Saturday, December 1, 2012

Outdoor growing – bring on the colour!

outdoors and loving it

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!

outdoors and loving it_2

Here is a closer view of some very happy and beautiful looking plants. They are mostly FRT 1-5, a really good clone of Sarracenia flava var. atropurpurea. They really fill in to a solid burgundy in the sun, and are looking even redder than when the photo was taken last week. To boot, this clone is a good divider and quite compact in rhizome growth. They are being grown in Sphagnum. One modification I will make to my future trays is to make them taller – the full sun literally toasts the upper layers of the Sphagnum, while the shade created by a taller tray (at back of photo) that is covering the top of the pots has seen the Sphagnum run riot. Other Sarracenia in this selection are the Triffid park and Sydney clones of S. flava var. rubricorpora, two coppertop clones (S. flava var. cuprea x flava var. rugellii and S. flava var cuprea “F1”) and two clones of S. flava var. flava, including a new, very tall clone I picked up at the last AUSCPS meeting in Sydney. Also note the VFT flowers in the front – I will be crossing some of the better clones to try growing them from seed.

FRT 1-5

Here is a closer view of one of the darker looking FRT 1-5’s. This, and FRT 1-1 are just excellent in every way. Next year, I will be moving the entire collection outside, so I am really looking forward to seeing how FRT 1-1 performs in full sun. In the background you can more clearly see the coppertop clones, at left is F1 and S. flava var. cuprea x rugellii is behind the FRT 1-5. These clones look entirely different in the greenhouse, but out here they have really filled in with colour. Since this photo was taken, both have flushed copper down the pitcher tube and filled in with beautiful venation, to the point where they are almost identical.