Nepenthes in melbourne

[Hornet]

Can any aussie growers recommend nepenths suitable for culture in Melbourne?

[Tim Caldwell]

Can any aussie growers recommend nepenths suitable for culture in Melbourne?

To be successful, I think you really need special equipment just like you do in most other places, and with the right equipment you can grow whatever you want. Winters here are too cold for the lowland species, and summers are not only too hot for the highlanders, we also don't usually get enough of an overnight drop in temperature.

Hardy highland species and hybrids can do OK outside in the right spot (and they certainly need to be protected from the occasional frost we get here in winter). I grow a N. maxima hybrid outside and it doesn't do too badly and is now taller than I am, although this main stem has lost its vigour. I grow a N. ventricosa and a N. x gothica in the bathroom quite successfully, where they get a little direct sun. Bathrooms and kitchens are probably fine for many intermediate highland species.

I grow a number of plants in a large, transparent plastic storage container, and they pitcher all year round, but they really just survive rather than thrive. I tend to lose highland plants pretty regularly in summer, although they do OK over the winter. The lowland plants like N. albomarginata, N. truncata and N. rafflesiana do OK all year round, but grow very slowly over winter. All the plants I grow in there increase in size only VERY slowly.

Cheers,

Tim

[Chooka]

Hi Hornet,

It depends on your local climate, but most highland and cool-intermediate Neps will do well. I find Neps to be more tolerant than people give them credit for and can tolerate occasional extremes in temperature and humidity. I grow all my plants outdoors all year here in Cranbourne. Winter is the worst; most of my plants stop growing and the combination of cold and wet can cause root rot if your media is not loose enough. Come warmer weather they generally recover quickly. The only issues I've had during Summer are making sure they do not dry out. Visit my flickr page here for ideas.

Cheers,

Chooka

[Tim Caldwell]

Hi Chooka,

WOW, that's really inspiring, you have a beautiful collection! The obvious question is 'which direction do your plants face?'

From my very meager outdoor experience I agree that winters are the worst. During that heat wave we had a couple of years ago with several consecutive days of temps in the mid forties with strong winds, the pitcher lids of my outdoor plant curled, but to my amazement there was no permanent damage done! In winter the plant almost comes to a complete halt.

Cheers,

Tim

Edited February 8, 2011 by Tim Caldwell

[Chooka]

Hi Tim,

The majority of my plants are on a South-facing wall, but a few are under 90% shade cloth out in the open.They get morning and afternoon sun in spring-autumn and none during the winter. Black Saturday was terrible and had a similar experience with shriveled pitchers. The temps were incredible, at 48deg C in the shade! Apparently, humidity dropped to 2% in some places! I was thinking about hosing them down on that day, but I figured the sudden decrease in temp would send them into shock. I got some deformed growth for the next couple of weeks but they recovered quickly. The worst hit was my N. talangensis x veitchii 'Batu Buli' which lost its growing tips.

Cheers,

Chooka

Edited February 8, 2011 by Chooka