byblis

here is another photo of D. affinis that I neglected a little over the summer. It has to be cleaned but already shows a new flower stalk in the right of the photo: This plants are grown in my warm house under humid conditions with not as much light due to 60% shading over the summer. Stefan P.S. I brought some of the seeds in vitro and got germination 4 weeks ago. So this beautiful Drosera should be save in cultivation and if my generous Donor agrees I can spread it a bit within the CP community!

Hi all, I donot share that opinion. If you let the roots dry out completely during the summer you risk your plants. Also the compost of 50/50 peat/sand is possible, but plants benefit much more from other mixtures. And you want to see them flower, wont you? Below are some different forms of D. cistiflora all found in the Darling Area in South Africa. Photos taken today in my greenhouse: They all are kept in the coldhouse together with Roridula, Australian tuberous Drosera and lemon trees. During the summer as soon as they go dormant pots are kept slightly moist in the middle of drying out and watering. Watering lets the roots rot, no water lets them dry out and possibly die. In my eyes bringing D. cistiflora over the summer months is difficult. Plants seem to benefit from large, deep pots. Cactus pots for deep rooting Cacti (Ariocarpus, Lophophora) are very good. I have never used artificial light but I am sure plants benefit from it. Some forms are very easy infected by fungi like mildew. If that happens I spray with Baymat (donot know whether it is sold in the UK but could look for the chemicals in it). A slightly nutrient enriched medium seems to be beneficial for the plants. What I have observed over the years is that plants transplanted in fresh compost donot as well as plants standing in the old compost for years. Experimenting with Vermicullit, Perlite, clay pearls, clay, loam, sand ... brought me to the conclusion that stuff sold here as "black peat" mixed with sand does much better than the blond peat (white peat). Black peat is more decayed and I think that sets some nutrients free D. cistiflora like. Soil from different natural habitats were always sandy clay and/or sandy loam with much more sand than clay/loam. Some substrates looked like pure yellow sand with no additives as we know from Australian Droseras. This observations let me experiment with Vermicullit for better drainage and clay pearls in various peat based mixtures. All plants you can see on the photos above have an addition of different clay/loam in their substrate, some of them show flower buds already. And to come to an end donot forget that plants love much lower nighttimes than daytimes. Hope that is not too long and boriing for you all! Stefan

Thank you Vic for moving my post to the Utricularia forum but now my problem is I cannot edit the original post. So I started a reply but feel free to move this reply to the top! To show you my growing conditions two fotos of U. quelchii, one not good but taken 15min ago in my greenhouse: This is a styropore box about 30x20cm filled with NZ sphagnum and planted with divisions of U. quelchii around May 2003. Note the numerous small leaves emerging. This is a round pot also filled with NZ sphagnum but with a bottom of a mix of peat and orchid substrate. In my eyes a very good growth. Planted division spring 2002. Sorry for the bad photo, it was made 30min ago. This photo shows the pretty rare cultivated U. geminiloba that is said to be a "stone surface grower". Sorry, I only know the latin word but not the English one. Planted in pure NZ sphagnum, kept in the coldhouse since 2002 and flowering for the first time in 2003. Hope that helps you cultivating that beautiful Utricularias! Stefan

I am pretty sure the plant on the foto is not D. villosa, which is very very rare in cultivation, but D. graomogolensis. I keep my plants of the let me say "D. villosa complex" in my coldhouse together with the tuberous Droseras at 6-12 degrees Celsius. I have never had problems during the winter except some cases of Botrytis. Hope this helps Stefan