Sunday, December 5, 2010

Sarracenia flava var. flava - heavy vein





Data at a glance...

Latin name                     Sarracenia flava var. flava
Clone name                    Heavy vein
Acquired                         Multiple - this specimen, February 2009.
Pitcher flush pattern      3: 0: P (Sp: Su: Au)
Growth strength             Strong
Division types                Meristem division at flowering; 1+ node growths/year.

Pitcher description
Lid with filament under-developed, golden yellow with red venation on both surfaces. Throat with no rugellii-type markings, vertical red stripe present and radiating into numerous red veins extending into lid and upper pitcher tube. Pitcher tube golden-yellow, interior red venation visible through pitcher wall. Flower yellow, flava scented.

Notes
This plant is often sold as a S. flava var. ornata, but I don't consider it to be one because the venation is limited in its extent. It is a nice plant, but if disturbed by repotting it will create at least one deformed pitcher before settling back into growth. The deformation is unusual - the pitcher looks crinkled or has impressions like the tube has been pushed in by someones' thumb.

Sarracenia flava var. maxima - Honeysuckle Road, Harleyville, NC




Data at a glance...

Latin name                     Sarracenia flava var. maxima
Clone name                    TBA - Harleyville clones for now
Acquired                         Summer, 2009.
Pitcher flush pattern      2: 1: P (Sp: Su: Au)
Growth strength             Strong
Division types                Unknown.

Pitcher description
Lid with filament under-developed, pinched, both surfaces green with no markings. Entire pitcher green, pale red markings present on sides of tube as pitcher develops and enlarges, fading once pitcher opens. Flower unknown.

Notes
Unfortunately, true S. flava var. maxima are quite scarce in Australia, and antho. free S. flava are nonexistant. This is somewhat ironic, as the first plants to make it to the nurseries here in any numbers were S. flava var. maxima, but they seem to have been lost to cultivation. One clone that was doing the rounds up in Sydney proved to have alata in it, and got red markings in full sun anyway. There is another nice clone held by members of the VCPS; my plant of that suffered a pot falling onto new pitchers, so it is not very photogenic this year. The plant shown here was grown from seed by VCPS member Ron Abernethy. I googled Hurleyville, NC, and was referred to Hurleyville NY in all cases. There is also no Honeysuckle Road in NC, at least if you believe Google Earth. I guess whoever put the data onto this plant wanted to protect their locality.

***DEC 2012 UPDATE***
A very kind gentleman wrote in a while ago and let me know that "Hurleyville" is actually a misspelling of Harleyville, NC.. Honeysuckle road looks like it runs through remnant stands of Longleaf Pine, but the habitat now looks quite fragmented on Google Earth.

Sarracenia flava var. cuprea - Gotcha! heavy vein







Data at a glance...

Latin name                           Sarracenia flava var. cuprea
Clone name                          Gotcha! heavy vein
Acquired                               Summer, 2009. 
Pitcher flush pattern            2: 1: P (Sp: Su: Au) 
Growth strength                   Strong
Division types                      Unknown.

Pitcher description
Lid with filament under-developed, upper surface cupreous with strong, darker venation, undersurface strongly veined. Throat with rugellii-type purple-red markings, radiating into red venation spreading into lid and upper tube. Pitcher tube golden green, upper third with strong red venation becoming progressively diffuse. Flower unknown.

Notes

See this blog entry for the story of this plant to date.

Saturday, December 4, 2010

Sarracenia flava var. rubricorpora - Sydney clone





Data at a glance...

Latin name                           Sarracenia flava var. rubricorpora
Clone name                          Sydney clone
Acquired                               Late winter, 2009. 
Pitcher flush pattern            1+: 0: P (Sp: Su: Au) 
Growth strength                   Slow but strong grower
Division types                      Meristem division induced by flowering, rhizome node growth not noted yet.

Pitcher description
Lid with filament under-developed, green-yellow with maroon venation and speckling in middle, lid pinched so that lid apex is raised. Throat without rugellii-type purple-red markings but thin vertical stripe present. Pitcher tube maroon, fading and becoming mottled if divided or repotted. Rear of throat maroon with green speckles. Flower yellow; sole flower deformed by abrupt change of conditions when moving plant from Sydney to Canberra.

Notes
This is a rather robust clone of S. flava var. rubricorpora that colours up nicely. I am unsure where it originated from, but was brought at a backyard nursery in Sydney. It is quite different to all other S. flava var. rubricorpora clones I am growing, and I suspect it is a purple-tube form. The slow but strong growth tends to support this - it produces 1 to 2 pitchers per year, maximum. It was, unfortunately, sold to me in a very small pot with the growing point crammed up against the edge of the pot. The meristem nonetheless divided, but the plant suffered until I could repot it. It is in a 120 mm (5") pot to stabilise for a few years, and will then go into a 200 (8") pot. I have seen better coloured examples of this clone at the nursery I brought it, and I am looking forward to seeing how it goes once it settles down.

Sarracenia flava var. ornata - Living Traps 'ornata'




Data at a glance...

Latin name                           Sarracenia flava var. ornata
Clone name                          Living Traps 'ornata' 
Acquired                               Summer 2010, ex Living Traps via Canberra retail nursery
Pitcher flush pattern            2+: few: P (Sp: Su: Au) 
Growth strength                   ?; immature
Division types                      No division noted as yet.

Pitcher description
Lid with filament under-developed, green-yellow with maroon venation, margin not undulating. Throat without rugellii-type purple-red markings, thin vertical stripe present and radiating onto lid and upper pitcher tube. Pitcher tube green-yellow, variably marked with maroon veins. Flower unknown.

Notes
This clone was, like its stable-mate, found at a local garden center. It too went into shock with Canberra's low humidity last season, but is doing well so far this season. I have not grown it enough to determine its growth habits, but it looks to have potential. Some of the veining had faded by the time the above photos were taken. Still, early days...

Sarracenia flava var. ornata - Living Traps heavy vein (+ var. maxima?)




Data at a glance...

Latin name                           Sarracenia flava var. ornata
Clone name                          Living Traps ornata heavy vein
Acquired                               Summer 2010, ex Living Traps via Canberra retail nursery
Pitcher flush pattern            3+: few: P (Sp: Su: Au) 
Growth strength                   ?; immature
Division types                      No division noted as yet.

Pitcher description
Lid with filament under-developed, green-yellow with maroon venation, margin not undulating. Throat without rugellii-type purple-red markings, thin vertical stripe present and radiating onto lid and upper pitcher tube. Pitcher tube green-yellow, marked with stong, vertical maroon veins. Flower unknown.

Notes
This clone was, surprisingly, found at a garden center. It struggled with Canberra's low humidity all last season, but has come up beautifully this year. I am not sure whether the green pitchers represent a growth point that was not happy with being repotted, or a TC mutation where veins have been lost. I am rather hoping for the latter - S. flava var. maxima are scarce in Australia for some reason. However, I am not holding my breath because new pitchers have tended to show weak venation that disappears quickly. Sarracenia flava var. ornata are also uncommon here - many people have a heavy veined plant that looks like S. flava, but which seems to have S. oreophila in it as well. Another, weakly veined plant grown here is sold as S. flava var. ornata, but I consider it S. flava var. flava at best. The two clones that Living Traps have released so far are a very welcome addition.

Sarracenia flava var. atropurpurea - Reytter clone 1



Data at a glance...

Latin name                           Sarracenia flava var. atropurpurea
Clone name                          Reytter's clone
Acquired                               Summer 2009, at the AUSCPS Mt Tomah sale day
Pitcher flush pattern            1-2: 1+(s): P (Sp: Su: Au) 
Growth strength                   Slow to grow and divide.
Division types                      Meristem division at flowering. No evidence of rhizome node division yet.

Pitcher description

Lid with filament under-developed, maroon red with veins weakly marked, margin not undulating. Throat with thin red thoat patch and venation extending into the upper pitcher and lid. Pitcher tube interior tan, tube externally maroon red. Pigment reduced to absent entirely if repotted. Flower yellow, petals narrow, margins undulating, flava type scent.

Notes

This clone originates from the collection of Phil Reytter, but its earlier history is unknown. It recently became obvious that a second of Phil's S. flava is a var. atropurpurea (ie. his var. cuprea), so this is clone 1 because it is the plant he has historically sold as var. atropurpurea. This and Reytter clone 2 are probably the most pure strains of S. flava var. atropurpurea present in Australia as mature plants. Like with other clones of this variety, clone 1 is not a particularly robust plant (clone 2 is stronger and gets a lot larger). It produces 1-2 pitchers in spring, followed by a few weak, floppy pitchers mid season. My plant has not divided via rhizome nodes as yet, only by meritstem division induced by flowering. I am eager to see how it goes in future, as I this year moved it into a 20 cm (9") pot that should provide a few years of stable growing conditions. This plant does not take kindly to root interference. I am quite partial to S. flava var. atropurpurea, so this plant has pride of place in the collection.

Sarracenia flava var. atropupurea - FRT 1-5







Data at a glance...

Latin name                           Sarracenia flava var. atropurpurea
Clone name                          FRT 1-5
Acquired                              Summer 2010, ex Fly Free Zone
Pitcher flush pattern           many: few: P (Sp: Su: Au) 
Growth strength                  Strong, good divider.
Division                                New growth point produced at each flowering

Notes
FRT 1-5 originated as seed distributed by Fred Howells as S. flava in the 1970s. It was germinated by David Martin who runs Fly Free Zone in Queensland. FRT 1-5 is his clone name, with FRT meaning flava red tube. This is a good clone, as growth is clumping and division rate is good to strong. Pitchers are also produced liberally until after midsummer. This is exceptional for a plant that is technically a S. flava var. atropurpurea - most clones of this variety are slow to divide and grow, and may throw 1-2 pitchers a year. Not so FRT 1-5. However, it does sulk if repotted - mine showed its full glory only at the start of the season because it was repotted this year. As the photos show, it is sulking and has lost most of its colour. Compare the bottom photo in the sequence on this page with those above to see what I mean.

Sarracenia flava var. cuprea - rosy red clone





Data at a glance...

Latin name                           Sarracenia flava var. cuprea
Clone name                          Rosy red
Acquired                               Spring 2009
Pitcher flush pattern            many: few: P (Sp: Su: Au) 
Growth strength                   Strong, good divider.
Division types                      Meristem division at each flowering and 1+ rhizome node growths annually

Pitcher description
Lid with filament under-developed, cupreous with venation entirely absent, margin not undulating. Throat with narrow vertical purple-red stripe, no rugellii type patch, few veins extending into the upper pitcher. Pithcer upper tube flushed light cuperous, remainder of pitcher green. Flower yellow, petals narrow, margins not undulating.

Notes
I am not sure where this clone originated, but I obtained it from noted Pinguicula grower Helmut Kibellis in Sydney. It is a very strong grower, producing flushes of pitchers in spring and early summer. Last year, it ended pitcher production with the summer equinox. This is probably the most prolific coppertop clone grown in Australia.

Sarracenia flava var. cuprea - Victorian clone






Data at a glance...

Latin name                           Sarracenia flava var. cuprea
Clone name                          Victorian clone
Acquired                               Spring 2010
Pitcher flush pattern            2+: 1+: P (Sp: Su: Au) 
Growth strength                   ? in my collection; appears strong.
Division types                      Unknown; evidence of meristem division at each flowering; ?rhizome rate

Pitcher description
Lid with filament well developed, cupreous with red venation on both surfaces, margin not undulating; throat with vertical purple-red stripe, no rugellii type patch, pigment radiating into lid and upper pitcher venation; upper tube flushed cuperous, fading with remainder of pitcher to yellow-green. Flower unknown.

Notes
A new plant to the colletion this year, I don't yet know its growth characteristics. However, the plants I saw in VCPS members' collections suggest growth is strong and vigorous. This clone was shown in the book Gardening with Carnivores and is widely grown in Victoria and South Australia. It is almost certainly a parent of the excellent cross S. flava var. cuprea x S. flava var. rugellii.

Sarracenia flava var. cuprea - clone 1 ex Gotcha! Plants





Data at a glance...
Latin name                           Sarracenia flava var. cuprea
Clone name                          Gotcha! coppertop clone 1
Acquired                               Spring 2009, ex Gotcha! Plants
Pitcher flush pattern            3: 1+: P (Sp: Su: Au) 
Growth strength                   Being determined
Division types                      Unknown; probably flower + rhizome node

Pitcher description
Lid with filament well developed, cupreous with red venation on both surfaces, margin undulating; throat pigmented purple-red; upper tube intially flushed cuperous, fading to green as pitcher matures. Flower unknown. Pitchers spring through early summer.

Notes
As this is the first year I have grown this plant, I don't completely know its growth characteristics. However, pitcher production entered summer this year, although I expect the flush to finish around the summer equinox. This clone is nice in that the copper colour seems to stay in the lid, with the pitcher only blushing copper as it opens. Whether this will change as the plant settles in remains to be seen. It also has nice markings on the underneath of the lid and a well developed lid filament.

Sarracenia flava var. cuprea x flava var. rugelli - ex Ron Abernethy





Sarracenia flava var. cuprea x S. flava var. rugelli
Data at a glance...
Latin name                           Sarracenia flava var. cuprea x S. flava var. rugelli
Clone name                          Ron's coppertop
Acquired                               Multiple, this specimen 2010 ex Triffid Park open day
Pitcher flush pattern            3: 1+: P (Sp: Su: Au) 
Growth strength                   Good to strong
Division types                      New growth point at flowering and 1+ rhizome node yearly.

Pitcher description
Lid with filament well developed, dark cupreous with darker venation on upper surface, under surface green with red venation, lid margin undulating. Throat pigmented purple-red with veins extending onto lid and pitcher tube; tube interior tan with veins, exterior cupreous with venation. Flower yellow, strong flava scent, petals broad in middle, margin undulating.

Notes
This is one of the best S. flava var. cuprea in Australian cultivation. It was bred from seed produced by Ron Abernethy, who tells me this cross was the result of his pollen brush slipping! A very lucky slip, if I may say so. I have two plants of this cross, one of which is still immature, but shows signs of being different to the clone shown here. Triffid Park had another clone of this cross at their nursery this year, but unfortunately no divisions were for sale. This latter plant is quite different, and photos of it are shown below.




Thursday, November 25, 2010

Pot sizes - size does matter for some things

One aspect of Sarracenia growing that is very often overlooked is what size pot to use. A lot of people I know use 12 cm or 14 cm pots almost exclusively - as did I - mainly because this was the advice given by Adrian Slack's first book, Carnivorous Plants. Here's one reason why I changed to bigger pots:




This plant is a Sarracenia flava that fits somewere between var. flava and var. ornata - its veined at any rate. I brought it about 6 months before the photo was taken from a carnivorous plant grower in Sydney that shall remain nameless. Just look at how cramped the poor plant is - the pot it was removed from (shown for scale) was 10 cm (4 inches) in diameter.



The second reason I changed is because of the speed at which the plants grow. Repotting plants every two years or less doesn't seem to let the plant settle and grow to its full potential - they just get over the last repotting and you are repotting them again. I am trying out 20 cm (8 inch) pots - they look just big enough to get in a few years of growth before repotting will be needed. Some other growers I know use even bigger pots, and grow some really stunning plants. Some more experimentation is in order...

Wednesday, November 24, 2010

And my favourite flava red tube

While I am in a posting mood - here is my favourite Sarracenia flava var. rubricorpora:




Another Queensland plant, this is sold by Fly Free Zone (FFZ) as FRT 1. FFZ's manager, David Martin, tells me he brought the plant many years back from Fred Howell. I tried to grow it once before at age 12, but our winters were not cold enough, and it languished for a year before dying. I like it because of its deep maroon colour - and these pictures were taken within a couple of months of the plant being split and repotted, then de-potted again as a dormant rhizome, flown to Canberra in a zip lock bag, left to sit for a few weeks and re-potted again. None of my other flava red tube came up this nicely, and they were treated far more gently. David's large plants of this clone are breathtaking - again, another clone that promises to only get better with age...

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!

Monday, November 22, 2010

Just a couple of more flava photos...

Been too busy with things - work, gardening, admiring the plants - and neglecting the blog. Went up to Sydney the other weekend and added another two plants to the collection - a nice veined flava var. cuprea and a different clone of flava var. rugelli from Jessica Biddlecombe - thanks Jessica! Both have been repotted and are settling in well. Also added a misting system to the hothouse to try and keep temperatures in check.

I also finally managed to get into town during lunch and got a new hard drive, so photo storage is now much easier. Here are a couple more photos, with a promise of more to come.


This is probably the best S. flava var. flava I have. It has some sentimental value, as I brought it at the ICPS conference in Sydney, 2008. It was grown from seed by Greg Bourke of Captive Exotics fame, and then donated to the Sydney Botanic Gardens for their displays. The gardens then sold cuttings during the conference, of which this piece was the best. The lid venation is really quite unique.


This plant is a nice Sarracenia flava var. rubricorpora - often referred to as a flava red tube. What makes this particular plant special is the lid, which reddens as the season progresses. This photo was taken a couple of weekends back, and it has reddened further since. Last year, the entire lid became almost solid red. This is its second season in my collection, and it is about 40 cm tall. It will be redder than this next year - it is half sulking because it was repotted a couple of months back. Still, it got some red to it, which is not always the case with var. rubricorpora that have just been repotted, so I should not complain.

More to come soon - next installment will be some interesting flava var. cuprea from Gotcha! Plants...

Thursday, November 11, 2010

Focus on: Sarracenia flava var. atropurpurea

Sarracenia flava var. atropurpurea is the all red form of Sarracenia flava. The maroon red colour and elegant curves of the pitcher give this plant some serious allure - grace, class and elegance. It has a well-earned reputation for being a finicky plant in cultivation - if it is not happy, it sulks by loosing the red from the pitchers. Growth of the pitchers is not necessarily affected, just the colour. The reason it does this is not known. My theory for the colour loss is that any abrupt change to the growing causes the plant to go into survival mode by loosing its pigments. In plants, red pigments act as a sunscreen that block out excess light and keep photosynthesis at a level suitable for the plant's growth rate. When we move a cultivated plant, the conditions it experiences change very sharply, as would happen if a plant is moved by a flood or dug up by an animal. Such things are major issues for a plant that would threaten its survival, and see the plant want to store as much energy as possible to re-grow. Removing the red pigments would be one way of storing up more energy for the rest of the growing season. Just a theory, but it seems logical...

I have got good results with the three clones of var. atropurpurea that I grow by trying to minimise as much disturbance to the plant as possible. I repot well before the plants break dormancy and start growing - dormant plants seem to be more tolerant of disturbance than ones that are growing. When repotting, I also use a gentle rose of water to wash soil from the roots, rather than remove this by hand. I also leave the plants be for the entire season once they start growing -so no moving the pots. A large pot will also allow these plants to grow undisturbed for as long as possible. I am thinking of using pine needles to keep the peat acid and make it last longer and increase the time between repottings.

As for the clones I grow, two have been up for a month now, while the other one is only opening its pitchers today. The best plant I have is one from Fly Free Zone in Queensland called "FRT 1-1". It is more vigorous than the other clones I have and makes very ornate, intensely red pitchers with a big mouth. The photo below is of the first pitcher of the season, which has not completely coloured up. The second pitcher of the season is already becoming darker in the pitcher tube, so it should be magnificent. This plant is also interesting in that its flower has a slight tinge of pink to it - this, and the concentrations of red pigment in the lid, suggest one of its ancestors was a S. leucophylla. I class it as a flava because of the flower and pitcher morphology - the issue with interfertile plants is often where to draw the line of defining a species.




 Sarracenia flava var. atropurpurea "FRT 1-1" - pitcher and flower

One of its siblings, "FRT 1-5", starts life as a flava var. cuprea lookalike, but soon becomes solidly red. Interestingly, this clone gets the cut throat of flava var. rugellii, something I have not seen in other plants. It has yellow flowers typical of S. flava. Both it and FRT 1-1 came from a batch of Sarracenia flava seed of unknown provinance sold by the late Fred Howell.




 Sarracenia flava var. atropurpurea "FRT 1-5"

The third clone I grow came from Phil Reytter at Lithgow. It gets solid maroon pitchers, but is a much more slender plant that is also slow to grow. Others have has issues with this clone keeping its colour, but stabilising it over a couple of seasons will help. Despite repotting, my plant has come up with the best pitchers yet - I'll post photos once the pitchers open and reach their potential.