Yossu

Have you tried Terraforums? Seems to be a bit like this place used to be, only international. Whoops, silly forum posted the reply twice! You only need to read it once

Have you tried Terraforums? Seems to be a bit like this place used to be, only international.

Ah, you've met my mother then have you?

I reckon your plant will be fine in there until it starts to grow too big. I have one of these, and the vines are about four or five feet long! You can worry about that when it happens though You don't actually need either of those trays though. You can sit the pot directly on the gravel, and when you water the plant, any excess will drain through to the gravel. As long as you make sure the water level stays just below the surface of the gravel, your plant will be happy (no roots sitting in water) and you'll have enough humidity. As for feeding, I wouldn't feed it anything solid. Make sure the pitchers are about half-full of water, and it should be fine. If you want to boost growth, drop some half-strength seaweed based fertiliser into the pitchers once a month. Most people don't recommend feeding their CPs, but if you're careful, it can help. Hope that helps

I bought a 220 litre water butt from B&Q for about £30. One of the best CP-related investments I made

OK, thanks, I'll contemplate the matter. Might take a look at the international forum, see if that's any more active before I lower myself to join FB!

Thought so. Ho hum. Assuming I decide to join, how would I find the CP bit? never used FB at all (as you can tell!), so no idea. Thanks for the news, sad though it is.

Can you provide a link to this? As I said before, whenever I go to FB, I just get a log-in page. I'd like to see what there is there before giving them any details. That's assuming you can see anything without logging in of course!

Thanks to all of you. It's already in the greenhouse, so I'll probably just repot it and leave it at that. I like the plant, and don't want to risk losing it.

My mother bought me a S. Barba that she saw in a garden centre (aren't mothers great?). It's been sitting under some growlights in our spare room, as it was too nice to put out into the greenhouse. I know, silly me, but we know that! Anyway, it's just gone into the greenhouse for the winter. I was reading The Savage Garden, and he mentions that you can split Sarras either at the beginning of the winter, or the beginning of spring. Given how much this has grown since I got it, I was wondering about splitting it. Anyone able to advise if it's a good idea to split it at all (i have no idea what's going on underneath, and don't want to disturb it unless I'm sure it's worth splitting) and if so, when would be the best time to do it. Thanks

Thanks for the reply. I do have a jewel orchid, although not specifically that type, but it's already a bit big for the bowl.

I've seen people put pebbles in the bottom of such a bowl, and add water to just below the level of the pebbles. That allows you to keep the nep above the water, add water from the top, and have the excess drain in between the pebbles. The water below keep sup the humidity. That was my plan, if I were to put a nep in there. However, a ceph is a good idea. That's the other main gap in my collection. As they grow slowly (from what I understand), if I got one that was just a bit too small for the bowl, it would look fine and not outgrow it for some time. Have to look more into that one, thanks for the suggestion.

Hmm, that's an interesting idea. Don't have any pings yet. Do you have any recommendation for an easy one? I was also wondering about a small nep. I have three of the Asda ones, which might go nicely in there. Thanks

Not given my success with goldfish!

Hee hee, can't argue with that!

Well cut off both my legs and call me Shorty! I never knew that. Thanks for the info.

Ah, I guess that answers it! I have a rather more modest set up, with maybe 60 decent-sized sarras, so not quite such a big job!

Hmm, so how would I know which I have?

Thanks for the reply. I actually did do my homework. Before last winter, I posted here asking which of my plants needed to go dormant (that was before I had a greenhouse, and all were inside). I'm sure I was told that this one should be kept indoors as it didn't go dormant. Having said that, I just checked The Savage Garden, and he says quite clearly they do need to go dormant, so either I was misinformed, or I got it wrong! So, out into the greenhouse it goes. Looks like I better check up on the rest of my plants and make sure I've got it right with them too. My current understanding is that the following should/can stay indoors all year round... All nepenthes D. Aliciea D. Spatulata D. Madagascarii D. nidiformis All heliamphora Any comments on that? Those are the one I have indoors. The greenhouse is mainly sarras, D. California, VFTs and various Drosera that need dormancy, such as capensis and binata. Thanks again.

Hmm, just did some reading, and it looks like I might be giving it the wrong conditions anyway. I was told to keep it indoors as it didn't require dormancy, but this page seems to say they should be grown in a greenhouse and need to go dormant. Please can you clarify this? I want to make sure I'm growing it correctly. Thanks again.

But it did this in the middle of the summer! I could understand it if the plant was outside, or if the weather had gone colder, but it started growing again fairly quickly after that really hot spell, and the weather remained warm with long summer days for a good two months afterwards. Not saying you're wrong, I'm a mere beginner compared to you, but I'm just very surprised at the suggestion. Thanks for the reply.

One of my favourite plants was my D. Intermedia, which was growing very nicely a few months ago. Then the hot weather kicked in, and it dried up. I noticed some new growth, so wasn't worried. However, it's now been about three months since I saw that, and it hasn't grown any further. Anyone any suggestions? As you can see form the second picture, there are several new growth points, they just aren't doing anything.

Went into Tesco the other day, and saw this glass bowl. It's about 9" diameter across the widest part. Looked too good to leave on the shelf, and I bought it in a fit of impulsiveness! Any suggestions as to what I could grow in it?

I tried using a normal camera, then used a photo editing package to reduce the brightness to almost zero, and all LEDs looked to be at the same intensity, so it looks like they are OK. Thanks for the tip anyway.

I tried a light meter app, and it showed the CFLs to output about the same amount of light as the LEDs, albeit with the CFLs spreading the light over a wider area (ie illuminating more plants at the same intensity). Given the size and cost of these bulbs, I can't see much benefit over CFLs, other than the supposed lower running costs. Not sure how much that would actually be a benefit compared to the significantly higher cost of buying the bulbs, and the fact that I would need more of them to illuminate the same area