Balcony grown Cephalotus - two different forms

[cindy]

Recent growing conditions
Temperature range: 25C to 35C
Humidity range: 35% to 80%
Light range: Bright shade to several hours of direct sunlight in the afternoon

Clone A, March'09


Clone A, May'09 (with camera flash)






Clone A, May'09 (under FL for comparison of the actual colour under different lighting)








Leaf stalks are also colouring up.

[cindy]

Another form, grown under similar conditions. It does not colour up as readily but gives larger pitchers.

Clone B, March'09


Clone B, May'09 (with camera flash)

[sarracenialover]

Very nice plants. What kind of pots were they grown in?

[cindy]

Hi Taylor,

Those are glazed ceramic pots. It was a bad move, because of the way they are shaped I'll have to smash them in order to repot the whole plant later on.

[sarracenialover]

Yeah, I guess you're right.

[jj1109]

beautiful shots Cindy!

I really have to get one of those... maybe next time from Triffid Park.

[SundeWCitY]

out of this world ! so cant wait for mine to get bigger!!!! they look amazing big! small too but bigger is better

[sarracenialover]

Wait, you don't just hold the pot upside down to take the plant out? Are you saying that you get the plant out by breaking the whole pot/

[petesredtraps]

Cephs hate root disturbance, and it's also very unhealthy to turn them upside down as the pitchers will lose their fluid. It would be a shame to bust those nice looking pots. Why not take a couple of small gardening trowels and try to gently lift the plant out of the pot keeping as much substrate aroung the root base as possible.

[quogue]

I use an M7 Bayonet to basically cut the dirt around the edges of the pot and lever out the clump (sometimes with a big spoon instead) without disturbing the roots or turning upside down or breaking the pot.
Been doing that with Cephs in quite similar pots for years.

Great-looking plants Cindy! I am totally flabbergasted as to how they grow in such Hot temps in direct sunlight...
I'm at a loss for words!

[cindy]

quogue,

You might have already seen this on TF. The pic was taken in July. The day temperatures ranged between 33 to 35C. Night temperatures were around 27-29C.

[quogue]

Actually, I haven't seen those before Cindy.
Now I am even more flabbergasted

Really great-looking plants and nice photography too!

I still just don't get it how they grow so nicely in such high temps!

I don't get it

[cindy]

Hi quogue,

I guess I got the hang of growing them at my balcony, without having to give them an air-conditioned surrounding as a number of growers here in Singapore do. Of course, I don't deny that it took me years to get to this level of success but honestly, I still don't know what worked. Perhaps the old advice did...don't fix it when it ain't broken i.e. just leave the plants alone. ;D

There are differences in growth rate during the different times of the year. We have got several monsoon seasons which are most welcomed by the Cephs. During the hottest and driest period, they often react by stopping growth altogether....only to resume by sending out new offshoots. I have not experienced the famous sudden death syndrome although I must say that I am careful to keep their pots i.e. root region shaded during the hottest months. I heard from Phill Mann that the plants in the wild die down to nearly nothing in the heat of the WA summer (~40C), but return from the rhizomes when autumn comes.

[gardenofeden]

Aug 1, 2009 19:55:25 GMT quogue said:

I still just don't get it how they grow so nicely in such high temps!

I don't get it

Cephalotus grow fine at those temperatures, my greenhouse-grown plants get upto 35-37C during the height of summer. They sometimes slow down a bit at those temps, but get going again when temps drop again in the autumn

[jj1109]

well, Western Australia is a pretty hot place, isn't it?

I have no idea what the weather conditions are in the small part of WA these guys call home are though