Friday, October 6, 2017

Inching closer to the first 2017 Sarracenia flowers…

The Sarracenia collection in full bud, 2017

The first Sarra flower of the year is getting close – nearly all the plants have produced scapes that have started to nod forwards. Note the pond at upper middle is less developed than the rest of the ponds; these are the Sarracenia leucophylla.

Sarracenia flava var. ornata 'Biddlecombe's heavy vein', unopened flowers and pitchers Sarracenia flava var. maxima (Honeysuckle Road, Harleyville, NC) unopened pitchers and flowers

The first to open is going to be a coin-toss between S. flava var. ornata ‘Biddlecombe heavy vein’ and a nice clone of S. flava var. maxima from Honeysuckle Road, Harleyville.

Sarracenia flava var. atropurpurea flower buds, 2017-2018 season

The Sarracenia flava var. atropurpurea ‘FRT 1-1’ contingent may have been the first to appear, but they have been well and truly overtaken.

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As mentioned above, the Sarracenia leucophylla are usually always a little bit later to flower than the S. flava. These are the flower buds of cv. “Tarnok”. Its taken since 2009 when I first got them from Gotcha! Plants to get them to a decent population. I’m thinking it may be an idea to hybridize some of them with any overlapping S. flava varieties to see what I get.

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Elsewhere in the collection, the sundews are beginning to emerge from dormancy. These new leaves of D. binata only opened in the last few days. They are always a spectacular sight at this stage of their development…


Drosera filiformis ssp. filiformis

As are Drosera filiformis. These are the typical variety.

Pleiospilos Lithops

To close, here are some succulents – a flowering Pleiospilos nelii stone plant (which remarkably takes our winters with very little protection) and an unnamed Lithops.