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N. Rajah


Leo

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Something to share.... I had never seen a fully grown plant before let alone an upper pitcher.

It is a male. I had not realised quite how large it can get. It is over a meter tall with each leaf in excess of 70 cm long.

Grows permanently immersed in a water filled gravel travel tray.

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Perhaps I should have clarified guys.... my own plants have a diameter roughly equal to the pitcher on that monster....the plant is in my local botanical garden collection. Would not be surprised if it is over 15 years of age. When you see the real thing it is huge and I doubt that mine will make it to that size.

Leo

Btw - If you look carefully you can see the little A4 blurb explaining what is is.

Edited by Leo
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Oh right - well, it makes no difference, there should be a sign saying 'Children prohibited, danger of death from plants' on the greenhouse :P

I'm sure your rajah will get big sometime - then you can put those youths loitering around your street - up to no good no doubt - into the pitchers.

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thank you soo much for showing. Such wonderful large specimens are rare in cultivation. :) Beautiful! No wonder I love this species soo much. If only my 4 inch specimen started growing properly again. :tu:

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Hmm...interesting!!

water filled gravel tray eh?? I have been thinking a bit regarding my predicament with N. rajah. The possibility that my basic LFS + bark + charcoal media just doesn't seem to cut it. In the wild these plants have a high presence of minerals due to the high granite in on Mt. Kinabalu. yes!! This is well known..but in cultivation, we rarely seem to provide a similar media. Perhaps addition of a few granite chips or "gravel" to the media in our pots helps?

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The plant is 20 years old approximately and was transplanted into ... a shopping basket about 5 years ago! This was deemed necessary due to weight and size and said container is perfect as it has slats and is quite strong. The basket is approximately 40 cm tall and sits in the gravel tray. During the growing season it is watered daily and gets a large can of rainwater (5L +) so there is always some water in the tray. The compost is uniformly damp throughout. Not sure what the compost contains but it looks and feels quite heavy - peat based? The plant has flowered for the first time this year and I'm told is never fed - catches whatever wonders into the greenhouse - woodlice, wasps etc.

Leo

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It's great to see a full grown and flowering Raja in the UK! Great Post!

I don't see any need to broadcast it's location, theres always the potential for some lunatic lurking on these forums to go and try and swipe it or steal the pollen or whatever. My wife keeps birds and in that hobby, stuff gets stolen all the time, it's rife! Comes from the obsessive personalities of some of the people in all of these kind of hobbies and is all too common.

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It's great to see a full grown and flowering Raja in the UK! Great Post!

I don't see any need to broadcast it's location, theres always the potential for some lunatic lurking on these forums to go and try and swipe it or steal the pollen or whatever. My wife keeps birds and in that hobby, stuff gets stolen all the time, it's rife! Comes from the obsessive personalities of some of the people in all of these kind of hobbies and is all too common.

I agree that that there is the potential for that however it is in a garden that is to be enjoyed by the public, many of which are struggling to find visitors. In all walks of life there is potential for people to do such things but if everyone felt this way then we'd have to close every museum, art gallery, etc. and the location of Kew would be a mystery!

I just think it would be a shame that the person/people who have cared for this plant for the last 20 years, who must be very proud of it and who want the public to see it are not getting the audience who would appreciate it the most.

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I agree that that there is the potential for that however it is in a garden that is to be enjoyed by the public, many of which are struggling to find visitors. In all walks of life there is potential for people to do such things but if everyone felt this way then we'd have to close every museum, art gallery, etc. and the location of Kew would be a mystery!

I just think it would be a shame that the person/people who have cared for this plant for the last 20 years, who must be very proud of it and who want the public to see it are not getting the audience who would appreciate it the most.

I do take your points Dave but I doubt that a few CP addicts is going to add much to the coffers, and what it might do instead is attract unwelcome attention, and there is a reason why rare paintings have alarms on them...

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Not saying I wouldn't like to see the plant though, but if leo doesnt want to advertise the location of this plant I can understand why and will support that decision. I wonder if there are any other rajas flowering anywhere and if some seeds couldn't be arranged, that would be quite usefull, think there are only males ( legal) in cultivation though?

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Not saying I wouldn't like to see the plant though, but if leo doesnt want to advertise the location of this plant I can understand why and will support that decision. I wonder if there are any other rajas flowering anywhere and if some seeds couldn't be arranged, that would be quite usefull, think there are only males ( legal) in cultivation though?

There can't be too many rajah hybrids knocking around in cultivation, are there?

Would make an interesting cross...

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Sorry, but I'm not following the "safety" issue logic. We are talking about a public garden, right?

Also, who wouldn't want some pollen if they have some interesting females in flower? Probably not being produced by the plant anymore, but why wouldn't the garden be interested in sharing the pollen? It is a garden, or a museum?

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