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Hampshire Carnivorous Plants Open Weekend 12-13th of August


linuxman

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Wonderful time at Hampshire Carnivorous Plants yesterday.

Went with a friend and we were bowled over by the quality and variety of the plants on display, the helpfulness and friendliness of the staff and the organisation of the day.

The complimentary tea, coffee and biscuits were an incredibly thoughtful touch and very much appreciated.  As were the two Portaloos!

We came back with several plants. Including a lovely Nepethes my mate now has hanging in his greenhouse.

Thank, HCP.

Guy

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Went to the Open Weekend on the Saturday. Lots of people there and had to use the overflow car park - just a grassy field. What with the recent rain there was a great danger of getting your car stuck.

I only bought 2 sarracenia this time as I have very little more room for more plants, so got a nice rubricorpora and an ornata. While there I asked Matthew why I can't get plants I've bought from him to be as well coloured as his seeing as we both use glass greenhouses (his being slightly larger of course :biggrin:) - and he has whitewashed roof panes in his! He reckoned it's down to heat and humidity - he has no venting in his greenhouses for instance. So, that's something I'll try in the future by reducing the venting to occur at much higher temperature, but will need to ensure there are no watering problems.

Anyway, here are a few photos of the day for those who couldn't make it.

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13 hours ago, linuxman said:

While there I asked Matthew why I can't get plants I've bought from him to be as well coloured as his seeing as we both use glass greenhouses (his being slightly larger of course :biggrin:) - and he has whitewashed roof panes in his! He reckoned it's down to heat and humidity - he has no venting in his greenhouses for instance. So, that's something I'll try in the future by reducing the venting to occur at much higher temperature, but will need to ensure there are no watering problems.

Definitely want to make it down there, hopefully next year.

Regarding light, polytunnels often give the best coloured plants because they diffuse the light and make it more even. So Matthew's whitewashed glass will give a similar effect.

You can also get the same effect in a white powder coated greenhouse because it reflects the light around.

 

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Could it also be down to the fact that Matt's plants form earlier than ours 'up North' and so get longer to colour up ?

When Matt used to attend the Harrogate Spring Show I was always amazed at our much further along his plants were compared to mine, he would have fully formed plants when mine were only just starting to put up pitchers !

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1 hour ago, Alexis said:

Yep that will have an effect. But the bigger the greenhouse the more heat they retain, so they get a headstart because the heat from March/April sun sticks around.

Yes, I agree they do get more and earlier sun than most of us. Matt did say that's why he uses the whitewash to reduce the temperatures to manageable levels. Not sure about the idea of whitewash diffusing light, though. I tried to find the albedo value for whitewash on the internet but couldn't. But surely it'll be quite high - snow for instance can be up to 90%. Admittedly it won't be solid so a proportion of the light will get through but maybe it's as high as 50%. Also albedo is a measure of the whole spectrum, so UV will be reflected as well.

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Here's an example of what a couple of years in my conditions does to Matt's plants.

This photo shows the plants I bought on Saturday - an ornata (F345) at the back with the rubricorpora (F26) at the front. Notice how relatively evenly dark is the S. flava v. rubricorpora.

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This photo is of Matt's F42 (S. flava v. rubricorpora) which in his g/h is a solid dark maroon. Unfortunately after 2 years mine is now not so dark.

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5 hours ago, linuxman said:

Yes, I agree they do get more and earlier sun than most of us. Matt did say that's why he uses the whitewash to reduce the temperatures to manageable levels. Not sure about the idea of whitewash diffusing light, though. I tried to find the albedo value for whitewash on the internet but couldn't. But surely it'll be quite high - snow for instance can be up to 90%. Admittedly it won't be solid so a proportion of the light will get through but maybe it's as high as 50%. Also albedo is a measure of the whole spectrum, so UV will be reflected as well.

It must have properties other than preventing light from getting through otherwise plants would colour up equally well under filthy glass.

Here is some information on polytunnel plastic (maybe whitewash really does mimic it?):

"Diffusion: You should think of the diffusion properties of polythene as clouds in the sky. Diffused polythene scatters the light as it passes through, allowing it to hit the plants from all angles.  This ensures your plants will get an even amount of light and not have to grow towards any particular light source, thus avoiding one plant overshadowing another. Even clear films have a small level of diffusion"

Insektenfang grow theres in a polytunnel and they colour up fantastically.

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Hi everyone. As others have said, the HCP open day was fantastic - many great plants on display, and Matt was very welcoming to all the visitors.

All my photos from the day are in a gallery on my website, in case anyone's interested: 

https://www.carnivorousplants.co.uk/blog/gallery-hampshire-carnivorous-plants-open-weekend/

Tom

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