vic brown

The AGM will hopefully be held on either Saturday 25th April or Saturday 9th May at Reading University. However, as I am waiting for confirmation of this from the University administrators, I am unable to to confirm when it will be. As soon as the date is confirmed I will post it on the CPS Website and the Forums. I'm sorry if this is inconvenient - I'm not very happy about the situation either, but there isn't much I can do about it. Vic

Beautiful Tobias - thanks for posting the photographs and cultivation techniques; it is worth all the work that you put into succeeding with this highly desirable, yet difficult Utric. I, for one, would like to know more about your mini fridge set up - is there any chance that you could post some detailed photographs of the fridge and it's modifications? I wouldn't mind setting up a similar system myself if it isn't too expensive or difficult. Cheers Vic

Burnham Nurseries in Devon are one of the UK's top orchid suppliers. I've never used their online service, but have visited their superb nursery and I can fully recommend both the quality and range of plants they sell. Vic

Cindy has posted some really great photographs of what was surely the best display of Nepenthes exhibited anywhere, ever! The actual display had superb, moody lighting, which unfortunately doesn't come over at all with flash photography. I was fortunate to have been invited by Diana and Rob to help out with B.E. during the time that the Singapore Garden Festival was open to the public - none of the hard work of building or dismantling the display for me! Even though I've helped B.E. build their last two Gold Medal-winning Chelsea Flower Show displays, I still can't imagine quite how much hard work went into the planning and executing of this magnificent display - just awesome! I really must get around to editing and posting some of the 100s of photographs that I took in Singapore; here are a very small taster. Without doubt the most spectacular plant was the 'Black' N. truncata - the most magnificent CP ever displayed in my opinion. The B.E. plant had six full-sized pitchers - wonderful Incorporated in the Garden Show was the Singapore Orchid Show - stunning! This exhibit was one of my favourites. I had an unforgettably great time in Singapore, not just because the show itself was so good, but mainly because I was working with such a fantastic team of friendly and knowledgeable people who liked to work and play hard! Cindy was great at choosing local specialties to eat at the fantastic open air food market near our hotel and Will Taylor (a magnificent artist living in Sarawak - his Nep drawings have to be seen) even got me eating fish eyes one night! Yum! One of the highlights of the week was selling a Nep to Singapore's Minister for Trade with a crowd of onlookers and official photographers! I even managed a couple of mornings off to indulge in my other passion, some serious bird-watching and I managed to see my first Neps growing in habitat at the same time. OK it was only N. gracilis, but I was still thrilled. All in I had a fantastic time - thanks to Rob and Diana for making it happen and the rest of the crew for their great company Vic

Pinguicula caudata is an old name for the form of P. moranensis, commonly called "var. caudata" now, but technically should be called Pinguicula moranensis var. neovolcanica along with dozens of other forms of this variable species. It is a large growing form and very tolerant of growing conditions. It will grow quite well in peat & perlite mixes as well as in other more typical Ping mixes. I wouldn't let it get much below about 4C in winter and if you are going to keep it under cold conditions, keep it dry too to avoid rot. It does very well as a houseplant on windowsills, so if your greenhouse is too cold in winter bring it indoors in early autumn. Vic

I buy my Seramis from here: http://www.seramishydroponics.com Cheers Vic

Great pics Joel, thanks for posting. Thanks to Mike and Helen for yet another great Open Day - always a pleasure. Cheers Vic

Yes, Chris sells Stan's version of this cross. Vic

Nice flower Jim. I don't know which clone of P. laueana x P. emarginata you used; it could be my cross or Stan Lampard's - it depends who you got it from. However, we both used the crimson-purple flowered clone of P. laueana 'CP2' for our crosses and it looks like you used the same clone in your cross - so it is a true back cross. Cheers Vic

Great pictures Christian, P. kondoi and P. laueana both have stunning flowers. Jim, are you sure that it was P. rectifolia and not P. reticulata that looked like flower #2? P. kondoi has been traded as P. reticulata before; they are either the same species or two different, similar species, with the true P. reticulata not in cultivation. It all depends on which expert you talk to! However, P. rectifolia looks far more like a form of P. moranensis and nothing like P. kondoi. Vic

Great job - Thanks Bob and Eric! I have a couple of the later Newsletters, it is wonderful to be able to read the rest. Note. The link for Volume 9 takes you to Volume 1, but it is easy to work out how to change the address to get to it. Vic

Vic

Thanks for all the useful cultivation advice guys. I guess I ned a new terraium if I want to cultivate most of these species. They don't like the extreme heat of my indoor, Petiolaris tank or the cold conditions of my conservatory in winter. Perhaps a lighted terrarium in the conservatory is the way to go? Thanks Vic

Beautifully grown plants Matthias, well done! :) Many growers, myself included, struggle to grow most S. American sundews well. Could you tell us a little about your growing conditions? Lighting, temperature, soil mix etc. Thanks for sharing. Cheers Vic

I've been growing my plant for nearly 2 1/2 years as a highlander and in my fairly typical highlander soil mix (LFS, Orchid Bark and Seramis) and it grows and pitchers well. I got it from Rob Cantley at Chelsea Flower Show 2005 and he told me at the time that it grows well as a highlander and that they grow them in their highland rather than their lowland nursery. Vic

I haven't ordered from them but did get to know Mike Wallitis and Richard Revis who run Black Jungle quite well over a few beers at the ICPS Conference in Frostberg, MD last year. The plants they had on sale at the meeting were very good quality and they are a nice pair of gents (even if they did thrash me at pool!) that I should think are unlikely to cause any problems to their customers. Vic

P. debbertiana has a very distinct split, hairy, yellow spot in the throat at the top of the lower middle lobe. The hairy spot on Julio's plant doen't appear distinct enough in my opinion - I could be wrong though! Here are a couple of P. debbertiana forms which both show the yellow spot. Typical P. debbertiana White-flowered form of P. debbertiana None of my forms of P. jaumavensis show a hairy yellow spot in the throat. P. jaumavensis "La Melara" P. jaumavensis "Cardonal" You can't have searched very hard! :) Oliver Gluch's registered cultivar, Pinguicula 'Florian' is a selected clone of the cross P. debbertiana x jaumavensis See: P. 'Florian CPN' and P. 'Florian Oliver Gluch Web Site' It does have a hairy yellow spot and is a likely candidate for Julio's plant in my view. P. 'Florian' Vic

My plant grew well to maturity in peat/sand (1:1) - it flowered and produced two pups afterwards which are both growing well in the same mix. See this thread for photos: http://www.cpukforum.com/forum/index.php?s...c=20445&hl= Vic

'Liped' leaves??? I think you mean lipped. :) (why not try a spell checker - I use Firefox as my browser and it is a standard feature). Lots of light - but bright shade in summer during the middle of the day on the rare occasions that the sun comes out - otherwise full sun most of the year. Note - I'm away until Thursday and won't be able to answer any more questions until then. Vic

The minimum temperature is about 8C - they don't get frosted. Vic

All those species which enter a winter growth stage did so when they were kept wet. However, most did it later and for a shorter period of time than the plants which were kept dry. For example, summer leaves persisted on the P. colimensis up until April (you can still see the last one of them in the photos) Also, several of the 'Wet' plants resumed growth much earlier, which can also be seen in the photos. P. sp. ANPA C is a good example of this. I expected several of the easier species and hybrids to fare well when kept wet, I think the thing that surprised me most was that P. medusina and P. colimensis did as well, if not better when kept wet. Vic

Hi Joseph - good to see you back. :) I took photographs of the 'Experiment' in spring - most at the end of April and waited until early June to photograph the which is late to make an appearance. It is about time I posted them here! :) The most interesting finding is that none of the plants died during the experiment and this includes species such as P. medusina and P. colimensis which are 'supposed' to require a very dry winter dormancy when they disappear below ground. Also, several of the plants seem to grow much better when kept wet compared to dry. I must stress that I use a very open, mainly inorganic compost mix which has 'Seramis' clay pellets as the main ingredient and these allow a lot of aeration around the roots, even when the plants are wet. I don't know if the same results would have occurred with a peaty, less free-draining mix. Here goes - the plants on the left spent winter continually standing in water, about 1cm and were never allowed to dry out. The plants on the right received no water from 15 September until 5th April, but were kept in a fairly humid environment. One thing that did happen to the 'Wet' plants compared to the 'Dry' is that there was considerably more growth of mosses on the surface wet compost mix. This can be seen in most of the photographs. P. 'Aphrodite' P. gigantea x laueana 'CP2' (note misnamed as P. agnata 'El Lobo' x laueana 'CP2' in the earlier post! The summer leaves of the 'Dry Plant' were munched by a snail sometime over Christmas! P. agnata 'El Lobo' P. moranensis var 'alba' P. esseriana P. medusina P. colimensis It is a bit hard to see the mostly buried winter plants, so here are some close-ups. Both plants survived and developed healthy summer foliage. P. colimensis 'Wet' P. colimensis 'Dry' P. laueana 'SP1' P. sp. 'ANPA C' P. moranensis var. 'caudata' P. agnata 'CSUF' x P. gypsicola Vic

As has been said, it is hard to tell what it is without seeing a flower. However, the diamon-shaped leaves don't look like P. moranensis 'var. caudata' to me. It looks more like a hybrid (false 'Weser' perhaps) I certainly isn't P. moranensis var. 'Alba' as this doesn't have any red or pink coloration in the leaves and your plant clearly does. Vic

It's very easy to simplify this and over-generalize. No doubt other growers will have different views. Most of the easy to grow and commonly available pygmies don't require a dormant period in summer - that is why they are easy and common! :) The species which do require a dry, dormant period include many of the more desirable species, such as D. citrina and most of the metallic, orange-flowered species. You can recognise plants entering dormancy when their leaves bearing sticky tentacles dry up and all that is left is the cone of stipule hairs. Here is one of my D. citrina plants at the moment: I tend to keep my dormant plants fairly dry, watering very sparingly from below on a tray system. I also try to keep them as cool as possible by moving them out of my warm terrarium into a cold frame that does not receive full sun all day. However, it is important that the soil doesn’t become too dry, otherwise the roots will desiccate and the plants die. Even so, not all of the plants survive the summer, but then it only takes one or two to produce gemmae in the autumn to replace the losses. Gemmae are modified leaves which detach, root, and readily form new plants when placed on compost. they are small (in the range 0.5 - 2.5 mm depending on the species) but can be readily seen with the naked eye (if not, you need to visit the opticians!). They are produced in late autumn and early winter in response to shortening day length. Vic

I usually get more than one flower! :) Vic