Rob-Rah

I have a 10" mesh basket filled up with plants now, with the stolons running round most of the substrate, which have just started making aerail stolons. Another 4" pot has three plants in it, not doing quite so well. Leaves are about 1.5cm diameter at the moment. The plants were placed in high humidity over winter 12C-25C with lots of condensed water dripping over them. Not standing in water. They had moderately shady conditions. The soil is a thick layer of perlite (1/2 to 2/3 of the pot?) with a little bit of sphagnum moss mixed in to aid water take-up. This is topped with pure live spahgnum moss. The plants are now standing in 1" water for the summer in bright light. I placed one plant in the main greenhouse during winter and it survived fine with a minimum of -2C - unusually tough, though I woulnd't risk this for anything other than a one-off. They also do not appear to like ant powder getting on their leaves...

Can anyone tell me if this plant needs conditions different from other terrestrial utrics? Mine seems to have died back above ground Is it seasonal? Perhaps waiting will reward me with some new growth? It's in 1:2 sand:peat; bright location; 8C-26C; sitting in 1" rainwater. Any ideas? Thanks.

My plant, with winter minimums of 2C, has lost all of its pitchers - it's just about starting to produce this season's now. However, the non-carnivorous leaves have been retained and these themselves have turned a brilliant crimson red in the sun.

I got 40-50% germination of fresh seed in 1-4 weeks with no pretreatment. Soil is half perlite, half sharp sand and a little vermiculite and grit in 9 inch clay pots (the drain hole is covered with sphagnum moss to prevent loss of the media). Watered once at the sowing time and then very infrequenty. I sowed in autumn and kept the seedlings, once germinated, really quite dry for a few months (watering sparingly maybe once a month) and have had no damping off. They now have woody bases and I hope they are over the danger phase. Temps were 8-30C at germination time, and over winter down to 0C. They are in what passes for full sun in winter in London. Best wishes.

Apologies, I meant Seychelles... (now corrected the original post) :-) Cheers

Does anyone here grow this species? If so, is it best to be treated as a lowland or intermediate? There is misleading information scattered around that the Seychelles do not have a wide temperature variation between seasons and day/night. However, I believe this is true of the coast but may not be true of the higher elevations where this species can be found. One site suggests it can take minimums of 6C. I gather that it wants high light levels and thinnish soil (I was going to half fill a pot with coarse bark, and then overlay that with sphagnum moss to plant into). Any help anyone? Thanks a lot.

Yes that's the kinda thing!

Is that a suggestion to try P. potosiensis? I am kinda new to pings but I have never come across that one before! I was hoping that things like laueana or esseriana came in varieties that went red, as there seems to be a variety of moranensis that does so.

Can someone point me towards some species of ping that go a nice red/pink colour? (Just for some variety of colour and form in my little ping collection). I was thinking of P. laueana but have seen so many variants of this species, most of them all green! Is there a named variety that is reliably rouged (in good light)? Or should I be looking at different species? Thanks for any ideas.

Ok, ok, ok. I have to grow one of these now, darn it!

How deep a pot do you suggest? I have a few small gigantea tubers in growth in a pot about 8" diameter and a foot deep (one of those special pots in which garden centres sell things like clematis and shrubs). Would you suggest something larger as the plants get older? Thanks!

UK winters are dull enough as it is. A north-facing interior windwosill is going to be very dark indeed, even for calycifida. I would suggest moving it to a sunnier place. Keep it good and moist, as it has no dormancy. In any event, the days are lengthening now and it should soon be enjoing more clement weather and ought to perk up.

There's an amazing picture on the SA Finebush website of D cistiflora. Have a look: it's absolutely stunning! http://finebushpeople.co.za/images/drosera_cistiflora.jpg Cheers.

In fact, all the longifolias I've seen from nurseries in the UK have been the same lilac-mauve as mine (the same as shown by Vic here: http://www.cpuk.org/~vicbrown/images/Utric...ongifoliaC1.jpg). Bob Z's photo finder has quite a few pinky links. Does anyone feel like sharing a little pink-flowered form in the EU if they have it? Cheers.

I'm a musicology graduate and postgraduate, currently returned to University to do a Law degree for a change of career to something that pays a little better!

Has anyone attempted this from seed?

Very pink! Mine are more bluey-mauve. Is it a known location?

I stand nutans, minor, heterodoxa and sp 'Ilu Tepui' in the water tray with Sarracenia in summer. The water is 2-3 inches deep. They also get an overhead watering at least once a day - more like five times (if I'm at home) on very hot days. In addition, an ultrasonic humidifer blows mist over them more or less continuously in daylight in summer. In winter, they go into a basic highland tank (min 12C, high humidity) and still stand in about 1/2 inch of water, with an overhead watering every few weeks to try to keep the soil fresh. They do fine. As far as I can infer, plants potted in peat mixes (eg. peat/perlite) do better with nepenthes-type watering, whereas plants in more open mixes seem happy with the tray. For what it's worth, mine are in a mix of live sphagnum moss, branded orchid compost (fertiliser free) and perlite (approx 3:2:1), with a little coarse sand. There is also a top-dressing of live moss, to help keep the temperature of the soil down. They seem quite a lot more adaptable than I was led to believe until I started on them.

Yes, in the short-term, it killed the algae. I would be hesitant before using it for a plant that was in any way delicate though, hence this posting. I eventually changed the water as I didnt like the yellow-brown colour. I guess it was in it for about two months. I intend to perform a longer experiment on U gibba at some point this year.

Has anyone ever attempted to grow aquatic Utrics in water with the weak addition of tea? I don't know what the chemicals in tea-bags are, but the tannins at least ought to acidify the water and discourage algae. I had some U gibba that I tried this with and it seemed to not affect the plant's growth. The algae did indeed die off. However, U gibba would most likely grow ok in 7-up. I wondered whether anyone had tried this with more delicate species. Thanks.

Thanks Vic. I have seen them seperately on some peoples' growlists, and I believe they might be listed as distinct entries in Alan Lowrie's seedlist. They look the same to me, but I don't want to mix them up in my collection if they prove to be different. Anyone else?

Has anyone got any information regarding the differences between the two plants in cultivation: violacea 'giant' and sp.'giant violacea' Thanks.

Quickie. Has anyone grown U gibba in tapwater successfully? Was it hard or soft tapwater? Cheers.

Well, you could get round that issue if there was some way of detaching the top of the tank from the wooden base. You would then put pond liner into the base, and reattach the top part to seal it (with the edges of the liner outside so that condensation drips back into the reservoir). This is how I did mine in fact. My tank is actually a lined wooden frame made of 8"x2" timber (the reservoir) with a jumbo coldframe resting on the top of it. Four bricks support the growing area, which is a solid, inflexible metal grid (part of an old bed I think, I picked it up at the dump). The additional benefit is that you don't need to water plants manually.

This is misleading. If the heater is placed vertically, it will need 14 inches or so (becuase they are around 12 inches long themselves). However, if it's lying on its side on the floor of the tank, you only need about 6 inches of water depth. I heat a 4 foot x 3 foot x 3 foot tank in my greenhouse by this method. I am using a 200W heater set to keep the water at abour 25C (it will go up to 32C on the thermostat but I haven't needed it set that high). It's lying on its attachment suckers on a mirror on the base of the tank (to help reflect radiated heat). There is a small pump circulating the water to keep it all at an even temp (which I found to be essential), and I manage to maintain a minimum air temperature of 12-15C even when the ambient temp in the greenhouse is only just above freezing - you should have no problem indoors with higher ambient temps getting it to do 20C.