I gave the muppets at gardeners world a cobra for there "jungle garden" and got a call off them to say its on tonight. I gave them advice lets see if they took it! I give it 6 months till its R.I.P.

Six months is probably a tad optimistic. Six weeks or even six days is more like it!

Thread moved to General CP forum.

Their jungle garden is all bananas, gingers, tree ferns and such in enriched soil. How are they going to incorporate a Cobra? Even if they make a small peat bog, it'll be lost in all that big foliage.
I suspect Aidan is more realistic with survival times!

If they were given the right advice and follow it, why should it die so quickly?
I followed the tips on this forum and still have my Darlingtonia, and it flowered and is spreading.
It will be nice to see some CPs on the Beeb anyway :-)
(I still think they should be forced to visit Mikes twice a year, to see what they are missing out on )

Seeing what they have done with plants in the past and the 'advice' that they have handed out, the likelyhood of long term survival is just about nil.

It really wouldn't surprise me to see the plant heeled into a flower bed! It is unlikely that I will be watching, so you can report back later...

That's the problem, Bob. As I say, their jungle garden is an enclosed small garden full of big foliage plants. I can't see the plant getting the right conditions in that environment. I shall watch with interest :-)

EDIT: You beat me to it Aidan!

i think there idea was to put it in one of the little water troughs. apart from that i dont see aproblem with conditions ive grown them in deeper shade than they have and had no problems.

Ol' Monty doesn't do bad.... for a Costume jewelry designer :-)

I did say IF they follow the advice! I doubt they were told to 'heel it in to a flower bed' Aidan ;-)

I wonder how long it will take the local bird population to find the plant...

sadly you're probably right, shouldn't be very long at all, even if they are in good conditions the kids might trample them also, I am awaiting a darlingtonia for my pond setup at my house it is going to go into the waterfall, I just hope my dogs dont get them

Well....I take it back :-(
Having watched them 'plant' it, still in its Sphagnum covered pot, with a saucer under 'to catch the water from the sprinkler' and then back fill with soil...... I think you're being generous Aidan!
They obviously can not read instructions, or 'thought' they knew better.

Ah.. depressing. :cry:

It is exactly this sort of thing that discourages potential new growers and causes the early demise of plants. Interest kindled by the programme they buy an expensive plant, follow Gardener's World instructions (which can't possibly be wrong) and watch it rapidly deteriorate and die.

Another grower lost to the field.

I was on the phone and happened to wander back into the room at the crucial moment, to see Joe Swift lovingly lowering a potted up Cobra into a hole and backfilling with a beautiful loam. At least the saucer will catch lots of tapwater from the sprinkler and give the poor thing a rapid release.
Maybe a few emails to the BBC might be in order. This kind of advice is why so many of us lost our first VFTs.

I was thinking along those lines. It is no wonder CPs have a reputation for being difficult to grow when the growing advice is totally wrong. Most people assume Gardeners World know what they are talking about.

apart from it catching water from the tap, what's wrong?

the soil did not cover the top of the pot and the saucer underneath should stop any nutrients leeching up into the pot, shouldn't it?

the pot is plastic which i doubt is particularly porous, so the loam just sitting around the pot can't do it harm can it?

maybe i am being very foolish, which is probably the most likely scenario

Surely the question is not 'Why are Gardener's World giving a poor example on growing Darlingtonia?' but 'Why is Darlingtonia on Gardener's World at all?'. It is a totally unsuitable species for the program and the great majority of gardens and gardeners


Giles

Why?
I have found them one of the easy CPs to grow, when the correct needs are met.
If Darlingtonia are wrong for TV gardening programs then even more so are the Orchids, which are much more difficult, surely.
I think they need more such plants on but correctly treated.

I don't find Darlingtonia hard to grow in a large plastic patio pot in my garden, certainly no more difficult than the blueberry they potted up in a large pot for the show. Strange how they should make a big fuss about the low pH required by blueberries and the need to use rainwater and then stick the Cobra in the ground with a tapwater drip!!



Vic

Apart from the tapwater which will eventually kill it anyway, every time the surrounding area is watered, nutrients will leach through the loam and collect in the saucer to be drawn up by the cobra lily. It would have been better with a bit of pond liner seperating it completely from the loam and the area around the pot back filling with moss peat, creating a mini peat bog.

Maybe you are right. Those are some lovely plants you have there, Vic. Perhaps I am underestimating the Gardener's World audience if I think that if you tell them to pot it up this way and water with rainwater etc., they will probably ignore you and kill it anyway. I wasa thinking more in terms of plants to plant in the garden, as opposed to pot plants. But, now that unusual pot plants seem to be increasing in popularity for standing on decking & patios etc., perhaps the time is now for plants like Darlingtonia.

Giles

It was painful to watch. Poor plant
The worse thing is I saw lots of people wandering around at the Gardener's World Live event with Sarras and Darlingtonias they'd bought. I only hope they follow the advice they were given on the stands they bought them from and don't think GW knows best.
And as the programme won't be back until late August, the presenters can't even correct themselves (if they wanted to) in time to save many people's plants.

tiz dooomed... I must remember to put all my cp's under my tapwater sprinkler system i've got in the garden - NOT!

Earlier in the programme monty was talking about roses and said 'don't believe everything you read in books'... maybe that should be 'don't believe everything you see on gardners world!'

:-(
Jules

Very nice Vic
Do you water them from above? Must give that a go..

cheers

bill

Hi Vic,
Your planters look great!
:-)
Jules

Yes, I water from above almost daily, the Darlingtonia has a few small drainage holes a few inches below the soil surface so that I get a flow of water over the roots. The planters are quite large (13inch tall and 15inch across) and hexagonal, the tallest pitchers are just over 15 inches, not bad as they live outside all year. The two large S. purpurea ssp. purpurea both outgrew my mini-bog and as I have a few more that are doing the same, I'll probably add a couple more planters next year; they fit together quite nicely to create a raised bog look.

Vic

See, now if they showed summit like that on Gardeners World many people would want to try them, and succeed! :-)

Nice potted plants Vic, puts my Darlingtonia in a lily basket sat in a washing up bowl to shame

I bought a beautiful S. flava rugelii at GW Live and had many many people stop me and ask what such a spectacular plant could be. I directed them all to Hampshire Carns where the plant had come from. The interest is there but advice like this leads to disillusionment.
This plant is doomed - as Sheila says, nutrients will enter the saucer and thence the pot. Very sad when the plant could have been such a nice patio addition.

i dont know how you grow yours. but as long as its kept wet and cool i couldnt think of a more suitable species for "novice growers". i give plants to everybody i know who has a pond, waterfall etc. my 92 year old nan manages to keep one alive and she thinks regular watering is once amonth!