Darlingtonia setup using a pond

[trimen1000]

I spent some time examining how they naturally grow and I've been considering setting up a little pond with a waterfall for some CPs (waterfall not particularly being for the CPs, though that will help the water circulation for the Darlingtonia). The main one, of course, is the Darlingtonia.

Has anyone setup a Darlingtonia bed next to a pond before? I've been trying to consider how to set it up and thought it would be nice to see how someone else has done it before.

The two major things that I've been considering is how to contain the soil and where exactly in the pond to put them. I was thinking that they should be close to where the waterfall lands in the pond so that the waterfall pushes more water through the soil. I was thinking that I could plant them in LFS and use mesh to hold the soil in.

[pitcherfreak]

Hi, now I haven't seen darlingtonia growing this way but I have seen sarra's grown in a pond. The pond was deep and had little circulation but looked well aerated. The plants were in a pine bark and sphagnum mix in solid plastic pots. The pots were placed in polystyrene boxes are the six pots and polystyrene tray are floated in the pond the trays have holes and float low in the water, about a quarter in 3/4 out. These were free floating and blew around the pond but you could tie it the shore if you wanted to keep it in place. The only problem the owner had was heavy wind can blow the tray over necessitating the recovery of plants from the bottom of the pond. Hope this is some help.

Paul

[Aidan]

Our esteemed Admin Bob posted the following to CPUK way back in 2003. Hopefully he won't mind me quoting him here:

Below is an example of the use of Darlingtonia as a landscape plant in an urban setting. The United Indian Health Services building in Arcata, California, USA has created a completely artifical stream that runs through a central plaza, under the building, and around its perimeter. The water is then pumped back to the beginning of the stream. Clumps of Darlingtonia and other riparian plants are interspersed throughout the 'stream' system, making a lovely setting.

[ICPS-bob]

Thanks, Aidan.

Here is another example at the Blue Lake Casino, in Blue Lake, California. The plants survived for about 8 months and flowered -- until some Casino fool put soap in the waterfall to enjoy the bubbles. They decided not to replace the Darlingtonia.
.

[trimen1000]

Was it done by simply putting the pots into the water? Or was it something else?

[SundeWCitY]

The way a friend of mine grows them is in a large pond basket full of pure spagnum the pot was surrounded by large rocks and the water from the waterfall kept running past it to keep the roots cool. the plant is halfway in water and half out. the darlingtonias seem to be doing fine! if i get out to his green house i will post a picture of is setup, i may be going out to there this saturday! good luck!!

[Deleted]

ive seen it done one way in canada when i went and that was they planted the cobras in pots then put the pots in the ground right next to a pond then they cut a small piece of the side of the pond out and put tarp surrounding the cobras as so the water would flow to them also.

[waldobrits]

i have a idea that might just work... for this to work i will use 2 sizes of basins... one will be the smaller one that will be used to plant the cps' in and the other will be larger and will keep the water..... the top basin will stand directly above the bigger basin, standing on some rocks or a plastic'' try-pod'' of some sorts... using a small fish pond pump ( most can adjust how strong they pump) the water will be pumped up to the top and drain back into the larger bottom basin in that way you can have the roots kept cool all the time and well you don't have to worry about the plant not having enough water or if the roots are to warm..... any thoughts that you can add will be more than welcome...

[Not a Number]

Steve Millar (aka Bugweed) in California uses a similar system for his Darlingtonia and says they absolutely thrive with this method. He said it beats the standard tray method with ice cubes on hot days. As I recall he keeps his Darlingtonia pots out of the water tray.

See this thread on TerraForums for ideas on circulating bogs:

www.terraforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=106887

[kby]

The setup I'm using (albeit only for a month--but the plant I got seems to have started growing pretty fast--unfortunately burned the top of the thus far one larger pitcher when the CFL floodlight bracket came loose and the bulb lens rested on the top :-( --in about 2 months has one "large" (about 8"--height of plant), one small,is and two to three more on the way) is as follows: I had a plastic tray from the market that they sell party veggie trays in, which usually has a center compartment for the dip. I cut the bottom out of that and it is large enough to support about a 5" pot, which is OK for this. I use Barry's recommendation for a loose medium so it's mostly perlite with a little NZ sphagnum. However, the tray is resting on top (if I were less lazy I would work on removing the lid, but right now it's just propped open & the light is clamped on it--hence the lighting accident above) the opening of one of those thermoelectric hot/cold containers that runs off of 12V. There's the smallest fountain pump I can get in there and the water from the pot in the tray resting on top drains down into this container and is pumped up by the pump to circulate through the media. I have a simple valve--takes some fiddling and could be improved on but more or less works--to control the water flow from the pump up so it keeps flowing through the pot but doesn't overflow or go dry.

I did accidentally once put the switch on heat...fortunately the water evaporated fairly soon so no permanent damage was done...this is obviously not the intent. I've now switched off the cooling now as it's in a cool room and the plant is established, to see if I can keep from the cooling except during the middle of summer. The pump still circulates water, though.

[echosaisis]

beautiful shots!