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Post by astaroth1990 on Dec 14, 2013 1:51:18 GMT
Hi everyone! I've got a potential problem: My sarracenia flava is flowering for the first time. Actually, it started the season sending up a few traps,then it stopped, grew 2 phyllodia, and now it's sending up a flower stalk. Before the season started, I moved it into a bigger pot, but other than that, all conditions are the same. My concern is that this erratic behavior will hurt my plant, because they're supposed to flower as first thing in spring. Any thoughts? I'm in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Thanks!
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Post by hcarlton on Dec 14, 2013 7:34:24 GMT
Likely not. If it's still well within the growing season for you there, plants will occasionally do odd things. My S. oreophila regularly flowers as the very last thing it does before going dormant...
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Post by astaroth1990 on Dec 14, 2013 14:30:52 GMT
That's good to know! Thanks hcarlton!
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Post by Not a Number on Dec 14, 2013 17:53:13 GMT
I realize you are below the equator. It is also not unusual to get some flowers in the late fall/early winter. Sometimes they will blossom before the plant goes dormant. Other times the plant will go dormant while the flower is still in development. In these cases the flower usually dies before growth resumes. I've never had any of the late flowers produce seed. The plant always goes dormant before that can happen.
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Post by hcarlton on Dec 15, 2013 6:29:45 GMT
I have had one late flower produce seed ( and 120 seedlings from that, too.....), but it's not common. It'll be a pretty extra for a while unless you're worried about it draining the plant, in which case you can always cut it off, though my own plants never seem to be worse for wear.
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Post by astaroth1990 on Dec 15, 2013 16:57:13 GMT
Summer didn't even start yet, so I guess the flower won't drain de plant, it's just a little late...besize, it's got lots of light, so I don't think it'll be a problem. I just wanted to check.
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Post by Dave Evans on Jan 10, 2014 23:09:18 GMT
Actually, these kinds of flowers are early. As the plant goes dormant, it sets the flower buds in the apical meristem. Then they wait there over winter. Unless they start growing early. If it isn't quite cold enough, they can start growing early before the winter. Or if those particular buds didn't receive/produce enough of the chemical that keeps them dormant over winter they can start growing early even if it is cold enough for the plants to be dormant.
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Post by astaroth1990 on Jan 21, 2014 1:01:52 GMT
Be it as it may, it's petals dried out before it opened up, and it didn't have any polen. I guess it's due to an extremely dry and hot couple of weeks we had But well, I wasn't very interested in the seeds either way, so I'll have to wait till next year.
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Post by sykosarah on Jan 21, 2014 1:35:22 GMT
The dryness didn't hurt the plant?
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Post by hcarlton on Jan 21, 2014 5:56:27 GMT
Flowers are more sensitive than anything else on a Sarracenia. They may freeze, or dry out, and die while the rest of the plant plugs along just fine. Happens a lot here in dry CO.
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