Monday, March 30, 2009

Spring has sprung, Carnivorous Plant flowers are appearing

Well Spring is here. My North American varieties are doing well while my Asian and year round plants are doing well in their terrarium.

My prize Ampullaria (left) is pitchering and has some really nice big pitchers. They are very pretty and have little spots on them.

The flower (near the top) is the pretty violet/lilac one from the Mexican Butterwort. I've always had trouble with them but now they are doing fine


with their glistening, waxy leaves.

Suddently, a VFT flower sprung up (left). Even a week later it has yet to open up.







At about the same time this absolutely huge flower like stalk from the S. Purpurea grew up. It is a huge green ball (left). The is the first time that I have had this plant produce flowers. I am happy as it did well last Spring. This flower means that it has made it through the hibernation season and hopefully ready to go outside soon.

It's been a week and it still has not opened. How long does it take?

The bladderworts are doing well and this is the first time I have tried to grow them. I know they are doing well because they started producing their pretty tiny orchid lilac flowers.

1 comment:

Storm said...

Eric, great blog! I envy you your Nepenthes. So far, I've refrained from going tropical with my CPs--I'm afraid I can't maintain the humidity they require in my apartment and still remain comfortable in the summertime. But I'll probably give them a try at some point; right now, I'm focusing on my North American species.

I see you've got the S. purpurea ssp. venosa, the southern variety. The northern subspecies, S. purpurea ssp. purpurea, is native to my area. In fact, I'm pretty sure there's a site where it grows just a half-mile away from me. The two subspecies are noticeable different in aspect.

I seem to have lost my Pinguicula vulgaris, which I collected in northern Michigan three years ago. I left it in its native marl, and it overwintered well for a couple seasons, but I had a crop of white mold this year, and I'm afraid that did the job. Need to go get me another one this year.