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Numbersix

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Everything posted by Numbersix

  1. Yes an interesting insight into how the feature has evolved. It would be nice to know a bit more about this. Thanks for the link.
  2. There's nothing in the Bibliography that is directly relevant to our area Stu but it is a substantial list so ill see if I can source any info. The U minor reference appears to be near Deal on the Map and I found references to U vulgaris at Sholden so perhaps it is there? Ill Pm you in regards to visting some of the locations. :)
  3. Thanks Dennis, id be very interested in coming to a trip like that as it would make it much easier to find these plants in habitat! Ill keep an eye on the site.
  4. Thanks Dennis, id be very interested in coming to a trip like that as it would make it much easier to find these plants in habitat! Ill keep an eye on the site.
  5. Hi all, I added some more of the redfern books to my collection over Christmas including the fantastic Pinguicula of latin America but I have become equally fascinated with the field guide to CP's in the UK. Being in the furthest reaches of Kent I assumed that there would be nothing around me at all but the distribution maps suggest that I have at least 3 aquatic Utric species right on my doorstep (U australis, vulgaris and minor). Furthermore all 3 Drosera species seem to occur around the Kent East Sussex border as does Pinguicula vulgaris. So far I have not photographed any CP's in the wild and was planning on visiting the well know New Forest sites to see them in habitat but I would be far more excited to see native plants growing in my neck of the woods. I wondered if anybody on here had any information on specific locations I could visit to see the plants? Please be assured that I simply want to see and photograph the plants not collect them as I have all these plants in my collection but would love to see them where they are supposed to be. Feel free to PM me if people want to keep information private. If nobody has any info then I hope to be able to work it out logically and see if I can find them! Thanks Rich
  6. Blimey that is cold. Had fallen to 5.8 overnight in the greenhouses in my corner of Kent. Better start insulating and getting the heaters installed I think!
  7. Haha, yes it is. We certainly add encouragement to each other!
  8. Never had much luck keeping them alongside my Sarras over the winter sadly, They do much better for me indoors as a terrarium/ indoor plant alongside other bromeliads. Not flowered one as yet though.
  9. Hi Dave, I'm in Ramsgate too, just round the corner from Stu, and ive been into CP's for a long time now. There aren't and SE meets that I'm aware of but it would be good to meet people, swap plants etc etc. :)
  10. All my windowsill grown neps have saucers/ containers under them and I water from above until I see it run through into the saucer. I wait until that has dried up and the sphagnum feels drier before the next watering. They don't really stand in water as such but I have to catch the water in something or my other half would be livid! My lowland neps in my terrarium I just let drain through as there is a water layer at the base of it so no harm there. I know people have mixed results with windowsill grown highlands but I do ok for them (although have run out of space). Heres my N boschiana as an example.
  11. Thanks for the replies guys, that does help a lot. At least I now know I have a N robcantleyi in my collection so that's one less to chase! Thankfully I have a pure truncata and numerous truncata crosses to keep the truncata side covered.
  12. Hi all, Whilst searching this evening for a reasonably priced example of N robcantleyi to add to my collection I came across some information that suggests I may already be growing the species?! I bought an example of N truncata 'queen of hearts' directly from Borneo exotics from their stand at the Chelsea Flower show in 2011. Having seen their fantastic display plant of this species I enquired how I could obtain an example and I was offered a very small plant for £20. I bought that plant despite worrying that it was so tiny I would kill it! 5 years on and this is the same plant windowsill grown; What I seem to have found this evening is that this N truncata was reclassified as N robcantleyi later that year having been assumed to be a truncata up until then and is now regarded as N robcantleyi 'Queen of Hearts'. Have I got this correct or are these not the same plant? The pitchers on my plant certainly seem to be going the right way for robcantleyi. Cheers Rich
  13. Great pics Stu, Lovely to see them growing in habitat like that and a nice healthy population of both species present. Rich
  14. It doesn't look unhealthy, I can see a pitcher forming on one of the upper leaves. Ventricosa is normally an easy plant to grow but in low light it will stop producing pitchers. The basal's look like they are showing immature pitchers as well. If you are not happy with the vine then you can cut it back and let the basal's take over. You should have a good crop of pitchers then.
  15. This is a great idea! I will try something similar for my alpines and dwarf Hosta's as they are ruthless with them!!
  16. Even in hard water I doubt they will be significantly harmed over a few days. If you are worried you can always repot into fresh media as any calcium or other impurities they wont like will have built up in the compost and would be easily got rid of with a re-pot. I live in a very hard water area (its practically liquid chalk!) and on a couple of occasions when there has been little rainfall and ive emptied all my reserves I have had to water with tap water just to stop them drying out until I could get RO water. It caused no harm, I just wouldn't want to do it too often.
  17. Yes my mate Stu, who's on here, is in Ramsgate and there is a chap with a holiday home down here who bought from me last year. Have had the same problems with Aphids on VFT's! Havent quite seen as low as -7 on the coast but it did get quite low on a couple of nights. It was exactly that point when the electrics down to my greenhouses packed up so I had to do an emergency bit of bodging one very cold evening to get some heaters running again!
  18. Has any one tried using one of the Habistat mini fans designed for reptile enclosures etc? They run on their own transformer or can be linked to the lighting the company makes. I have been using cpu fans to create airflow in my terrarium but I am convinced the flow is too high and the Drosera and pings are suffering as a result. I wondered if a habistat fan would have a more suitable flow rate?
  19. Im down the road from you in Ramsgate and the sarras in my main greenhouse are chucking out flower buds, think ive left my winter divisions a bit late!
  20. Really sorry to hear this Bill, as you know I was so impressed with your Nepenthes and am very pleased with the plants Ive had from you. I was trying to contact you to see what else you had to offer but obviously your not In a position to do that at the moment! I hope you manage to get on top of the situation and salvage some plants. If I get any cutting material of clones Ive had from you then of course ill offer it to you first in case you need that clone back. I nearly lost your classic ventricosa x inermis cross when I let it get too cold one winter but thankfully I managed to salvage and root a cutting and its back pitchering again! My favourite will always be N x predator of course. I do hope you havent lost the original plant? All the best Rich
  21. Well once again thank you all for you advice. I will keep all lights built into the lid for now. I have added 2" polystyrene insulation under the tank, around the sides and on top. I am pleased to say that by adding 2" of insulation the heat mat alone is keeping the tank maintained at 25 degrees C despite the lower ambient temps in the garage. I am sure as ambient temps rise throughout the year I can reduce the insulation in order to prevent things getting too warm. Just in addition to this I wondered what sort of photoperiod you guys run. At present my lights are on from 8am-11pm. I assume you could in theory have them on constantly. I also run the fans off the same timer. Is it worth running the fans this much or should I just have them cut in and out throughout the day?
  22. Many thanks for the additional input guys. Having read what you all recommend I agree that 2" of polystyrene insulation should allow the temperature to be much less influenced by ambient air temps so I will have a crack at that. What seems difficult to achieve with the converted tank is that , given the problems I have faced, the tank lid has to be retained to fit all the components in. However the LED rig I have doesn't allow an even spread of light at that height above the plants. I had planned to suspend it above the tank but that would mean a glass top to keep heat and moisture in and then I have the problem of no insulation and poor airflow. For now I think I will see how I get on with the tank as it is with added insulation. This is all an experiment anyway to determine the viability of growing in this situation. I have some petiolaris complex sundews alongside tougher utrics and pings and despite the low temps they haven't kicked the bucket yet. They are not putting a lot of growth out understandably but what leaves have emerged are better than they were in my windowsill terrariums with the lowland neps. I will let you know how it progresses. Rich
  23. That's an interesting idea with the car heat mat's, I hadn't thought of anything like that! I did wonder if the ceramic heaters and bulbs would be suitable as most reptile enclosures are dry and mine is very humid with the fogger etc. I will look into how to build something similar to yours .
  24. Hi all, I am trying an experiment out with a terrarium I have made for CP's and I'm looking for some advice on heating it effectively, specifically raising the ambient air temp. I have a number of small terrariums indoors with highland and lowland neps in that work well with natural daylight and ambient indoor temperature. However I tried growing some other CP's like the petiolaris complex sundews this way and they grew very etiolated and did not enjoy this! Not having the room indoors to setup a more serious terrarium for them I decided to build one in the garage utilising a 160L fish tank I had spare. I set it up as a palludarium specifically with a pool with utrics in and a banked soil arrangement for the sundews etc. My problem is the garage isn't heated and although the plants are alive they are obviously not enjoying the temperature which I am struggling to raise over 15 degrees C. The tank has a large heat mat set above the base reservoir which warms the soil and an aquarium water heater heating the water to 28 degrees. A fogger and fans help to distribute the warm moist air when running but really I need to raise the air temp by at least another 10 degrees for it to work. At any other time of year the ambient temp may help this but for now I need to find another way. Lighting is LED's so no heat is emitted so I wondered if it was an idea to add a vivarium ceramic heat lamp to raise air temp or alternatively a basking bulb which also puts out the correct light for plants. Has anybody tried this? I need to know if these are likely to add the temp increase I need or whether I would in fact be wasting my money? Just to confirm there are no reptiles/amphibians in the tank, it is purely to grow CP's. Rich
  25. Great pics Stu! The red rotundifolia is fantastic, need to get some seed from that fella! Hard to say on the other Drosera as to whether they are intermedia or localised variation in rotundifolia as some of the leaves do still look very round. Would be interesting to see what others on here think?
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