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Post by brokken on Feb 6, 2008 16:51:09 GMT
Hi there,
This will be only my third winter growing sarracenia, so I still have some questions:
Last year my S.Leuco put out about 14 flowers. Though it had a healthy pitcher population it was not as showy or large as the year before, when I only had two flowers. Furthermore, the second season of pitchers was minimal. My question is:
Does it pay to cut off flower buds in sarracenia like it does Dionaea?
It would seem obvious that flowering zaps some vigor from the plant, but I wanted to check with some of the experts here about your experience regarding a possible inverse ratio between the number of flowers versus the size and number of pitchers.
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Post by Aidan on Feb 6, 2008 17:05:53 GMT
Mature Sarracenia are big, strong plants with significant energy reserves stored in their rhizomes. You may see some more leaf growth growth by removing flowers, but it is unlikely to make a startling difference. By the time that you see the bud, the plant has already expended effort in growing it over the dormant period.
I prefer to see the flowers for a few weeks and a S. leucophylla with fourteen flowers will be a quite spectacular sight.
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Post by Fred P on Feb 6, 2008 17:25:34 GMT
I agree with Aidan...the flowers are wonderful. This past spring, I had a single plant of S.Flava (10 years old with multiple crowns) put on a great show of 38 flowers in one large pot. It was beautiful! I had family and neighbors stopping by to see them (along with all the others in bloom). I've also experimented with cutting off flower stems and again I agree with Aidan; I haven't really seen any growth difference.
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Post by Alexis on Feb 6, 2008 21:24:31 GMT
I've heard anecdotal stories that leucophylla in particular produces a few less pitchers when it flowers profusely.
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Post by pitcherfreak on Feb 7, 2008 3:38:17 GMT
I have a friend that swears that removing excess flowers encourages further pitcher growth and it does stand to reason. The first attempt was and accident where a friend dropped a plant of his snapping the buds off
Like others I like to leave my flowers on.
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Post by brokken on Mar 22, 2008 17:46:35 GMT
It seems like this year will be no different: 17 flower buds from S. leuco:  |
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Post by trimen1000 on Mar 23, 2008 21:56:54 GMT
Interesting that your plants are so much further along than mine. I'm just about to see the first flowers from S. flava, and have just the beginings of pitchers from a certain species. I'd expect mine (living closer to the equator) to be further.
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Post by ICPS-bob on Mar 24, 2008 3:49:49 GMT
The shadow looks like a very large cat is thinking about using your planter for its cat box.  |
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Post by brokken on Mar 24, 2008 5:03:34 GMT
The shadow looks like a very large cat is thinking about using your planter for its cat box. It's actually a really large dog. I thought it made for good composition.  |
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