snapperhead51

Marcus , you actually got plant material from Hummer and u have that plant the same as Dimitar showed in the other threads and Jen form USA with the 9 cm pitcher ,you have that plant there now in AU ??

Charles may be not quite that big but the site he showed me the pitchers were a very very good size as were another site too , ,that was the site I referred to a few posts back , Phil had the biggest field knowledge of any one in AU , may be Allen will be close probably , so a massive amount of field and location knowledge has been lost to all of us, fortunately he pass some on to a few people here in AU

Charles its a pity you or John dont have more information or keep records of what was what through the past years , , we never got those of the extra large front rib in our plants here .which you would think mite show some where !! but sadly not , that I am aware off any how . may be Marcus B mite have seen some in is state ?

well the Ozzy bush can be very intimidating too, walking through swampy heavy bushed ground is not easy , been in Borneo jungles as well , Phillippines as well and other parts of Malaysia as well , I would say its as hard or similar to many trips in low land jungles just different climate and surrounding and plant life

Panmaroy, think you have your information crossed there, Steve is not dead he is well and alive ,well was the last i spoke to him last year , the guy who gave the plants to Steve is dead long back ,and you need to understand the nature of Cephalots sites, you mite travel 3 hrs from 1 site to the next and u may travel 10 kl too , if you know where to look, hundreds have tired only very few have found them , they grow in very select areas only , have been there and seen them not huge numbers of sites but enough to know what I'm talking about , , its like this , where do you start looking , Augusta , or Esperence, some 6 + hrs drive between and " may be" several thousand sites between cover may thousands of square kilometers ?? where do you look ! ?? it may take a week to find a site looking all day Evey day in the right areas huge areas of heavy thick bush scrub and tall grasses to look through full with poison snakes ,prickly bushes and sharp pointed grass ect ect . there not down the corner shop if you know what i mean !

Hi Carl , from my understanding the plants all were from the same location site ,how one knows this is only from word of mouth !! ,and again it must be understood that a site means that there isolated plants ! ,and in there own inter breeding , not spread all about cross beading with other plants , for EG , the site we suspect that could be the original plants , the nearest location site is some 7 to 10 km away , so no way of cross breeding , this is the case with most sites not all but possibly 99% of them , so I would suggest that the plants sent if from that site would all be the same stock with some usual seed variation as we all ready know , , ,and yes from what was said in a other paper that John selected a few plants out and then sent some other on to friends ??, but how the plant got from the original plant sent to looking to the now HG well is a thing to find out ! and some thing I have been questioning for some time as you know !! time for those who supposed to know to now speak up and tell us the truth or give us the correct information !!

the trouble is the guy who found the original plant / Plants has long been dead, and never told any one where he found the original plants, , Phil Mann though he found the original plants , he showed me , but we can not be 100% sure ,the only plants from the supposedly plants sent to John Hummer can be traced back to Steve Beckwith here in Adelaide South Australia , and not Called Hummer Giant ,just a nice cephalotus by Steve please understand way back then when we or I started growing CP's here in AU 35 or more years ago ,we didn't have names for Cephalotus , they were all just typical cephs , ok , no Hummer giant , Big Boy , Eden Back ,German giant none of this existed here , all ceph were just that cephs and has been pretty well for the last 20 to 25 years till names keep popping up from USA and EU UK , ect ect we new nothing about ,and though you all had some new breed of ceph only to find they were just cephs to us more or less !!

not saying that its a HG guys ok !! , just the original plant or plants !! ,that was supposedly sent to John before it was named Hummer Giant ok !!

Carl when Steve sent plants to John Hummer , he also sent a few plants to friends here in AU from the same batch's of plants that were sent to John originally , may be not at the same time as he cant remember its like 30 year ago or some thing , but the original plants sent by Steve were just ordinary cephs with good red colour pitchers , nothing special according to Steve himself , !!

Fred , its a mess mate , just so many conflicting photos and plants put out from over in USA , ???

I and I think Marcus B have the original plants here still in AU and they dont look like the HG being sold by Charles in USA , but do sound similar to the original plant sent ! by my friend here Steve Beckwith in my city of Adelaide

Think it is about time that the owners of Hummer Giant step up to the plate now ! and not sit behind a screen ,and let us all know why this is the true Hummer Giant and why , Charles Brewer is now the distributor of the HG in USA and world presumably !!, and frequents this forum , do not think any of us should fight some one else Battle , time to tell us all please !! either from John Hummer or Charles ,from what Charles has indicated John no longer has and interest in Cephs or many CP's any more . so up to you Charles to let us all know the information please

yes Carl very keen to see if that seed grows like the mother plant ,look forward to your results in the near future , really I questioned the owner of the plant because of its size to age, but it was true ,it was quite amazing

Blocky 71 this may interest you then, not location plant but one of great interest to me , this plant is grown from seed and i got a mature piece of the mother plant about 1/4 of the original plant at 2 years old the pitchers were 6+ cm ,is now 3 years old , we call it Mikes super fast, Carl has some seed on trial now , who knows what the seed will do , but very impressed with its growth speed of the mother plant from a seed grown plant in 3 years to this I think is reasonably impressive .

The seed is from my own plants " not wild collected ", to go collect seed would cost be around $450 AU around trip just not viable ! the plant material has been well documented really do not need to keep going over over other the same thing surly !! unfortunately one of the collectors has passed away earlier this year .. as for cites ,who has a cites for there cephalotus plant , any one ,can some one show a certificate please, any one ! Any seed sent has been declared to the customs by the customs declaration form as required !! ,no other information is required according to this form !. Its quite sad that all the EU ares has been or seems to have been so badly ripped off or taken for a ride that when a genuine thing comes up its can not be taken as such, truly sad !

some are from seed yes

Pauly , really ,sorry have know idea what you are on about , any how , we are not allowed to replace plants back unless your a Gov department fisheries and wildlife, its illegal (all though some try to repopulate small areas with cannabis plants we hear !!) , and as in Coal mine beach site, the department will do nothing to prevent the natural destruction of a site , !!, And yes if you took the labels out i can put them back in the correct pots , if you were to see them in real time you would then know the differences its quite obvious , !.. if you spend your money the plants will be as labeled and not from some unknown nursery mainly because they have not been distributed as yet and no body has them , as in the ones shown above , if some one claims they do other than 2 friends in EU and UK there not tell the truth , , ,I'm sure once they out some will try to claim that they have the real deal !!. As far as all looking the same , well I guess one would need to see them in the wild site locations to know that , have you seen them in the wild to actually know ?? , my experience leads me to believe most people till they actually see the plants in there locations they dont see the true and whole picture, as with nepenthes , tubers drosera, sarras ,VFT ect ect . so saying that they all look alike may be just a lack of real field experience to actually view the differences in the site location plants .and once one has seen them its again very easy to see . As far as populations being wiped out , most of the sites are still in good order, some are very small in size like French mans bay and now Coal mine beach , we believe the Emu Bay site ( that is wrongly named by the way , its a bit further up than actual Emu bay !) ,is gone now to dew housing development or other stress to the site , last trip from a few friends were unable to locate any plants in the area , it happens . they may reappear from deeper rhizomes its possible ?. .

Now the weather has stabilized here in Southern AU the plants are growing again a few nice photos of location plants pitchers . French mans bay Gull Rock road Two peoples bay A double pitcher with one lid,quite uncommon to see . North Cliffe hope you like them

great shots Marek ,your cephs look great Dimi totally great mate , well done ,been waiting for some seed to show good colour traces,will suspect to be a lot more soon enough

nice job Carl and Dimi , hope mikes SF , holds to its name can only wait and see . so there is no misunderstanding with Mikes super fast . My friend here in Adelaide AU has a good number of original Hummer plants, not like the ones on the market today that are different ,another story!, any how Mikes hummers flowered and got pollinated by insects and with several other different ceph plants around cross pollinated we presume, the seed he got from 1 particular lot , grew from seed germination in 2 grow seasons to have pitchers up to 6 or so cm pitchers , ,hence the name Mikes super fast , and yes its one that I am flowering again right now only 1 or 3 or 4 out of many this year I will let flower . its consistently has larger than normal pitchers in my growing conditions.

I dont think Stephens growing ability or years of experience is in question , believe he grows great plants ,what little I see have been very high quality and well maintained. well just for "correct " information , the seed that have been sold are from plants in my green house not wild seed or ,from wild plants , so no pressure on wild populations at all, and would be impossible to achieve any such crosses in wild population , simply because of geographic distances between some locations sites, to where some sites are some 2 to 3 hrs drive apart and the fact that the cost to harvest wild seed from my state is just way to expensive and a long 3 hr flight , plus hire a car , a 4 hr drive to Albany , then several days of driving to each site plus accommodation cost ect ect , , would just be plain not worth the effort .

Personally, I am not interested in wild location Cephalotus, that is so unfortunate ,as I personally think you would get a lot out of seeing and observing the wild plants in the natural habitat , , its how I got to know about neps and tubers , and many other plants I grow from observing them in the wild in there natural habitat and attempting to emulate that in my grow area's .and dont always work out they way you like them to. ""well you obviously dont come on the forum much! there are several posted or linked on this forum "" yep but 6 plants dont mean its a consistent stable plant when so many others dont seem to achieve the same presentation , have to refer back to cultivar status as in Dimitar's post for that . which you say cuts you up and unfortunate , and is constant with most cephalotus plants cultivated or wild .being season and climate variable

I haven't seen pictures that match the cultivar description from growers !, I still don’t get why and what is so special about this plant ? To me look like most other Cephalotus - a standard Cephalotus including all my own and that is very common looking through out the wild populations, is the term artistic license taking a term to far !! Is it the the high improbability of it that some one mite get a very dark colour from it , if they buy it for a crazy price, so far no one that has shown a EB plant there growing has had a Black colour, is that not right ? if there is please post your pictures, please. I have though seen plants from others that are not EB and they have very dark colour from giving that plant some specialized lighting and micro climate conditions, (or even perhaps just very good natural sun light at the right times ), which is probably the way to go with any Cephalotus, expect maybe Cephalotus French Mans Bay plant that dose not colour even in the wild except for a reddish colour. Cephalotus is a single specie like VFT ,and has no other close relative to hybridize with to make the realy significant hybrid changes people so desperately look for. Sure you will get colour , pitcher size , slight deformities or variations yes , no denying that, but the basic Cephalotus plant will always be there , you cant not naturally change it from its parent form or general shape - unlike Neps, Sarras, Pings ect… that have lots of different specie in the family. Cephalotus has none of these to make the significant changes that people seek and most Cephalotus are subject to season and climate change in there growth habits as well ,making a stable uniform plant very difficult to stay stable 100% in different climates and this is even evident in wild populations. possibly a few exceptions as always. If there is a Cephalotus that looks like a true cross like N. ventricosa x truncata for example , please post a photo. I have been growing Cephalotus since I was 24 years old & now nearly 60 , and only ever seen a Cephalotus as a Cephalotus with some nice variation in colour ,pitcher size and skin textures and so on , but it still remains the basic Cepalotus pitcher plant . just my opinion .

Phil s funeral is on Monday 11th of Aug in Harvey Western Australia his home town , not to far away from the cephalotus site he loved so much ,among the many other native cp's in WA he found and named too .

thanks all for your words he would have liked that I am sure, his Funeral is held on Monday 11th Aug 2014 in his home town of Harvey Western Australia reasonably close to his beloved Ceph sites , Richard Nunn and Greg Bourke will be attending , have asked to send respects to his family John