Tuesday, December 11, 2018

A farm visit & the AUSCPS Christmas party

Sarracenia beds; Strange World Carnivores collection, NSW.

Last Friday was a good CP day on all fronts. Having managed an afternoon off, I visited Owen O’Neil at Strange World Carnivores. Its always a treat to see the tens of thousands of plants he grows.

Sarracenia oreophila x leucophylla; Strange World Carnivores collection, NSW. Sarracenia oreophila x leucophylla; Strange World Carnivores collection, NSW.

One plant that Owen has loads of is this handsome hybrid between S. leucophylla and S. oreophila. It produces decent spring and autumn pitchers.

Sarracenia flava x purpurea backcross; Strange World Carnivores collection, NSW. Sarracenia flava x purpurea backcross; Strange World Carnivores collection, NSW.

Being a S. flava fiend, I also admired this S. x catesbei looking cross.

Owen will be attending the Bus Depot Markets in Canberra right up to Christmas this year, and had some very nice plants on offer last weekend.

After catching up with Owen, I headed back to Canberra for the AUSCPS Christmas party, where I came across one of the most impressive CPs I’ve ever seen: a massive Drosera schizandra grown by meeting coordinator Barry Bradshaw! Here’s the plant, with my hand for scale:

Drosera schizandra grown by AUSCPS Canberra coordinator Barry Bradshaw

A few meetings back, David Colburn brought some of these beauties down from Sydney to sell (two of which are on my windowsill). They were growing them in coffee jars, and Barry dryly commented “what are you going to do when they get big?”. Now I know what he means! The tube at the bottom of the image is for watering; Barry uses pure live Sphagnum as growing media, with marbles in the base of the bowl for aeration and a water reservoir. The plants get no direct light and are grown indoors, with the temperature not dropping below 20 Celsius.

Barry also brought in the two other Tropical Queensland sisters: D. adelae and D. prolifera. There were all sorts of comments made about The Three Wise Drosera…

Drosera adelae grown by AUSCPS Canberra coordinator Barry Bradshaw Drosera prolifera grown by AUSCPS coordinator Barry Bradshaw

Barry grows all his plants in oversized goldfish bowls, with the D. schizandra and D. prolifera getting some cling wrap over the opening to bump up the humidity. I have some ideas for my plants now, and hope to re-try D. prolifera again next year.

VFT with prey Sarracenia leucophylla with male Common Brown (Heteronympha merope)

To close, here’s some CPs in the collection with prey (and an escapee). More photos to come from the collection soon.

Tuesday, November 27, 2018

Collection photos – 27 November 2018

Here’s some photos of the collection to show how the colour of the plants has developed since the last photos.

Sarracenia flava ‘Dracarys’ Sarracenia flava ‘Dracarys’

This is a clone of S. flava I call ‘Dragon’ for the intense red of the pitcher mouth, which is reminiscent of a fire-breathing dragon. It is one of the first seedlings I have grown to maturity, the cross being made in 2011 as a selfing of a form of S. flava I’ve called the NSW clone elsewhere on this blog.

Sarracenia x moorei backcross ‘David Martin’ Sarracenia x moorei ‘David Martin’

Sarracenia flava var. flava ‘Helmut’s giant’ Sarracenia flava var. flava ‘Helmut’s giant’

Sarracenia flava var. flava ‘Helmut’s Giant’ showing its very fine and faint throat venation.

Sarracenia flava var. flava, ex Gotcha Plants Sarracenia flava var. flava ‘Helmut’s Maxima’

Some more flava var. flava – a clone from Gotcha! Plants (left) and Helmut’s Maxima.

Sarracenia flava var. atropurpurea ‘FRT 1-1’ Sarracenia flava var. atropurpurea ‘FRT 1-1’Sarracenia flava var. atropurpurea ‘FRT 1-1’ Sarracenia flava var. atropurpurea ‘FRT 1-1’

Sarracenia flava var. atropurpurea ‘FRT 1-1’ Sarracenia flava var. atropurpurea ‘FRT 1-1’

Sarracenia flava var. atropurpurea ‘FRT 1-1’

Sarracenia flava var. atropurpurea ‘FRT 1-1’.

Sarracenia flava var atropurpurea ‘FRT 1-1’ x atropurpurea (Phil Reyter’s clone) Sarracenia flava var. rubricorpora FRT 1-1 x atropurpurea ‘Phil Reyter’s clone’

Some years ago, I asked John Creevy if he could try making a cross for me – FRT 1-1 crossed with a very slow and stunted atropurpurea I grew that came from Phil Reyter’s collection. The plant above is the result. This is the first year its been big enough to see the results.

Sarracenia flava var. atropurpurea (seed grown) Sarracenia flava var. atropurpurea ‘all red traps’ ex Ron Abernethy

I also made this cross, and the seedling at left is what resulted. Its still got a while to go. At right is another atropurpurea from Ron Abernethy’s collection.

Sarracenia flava var. atropurpurea ex Owen O’Neil Sarracenia flava var. atropurpurea ex Owen O’Neil

Another atropurpurea that I am pretty sure came from Owen O’Neil’s collection.

Sarracenia flava var. atropurpurea ex Blackwater S.F., Florida Sarracenia flava var. atropurpurea ex Blackwater S.F., Florida.

Two clones of S. flava var. atropurpurea from Blackwater S.F., Florida.

Sarracenia flava var. atropurpurea ‘FRT 1-5’ Sarracenia flava var. atropurpurea ‘FRT 1-5’

Sarracenia flava var. atropurpurea ‘FRT 1-5’

Sarracenia flava var. cuprea ‘Ross Rowe’ Sarracenia flava var. cuprea ‘Ross Rowe’Sarracenia flava var. cuprea ‘Ross Rowe’ Sarracenia flava var. cuprea ‘Gotcha Heavy vein’

Sarracenia flava var. cuprea ‘Ross Rowe’

Sarracenia flava var. cuprea ‘Gotcha heavy vein’ Sarracenia flava var. cuprea ‘David Martin F1’

S. flava var. cuprea – Gotcha heavy vein (left) and ‘David Martin’s F1’ (right).

Sarracenia flava var. rugellii ex Phil Reyter Sarracenia flava var. rugellii ex Phil ReyterSarracenia flava var. rugellii ex Phil Reyter Sarracenia flava var. rugellii ex Phil Reyter

Sarracenia flava var. rugellii, ex collection Phil Reyter.

Sarracenia flava var. rugellii ‘Triffid Park clone’ Sarracenia flava var. rugellii ‘Triffid Park clone’

Sarracenia flava var. rugellii ‘Triffid Park clone’ (note – this is not Triffid Park’s ‘cut throat’, which is a clone that has never done well for me at all).

Sarracenia flava var. rugellii (seed grown) Sarracenia flava var. atropurpurea FRT 1-1 x self (seed grown - own cross)

Some more home grown plants – a var. rugellii and a selfing of FRT 1-1…

Sarracenia flava var. rubricorpora (seed grown)  Sarracenia flava var. rubricorpora (seed grown)

And to close, a very nice home grown clone of var. rubricorpora.