dudo klasovity

Hi, Jim, those are d. mannii, d.sewelliae (orange) and some d. nitidulas in the background:-)

I only have 3 words: perfect, perfect,perfect!

Here an update of more flowers:-)

I really like picture travel reports from places I will probably never have a chance to visit personally. Just beautiful, always enjoy pictures from Tepuis. Such a strange and different environment. Thanx for sharing!:-)

Wow, beautiful place! You have been through lots of hard work (judging by the pictures), but it definitely paid off! Enjoy the greenhouse! One day I will have one ,too:-)

Thanx Peter. They stink you say? LOL. In that case, I am happy that I cought a little cold with stuffed nose:-) Now I can enjoy the beauty of the sight with no smelly interference

beautiful flowers and even more beautiful pictures (or vice versa:-)) thanx for sharing!

Hi! Today I went outside to cover my plants to protect them from a storm (we have like 5 storms a day these days-crazy!),,,anyways, I saw this beautiful flowering d.mannii and I just had to take a pic. The flower itself is unusually big for a pygmy, bigger then the diameter of a rosette istself, I measured 22mm flower with hint of pink, just love this pygmy:-) I hope u like it too.

congratulations! She is a real beauty! I have few plants of this species for 1st season from gemmae, and cant wait to see them in flower (especially after what I saw your pics) thanx for sharing!

Hey Adam! Great pictures indeed! All the plants look terriffic! I see you PVC tube cut-offs work pretty well for species with long roots:-) Cant wait to see d. cistiflora opened flower. Maybe I come visit you with a big bag ready! LOL

Anywhere from 30% to 70% silica sand is fine. The rest is peat. Using a drainage (layer of coarse silica gravel/pebbles on the bottom of the pot) helps too. Make sure you give them enough light, just avoid direct sunlight for about 2-3 weeks;-)

Willy! Beautiful! I wish I had so much space for my plants! Love your succulents,, aloe and cacti collection! Very cute sunny garden you have, I bet the plants love it there!:-)

Hi, Ignacio! I see you are having some troubles with these sundews. They look really bad. From what I see in the pictures, I think your plants are dying of 2 main reasons: 1. Maybe you put them into direct sun after repotting upon arrival.....that is not standard procedure. Plants after repotting should be avoided full sun until they root up successfully to a new substrate. I grow these species in the full sun outside, so later you can do the same. 2. I see salts deposits on the surface of the substrate, maybe you should switch to distilled/rainwater. You write that you have been using tap water for your other plants with success. I must add that some species are more sensitive to salt content in the substrate than others (especially when they are not adjusted to such). All my plants get pure distilled, rain or reverse osmosis water. I do not think that pot depth matters much in this case. Certainly not with d.sp.'Pretty Rosette', which has quite short roots for a sundew. D. admirabilis, on the other hand, has extremely long roots, but she can get her way around if the pot is wide enough. To sum it up, my advice is you keep the plants away from direct sun (artificial light or semi-shade), give them higher humidity and pure water. For substrate, I use peat/sand mixtures. These sundews grow in the wild in peat-sandy substrate, some gravel as well. I dont think LFS/perlite is a good substrate since it can hold extreme amounts of water. Then the roots tend to rot. I hope your plants will get better soon. If not, write me an email and I will send you new ones just for shipping cost. No problem. I would like you to enjoy them, they are beautiful dews:-) Sometimes it takes more than one try to master growing of these species;-) You wouldnt believe how many dews I have killed when I was young!

If you are a TC beginner, I highly recommend you use some PPM. There is not significant difference in plants' growth with or without PPM, if you dont overdo it. It will help you reduce the contamination in jars and more successful cultures will encourage you for further work (instead of possibly high contamination rate, which can be very discouraging for some at the beginning). Later, when you master correct procedure and habits, you can omit PPM and see if it improves your work, while keeping the contamination rate down:-) Good luck!

MFS: I use combination of 'rich media' and longer light period, but it does not work for all species I grow, there are some chemicals that can be used I am sure natapong: mostly 16hr/day, 2x T5 white fluorescent. For g. violacea same as for sundews (they grow together in the wild), but not sure whether this will work since this is my first experiment with this genus. Just trying:-)

Hi, I took some pics of selected jars. Many plants are growing fast, so I wanted to take pictures before I deflask them. Hope you like the pictures! drosera spatulata 'green' (a very neglected jar) drosera admirabilis, clumping very nicely without hormones drosera ascendens 'red form' going crazy inside drosera peltata on tuberisation medium drosera auriculata on ordinary medium, plants are losing stability without roots, need for tubers initiation drosera ascendens "Itarare, Sao Paulo,Brasil' drosera tomentosa var. glabrata "Serro do Caraca,MG,Brasil' drosera natalensis 'Kwa-Zulu Land,Natal,South Africa' drosera rotundifolia drosera broomensis x ordensis seeds sprouted a few days ago genlisea violacea 'Couto de Magalhaes,MG,Brasil) germination (sorry for blurry pic) ...and not much to see here yet, but still very excited to see d. hirtella var. lutescens 'Cristalina, Goias State,Brasil' commencing germination:-) ...and this one is not carnivorous, just trying to produce some Sequoia sempervirens plantlets for my coleague from work. So far no contamination, which surprised me with no PPM and large seeds with rough surface. Any idea how long it takes for them to germinate?

Gotta love the U. pentadactyla, such a beautiful plant! (Other as well, of course!). Great plants Willy:-)

Water does not kill contaminants, the heat does. Water steam just creates pressure, high pressure elevates boiling point of water, therefore higher temperature can be reached. At normal pressure water boils at 100C which is not hot enough to kill fungus, bacteria, viruses,etc over reasonable period of time . Personally I use pressure cooker only for sterilisation of media. Other work equipment I sterilise inside the chamber spraying with 96%EtOH. Bleach and alcohol both have dis/advantages. Alcohol is good because it is quite effective and non-toxic (you dont have to use gloves) but it cannot be used when there is an open flame nearby, otherwise instead of growing plants you get fried vegetables Also, alcohol is very stable and if it gets inside the jars in too high concentration, it can harm the tissue. Bleach, on the other hand, is not stable and decomposes over short period of time, so if you get some inside the jars, it will decompose and dont affect plants (of course, there is a concetration limit). Also, you can use it when you use flame as well for sterilisation. But big disadvantage is, that it is corrosive and very aggresive to materials and your hands, respiratory system, etc. So it should be used with great caution. I use steam for jars&media, bleach for sterilizing tissues, alcohol for tools. Of course, it is a matter of choice of each TCer:-)

I am so jealous!!!;-)

T'rrow morning you will find the grasshopper laughing at mantis' face while mantis is being eaten by the nepenthes! LOL

locust hides from mantis inside the pitcher ....LOL, here we call it stepping from mud into the puddle:-) (aka from smoke into smother:-)))

Wow! First time I see aldrovanda blooming in cultivation! Great job, you certainly know how to please them right!:-) Thank you for sharing these amazing pictures.

WOW, that is one of the coolest pygmy hybrids out there! Thanx!

The amount of agar needed to provide a supportive gel needed depends on its quality grade. Most of the time 5-7g/l concentration is used. I use Sigma-Aldrich agar and the amount I like to use is only 4g/l. When the agar gel is too hard, the problem is that the nutrients transfer kinetics is too slow to diffuse fast enough. Most of my plants do not have any roots in media or start to develop them later, about after 2 months of growth. Usually I let them root directly in peat during the acclimatisation. On the other hand, when the agar gel is too weak, it is not very bad thing, except for easier precipitation and sedimentation of nutrients. Personally I like to use weak agar solutions, some species even like semi-liquid media better than hard gels. It is not harmful for the seed, seedling or plant to be completely submerged, since they dont consume aerial CO2 anyways. Some nepenthes (and other species) are best grown on media with no agar at all, and for support cotton cylinders or sterilised gravel, sand or pebbles can be used to a great advantage:-)

Wow those are some 1st class pet's complex drosera! Wasnt aware of the fact that d. broomensis is soooo variable depending on specific location! Thank you for sharing these wonderful pictures!