Chimaera

Quartz is quartz and is all all inert. I would think if you got rose qtz, amethyst etc ground to sand size, it would look white anyway.

I made a Belfast sink bog couple of years ago and it is really developing well. I was worried (probably needlessly) of the bottom getting anoxic so my setup is maybe a little complex. I sealed the drain hole and lined with plastic sheeting, and put somee (quarter mm) stainless steel mesh over the overflow so water could get out and not compost. I put 2 pieces of plastic tubing (about 5cm dia) in 2 corners reaching from top to bottom of the sink, and with lots of drill holes near the base of these to act as water feeds. I layered the fill- about 5cm lime free sand and the base into which the plastic pipes are embedded, then mostly filled with peat/perlite/sand mix and at the top 5cm of peat/sand (so the perlite does not show on the surface). The fill level is a couple of cm below the lip (and rather higher than the overflow) I water it mostly through the pipes with the idea that oxygenated water goes straight to the bottom and passes outwards through the sand; the rest of the water goes on top. It is planted up with 2 (shortish) S. flavas, 2 S. purpurea, a S. purpurea/minor hybrid and a S. purpurea/leucophilla hybrid, as well as a clump of D. filiformis. Between these are a couple of small species of self seeded Drosera, some hardy Pings and some self seeded U. bisquamata (I am going to remove some of these as the Sarracenia get larger and the surface gets shaded. Some Sphagnim has established around the pipe entrances (nicely hiding the plastic). I have already had to thin out the D. filiformis as it did very well.

Thanks. I'll pot up as many as I can, even if it means having more in a pot than I wanted. I am amazed how varied the F1 crosses are- in a cross of a veined S. oreophila and a red purpurea I have seedlings ranging from really slender red pitchers to short fat green ones, with some 5 times the size of others. Other crosses not as varied but still excited to see what develops.

I have some seedlings from crosses I have done that need sorting out once the pots thaw, both some 1 year old and 2 year old (no heat, light etc, just normal growth). In both there are some plants several times the size of others. I can't rear all of these, so want to then them out, so does the vigour now stay as they mature? Are plants that are small at this stage going to stay slow growing, or does the growth rate sometimes change so a plant that is small early on can end up fast growing? Charlie

In the first half dozen CPs I bought a couple of years ago I got seedlings in the pots which turned out to be 2 species of Drosera, 2 Utricularia and 3 Sarracenia. Free stuff is great, but 2 years down the line, I have given up trying to get D. spatulata and U. bisquamata out of pots of anything else.

I have some VFTs with lots of small offsets forming that I want to bring on. Do they grow to adult size faster if I leave them on the mother plant until they are full size before dividing, or take them off now and pot them up? Or does it make no difference?

Did plant sales for 6 weeks; it should have made a couple of hundred pounds for charity. On a couple of days, most stuff was sold before I had even finished labelling things up (tomatoes and bedding plants especially). Other people in the area also gave spare houseplants, perennial divisions and spare bedding plants and it went very well. I made up and sold a dozen each VFTs and capensis, as well as a few tiny pots of D. spatulata (all with a care sheet). So hopefully sharing the CP love too.

I got both online, cheaper than garden centres and good quality (I think the last peat I got was from Northern Ireland) Perlite is weird stuff formed when water reacts with volcanic natural glass; it is neutral and actually absorbs ions.

I set up a sink mini bog a year ago and it seems to be doing well. My main problem has been squirrels trying to dig holes in it to bury nuts in autumn so I peg pieces of net out over the barer patches. When I made it I was (overly) worried about the base going stagnant so I put 5cm of grit sand in the base and have 2 pieces of plastic pipe in the corners so I can water into them and new water goes straight to the base, and moves upwards, keeping the base oxygenated. Sphagnum will hopefully grow over these and hide the plastic in time (I only put Sphagnum in last autumn). The rest is filled with a mix of peat and perlite with a bit of sand, with the top 5cm being a mix of sand and peat (so there is no perlite dotting the surface). I put a small piece of stainless steel mesh over the outflow so I do not lose compost through it, water flows out. It is cheapest to buy a separate bale of peat and big bag of perlite; these are cheaper online than in a shop. There will be far more than you need but I use them not just for carnivores but for seedlings too. Here it is a few weeks ago just coming out of dormancy

The other 2 that seem to be the same are slightly more slender and not as red. Whatever this is, I think I might take some leaf cuttings and get a few more just in case it turns out to be something nice.

I hate wasting plants, but little drosera were starting to smother Sarracenia seedlings so I had to get rid of them. I potted up a few and that is where the hybrids came from.

Thanks; it seems not to be a one off and there are 3 like this (probably far more but I weeded out a lot of seedings in other pots) which are twice as large and more red than any intermedia I have. Hopefully it will flower soon which will give more clue and if it sets seed I will collect it.

They all look beautiful to me, but I would say bottom right takes it. But there is also growth habit and height (2, one metre pitchers versus a dozen of 25 cm long), vigour, and hardiness (does it perform as well in a bog as in a greenhouse) that can sway people.

Amongst the self seeded drosera in the greenhouse (lots of capensis, intermedia, spatulata, a couple of filiformis) are a couple of plants like this which I do not recognise- although young they are more robust and larger than the intermedia and anglica I have, and clearly not capensis with different leaves and they formed a true hibernaculum in winter. Are Drosera known for hybridising without help? and if so, any idea what the parents may be- last year I had capensis, intermedia (a couple of types of each), spatulata, filiformis and rotundifolia flowering at the same time.

That's great, thanks