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Carniverous plants have a lot to offer


Carniverous plants have a lot to offer (Sarracenia x catesbaei)

This was the start of a rather unusual gardening experiment that largely evolved from being told it couldn't be done in a north-facing location outside at 600ft. This red-flowering carnivorous plant is one of the pitcher plant cultivars and I don't know anything about where it comes from. It's not invasive in my garden, I just like the look of it and it's easy to grow. What more could you wish for from any plant?



Comments on this photo

 

An amazing plant.

23 Mar, 2008

 

I love these plants !! My pitcher plant never bloomed (in 3 years) and then one winter it died. Very nice !!

23 Mar, 2008

 

Love these plants, I'd like to have this variety too. Love the blooms.

24 Mar, 2008

 

!!!Never seen this plant b4 ?

24 Mar, 2008

 

I knew when I first saw the picture of the drooped flower heads that it was familiar... It is what we called a "Pitcher plant" The insects crawl into the tubular leaves (which are usually full of water) and drown because of the plant hairs that grow inward not allowing the insect to pass them to crawl out of the "pitcher" ..they exhaust themselves...fall back into the acidic water and are digested by the plant. Devilishly simple..but effective. competition for food in the bogs can be serious. The blooms are amazing though!! The plant I am most familiar with has white flowers. Do the blooms smell like carrion?

24 Mar, 2008

 

forgot to mention they are the provincial flower emblem of Newfoundland and Labrador. The main difference that I can see is that the pitchers are quite up reaching on this var. but the pitcher plant that is a wild flower in swamps and bogs as far west as Ontario have the pitchers almost horizontal from the base. Not at all the exotica that appears on the wikipedia page... one thing I did see while perrusing was Darlingtonia californica...have you seen that?

24 Mar, 2008

 

I bought one of these plants today. The people at the nursery knew absolutely nothing about it so I'm not sure how to take care of it. I live on Moreton Bay in South East Queensland (Australia) and at present it's very hot and humid but this plant seems to be thriving on it.

The soil is moist and I've put it (in it's pot), on top of a saucer in a shallow bowl of water beside other plants by a northern facing window in my kitchen. I figure it will get plenty of indirect moisture, plenty of light without direct sun, and maybe the odd fruit fly from the fruit bowl.

Am I doing the right thing? Has anyone any hints how I should look after this beautiful plant (sans flower at present) in the sub-tropics?

Any help would be most appreciated.

6 Jan, 2009

 

Neetabug,
Treat as if they were bog plants. Compost constantly moist so they like heaps of humidity. Should be peat. Remember they use the compost for anchorage only.

BTW Mine went down to MINUS NINE last night and don't appear to have been troubled by it!!!!! (They originate from Florida) Plants are highly resilient things......

6 Jan, 2009




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This photo was taken at Winsford Walled Gardens.

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