photo: S. minor

[Steve D]

I have a major case of flu right now, but when I saw how pretty my Sarracenia looked in the early morning sun, I couldn't resist taking a few photos.


Sarracenia minor backlit by just-risen sun:



-Steve

[stevestewart]

Very beautiful photo and well grown plant!
I bet taking that picture was better for your flu than chicken soup!

Get well,
Steve Stewart

[Matt BS]

great shot!
Are you growing this in a greenhouse or sun room?
Do you move it outside for the summer?
I wonder how much I can push my plants.
Matt BS

[Steve D]

My plants are not grown outside because I live in an arid region (eastern New Mexico, US) with no natural trees (it is a high-altitude (4000 ft.) dry grassland prairie) and harsh, dessicating winds that often carry sand (a garden sandblasted to the ground is a disappointing sight) and bring hail. However, we often have nice days with little or no wind. The skies are often clear with few or no clouds and the sun at this altitude can be intense. For that reason a few years ago I began to plant my CP in insulating polyurethane foam planters, having lost plants in the past from overheated planting medium when direct sunlight strikes the side of a planter for a few hours. (By overheated I mean that the plants literally cooked to death; I may as well have placed them in an oven.)

Despite the low humidity and intense sun, I often take my plants outside. By being somewhat conservative with water (I tend to avoid the sitting-in-a-tray-of-water method) and giving plants perhaps a somewhat larger container and more planting medium than average, I encourage a deep and more robust root system that can suck up plenty of water when needed. My Venus Flytraps and Sarracenia can stay outside most or all of the day if there is little or no wind, my Cephalotus and Darlingtonia for a lesser time (the Ceph's pitchers close in the hot sun and low humidity, although the plant doesn't appear to be harmed).

The room that they are grown in used to be a concrete patio just outside the back door. It was walled and roofed with metal pipe and panel so that it became attached to the house, with the east and south walls composed mostly of many large old windows and sliding glass doors, and the south slope of the roof composed of multiwall polycarbonate sheeting. It has formed a nice sunroom/growing room, with the additional benefit that it helps to heat the house in the winter with the back door left open and sometimes a fan circulating the heated sunroom air into the house.

I feel that I "push my plants" fairly hard, with the exceptions that I don't give my few sundews the full intensity of the light nor leave them outside for more than a few hours and only on heavily clouded days, and the Ceph prefers the higher humidity of the grow room but easily tolerates a few hours outside.

My few Sarracenia and many VFTs like to be outside on days when the wind is not too harsh, and have adapted surprisingly well to the high-altitude prairie environment although I would not consider planting them in a bog garden outside unless they were in a very sheltered place, and even then they would be beaten down by the occasional hail (often 1-2 centimeters in diameter and sometimes up to 4 and 5 or more centimeters).

-Steve

[Matt BS]

thanks for reply Steve. Sounds like you must spend quite a bit of time moving plants!

[Steve D]

Every good day some of them get their turn outside to hunt, on a rotating basis, so I don't move many plants at any one time.

[glider14]

dunno how cold it gets over there Steve but have you tried Drosophyllum? it might like your conditions rather well
Alex