection of Pinguiculas. Enjoy growing them, and the Drosera spatulatas can take a while to get going, but once they do they can almost be regarded as a weed by CP growers since they can get pretty aggressive at times, I really like them though.

Orchidchick, the active trap plants are a lot of fun, definitely a fun conversation piece, though they can be a little bit finicky. In my experience, of the more commonplace CP's, VFTs can be the most challenging to get to grow well, but once you get them down they are not too difficult, just don't be surprised if you kill a few and don't let it discourage you. There are a number of all red varieties, the most readily available is the VFT 'Akai Ryu' variety which turns a dark red/maroon color in bright light, you can get them pretty much anywhere that specializes in CPs. The all red one I have is VFT 'Red Pirahna', I like it a lot, they are not as common as the 'Akai Ryu' and generally a little more expensive. I got mine on ebay from user flytrap_61, I've bought a lot of plants from this vendor and I have to say that even though they sell mostly very young plants they are of excellent quality and I have nothing but positive things to say about them, they are in Alaska so shipping is a little higher than average and they will not use heatpacks, but even in the Winter, I have not had a plant cold damaged from them yet. If you have any more questions about them, feel free to PM me. The plant is too small to divide, else I would offer you a corm from it.

Best,
Justin

[Andrew]

Nice collection. Interesting that your Ping laueana is causing you problems. I don't find them too difficult to grow. On the other hand, I can't keep Ping primuliflora alive for more than a few months.




Red and pink flowered plants of Ping laueana "SP1" x "CP2".

[tom499]

Some very nice plants! Not sure how cold it gets there, but Cephalotus, Drosera and Sarracenia will colour up best outside in full sun. Cepahlotus especially will give very nice dark reds/purples on mature pitchers. They can be slowly acclimatised down to -5 Celsius or so, as long as they aren't kept too wet in winter, and if you keep them wet in summer, they'll do fine up 25 celsius.

Some very nice Ceph clones there, I would be propagating those asap =D