lorisarvendu

No, they have no drain holes and I've never used drain holes in almost a decade of outside pots. In fact I've gone to great lengths to plug them where they exist (sometimes with limited success). I tend to drill a couple of holes just under the lip of the pot to avoid the smaller plants drowning in heavy rain.

Sorted! Plants repotted and relocated! If anyone's interested the pots were £4.50 each from Wilkos, while the 18 blocks were £1.43 each and the three lengths of decking £3.99 each (the last two from Wickes). £51 in total. Blimey, it's a lot when you add it all up.

That would be my preferred option, considering the mess they've made of the garden, but unfortunately it's the one I can't go with.

I've been successfully growing CPs outside in 5 large bog pots. See here: http://spacewarp.co.uk/carniv/Carniv01.htm Up until about 2 years ago all was fine, until our daughter decided she would like a rabbit. Since our back garden is totally enclosed, the rabbit was given full run of the garden. A few months later he was joined by a female friend. Not long after that I found they were nibbling my CPs. I completely enclosed all the pots with plastic-coated mesh fencing, which was fine...until they began nibbling through that. I was reduced to moving the pots to the front garden, where they got slightly less sun, but still managed to survive. Now we've had the front garden completely tarmacced and there's no room for my pots. I can't move them into the back garden because of the rabbits and I can't keep them in the front. Can anyone think of a suggestion to save my plants? Some sort of strong table I can put the pots on (although they're plastic they weigh a ton because of the water content), or some kind of fencing I can use? I've collected my plants for over a decade now and I don't want to have to get rid of them. Any suggestions? Cheers Dave

The really annoying thing is that we have 3 cats, who keep the back garden free of birds. But the cats never go on the front lawn where the bogs are, and I can't put the bogs in the back where the cats are....because of the rabbits! Maybe I should consider poisoning the rabbits....

I've got 4 large pots out in the front garden, filled with a variety of pitchers bought over the years. They've done very well and always come back after winter. They used to be in the back garden, but the wife bought two pet rabbits, who discovered a taste for all plants carnivorous! I therefore had to move them out front. They were doing ok until a few months back, when I would wake up and find something had been digging in the soil and flipping it over the lawn. Most of the plants survived, with the exception of my two sarracenia anglica But what was going on? I tried putting long sticks in the soil, thinking it was a hedgehog, but nothing seemed to stop it. Every week or so, there would be holes in the soil. Thankfully I found no poo, so it wasn't a cat. Then one morning I happened to glance out of the kitchen window, to see a blackbird merrily excavating one of the pots, flinging soil this way and that! I looked online to see what people recommended. Coffee grounds in the soil was a favourite. No good to me of course. Then there was shiny CDs on string waving above the pots. That didn't work. But now I 've found something that does. I went down to Wilkinson Stores, and bought 4 rubber snakes, you know the type that kids play with. Cost me a £1 each. One in each pot and it seems to have done the trick. I haven't exactly seen a bird fly down, look startled and fly away, but the pots have been left alone ever since, and I envisage the birds sitting up on my roof looking down at my pots, each one with a terrifying new bird predator sitting amongst the leavings....waiting and watching!

Yes but it does make you wonder what possible evolutionary advantage can sticky hairs on the stems have? Obviously the fact that several tomato species now have them implies that it is a successful adaptation. What we now have to figure out is what does it achieve for the plant? Unfortunately trapping insects does seem to be something that these hairs do very well, so the question remains is that enough of a benefit for the gene for "sticky stems" to be propagated? "Carnivorous" is really just a handy label we use to categorise certain plants into a logical group for our own purposes. Carnivory may well be (as the article's author suggests) more of a broader spectrum than a sharply-delineated classification. In a very very broad sense all plants benefit from (indeed depend on) the death and decomposition of animals and the subsequent return of nitrates to the soil. In fact the more you look into this, the more cases there are. Petunias and potatoes also have these hairs, and it appears that Shepherds Purse even secretes digestive mucilage. http://www.livescience.com/10597-killer-petunias-murderous-potatoes-revealed.html

Hmmm...but isn't the whole mechanism of Evolution based on coincidental benefit? It does kind of blur the distinction between specifically-evolved carnivorous plants, and those that benefit from indirectly-caused animal death. A plant evolving highly poisonous foliage is generally assumed to have done it solely for protection. However if the creature that takes a bite out of you dies immediately then the knowledge that "this plant is bad - avoid!" can never get passed on, which would not make such an adaptation sufficiently successful to propagate. On the other hand, if the animal you've just poisoned dies close enough to decompose and add nutrients to your soil, then that does make for a successful adaptation...no matter how slight the nutritional advantage.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/wildlife/6727709/Tomatoes-can-eat-insects.html As far I know this is the first insect-eating plant that is itself eaten by humans!

£12.99. Dead easy to look after, so long as you have a bright south-facing window to hang them in to get the best out of them. Our house is a bit dark so mine doesn't do fantastic, but then again I've had it over 7 years so I must be doing something right. I've even propagated from it. Got it from the old Toton Co-op superstore just before it closed. Would love to buy one but absolutely nowhere to put it.

A year on, and my bogs are doing ok. Well they're not really bogs, they're outside pots. I've now got 5. The old concrete one is still in the front garden: Whilst I now have 4 pots of varying sizes out the back on the patio: Larger pics can be seen on my web page. Just click on each thumbnail: http://www.lorisarvendu.force9.co.uk/Carni...us_Plants_5.htm -Dave

That's what I thought would be the benefit, keeping the soil damp.

I've got a bunch of sarras in large pots outside. Although some moss has grown on the older pot (about 3 years now), the others are relatively new and only have peat mix in them. Would the plants benefit from having living moss growing round their roots, and if so what kind and where can I get it? Local garden centre sells living sphagnum. Would that do? -Dave

Spot on! I know what you mean. I have to restrain myself from rescuing some of the poorest examples. They've got some massive Nep alatas in there at the moment. You know the hothouse section through the doorway past the biscuits? Turn immediate right, they're just there next to the orchids. The pitchers are a good 8 inches long! They've also got some really small neps in tiny pots further along. Unfortunately I don't have anywhere to put them.

Thanks all. I just wondered if it was a known variety. My local garden centre does have some nice looking CPs, and I've managed to get a good few thriving in my bogs, but they seem to just label them with any old tat. The card for this one has a picture of the plant with "Sarracenia stevensii" on it, so they know what they're doing. This one is a lovely plant, though, with a gorgeous mixture of colours. It's probably my favourite, and whatever they've crossed to produce it, they've made it hardy. I've got some others with ridiculous names like "S.tara", "S.x jedi", "S. wrigleyana" and "S. micke". I think they just make it up as they go along! -Dave

I've had this lovely fellow growing in a concrete pot in the front garden for 2 years now. If he can survive last winter in the East Midlands, he can survive anything! It said "sarracenia stevensii" on the ticket when I bought it, and the garden centre is still selling them under that name, so I've never questioned it until now. Images on Google etc show S.stevensii as looking completely different to this, and this looks more like S.flava. The pitchers are about 30cm tall, and not looking very full this year, as I think the harsh winter killed a lot of fly eggs in our area. Can anyone give me a definite idea of what this is? cheers! -Dave