A surprise in the collection...

One of the last plants to come up this year gave me a very pleasant surprise. I obtained it last year as a lightly veined Sarracenia flava var. ornata bred by John Creevey of Gotcha! Plants:

Wow - check out the copper lid! That was definitely not there last year! Rather than being a flava var. ornata, it is a magnificent flava var. cuprea! Here is a look at the taller pitchers' lid, which has even deeper colour:

John's stock plant also has the copper top. The parent of this plant was a mediocre flava that he selfed - this plant was grown from seed sold by Allen Lowrie as S. flava var. flava, stocky form and clumping, North Carolina. Obviously, the copper lid colour was hidden somewhere in this plants' genetics. My plant has not flowered yet - I can't wait to see what it does in coming years. It only goes to show that the true potential of some plants is only unlocked after they are allowed to grow out. How many excellent plants have been overlooked because they were written off at a young age? It also shows that the ugly duckling plants can hide something special - so why not self that plain looking plant? Who knows what it may contain!