Nepenthaholic

@manders: I see your point. You're right. That would be the definitive factor.

Here's the link: http://carnivorousockhom.blogspot.com/2013/07/caen-botanical-garden-part-2-of-3.html It was from sockhom's blog. The temps were 17 C I think. And the neighbor wasn't a bongso... hehe... was a platychila. Anyways, an interesting read....

Hi Welshy, I'll try to answer, but hey, I'm no expert either ... the only bical that sort of 'did well' (succeeding leaf bigger than previous) in the cooler temps was a plain green one. But it never grew big. Me thinks it 'grew', but slower. The reds and orange ones were static in cooler temps, bu did better at the warmer temps. I don't know about highland conditions, but I saw something online ( not sure if its from Sockhom's blog) where someone visited a greenhouse in France where a bical was growing side by side with a bongso or something.... and the owner was credited with being able to tweak the temps to an extent where he could mix lowlanders with highlanders.. I'll try to look for it and try to post the link.

The Funnels of Death Hamata x inermis Hamata x campanulata

Hi! Many factors are involved here, and you may want to consider what you really want from your plant before considering whether to string them up or letting them trail. 1) babies! - plants that are allowed to have their growing points lower than their pots have a higher rate of producing offsets. I've done it many times and have always gotten babies. I read somewhere it is an adaptation to ensure the plant survives... like maybe the plant thinks 'oh, shoot... i fell off the tree and now I'm on the soil/mud and i'm sure to get eaten/trodden...' so it proceeds to produce an offset just in case. So if you want babies, let them hang. 2) upper pitchers - I can only speak from my own experience, but hardly any of my trailing plants have produced decent upper pitchers. They do produce them, but qualitatively and quantitatively they are inferior to those produced on tall, upright plants 3) breakage! - If you have a have a misting system in your greehouse, or if you have a sprinkler or whatever that produces large drops of water, these may constantly collect on pitchers and cause them to fill up with water and become heavy. Multiply this with the number of pitchers per plant, and a hanging plant will eventually get so heavy that it commonly snaps or bends near the pot rim. A staked plant, specially one that allows the tendrils to wrap around things, is safer since the tendrils and the material they are entwined with will support the pitcher, and not the plant itself. 4) ease of maintenance. A trailing, multi-stem plant is a nightmare to maintain (cutting off dead leaves, pitchers, watering, etc) specially when the tendrils start entwining on their own stems, leaves etc. Sometimes a tendril will twine around a developing leaf or pitcher from another branch. A staked, climbing plant is neat and easy to maintain, regardless of how many stems it has. Eventually its up to you. Just wanted to give some advice based on my experience. Hope this helps

My 'favorites' rankings change everytime a new pitcher is produced. Sometimes a lower pitcher is blah but then when the uppers come in.. wow!. And then, a lot of my newer neps are still babies... For now, my favorite nepenthes Favorite lower pitchers : Nepenthes rafflesiana x trusmadiensis (EP)(the teeth! the teeth!) Favorite uppers : Nepenths globosa x rafflesiana (red morph and White form)

Same here. I have a MT clone, thought it was going to die at sea level temps in the tropics (Philippines) 24-35 C but went from basal to vine in one year (15"), started producing upper pitchers, and has been flowering monthly ever since. Who knew? I also have a N, izumeae x truncata highland that is doing very well at tropical sea level temps. I think the highland - intermediate-lowland category for neps was based on WHERE the plants were/are located in the WILD. But people underestimate the adaptability of many neps. Someone should make a 'captive' temp category for neps, based on literature/info from growers. Am sure many will be surprised....

Hi, Not really a Nep expert (given my lack of experience with highlanders), but having grown almost all of my plants in the tropics (two locations, 5 masl and 45 masl), I can give you some ideas based from experience. Do take note that although the altitude difference is just 40 meters, in the tropics, every inch/cm counts, and at the higher elevation, although it is still warm, once can feel a slight 'coolness' in the air, specially during a breeze. Nightime temps are also noticeably cooler compared to sea level temps. As for my observations: 1) most of my lowlanders perform better in cooler temps. Pitchers are larger, colors brighter, leaves glossier, and the plants seem 'crisper' (for lack of a better word). Just like Welshy, my hookeriana's produced larger (2-3x) pitchers when grown in the higher site. 2) Pitchers last longer in cooler temps. My mirabilis (green, pink, and echinostomas) pitchers barely last 10 days at sea level, but can last 2-3 weeks (sometimes more than a month) at the 40 masl site 3) Species/hybrids that I can attest to perform better in the 'cooler' sites: most ampullarias, mirabilis, rafflesiana, gracilis, and all hybrids involving one or both of these (hookerianas, kuchingensis, trichocarpas, to name a few) as parent stock. 4) Bicalcaratas are a mixed bag...some do better, some hate it. I have a bical 'orange' from BE that was growing in the 40 masl site for 3 years with leaves only 4-5 inches long.. it was healthy, loaded with pitchers (2-3 inches) but was small. Upon transfer to the warmer site... bam! in 1-2 months, leaves were straplike, 20-24 inches long, and huge pitchers. I could go on, but i think I've given the general idea. Please remember, I'm talking about equatorial 'warms' and 'cools' here... where warm may be 30-37 C, and cool may be anything from 18-24 C. I'm talking about the general trends, but anything below 15 or 16 C, specially long term, is something I've never experienced.. so is something I cannot comment on. Hope this helps. If you have a particular species or species group in mind, you can mention them and I can chime in if its ever been on my growlist. Hope I was able to help...

@Welshy, Nepenthes Lowii ... I'll be moving to a bigger property by the end of this month... my neps have literally taken over the current place.. and it now looks like a jungle (FEELS like a jungle... you can only move through the collection sideways ) Some vines (N. globosa x rafflesiana, N. mirabilis x gracilis) are hitting 3 meters already. I'm planning to document the move on facebook, and will be taking photos of each plant during the process. Will be posting updates about this soon.

I'm Rix. I'm addicted to Nepenthes! Due to my location, I'm limited to keeping lowland-intermediate species and hybrids (and the occasional confused highlanders). I have about 50 kinds (species, hybrids, morphs) totalling about 300 plants (I told you I was addicted ). This is a great site, and I hope to meet a lot of Nep lovers to exchange thoughts, ideas, and plants! Be chatting with all of you soon....