Fred's Carnivorous Plants and other oddities

[fredg]

This is the Darlingtonia house I erected earlier this year. The intention was to house all my Darlingtonia californica which it did for a month or two. Now I've overflowed back to my other greenhouses taking up almost as much room as originally. It's a wonderful hobby this plant thingy. 

[ranunculus]

Superb, Fred … so envious … I have just three small plants in a planter outside.  I really must collect more.

[brianw]

I too have found them very prolific under glass, frost free in my case, but have you tried them outside in the UK? How do they do then? I have seen them on the US west coast where they must get frost but not sure how the average UK winter will treat them. I grow them in spagnum moss with or without perlite, depending on my moss stocks.

[fredg]

I had them down to -18C (0F) in the winter of 2010-11 Brian. I never heat the greenhouses.

[Peter Maguire]

Just the odd couple of Darlingtonia then Fred? 

Are the trays of moss on a substrate such as perlite, or is the moss just sitting in rainwater?

[fredg]

I flood the trays Peter. Some have perlite mixed in some have just the pure Sphagnum. It's always a question of supply .

[brianw]

Can I ask why you grow them under glass? For me originally it was because I had several other bog plants with them, but they grow so well they had to have their own space. Apart from birds taking the moss for nesting I can't really see a reason to keep them covered now. Not sure it will be any more difficult keeping them wet outside than in. I have only seen them in light woodland conditions in the wild but they grow along streams too I think so likely to be less shaded.

[brianw]

Same subject line but different meaning. Does anyone here use a frame withing an existing greenhouse to get a warmer space for tender plants? My problem is where to keep these must have plants that flower for just a week or two a year (if I am lucky) and then stay getting dusty for the rest of the year. A sort of wardian case I am thinking of, but larger. Not just an end of the greenhouse partitioned off which I already do, frost free one end, unheated the other, but maybe 12C or so minimum.

[fredg]

Can I ask why you grow them under glass? For me originally it was because I had several other bog plants with them, but they grow so well they had to have their own space. Apart from birds taking the moss for nesting I can't really see a reason to keep them covered now. Not sure it will be any more difficult keeping them wet outside than in. I have only seen them in light woodland conditions in the wild but they grow along streams too I think so likely to be less shaded.

Brian,
They are under glass
1.  To preserve the sphagnum from birds. I've had  an 8" pot of sphagnum stripped totally in 30 minutes, I'd left it out while I attended to something else. The Blackbird that was still in the bottom of the pot looked at me very accusingly as if I'd supplied short measure.
2.  The appearance of the pitchers is far better.
3.  Much easier to look after, the glass also serves as a barrier to all the oddities that fall from nearby trees. It's amazing  the number of maggots and larvae that drop periodically, not to mention the aphids etc.
4.  I don't have to bend down so far - as I get older the bending is the easy bit, getting up again not so easy.
5.  It gives me somewhere to sit in bad weather.

[brianw]

Brian,
They are under glass
1.  To preserve the sphagnum from birds.
Agreed. maybe I will net them in spring and early summer. Lost most of a large autumn gentian pot a few years back.

3.  Much easier to look after, the glass also serves as a barrier to all the oddities that fall from nearby trees. It's amazing  the number of maggots and larvae that drop periodically, not to mention the aphids etc.
Not that close to trees so less of a problem, but slugs will be I guess.

4.  I don't have to bend down so far - as I get older the bending is the easy bit, getting up again not so easy.
5.  It gives me somewhere to sit in bad weather.
This seems to be for you not the plants ;-) I have a couple of raised (boxes on legs) plunge benches. Maybe they will have a new use in future.

[fredg]

Oh I can assure you the plants are much healthier under cover than outside.

[fredg]

An addition to the house.

I gave into temptation and bought a small 9v water pump and solar panel from Amazon for the extravagant amount of £5.89 ($9.11). I made a holding frame from scrap wood and a couple of metal angle brackets for the panel so it's angled at 45°. This I've clamped to the ridge of the greenhouse. The pump is located in one end of an existing double tray which contained a little peat and some perlite under the live sphagnum so I had to construct a small plastic housing ( the end ? of a quarter tray with small holes drilled in the 3 sides) and placed plastic scourers inside and outside the housing to filter out any particles big enough to block the system. The output is delivered to the other end of the tray via 9mm (internal) tubing.

I was surprised at the efficiency of this little pump. It readily comes to life in direct sunlight, even in February at this Northerly latitude (53.1435° N) and continues to run through light cloud. It will be interesting to see how it performs in the summer months.

Although I do not need to have this fitted for the well being of my Darlingtonia, they do very well without it, it shouldn't do any harm. It also kept me occupied for a while ( much to MrsG's appreciation). I'm already considering another to circulate the water in a double tray containing small pierced trays of seedlings.

[Maggi Young]

Fred, might the water in the tubing not get overly hot in the summer?

[fredg]

That would depend what you'd describe as overly hot Maggi. I recorded root temperatures over 38C last May when the water wasn't being pumped. Darlingtonia roots are not as temperature sensitive as some would have us believe.

[Maggi Young]

They're already hotter than I'd imagined then, Fred. I just thought that the water going through the tubing could heat up to a fair old temp. ....