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numpty

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Everything posted by numpty

  1. Thanks. That seems to give a little more information, but I still can't go back all the way. When I do an advanced search for posts using the "Find Author" field, I can get as far back as September 2010. But I've been posting since 2008. Also, I expected the topic I was looking for to have been written after Sept 2010, but there's still no sign of it. I also tried putting my username into the "Find Words" field, which takes me back to 2009, but that only picks out posts where my username was quoted in the message, so that's obviously not perfect. Perhaps I need to play around with this a little more. Or maybe some posts were lost during system upgrades?
  2. I was wondering recently about a couple of messages I posted a few years ago, and went looking for them using the "My Content" option in my profile. However, the page states that the list only goes back as far as 22 August 2012 (the posts I was looking for would have been a couple of years before that). I looked at a couple of other members' lists of posts; some of the content was from before this date, but the lists were still incomplete. Is there any way of getting a more complete list of posts?
  3. Beautiful photos. Really nice to see fields full of Sarracenia!
  4. Great pictures ... beautiful vivid colours.
  5. Thanks for the comments ... Nothing tropical about the Lost Valley! No Neps, only midgies ... I hope the Drosera and Pinguicula get a good feast on them! You're right, Stephen, it does look more like a Heath Spotted Orchid. And I didn't know that about ID-ing from multiple spikes ... next time I'll shoot everything in sight (rain damage to the camera allowing).
  6. During a short visit back to Scotland, I decided to add to my paltry total of Munros bagged with a hike in Glen Coe. The recent spell of sunny weather had just ended, and conditions were back to their rainy usual. I encountered a few Drosera and Pinguicula along the way, which will seem mundane to many of you dwelling in the UK, but which seem exotic to me, living halfway round the world (no Pings in Taiwan). I've included a few photos of the surroundings as well - though they do no justice to the scenery - plus a few other plants. Anyway, to set the scene, here are the general surroundings, or at least what I could see during breaks in the rain and mist. The buttresses of Aonach Dubh, from the Allt Coire nam Beitheach. A distant view of the Aonach Eagach. And in the boggy ground ... Drosera rotundifolia. And Pinguicula vulgaris. I never seem to be in Scotland early enough in the year to see the flowers. Up on the high ground of the Bidean ridge, a few small snow patches lingered. And the locals watched cautiously. On the other side of Bidean nam Bian at the Bealach Dearg, a view of Coire Gabhail, the "Lost Valley", a hanging valley hidden from the floor of the glen. The MacDonalds of the area are reputed to have kept stolen cattle here. I had it all to myself for camping. Perhaps the reason was the ferocious midgies, swarming by the million in perfect weather conditions ... humid and still. I must have looked like I was conducting tests in a nuclear accident zone. I tried not to leave even a millimetre of exposed skin. Over on the lower slopes of Buachaille Etive Beag, more bogs and more plants, but also more rain and a failing camera. Drosera and Pinguicula living in harmony. And a few other plants along the way. Common spotted orchid? I'm not very confident in my British orchids ... Scottish bluebells (harebells to the English). Foxglove. Bog asphodel. And a bunch of other stuff besides, but my camera had sustained too much water damage and wasn't operating any more. A nice hike, though I'm still scratching my bites.
  7. A great selection of photos! Always love seeing pics of these species in their natural habitat.
  8. No problem! Good luck with the pump. If you're just looking to fill a few trays, I guess you'll be able to fix up a satisfactory DIY solution. You could also use a submerged (but elevated, to let gravity do some of the work) aquarium pump with an outflow pipe running to the trays. You could also put this on a timer so you don't have to manually switch it on all the time. (You've probably thought of this already.) My problem is getting the right amount of water to my orchids, and plants that prefer more arid conditions.
  9. Set it up yesterday after the usual fiddly hassle. Still needs a bit of experimenting and adjusting to make sure there's enough pressure for all the plants to get sprayed or have their trays filled. A few pics:
  10. Yes, I run it from the tap. Not ideal, but it would cost a fortune to get enough RO water in summer, and rain just isn't regular enough to rely on. Anyway, the TDS count doesn't seem too bad, and most plants appear happy enough. I haven't set the system up yet, but I'll upload a couple of pics when I do.
  11. I have an automatic watering system which I use whenever I'm away for extended periods ... I'll be setting it up again in the next few days as I'll be out of the country for a while. My system isn't the same as the one you linked to though ... mine uses a battery-operated timer and runs from the tap. I usually set mine up so it sprinkles for a couple of minutes twice a day (in summer), and by arranging different depths of trays - and grouping plants with similar water requirements - I've never lost a plant to too much or too little water. I'm not clear on how exactly the set you're looking at works, but make sure it comes with enough nozzles, sprinklers, etc ... I'm always surprised by how many I need.
  12. Hello, and welcome to the forum! I'm sure your story of a couple of plants growing into an addiction is a familiar one to most of us.
  13. And I certainly didn't know that. So, summers are wet in these areas of Japan, while winters are dry?
  14. Thanks for the info. Shame it seems to have vanished from Taiwan.
  15. I didn't actually know that D. peltata grew in Japan. Interesting. Is it common there? It's pretty much disappeared from Taiwan, as far as I know. Thanks for posting.
  16. I've had no dealings with Andy, but I have to say, I've seen a few other posts over the years regarding this guy's reliability, and the response from long-time forum users is usually along the lines of, "he's a great guy; he's probably out of the country; I'm sure he'll respond when he sees this", etc. However, it seems like he doesn't always respond, and being months late on a business deal really isn't very good, is it? I wonder, if he were a newer user or wasn't as well-established, would the moderators put more pressure on him to honour his trades/sales?
  17. I should think that would be fine. Depends on how strong your sun is, I suppose. My Neps get almost no direct sunlight ... the light comes through a rather dirty awning which probably acts as partial shade, and then there's no direct light at all after about 3pm. Most of my plants do fine (lowlanders, admittedly). I guess just keep an eye on your plants. If they start putting out straggly leaves, perhaps cut down on the amount of shading.
  18. I've repotted both at this time of the year, with no ill-effects that I could see, but then again I'm generally guaranteed sunny weather throughout the summer months. If the summer turned out to be a bit iffy, I wouldn't be so confident. Which doesn't help much, I suppose ...
  19. A bit off-topic, but can I just say wow on those frog pics!
  20. Thanks for the replies. Adam: I saw Utricularia growing in all sorts of murky ponds out there. The Utrics in the first pictures (U. aurea, I think), were thriving in a dirty-looking pool full of deer droppings and rubbish. I've read that U. aurea grows well in rice paddies, which I imagine also have a fairly high nutrient level, so perhaps this species has an unusually high tolerance for nutrient-rich water, or even prefers it? Rodrigo: according to François, the only Neps known to grow in this particular area are N. kampotiana and N. mirabilis (with N. kampotiana the dominant species), so the pictures show either N. kampotiana or hybrids between these two. That's all I feel confident saying!
  21. Burmannii was growing all around here in the sand. Finally, right on the edge of Koh Kong town, there was some marshy ground with yellow-flowered Utrics. These might be the same as the ones shown above, which might be U. bifida, or one or other or both might be U. odorata. Again, awful photography. Oh, and to finish off, a snapshot of some Utrics growing in the pond in front of Angkor Wat. Thanks for looking!
  22. Not far from the stream in a dry grassy field, were the first Neps. I was surprised to see a bit of a mirabilis look to these, and indeed François says there's quite a bit of hybridisation between mirabilis and kampotiana hereabouts. The mirabilis influence seemed to be a bit stronger here than in other nearby fields I checked ... perhaps the soil was a bit damper because of proximity to the stream. Still pretty dry though. Having left the stream to a truck driver, who wanted to take a bath, and the grassy field to his buddy, who wanted to take a crap, I headed further along the road and into another grassy field. This one had been burnt off. There were a lot of charred Neps, but I scraped the sand away from the stems of a couple of burnt plants, and below the surface new stems were starting to sprout. At the edges of the burnt fields, and even in the middle of them, plenty more Neps were growing strongly. These, to my novice eye, showed much more of the expected kampotiana influence.
  23. Next, I crossed the border to Cambodia at Koh Kong. My main goal was Nepenthes kampotiana, as François had been kind enough to provide me with details of spots I could check for this species. I chose one. Looking at the map, I'd expected to be alone in this area, but when I got there I was surprised to find all manner of vehicles rumbling along the small road. Only later did I find that this was the access point for one of several Chinese-sponsored hydro-power schemes currently threatening Cambodia's protected areas. The first spot I stopped at was a small stream. A closer look revealed some Utrics growing at its edges. I'll hazard a guess that it's U. bifida, but I really don't know for sure. Maybe somebody can tell from my fuzzy photos? (I had a horrible time trying to get my camera to focus properly ... time to get a new one, I think.) There were quite a few ant plants and orchids too.
  24. I recently made a quick visit to Cambodia, with a few days set aside to look for CPs. Not the best time of year, being the middle of the dry season, but there was a fair amount to see nonetheless. First, I had a few days in Thailand ... mainly to look for wildlife, but there were quite a few ponds around with floating, yellow-flowered Utricularia. I'm guessing this is Utricularia aurea.
  25. Ah yes, there's the stupid mistake I was making, at least in Firefox. No idea how that got switched. Thanks. It doesn't solve the problem in IE though, just makes a new one. Toggle switches on the ability to get a new line, but switches off the formatting options. By combining the two I can compose a message, but it seems like a lot of work. But maybe I'm making another stupid mistake here as well ...
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