Post by cvistisen on Apr 18, 2007 7:08:48 GMT
Hello everyone,
I am just celebrating my first anniversary as a carnivorous plant grower and I am still filled with amazement every day when I when I inspect my plants. I am now growing seven different genuses of plants and numerous members from most genuses.
I really must thank the following people for convincing me that growing carnivorous plants was actually possible and that I could do it:
Michael Szesze - For explaning how easy it is to grow these plants by following four simple rules and by providing me with the exellent plants that I started my current collection with.
Jacob Farin and Jeff Dallas - For their huge emphasis on growing my temperate plants outside and supplying more fantastic plants for my collection.
Peter D'Amato - For his absolutely fabulus book 'The Savage Garden,' which is my goto book for carnivorous plant information and growing instructions.
The ICPS - For providing so much more information, their incredible newsletter and starting this forum.
I have always had a passion for raising tropical plants. Unfortunately, since I don't have a greenhouse, my house becomes very full in the fall. One of my three bedrooms is reserved for plants exclusively. A second bedroom is being set up to handle the overflow. I can't begin to tell you how much of a relief it will be when May finally arrives.
Before this last year my only experience growing carnivorous plants was with a VFT I purchased from a shop about 25 years ago. It had no growing instructions. It managed to live for about 5 months and died a slow agonizing death. I did everything I could think of to keep it alive. I gave it nice rich potting soil, plenty of fertilizer, and I was very careful not to overwater it. Is it any wonder it's taken me a quarter of a century to try again to grow these plants that so fascinated me as a child?
This spring I'm elated to say that all of my about twenty VFTs (I got a great deal on some great plants) have all succesfully come out of domancy and are looking absolutly awesome (and vicious.) My Sarracenias have overwintered beautifully and are looking awesome and all of my tropicals are growing like crazy and seem VERY happy.
My goals for this year are to set up a temperate bog garden (on a small scale to start with) and repot some of my Nepenthes which are also AWESOME.
Lastly I feel that I must thank my wife for her support of my new hobby. Here's an example of how lucky I am. When I brought the growing trays for my VFTs inside to get them started, I noticed some mosquito larvae in them after a week or so. She let me keep them so that I could feed them to my Drosera. Now that is support!
P.S. Nothing makes a better Marguarita than a genuine Michigan grown lime.
I am just celebrating my first anniversary as a carnivorous plant grower and I am still filled with amazement every day when I when I inspect my plants. I am now growing seven different genuses of plants and numerous members from most genuses.
I really must thank the following people for convincing me that growing carnivorous plants was actually possible and that I could do it:
Michael Szesze - For explaning how easy it is to grow these plants by following four simple rules and by providing me with the exellent plants that I started my current collection with.
Jacob Farin and Jeff Dallas - For their huge emphasis on growing my temperate plants outside and supplying more fantastic plants for my collection.
Peter D'Amato - For his absolutely fabulus book 'The Savage Garden,' which is my goto book for carnivorous plant information and growing instructions.
The ICPS - For providing so much more information, their incredible newsletter and starting this forum.
I have always had a passion for raising tropical plants. Unfortunately, since I don't have a greenhouse, my house becomes very full in the fall. One of my three bedrooms is reserved for plants exclusively. A second bedroom is being set up to handle the overflow. I can't begin to tell you how much of a relief it will be when May finally arrives.
Before this last year my only experience growing carnivorous plants was with a VFT I purchased from a shop about 25 years ago. It had no growing instructions. It managed to live for about 5 months and died a slow agonizing death. I did everything I could think of to keep it alive. I gave it nice rich potting soil, plenty of fertilizer, and I was very careful not to overwater it. Is it any wonder it's taken me a quarter of a century to try again to grow these plants that so fascinated me as a child?
This spring I'm elated to say that all of my about twenty VFTs (I got a great deal on some great plants) have all succesfully come out of domancy and are looking absolutly awesome (and vicious.) My Sarracenias have overwintered beautifully and are looking awesome and all of my tropicals are growing like crazy and seem VERY happy.
My goals for this year are to set up a temperate bog garden (on a small scale to start with) and repot some of my Nepenthes which are also AWESOME.
Lastly I feel that I must thank my wife for her support of my new hobby. Here's an example of how lucky I am. When I brought the growing trays for my VFTs inside to get them started, I noticed some mosquito larvae in them after a week or so. She let me keep them so that I could feed them to my Drosera. Now that is support!
P.S. Nothing makes a better Marguarita than a genuine Michigan grown lime.