Ice Ice Baby!

Sup y’all. As you saw in my last post, my plants are pretty much just… well… dormant, dried n’ brown. I spent some of this weekend actually trimming some back, and didn’t even get to a third of the plants. All good, working on it little by little.  That’s just in that one grow area too… Dude, I still have outdoors and other greenhouse to go through. Fun stuff though! I freekin’ love this stuff.  It’s my winter project right now, to conquer and divide. Yeah, I have lot’s o’ dividing to do as well.

So, while I’m here in relaxing in my mild temps with me Sarrs crispy and dormant; other growers have their stuff in under snow and under ice. Ice Ice baby.

Yeah, eff the big conglomerate corporations selling these awesome plants in death cube cylinders saying that terrariums n ‘ish are needed.  Whatever. These plants are meant for the outdoors and not be behind plastic death cubes. Or thrown under benches to rot.  Not at all my friends. Not at all…

Anyway, just wanted to share some photos of some Sarracenia grown by my friend Aaron Carlson in Wisconsin.  His plants are out there under snow n’ ice year after year, and the plants are fine. (Thanks for letting me share your photos Aaron!)  Being that I’m in the SF/Bay Area – snow, frost, and ice are things that are totally alien to me.   I’m fascinated by it, and even more intrigued by those who grow plants in areas where they have to deal with the stuff year after year.  Anyway,I just thought these photos were pretty rad and it goes to show you that the plants don’t need to be behind glass in order to grow successfully.

Following photos by Aaron Carlson, plants grown by Aaron Carlson.

[Hybrid Sarracenia seedling poking through snow]

[Sarracenia seedlings poking through the snow]

[Sarracenia in the snow]

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Time to Clean Up…

“Clean up, clean up, everybody everywhere! Clean up clean up, everybody do their share!”

‘Tis the season — the plants are now pretty much dormant, even here in mild Cali.  Many of my other friends and fellow growers have their plants locked up in ice, burred under snow, or just frozen. There’s still a couple pitchers that look OK – but for the most part, it’s a sea of crispy brown pitchers.

[Time for that annual MOW DOWN!]

 

On a side note: What I did in prior years was actually light some pitchers on fire. Yes. I am just slightly pyro. Lighting things on fire and blowing things up is pretty fun.  Especially when saying “fire, fire, fire, eh heh, heh heh” in a Beavis and Butthead kind of way. (Just kidding about the Beavis and Butthead thing… ) Not that I believed that there was any benefit to the plant or anything, – like I said, I’m just slightly pyro. In the wild though, the burns are beneficial to the plants, controlling the surrounding weed growth that compete with the plants.

 

[Eh heh, heh, heh … fire, fire, FIRE! Cornhoolioooo!]

So yeah, I got my work cut out for me this winter season. Lots of pitcher mowin’ down to do.  All good though, love doing this as it prepares the plants for spring and give me yet another excuse to be out in the garden during the winter. 🙂

[Clean up! WHOOOHOOOO!]

And if you haven’t done so all ready, check out the last post to enter and win some Sarracenia seedlings!

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Happy Thanksgiving!

Wishing all of you out there a very Happy Thanksgiving!

Let us take a moment and just have an attitude of gratitude for all the many blessings in our lives.  So much to be thankful for… I’m thankful for my family, for my friends, and also you fellow gardeners out there that continue to inspire us all.

To show my gratitude, I am having a Thanksgiving GIVE AWAY! YES!!

Win free seedlings! I will be thinning out my seedling crosses soon and will give away 3 seedlings of my 2008 cross: Sarracenia “Bug Bat” x “Diane Whittaker”.  The 3 seedlings will be randomly selected by me. A sample photo of the seedlings I am selecting from below…

[Sarracenia “Bug Bat” x “Diane Whittaker”, 2008 Cross]

***
Rules:

1.) Have an interest in these rad and freekin’ awesome plants. That’s probably why you’re here, right?

2.) Have mad love for the plants you’ll get. Be sure to provide the proper conditions for these guys … care for the plants you’ll get.   If you don’t know how to care for em, ask me!

3.) Live in the United States. If you enter and you are not in the US… sorry. I’m selectin’ another winner. (Sorry to all my international friends, but I can only ship within the US.)

4.) Only one entry per person.

5.) Get your entries in on or before 11:59 PM Pacific Standard Time on December 3rd. I’ll randomly select a winner using this randomizer website on December 4th, and I’ll contact the winner directly. I know that it’s cold and if it’s too cold in your area to ship live plants, we’ll work out the logistics later on (shipping on a particular date, etc, etc…).  I will ship using priority mail.

***

Note/Update:
Since I’ll be separating these seedlings out, I will be only shipping bare root.  Also to make it clear, I will only be selecting one winner using the randomizer website  mentioned above.  The winner will be the first person the randomizer list chooses.  If you don’t win this time around, don’t worry … there will be other giveaways here so don’t not fret! You’ll have plenty of chances to win other things! 😉  Sharin’ the love!

***
How to enter:

Just  comment below — tell us what you are thankful for!  Be sure to include your email in the email field below so that I can contact you. If I can’t contact you… well.. then I’ll randomly select someone else 😉

Ready…. Set… GO!
Happy Thanksgiving!

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Silky Smooth

Here’s an up an coming seedling that was given to me by good friend Lois Ochs of Raccoon Ridge  nursery, not sure exactly how old this is, but my estimate would be about 3 years old.  The parentage is Sarracenia ‘Lamentations’ x flava var. rubricorpora. I am lovin’ the combination of color and nice satin-ish texture on the trap. Kinda like… dark silk seducing it’s prey to venture farther into the trap … now that’s sexy.

[Sarracenia ‘Lamentations’ x flava var. rubricorpora]

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AF Project

So, since I’m stuck on the whole AF thing (again, AF is short for anthocyanin free),  just wanted to share one of the crosses that is part of an AF hybridization project. So with this particular cross,  my goal is to create a large green anthocyanin free gigantor S. minor looking type plant.   This is only step one in the process.   Last year, fellow grower  Mike Wang, lent me a Sarracenia minor var. okeefenokeensis that was going to flower.  I had some stored Sarracenia “Green Monster” pollen in the fridge that I used on it.  It gave me a few seeds this year and the below photo is a result of that cross.    Now comes the fun part. Yay for awesome geneticish type stuff! The plants below now have that recessive AF gene, and when crossed again with another AF plant, it should unlock some of that AF goodness!  I am also hoping some of the size from the Sarracenia minor var. okeefenokeensis would carry over.  It’s going to be a couple of years, but still a something to look forward to!

[S. minor var. okeefenokeensis x S. “Green Monster”,  November 20, 2010]

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Hybrid Update: Sarracenia courtii x “Green Monster”, Anthocyanin free clone

Hope everyone is having a great weekend so far!  Here’s an update of a hybrid that I created in 2009.  Looking forward to what the mature adult plants will be like — and not only because I think both of the parent plants are pretty FRESH, but they are also anothcyanin free, and  I flippin’ love love LOVE anthocyanin free plants.  Again, when a plant is anthocyanin free (or “AF” for shorthand) there is no pigment/coloration in it.   I guess you can say it’s equivalent to albino-ness.

[Meet the parents]

[Left: S. courtii, AF| Right: S. “Green Monster”. (S. excellens, AF)]

[S. courtii x “Green Monster”, September 28, 2010]

[S. courtii x “Green Monster”, November 13, 2010]

And the two of the strongest seedlings were separated and are lookin’ pretty good thus far.

[S. courtii x “Green Monster”, November 13, 2010]

[S. courtii x “Green Monster”, November 13, 2010]

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Freekin’ irritating

So, I was at the Home Depot the other day picking up some supplies for stuff I’m working on at mi casa, and ran into some Sarracenias. They have some mass produced tissue cultured Sarracenia (Sarracenia ‘Judith Hindle’) but alas, without the proper growing instructions, all these guys will pretty much be good as dead.  Sure they look just OK now, but soon they will all be wilted, and just abused.  I always get irritated since these centers that are supposedly knowledgeable about plants  are not showing how these amazing plants SHOULD be grown.  They just shove em’ under the effin’ bench and the ones in the back in the dark are moldy and rotten already.  WTF!

 

And in the next photo, note the Venus Fly Traps in the death canisters. Yes, they’re getting moldy too. That’s just nasty.   Total wrong care of these plants.  TOTALLY WRONG!  And WHAT the heck to they do with plants that are looking like they’re about to die (although growers like me know they can come back to life with the proper care)…  they throw em away.  Look at the lanky withering growth… shoved under benches along with other plants that clearly don’t belong there. GAH!!   And the ones that are salvagable?  I’ve suggested that some could be donated to schools, or perhaps sell at a discount. NOPE. Whatever…It will all be thrown away.

Just sad that these folks can’t see the bigger picture. I know, not much one can do about these situations and effed up corporate America, but I just had to get it out there… I’m just sayin…

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Down with O.P.P.

Yo, so who’s down with OPP? (Yeah, you know me!) I’m not talking about the song by “Naughty by Nature” – I’m talking plants.
*Open Pollinated Plants. * Dude. I just had a 1991 moment. HA!

Anyway, OPP’s can be interesting. Today’s OPP feature is one I grew from seed from a few years ago. The parent plant is Sarracenia ‘Doodle Bug’ but as far as the pollen parent, ehhh…. who knows, hence the OP designation.  It’s a sibling to this wide-ish-thing  plant I wrote about earlier.   Yeah, I’m down with O.P.P.

[Sarracenia ‘Doodle Bug’ OP, Photo taken 11/13/2010]

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Off Season Bloomin’

It is not all that uncommon for Sarracenia to bloom during the fall.  It happens. Why exactly they do this now, I am not too sure.  Some speculate it’s the similar lighting/environmental conditions as spring. The buds are shorter now in the fall, and I also believe that the flowers are not fertile (?) but, I have yet to try and pollinate in the fall. Who knows. I typically just cut off the flower during this time to allow the plant to conserve it’s energy for dormancy.  At times I just let it do its thing. Whatever.

[Out of season flower bud. Photo taken October 31, 2010]

 

What I did find very awesome and very recently — one of my older 2 year old hybrids DID bloom recently.  This is significant because it’s the first flower of a hybrid that I created. Blooming within 2 growing seasons!  A bit weird that it did bloom for me now.  And not a short bloom, but rather, a tall spring like bloom. Woah dude. I did a cross of  Sarracenia ‘White Sparkler’ x (‘Ladies in Waiting’ x ‘Judith Hindle’) in 2008.  The latter pollen parent is a very rich colored plant, and I hope that the coloration carries over to the progeny.  The photo below is of a young pitcher later in the season. I’m getting a lot of color variation in this batch of seedlings. Some are deeper red, some like the below resemble the pod parent moreso.  I want to see what this seedling batch does next season in terms of color and vigor.

 

[A hybrid I crossed in spring of 2008: Sarracenia ‘White Sparkler’ x (‘Ladies in Waiting’ x ‘Judith Hindle’).  Photo taken November 6, 2010.]

 

[The flower.  Sarracenia ‘White Sparkler’ x (‘Ladies in Waiting’ x ‘Judith Hindle’). Photo taken November 6, 2010]

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Still lookin’ good

In the sea of brown dried pitchers, a few plants still hold well. Most of them are the leucophylla / leucophylla hybrids that have that late season flush of pitchers.  Here’s a recent photo of Sarracenia ‘Wilkersons Red’ – Open Pollinated, or “OP” for short.  It is a plant that came from the S. ‘Wilkersons Red’ plant (a stunning red Moorei) but we don’t know what the pollen parent is. Anyway, It’s still a nice plant. 🙂

[Sarracenia ‘Wilkersons Red’ –  Open Pollinated]

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