This is the first of a three part post. Click Here to see Part Two and Here to see Part Three.
At last – winter is a memory and the sarracenia are in full flower, with the first pitchers opening to boot! Let’s take a look at what is happening across all four of my bog gardens, starting with the red Sarracenia flava bog.
Star on the chart in this bog is Phil Reytter’s clone of Sarracenia flava var. rubricopora, aka the red tube flava. This clone is very robust and these pitchers are the largest and best coloured I’ve achieved to date.
Growing just in front of Phil’s red tube is my favourite plant – Sarracenia flava var. atropurpurea “FRT 1-1”. Admittedly, this plant is introgressed with Sarracenia leucophylla – note the pink blush in the flowers - but it is such a spectacular plant it ranks at the top of my list of must-haves.
Perhaps of purer breed is this var. atropurpurea from Blackwater State Forest, Florida. Ron Abernethy, a Victorian grower, got hold of seeds of this variety some years ago and was generous enough to give me three seedlings. Two are solid red plants, including this one. But the third…
Came up as a coppertop, or S. flava var. cuprea. I am keen to see how this plant does in future.
This plant is one of those clones that does one thing one year and something different the next. It is another David Martin plant, FRT 1-5 (as in flava red tube). When I first saw it, it was a coppertop flava with a nearly black lid. The next year it had a red lid and filled in nearly red. It can loose much of its colouration if moved - including if you move the pot – or once it starts getting hot in midsummer.
Another of David’s FRTs is FRT-1, which was the first of the red flava David grew. This plant – in my experience anyway – has nearly always produced red pitchers, no matter what I did to it (including a late repotting one year). It is not so tall and perhaps not as robust as, say, Phil’s red tube, but it is nonetheless a nice plant for its strong colouration.
This Sarracenia x moorei was grown from seed by John Creevey of Gotcha! Plants, Queensland. I suspect his giant leucophylla and FRT 1-1 are the parents. It is absolutely huge! The pitchers are nearly black in full sun.
To close – this clone of S. flava var. atropurpurea from Phil Reytter is always a month of so behind all the other plants I have. It is just poking up its first pitchers now! Of all the plants I grow, this one is perhaps the most needy…
