uglypho

I'm getting into growing Venus's Flytraps again and recently purchased a bag of "Black Gold Peat Moss Plus". The bag lists its ingredients as "canadian spaghnum peat and organic wetting agent" In regards to the "organic wetting agent" it says "contains .0001% Yucca extract". I was wondering if anyone has experience or advice regarding this Yucca extract wetting agent.

wow nice. What a treat for the eye to behold. Equally nice that you spell out your techniques.

Melly, is the "Black Traps" plant suppose to be all red or does your plant just happen to have red in the center of its leaves?

Sorry Tim. I too am expierencing cold weather. It was -5C in Temecula last night. I left a plastic cup of water overnight and it froze solid.

Throwing an unhealthy VFT in the fridge will result in an unhealthy VFT when when taken out of the fridge.

Those vivid streaks are intense. I like it. :thumleft:

I like the unique color.

Right now as I type, its 100 degrees outside with full sun. It's like 21% humidity. I just went outside and my plants are fine. Just a few yards away I have Thai Dragon Peppers and Anaheims growing in the same exposure my VFTs get.

WOW!!!!! You did it! From green to mean! Good job. :bigok:

The water lilies are a really nice touch.

I would repot that VFT into a pear substrate. That moss in your pot looks slimy and decaying. Also, what lighting is the plant getting? Looks like it needs light really badly. I don't think that's dormancy but let's hear from other growers.

I believe the Australians at Paradidisia Nurseries classify "Typicals" as this "Typical VFT is a plant that when mature grows leaves from 3cm to 8cm long with traps 2 to 3 cm. The leaf and back of trap colour in strong sunlight is green/yellow and the trap mouth is a pink-red to blood-red. Winter leaves are short and on the ground and summer leave will be upright." - quoted from collectorscorner They classify "Red Trapped" as "Red Traps are redder than normal. Many forms of this have been developed. Our favourite is one we call big mouth. It is a prostrate grower with very short leaves but huge traps. The inner trap area is a very intense colour and produces colour under much darker conditions to a normal VFT. Big Mouth also produces the largest leaves of any VFT in the spring growth." -- quoted from collectorscorner So apparently to them, Typicals can produce red traps, but any red that goes to an extreme is not typical. A good example of a "Red Trapped" form is "G14". I'm sure most peole on this forum agree that its color is outstanding. I have a plant from Lowes that produces dimorphic habit of growth. The red occurs only late in the season, most of the time on the rosettes. In my opinion this plant is Typical. In theory, if we were to graph the amount of VFTs in cultivation by degree of coloration, we should get fewest greens, few pink colored, many occasionally have red traps, few with bright red traps, fewest with dark purple or purple traps. So the graph should look like a nice symmetrical arc. The ones closest in the middle are your typicals and the ones on the sides are your forms deserving catagorizing and preservation. However, today tissue culture chooses only the nice forms on either end of the graph to tissue culture so the graph is no longer that arc. I don't even see a "Typical" form on the Triffid Park variety page anymore. So I gest the standards have changed in people's eyes as to what is Typical and what is Atypical. The Duke, you will have to just grow out the plant for yourself to see if it will keep up its bright red traps. Phong

Yes, Dean Cook's "Big Mouth"s are all acclimatised now. But you see I bought the "Big Mouth" when it first appeared on his site about over 3 years ago. I got the plant that was straight from Australia dormant. (It was mentioned on the site). Today all his plants are cuttings from that original stock or some other stock. I really don't think the dormancy matters for VFTs as they are really resilient growers. I don't have experience with Sar dormancy but I'm assuming you can skip one year and be OK. Best to break your plant's habit as soon as possible because eventually you'll have to do it. Or I guess you could give it a breif resting period in the fridge for about a month or so then resume growth In late May.

If your weather is warm, let the plants break dormancy early. Shouldn't be a problem with the VFT's since I did that before. Cook's sent me a dormant "Big Mouth" plant from Australia and I let it break dormancy. Turned out fine. Hey did you get a "Dingley Giant" by any chance? What VFT's did you get?

Nice bog. Lucky San Diego climate!

Thanks everyone! I'm pretty lucky to live in a climate almost identical to theirs!

Here's a shot of my Drosophyllum last year after I moved it into full exposure. Here's a shot of the plant after winter rains and winds and is going out of the sluggish winter state. I'm not sure why there are like 50 growth points, but it might have something to do with the wind. It looks really bushy now.

Some of you might have seen this way back when I posted it on the Petflytrap forums about 3-4 years ago. They are not my first VFTs, since I bought and killed many before I knew how to grow them, but these are my first VFTs when I began to collect. These two guys are the basis of my collection today. I remembered how I would call Lowes on Fridays to see of their new stock of VFTs arrived. One Friday, after calling, I came upon these guys. They were from a really healthy stock. I recall there were many good looking ones too, including one that had unusually purple traps. (I regret not buying that one). Well I picked two of them and they became my VFTs "Prostrate" and "Typical" forms. The low growing one became "Prostrate" and the low and tall one became "Typical". These shots are about 4 months after purchase. VFT Prostrate VFT Typical VFT Prostrate Yup and from then on the ball keeps rolling, getting bigger and bigger.

I believe there is also Pink Venus.

The plant looks bad. It still has a chance though. If not, maybe when brought into more favorable conditions, it will sprout like a cutting.

I wonder if Red-Purple and Big Mouth are the same plants or not....

Your VFTs will do fine outdoors year round. Santa Monica's winters are perfect. See this topic http://www.cpukforum.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=12862 There are so many growers in coastal and inland Southern California that grow their VFTs yearound outdoors.

Nice, and that was a fast trap as well.

I really want a Ceph now! The color on your giant form is to nice!

I used to get that alot with plants from Home Depot and Lowes still in its little plastic domes and baggies. It's been a while since I got an exhuasted trap. For some reason, all my traps close till death. They never are inactive. They might be slow near their final stages, but never inactive.