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Hello Everyone, I would like to provide and update on my attempts to grow a N ampullaria on a windowsill in the UK. I've always wanted to grow this plant. But since my girlfriend moved in, the space I'm allowed to dedicate to carnivorous plants has been somewhat restricted ("houses are for people, not for carnivorous plants" she says). So unfortunately I don't have space for a terrarium large enough to house a Nepenthes. A couple of years ago I thought I'd see whether it was possible to grow this plant on a windowsill. I bought a nice speckled ampullaria from Andreas Wistuba and simply placed it on a windowsill (that doesn't receive any direct sunlight) under some growlux tubes. The plant immediately stopped forming pitchers and as the months passed the rosette of pitcherless leaves was getting smaller and smaller. I suspected the plant was heading for a slow death. The next thing I tried was coiling a soil warming cable around the inside of the pot. This coil was attached to a thermostat which I set to 24C. Over the next few months the leaves slowly began to grow larger but still did not form pitchers. So then a few months ago I placed a plastic dome over the plant to increase the humidity. Here are some photos of my plant now. It responded very posittively to the increase in humidity and is now forming very nice pitchers. So it does appear to be possible to create the correct temperature and humidity conditions for lowland nepenthes on a UK windowsill; using a thermostatically controlled soil warming cable and a plastic dome. However this is not a cheap solution. The soil warming cable cost around £30 and the thermostatic controller cost around £45. I hope this post is useful for some other growers. Regards Mark

Hello, here some recent pics of my amp tank. It looked quite untidy in summer: and some following months of neglect let the plants look even worse. Problem was - all substrate and plants were fixed in the tank - something I was happy to overcome last year with my second tank, my miniature amp setup: (see here: http://www.cpukforum...showtopic=46715). Something like that had to happen with the mother tank. So I chose a new tank with same base area (stilll 25x25cm), but less high (30 instead of 40cm), to have the lamp closer to the plants. All substrate and plants were put into a 23x23 cm net pot. The amps were cut down, and the drosera came in as small rhizome pieces. So, now the new one, about 2 months old: Esp. the ticolor looks already quite nice by now with its first pitchers emerging. And even the Drosea seem to come back :-) A work in progress. I will post some updates the next months. Regards Martin

A few quick snaps of my N. ampullaria whilst it was outside its amp tank. As you can see, growth remains compact, which I suspect is due to the high light levels I grow it under: SS855935 by Carl Leach, on Flickr SS855946 by Carl Leach, on Flickr SS855937 by Carl Leach, on Flickr

Hi everyone, I am desperately looking for N. ampullaria "black magic" (see picture I got on internet). Does anyone know where I could find that plant or a similar one?

MERRY CHRISTMAS! (yes, I know, I'm not very good at decorating Christmas trees...)