D. regia grown as a highlander?

I grow my D. regia in an unheated greenhouse where temps approach freezing at night. During summer, night temps are in the low 50s F. The plants seem to do just fine and flower each year. I have never lost a D. regia plant growing under these conditions.

I have no experience growing them under lights with constant warm controlled temps.

Hello,

I would describe D. regia's temperature requirements as similar to those of Heliamphora and Darlingtonia Basically the longer they are in warm to hot conditions, the easier it will be for something to go wrong. Like the plants becoming stressed and attracting scales or other pests, or becoming diseased. If the plants are well established or have some hidden benefit like being in very fluffy mix that provides evaporative cooling, they could could be in warm to hot conditions for a while before becoming stressed.

Aloha Brian,
was reading this thread again thinking. So far I have managed to kill 2 kings. I have conditions that should make growing highland Neps possible at 3600 feet elevation. Days are in the 70F-80F range nights down to the 40F-60F range depending on season. Occasionally (every 10 years or so frost) and temps down to the mid 30s. On any given day I can pick South African flowers of the genus Protea and Leucadendron that seem to need the cold to do well here in Hawaii. However, both of my early attempts failed. The leaves turned black, even the new leaves as they were emerging. This was with the plants under my eaves getting shade from noon-evening. I began to suspect that UV light might be an issues at my elevation and latitude. So current test I built a small, cool, well ventilated greenhouse covered with a polycarbonate. It is supposed to absorb 90+ % of the UV light. So far I have been able to keep alive King number 3. Leaves are not burning. I have utilized your ideas of growing in live Sphagnum. Would it have been also useful to plant in unglazed ceramic pot to further increase cooling?

Also wondering if Dr. Bob Ziemer's growing conditions, under glass is also reducing effects of some UV. Your greenhouse freaked my wife out some and now she doest want me to to make one out of sliding glass doors (and I had already found several)

My UV light experiment seem to be successful, although I still need to grow species like D. adelea in more shade.......

Mahalo,
Mach Fukada

I have several pots of this now, and have found that they do better in lower humidity than many other Drosera, (same with pygmy Dros.). Also, I've moved them from sphagnum and peat mixes (which can get too wet, and stay too wet too long) to all NJ Pine Barrens sand, both in deep pots and shallow ones; it doesn't seem to make any difference so far. High humidity seems to cause these plants to rot very quickly. Once they're established, they seem to take as much direct sunlight as you can give them, UV and all. During the summer, I set mine outside by my lawn on the ground, where they get direct sunlight nearly all day.

I was surprised to see how well they respond to frequent feeding. I feed them frozen tubiflex worms that have been thawed out. They are known as "blood worms" in the pet stores, and you can get them in a package of small blister packs where you can pop them out and thaw them in a small container for a few minutes, and then spread them on the leaves. Every part of the dewy leaf can handle being fed. The entire leaf curls up like a corkscrew! I feed as many leaves that are dewy. After a few months of doing this, I've noticed that the base of the plants swell, and several fleshy new roots form. I have them under lights in my basement in NJ, where it's fairly cool, both day and night.

Last year, I had one on my deck where it got a little hot. The main growth point turned brown and died, but when I pulled it out of the pot, I saw the roots still had pink/white tips to them, so I re potted it, and placed it in this sand, and put it out on the lawn; it resumed producing a new growth point within 6 weeks, and is still growing strong. - Rich

Brian my friend,

I grow my regia in a case in an unheated greenhouse.
Pots are 8" squares.
Case size is 6ft x 2.5ft x 2ft.
I use various composts from peat/sand/grit to peat/perlite.
I have never used live sphagnum.
The plants bounce of the roof (2.5ft) annually.

Watering is on the tray method and they stand in water for about 8 months of the year along with my Cephalotus.


Some of the plants last spring (2008)

I have noticed that tubiflex worms doesn't get all moldy and full of mildew like insects do when feeding your plants; also, a watered down solution of fish emulsion works well on Pings, and can be sprayed directly on their leaves during their active growing stage, and they will respond by producing flowers within a few weeks. - Rich