Flies!

Its the end of the Australian summer now, and the entomofauna here in Canberra is at its peak! The pitchers are quickly filling up with flies and hosting a range of other insects that aren’t necessarily caught.

Australasian CP Society Sale & Show is on! 2-10 March 2013

This is the NSW and ACT region’s major carnivorous plant event and the easiest way to get collectable carnivorous plants at very fair prices. Plants are sold by members of the Australasian Carnivorous Plant Society, who collectively have excellent representation of most carnivorous plant varieties.

Regular attendees and the plants they specialise in include:

• Greg Bourke (Captive Exotics): Nepenthes species & hybrids
• Peter & Jessica Biddlecombe: Nepenthes, Drosera (D. regia?) &
  Darlingtonia seedlings pre-hardened to Sydney’s climate
• Gordon & Lyn Hanna: Sarracenia, including the best S. leucophylla money can buy, & Nepenthes
• Philippe Reytter: magnificent Sarracenia spp. & hybrids (including difficult to get varieties like S. flava atropurpurea), Cephalotus, pygmy Drosera & Dionaea/VFTs
• Helmut Kibelis: Pinguicula species & hybrids, & Drosera regia
• Richard Sullivan: magnificent African and Queensland Drosera, jumbo-sized Dionaea/VFTs & occasionally Darlingtonia & Sarracenia

All in all, there are usually some really good plants available, and at very reasonable prices. And as if this wasn’t enough, Stewart Macpherson & Greg Bourke will be showing films of their latest exploits, and Greg will be sharing his experiences in how to grow carnivorous plants of all types.

So come along and support your local CP society, swap stories and growing hints, and pick up some nice plants!

Settling into their new home!

Happy 2013! We are finally settled into our new house, and the Sarracenia are finally settling in too. True to form, we picked one of the hottest summers ever to move, and the collection had to cope with several days of 40*C heat. Pitchers and live Sphagnum burned at the tips, but everything has adjusted quickly to the new conditions and are looking marvellous.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year in advance from the Pitcher Plantation!

An 80-something cm (nearly 3 feet) tall pitcher of my favourite plant,
Sarracenia flava var. atropurpurea “FRT 1-1”. This pitcher was produced last season; the plants have not yet forgiven me for repotting and fertilising them this season, and are still sulking! This is the biggest Sarracenia I have ever grown.

We are moving! As of this Friday, we will be packing up the Sarracenia collection. Our new house looks like it will be very amenable to Sarracenia growing, so here’s hoping! As it will take 2-3 weeks for our new internet to be connected (!), there will be no updates to the blog until next year.

In the meantime, we would like to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas and a happy, successful and prosperous 2013. Take care over the silly season and stay safe too.

Outdoor growing – bring on the colour!

Here is the overflow collection, growing happily in the full sun. These plants were all split late last summer because the parent plants had grown too dense and had started to experience rhizome rot. I had them in the greenhouse to start with, but soon moved them outdoors because they stopped me entering through the door!