Carnivorous bog plants a bit of advice needed

[IGraham]

Hello (from north east England)

 

Carnivorous bog plants a bit of advice needed.

I've recently built myself a bog garden, the thing is adjacent to and above a pond. A solar powered pump raisers the pond water from the pond, which then flows back into the pond.

The original idea was for a green filter for the pond with lots of plants in to do the filtering/conditioning.

 

That idea soon grew to be a full on 'bog garden' with a range of bog plants.

Its lined with a pond liner and is about 30cm deep, bottom 10cm is sand with multi-purpose compost type stuff on top – couldn’t get unadulterated peat unfortunately. Its a bit acidic and over loaded with nutrients at the moment but that should wash out and dissipate soon (I hope).

 

So I’ve now got myself a bog garden (see photo below) and its looking good – its even got a stream. I've got a few plants in – Lobelia, Rush, zantedeschia, hosta, geum - most of the green you can see is water cress, which I’m hoping will quickly put out lots of roots and stabilise the peat.

I'd like to include a few carnivorous plants, but other than thinking Sarracenia look good I’m not sure what would work.

 

And that’s where you knowledgeable people come in, what plants do you think would do ok, survive the winter, not need excessive maintenance, maybe even multiply – and not cost a fortune.

Any suggestions on a supplier as well.

 

 

 

Any suggestions gratefully received

 

 

[Alexis]

Try darlingtonia or some temperate sundews

[billynomates666]

Looks nice. Do you have fish in the pond? 

 

From my own experience you will need to keep a keen eye on the  water cress, it grows tall rapidly, multiplies madly and soon takes over, ovrecoming all others, which is why it is good in green filters as it absorbs nutrients at a huge rate, and it does make nice soup and sarnies.

 

Otherwise, if you do have fish, stick to traditional bog plants as the nutrients made by them will eventually kill carnivorous plants, unless they die of etoliation from the water cress first. You could test run a purp or two in there to see how they do, as they are the toughest, but I'm not hopeful, if there are sufficient nutrients getting into the soil for mass feeders like water cress to flourish, then its probable that there will be too many for carnivorous plants. Plants such as Marsh marrigold, arum lillies,creeping jinny for colour and ground cover (but perhaps not with the water cress) marsh mallow if you want some height, sedges, teasles and all sorts of reeds and iris will do well.

 

You may have guessed i'm not too fond of water cress in my domestic pond.

 

Good luck and let us know how it goes.

 

cheers

Steve

Edited April 16, 2014 by billynomates666

[IGraham]

Hello thanks for the replys

 

The Cress is intended as a short term fix, only there to shift nutrients and bind the peat together, hopefully I’ll be able to crop it off before long – soup, salads whatever. That’s the plan says me in wide eyed innocence.

Got 6 goldfish in the pond who are all looking a bit happier this week as the initial algae bloom has faded so that’s an indicator that the nutrient level is dropping, I’m not expecting nutrient levels to be a problem so am happy to give carnivorous plants a try.

 

Sarracenia

About 6 -8 years ago I bought a carnivorous plant (that looked like a Sarracenia to me) in a test tube from a garden centre (me knowing nothing about them) stuck the thing in a plastic washing up bowl of multi-compost in the green house flooded it with tap water and it took of like a triffid. It lived like that for a few years, so either I was extremely lucky or some of them are a bit tougher than said.

Anyway I thought I could try one or two, however it looks like there’s quite a few of them, Species, hybrids, tender, hardy, big ones, little ones, different colours ??? I’m a bit lost as to what to try.

 

I'm also going to stick sundews in

if some one could give me specific names or categories that would be a big help

 

billynomates666 whats a 'perp'

 

purpurea ok

Edited April 17, 2014 by IGraham

[SoLongFairWell]

Sarracenias I'd stick to purpurea ssp purpurea, flava types, oreophila and hybrids between these or containing these.

 

Droseras filliformis ssp filliformis, hybrida, rotundifolia, anglica, obovata, intermedia. You can also stick in D. capensis and it will do fine. I'd be concerned about nutrients from fish waste though. I certainly wouldn't add anymore fish.

[IGraham]

thanks for that reply Richard

appreciated

[SoLongFairWell]

A good hybrid is S. x catesbaei (flava crossed with purpurea), it's shorter so doesn't get battered in the wind like the taller flavas do.

[ada]

You live well north of most of us,so the winter cold will affect your plants more.

I'd go with purpurea purpureas,oreophila's are tough in the cold,pinguicula grandiflora,p.vulgaris and native drosera like angilca and rotundiflora.

ada

[werds]

Sarracenia purpurea is one if not the most tough in the cold in my opinion

[IGraham]

I'm quite close to the coast, so the sea moderates the winter temperature a bit - unfortunately it also moderates the summer temperature

[SoLongFairWell]

Drosera linearis is also hardy.