Joseph Clemens

One of my very favorite Mexican Pinguicula species --> Pinguicula gypsicola. I began growing this species when I received a small portion that had been grown in tissue culture. At first I attempted to grow them in 100% granular peat moss, and though they survived, they certainly were not vigorous or healthy. I also managed to propagate some with leaf-pullings, though when I first began growing them, all my plants had leaves that were so pale as to be almost white (including the propagules), and they never bloomed. After trying several media variations and other horticulture tricks (theory of limiting factors), I finally succeeded in growing larger, healthier looking plants, and getting one to bloom, in fact the one in the photo above was the first one I induced into bloom. Here is a link showing what my plants looked like when I first started growing them. Here is a page showing what some looked like in some later experiments. Another nice specimen is here. They can look real good when they bloom, too --> Despite my neglect due to health issues these past four years, several of them have survived and are quickly recovering. I anxiously await their achieving full health and for them to begin blooming, again and for me to begin propagating them again. ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ Here's a photo of one, taken in January 2009, that was kept under strong artificial lighting, but completely dry for eighteen months prior to the photo --> The crown has split, four-ways. There are lots of old dead leaves and spent flower stalks. Also, the surface of the media has dried and curled up around the base of the plant. After this I was able to keep them watered for about a month, then they were completely dry again until this past October (October 2010). Many were still doing well, having continued to grow in Winter leaf mode the entire time. Tough little plants, but those growing under lamps that had failed, perished. Those whose light source remained strong, were likewise, also staying strong. They are now beginning to grow Summer leaves (even though it is Winter) and continuing to grow stronger. Soon after I planted some small plantlets into all-mineral media with added iron oxide powder, they developed this increased reddish hue to their leaves. Here is a photo of one of them -->

The rinsed/washed peat moss actually seems to maintain its "peatiness" longer than unwashed peat. If anything pH is improved (lower), after rinsing. It also reduces/slows the growth of algae and bryophytes that frequently colonize the exposed peat surfaces and can interfere with growth of CP.

Standard practice for many of us is to rinse excess soluble minerals from our media ingredients. I myself soak my sphagnum peat moss in R.O. or D.I. water with TDS <10 ppm, then squeeze the excess water (+ dissolved minerals) from the moss by putting it in an old pillow case and squeezing out the liquid, then I test the TDS of the rinse water, and repeat the rinse and test until the rinse water TDS is at a level I want to start at (for me that's ≤10 ppm).

There are many small, hand-held TDS meters that are relatively inexpensive. Here is a link to a contemporary model. Many others are also readily available, and easily located through internet searches for TDS meter.

This is a link to the photographic standard for Pinguicula 'Tina'.

I'm pretty sure the only way Drosera burmannii originated from South Africa, is if someone were growing it there. I am almost certain it is not native, to South Africa.

Here's a pic of Drosera capensis producing plantlets from leaves floating in water --> I watch for roots to begin growing before I remove the plantlets to pot up separately. I keep in very high humidity until they have begun to grow vigorously. They can also be removed and planted before they form roots, but their adjustment takes longer. I usually use purified water, but I don't know that it's essential. Probably doesn't hurt. The red bumps forming at the bases of tentacles (on the lamina) are the beginnings of buds that will soon grow into more plantlets. Once plantlets form roots, I carefully cut them off of the leaf with a little of the "mother" leaf attached to help reduce the chances of injuring the plantlet. I've found that having their own roots greatly increases successful establishment once they are planted up.

If I had any mature, flowering, Pinguicula laueana plants, even if I only had one plant, I would keep it cool and fertilize its flower(s) with pollen from the very same flower(s). The worst it can do is shorten the life of the pollinated/fertilized flower(s). It might produce viable seed that could grow into several or even many additional and variable clones of Pinguicula laueana. If you produce multiple divisions of one clone, in many ways that's no different from using pollen from the same flower to pollinate itself. I created a large population of Pinguicula 'Sethos' plants, simply to have more flowers to use in self-pollination attempts in the hopes that it would increase my chances of successful fertilization. I believe that it did. But I did start trying when I still only had one mature plant.

The best way to grow Drosera leaf cuttings is to move them to conditions favorable to the parent plants as soon as plantlets form and begin growing roots. I usually just cut the leaves instead of pulling them from the stem (I'm afraid of injuring the stem). My favorite way to initiate plantlets on severed Drosera leaves is to float them in water. It has always worked quite well, and even with many otherwise difficult species, also responding well. Of those in your list, the only plant that proved difficult with any leaf cutting method was Drosera indica. When plantlets form on the severed leaves and begin growing roots, I use forceps to carefully tear them away from the "mother" leaf, then plant them in regular medium as if they were seedlings. This way the "mother" leaves can continue to produce more plantlets before they are exhausted.

The first place I saw heat mentioned in relation to Pinguicula pollination, was: Pinguicula.org-pollination page. The last paragraph on the page. The other place I saw heat mentioned was here: eHow. Mentioned in the "Tips and Warnings" near the bottom of the page. One of its references is to the pinguicula.org page. If heat is an important factor in successful Pinguicula pollination/fertilization, then that may explain the difficulties I've had with my own fertilization attempts. My own cultivation temperatures rarely went below 30C and were sometimes as high as 48C. Only in the last two years of my active cultivation did I arrange for cooler temperatures in my Pinguicula grow room. I believe that the cooler temperatures inspired many more flowers.

mauro, Alas, there are still no clones of Pinguicula laueana registered as cultivars. Which plants did you pollinate, and produce seed of? For unidentified reasons, I had various and erratic results when attempting to produce viable seed of various Mexican Pinguicula species. It seemed particularly difficult to obtain viable seed when self-pollinating species plants. I also produced viable F2 seed from a population of Pinguicula 'Sethos' plants. It was very tedious, but after so many attempts that I lost count of them, I finally produced seed of this selfing that germinated and quickly grew to adults, showing an expected amount of F2 segregation. I am not sure why it was so difficult to produce viable F2 seed. I am certainly going to try recreating the same self-pollination. I've read that cooler temperatures can help the Pinguicula pollination process. I will be attempting future pollinations under cooler temperatures.

Nice Drosera, thanks for sharing your pics.

I've sown them on the surface of moist Sphagnum peat moss, then sealed in a Ziploc® bag for maximum humidity, and placed close under fluorescent lighting. Fresh seed germinates almost immediately, and germination drops quickly as the seed ages. After germination, frequent, weak solutions of liquid fertilizer help the plants quickly grow to maturity. In my arid climate the worst problem for Pinguicula from the Southeastern USA has always been spider mites. They attack the underside of the leaves, seriously damaging or destroying them. They are difficult to control, especially since I mostly avoid using modern pesticides. In the future I plan to keep these species in sealed containers to help reduce access by spider mites.

So far I've only managed to produce a few primary hybrids using well-known species of Mexican Pinguicula. Pinguicula moctezumae seems to make a good parent, successfully creating hybrids when pollinated by many other species. It has been one of the species I find most readily compatible with other species, easily joining germplasm to fuse into hybrid plants. Similar to primary hybrids with Sarracenia, primary hybrids, particularly among the Mexican Pinguicula species, hybrid progeny, for the most part (there are some few expectations), demonstrate characteristics intermediate between their parents. It seems quite advantageous that this is the case - it would apparently make it easier to predict the appearance of hybrids. That is something that really appeals to me. An exception seems to be in the flower colors. For instance: I don't know of any hybrids using the red/orange flowers of Pinguicula laueana that produce hybrid plants with any shade of red/orange. If anyone knows of an exception to this, please let me know.

Apparently older surviving leaves can initiate plantlets. I wonder if this is a mechanism that works in situ like it does in cultivation. Here is a photo of a pot of Pinguicula esseriana taken from two angles showing how what was initially only one large plant, is quickly becoming a large plant surrounded by smaller plants which appear to be uprooting and dislodging the parent plant ---> I believe the older leaves that these plantlets originated from are still attached to the parent plant, but I'm not sure they are still alive. I can't even be certain they aren't initiated from buds on the stem instead of buds formed on the leaves.

I recently posted this image in another thread --> Seeing it again reminded me of the first time I saw a Mexican Pinguicula plant, up-close and personal. I think it was in the early 1970's, and it was at "Plant Shop and Botanical Garden" in Reseda, California. I now know that plant was either Pinguicula macrophylla or Pinguicula gypsicola. At the time I couldn't help but think of it as some kind of Drosera, though I knew it was recently collected from Mexico, and even back then I was fairly sure that Drosera were not native to Mexico.

Perhaps if Pinguicula 'Enigma' (with its lighter colored flower) were used in place of the typically lavender colored Pinguicula cyclosecta, the red color of Pinguicula laueana might pass to the F1 progeny.

Avery, It is nice to see such a well-grown, large variety of Mexican Pinguicula. Thank you for sharing photos of your plants. I wish you continued success and that your efforts to learn pollination are rewarded with interesting hybrids. I look forward to your continuing to share with us.

Wim, Thank you for sharing another nice example of superbly grown plants, plants grown using a synthetic natural substrate. It certainly looks like a nice way to have plants appear similar to how they do in nature.

I would be suspicious of using a compound, like Sodium bicarbonate, with any plants, especially CP, since most ordinary plants are highly sensitive to Sodium, and CP are hyper-sensitive to Sodium. Though, if there were sacrificial plants available one could experiment to see for oneself.

Zlatokrt, That looks like a superb way to immitate a natural substrate. Can you provide details of your recipe, please. I think I should like to try some plants on a substrate like that. I think I would like to try some with Eric's recipe and some with your recipe. Also, could you please tell us how you provide nutrients to the plants and how they are illuminated - do you use artificial or natural lighting? By the way, I believe your "rotundifolia" is actually P. rotundiflora. From time to time, I do the same thing, I'm so used to writing Drosera rotundifolia, I sometimes write P. rotundifolia when I actually mean P. rotundiflora.

I'm not sure how quartz silica sand is marketed in the UK, but here in the USA, it is sold in construction supply stores and specialty suppliers as media for abrasive blasting (also called sand blasting); at swimming pool supply stores for use in pool filters as filter media; and plant nurseries as an ingredient for planting media. Probably other sources too, but no others come to mind, right now.

I've sometimes seen solid blocks of porous gypsum used as substrate for Pinguicula gypsicola. There might be some links to this on <pinguicula.org>.

Brian, Superb growing - I certainly appreciate your well-grown plants and excellent photos. It appears that the anthrocyanin-free Drosera capillaris you are growing, originating near Carrabelle is most likely distinct from the one that I discovered in Pensacola. I would even say, if it maintains itself completely free of the light pink tentacles, my cultivar exhibits, it should be registered as its own distinct cultivar.

Yes, I concur with the sentiments of Amar and MFS. I will confess that I did purchase a coffee grinder and dedicated it for this purpose. It will never see coffee or any other human food substances, just dead insects.