Ben

Yes they do flower. Have a look at these: http://www.exoticplantsplus.com/NFlowerPics.htm Enlightened...?

Highland nepenthes want lots of light but should be kept cool Lowland nepenthes want diffused light/partial shade, but should be kept warm. If you think about it it makes sense to the plants. The highlanders live on mountains where there tend to be less tall plants and shelter from sun, but the lowlanders have to compete for the light with trees, other vines and bushes etc. Unfortunately this the opposite of the conditions which it is easy to create in cultivation. Lots of light means lots of heat, not much light means less heat. To answer your question. If you are growing highlanders in a tank you are unlikely to give them too much light (but it is easy to give them too much heat!) If you can manage 4 strip lamps, the plants will be happier than with just one - but you will probably need a fan to keep the temperature down, and maybe some water in the bottom of the tank to keep the humidity up, as the fan will try to blow it all away. If you have just one lamp then the plants will probably grow, but slower and maybe with less colour to the traps. But heat will not be a problem. Distance of the light from the plants also plays a part. If your plants are small and in the bottom of the tank and the light is at the top of the tank, then the plants will get less light than if they are moved closer to the light - again watch the heat though! The good thing about using lights for heater, is that when they turn off at night things cool down, which is what you want for highland neps. Dunno if this helps...?

Bill, I find Lake Badgerup grows quite easily, although it is sometimes a bit slow getting going. In my experience the gemmae do stay green and visible though, they just take longer starting to sprout. If yours are dead, let me know as I can probably collect some more off my plants if you want them.

I only grow a few species, but mine are either indoors on an east facing windowsill or in the heated greenhouse, minimum temp 6-8C They seem to sprout quickly, but they dont get any artificial light so growth is slow until the spring when they really get going properly. I cover the pots with clingfilm until they sprout and then leave uncovered but keep moist btw I also usually get a few sprout as weeds in some of my other pots which are in an unheated greenhouse, but I wouldn't recommend this for your fave collection

Hi Julian, Sorry I misread your post. I assumed you were growing highlanders. As it is lowlanders, I have a few questions for you: How warm are you keeping the g/h this winter? What insulation are you using? Is the floor insulated? What are your heating bills like?

Hi Julian, A few ideas: Argos sell an evaporative cooler Here Its intended for house/conservatory use, so I don't know how suitable it is for the greenhouse. Alternatively you could consider building something with an extractor fan to suck cool air in from outside for cooling, and use some duct/hosing to blow the cool air over something like these: humidifiers or these Misters If you try any of these ideas, I'd be interested in knowing how you get on, as I may have the same issues this summer.

Hi Bill, We're both in the same boat on this one still. I am still finding damaged grow points due to caterpillars too. Rightly or wrongly I break open the damaged point and find the caterpliiar each time. I figure that since the new leaf is damaged there will be no pitcher anyway. Therefore to spoil the leaf further is a lesser evil than letting the caterpillar munch through the next shoot too. The caterpillars I find are all still small so I reckon that if I left them, there would be plenty of munching left in them before they formed a chrysalis. The good news is that a new leaf soon appears from under the damaged one, so the actual growing point is not damaged.

While we're at it here's some reef cooler info: http://www.tmc-ltd.co.uk/aquariumproducts/teco.asp Hope you're feeling rich.

Bobble, I toyed with this idea a while ago, though never got as far as testing anything. Here's a web site with some info: http://digilander.libero.it/westaustralia/...um/t-cooled.htm I've also looked at peltier based reef coolers and water circulation systems but they are very expensive. I settled for moving my plants to the greenhouse for the winter and worrying about keeping them warm, instead of worrying about keeping them cool. Next summer, the garage will be the coolest place.

Has it just stopped pitchering since you moved it indoors? Neps don't like change and usually take a while to settle down after a change in location which affects light, humidity or temperature and also after repotting. I've also read that misting in an airconditioned room unsettles the plants cos it causes rapid changes in humidity. My tip would be to either try Spud's suggestion of putting it in an enclosure which will maintain the humidity, or wait until it settles in in its new environment and you will probably find it will start to pitcher once again for you.

1. The Savage Garden - Perter D'Amato 2. Carnivorous Plants - Adrian Slack 3. Carnivorous Plants of the World - James & Patricia Pietropaolo 4. Carnivorous Plants of the United States and Canada- Donald Schnell 5. Gardening with Carnivores - Nick Romanowski 6. Nepenthes of Mount Kinabalu - Shigeo Kurata 7. Insectivorous Plants - Charles Darwin 8. Carnivorous Plants(Wisley Handbook) - Paul Temple 9. Pitcher-Plants of Borneo Anthea Phillipps and Anthony Lamb 10. Nepenthes of Borneo - Charles Clarke 11. Nepenthes of Sumatra and Peninsular Malaysia - Charles Clarke Also with sections on CP: Private Life of Plants - David Attenborough Vicious Veg - Nick Arnold

Hi Joachim, Nice plants. To make the pictures appear in your posting, you might need to check in your profile that you have BBcode and HTMLcode enabled. It works for me.

Well done Vic! Is this plant flowering now? Where are you growing it? Mine in the greenhouse finally produced half a dozen flowers in September/October but they are all distant memories now.

I'd definitely repot it. I'd also check the rhizome whilst it is unpotted and ensure that it is all fresh and white with no brown/dead parts. If there are, then you need to remove all the brown bits as if they are left unchecked, these will almost certainly spread and destroy the whole plant. For good measure, I'd also dunk the rhizome in fungicide and then repot in preferrably live sphagnum or a loose mix of peat and sand or perlite and keep damp not wet for the rest of the winter. Hopefully all will be well.

Nobody said you need to split your plant into lots of evenly sized tiny ones. How about taking a few divisions from the edges as insurance policy against losing the whole plant, but keeping the bulk of the plant in one place? Whilst taking your divisions you could take the opportunity to inspect the main plant for any signs of rhizome rot and remove it if it occurs BEFORE it spreads to the whole plant.

James, I'm sorry I don't recall what power the heater is, its just some old heater from a tropical fish tank I once had. My room is also one of the warmest in the house so for a lowland tank, the heater only has to maintain the heat (about 25-30C) and I would guess that quite a low powered one would do. Unlike say in a highland tank where it would need to rapidly warm the tank each morning. The power probably just affects how quickly the tank gets up to temperature in the first place. (Unless you live in a very cold house) If I can find my ammeter, I will test the heater and let you know its rating. btw, your spat x max and sanguinea in particular are looking great on your website

I do much the same as David. An inch or so of water and an aquarium heater is laid in it. My Nep pots stand on upturned seed trays, so they stand just above the water.

Rob, I'd go for it with the 12 inch baskets. The other benefit of using baskets is that the roots do not become pot bound they just start to grow out through the holes in the basket, giving you plenty of warning to repot before this happens: This is only a 4 inch pot btw. If I had used a 12 incher then I wouldn't now need to be repotting.

BTW, It is of course a highland plant so expects to experience a drop in temperature overnight. I take it that this is not a problem for you in your terrarium?

Zongyi, The price of N.Hamata is falling. Here in Europe you can get a small TC plant for about 30 Euros. I have had one for about 4 months now and have been keeping it very humid in a terrarium under artificial light. Growth has been slow but it seems quite happy. After consulting with a Nepenthes expert I know , I have concluded that it has not been getting sufficient light, so have upped the brightness to see if I can speed its growth up. The requirement for high humidity is supposed to apply mostly while the plant is young. Once it is a few years old, supposedly it can be hardened off somewhat, although I am some way from that yet. Other than the humidity, it is I believe quite a straight forward plant to grow.

Jon, I don't think you can generalise about the size of roots of Nepenthes as it is different from species to species and also on the age of the plant. I have had this N. Mirabillis for about 3 years and it has seriously outgrown its 4 inch pot The roots of this plant trail into water where they seem quite happy, but Mirabilis is known to grow in swampy areas. In cultivation, you should assume that all Neps need air around their roots. Some Neps do grow with very shallow roots, and I think for its size, N. Rajah is one where the roots do not penetrate deep, but do spread very wide. Mind you N. Rajah is so slow growing that it probably would be fine in a 3 inch pot for quite some time!

Probably the simplest mix would be pure live sphagnum. I would also bet that this may be as good as any other. That being said, I use LFS with added bark chippings but do try to encourage live sphag to grow on top.

Well done Stephen. I hope you can post some pictures of your babies for us soon.

Hi Rowan, I posted some pictures of my Darlingtonia seed including seed still in the pod in the old forum: Here

I'm in Nottingham in the East Midlands