How do you grow your Ceph's?

[kath]

Hi everyone!
My Ceph is growing really well at the moment, and so I'm curious to see how well everyone else's are going... Also curious as to the different ways of growing this plant!
What are your success stories and disaster stories? Does your plant do weird things?

I got my Ceph about a month ago. It cost me $22NZ and was shipped potted in the courier post mail. Some of it's potting mix was disturbed, but it was in good condition on arrival. I then waited one day and moved it to my Nana's, where it has been for one month...

Just after I got it, three of it's smaller pitchers and a few of it's leaves shriveled, so I removed them. Presumably this was from being moved and the slight potting soil disturbance?

When I got it it was growing 3 new pitchers. At the time they were just hairy balls on the end of thick fleshy stem things. Now the oldest one has completely grown and it's now growing 7 new pitchers, and no new leaves... The plant has 10 existent leaves though. It has three different growing points on the main plant, and these are all actively growing.

Having been in sunlight for a few hours yesterday, it's colour has evened out, revealing that it goes deep burgundy-maroon in full sun...

I have also noticed that it's growing a new baby off-shoot from the ground, will this eventually become a new plant?

I think that overall this means my plant is happy where it is...

[wadave]

Hi Kath,

Congratulations on your new cephalotus, it sounds nice and healthy.

Can you send us a few photos?

With regards to growing conditions; generally it doesn't like overly wet roots so most people use a fairly free draining soil mix.

I personally use 50:50 perlite and decomposted pine bark. Others use various combinations of sand, peat, bark, perlite etc. The best way to find what works in your area is to join a local NZ CP club.

They like lots of full sun, and enjoy good humidity. They can tolerate high 30's quite well and are ok with frost. With regards to temps below zero I will have to point you towards a few of the earlier posts as I don't have experience with that.

Other than that they are quite a hardly little plant in the right conditions.

Good luck.

Dave.

[necifix]

Mines been growing well for over a year now. Here are its conditions:

Windowsill
30-50% Humidity on average (no dome, it has been acclimated to this)
50:50 perlite to peat (looks like there is more peat than perlite at the top though)
Wet to dry cycles
Cool Tap water (low PPM, luckily. I just bring the plant to the faucet when the surface has been dry for a day or two, and then I give it a small flood, so the water is about 1.5 CM deep around the plant, which is on a mound, so, it makes a kind of "moat")
5 inch plastic pot
Average of 1.3 inch pitchers, biggest is about 1.5 inches (It's a German Giant, even though it's flowering ATM it should get bigger. I got it last year when it was going from baby pitchers to adult pitchers, so, it should still have some growing to do)
Winter temps: 45F to 60F (so, it gets a mild dormancy)
Summer temps: Probably about 70F to 90F.
Coloration: Light red when forming, deeper red as the pitchers age. Non carnivorous leaves that are under the clump of pitchers are a lime green but the ones sticking out are usually a very pronounced, deep, dark red

I live in Wisconsin. I'd take some pictures, but, eh, I don't really feel like it. The only one I have at the moment that is only a day old is one of the flower stalk, here it is: img90.imageshack.us/img90/150/2008042622665rp0.jpg

I took it with a web cam in low lighting, but, I have a decent camera I am going to take some better photos with in the future. When I bought my Cephalotus I had just started growing CPs and didn't know how hard it was to grow the plant. When I read about it, I was terrified. Much to my shock, I've done everything OPPOSITE to what professionals have told me and it has gone very well, I guess you can never know what will happen until you try in the CP world.

[Randy Zerr]

Cephalotus has always been one of my favorites. Next to the Venus flytrap and some Nepenthes there's nothing more carnivorous looking than Cephalotus. It's been a long time since I grew but this is my experience with this little gooney:
Started with a small cutting with only one pitcher and a segment of root, grew in a terrarium under lights in 6" pot with peat/perlite/sand for 3 yrs where it did so-so. Moved to Louisiana, grew outdoors in shade during warmer months which improved growth and color. Outgrew pot within 3 years. Retransplanted to 1 gallon pot with same type soil and took a few divisions / cuttings. Now in greenhouse. Grew much faster in greenhouse and larger, deeper pot. Top of the pot covered with pitchers in less than 2 years. Overall was a slow grower for me. In 9 years one small cutting produced somewhere around 15-20 mature crowns. the thick stoloniferous roots get long and even at the bottom of a 1 gallon pot they are crowded. I grew some of the divisions in pure peat moss and they seemed to do just as well as with the mix containing perlite. I think the deeper pots are a big plus with this one. I always used rain water too.