Floating gardens, simple hydroponics with living soil for difficult plants

[partisangardener]

Second step to fix one piece of the plastic tube over the part which should move over the mossy side of the planter.

[partisangardener]

Thirdly to bend the other side of the rod which is going to be pushed into the ground.

[partisangardener]

And that is the result on my floating planter with some Cypripedium reginae and other plants on it.

I hope this will be the final attempt. Round ones never had this issue.

[fermi de Sousa]

Hi Axel,
this entire thread is fascinating.
When I get time (quando, quando, quando) I would love to try this sort of thing.
This is possibly the year to do it as we are into our third La Nina in a row and the moisture has been incredible,
cheers
fermi

[partisangardener]

Thank you very much for your encouragement Fermi.
I have increased my effort last winter a lot and most of the successes are not yet obvious enough to promote this method. Especially rare seeds take some time to grow into plain visible size
I hope this will be more evident next year to other plant lovers.

[partisangardener]

The species Drosophyllum seems to be difficult for some plant-enthusiasts.
I had a first try which was long term successful after a friend did not listen to my suggestions and set the trivet continually under water.
The doubled their size in a few weeks and so I kept them this way all year round.
They flowered several times a year and I harvested plenty of seeds.
They were in big high ceramic pots and since these were after a re-potting too big for my limited space and so I donated them to our local botanical garden.

On one of my floating islands without substrate I tried to germinate different species of peat-land plants on just some fleece.
Drosophyllum seeds ended there too. The first to germinate died in the first winter, probably of hunger.
Some of the seeds started in the third year and all the other plants looked quite undernourished, so I transplanted them with the whole fleece onto about 15 mm
of old substrate from a Drosophyllum-pot which I got back from my friend, (they died after the third year).
They took it well and this time they look not too bad. Even some more seedlings germinated, so all in all there are 5 plants an this little island.

I wonder if it is possible to grow them with so little substrate.
I am well aware that their habitat looks quite different, but I do not have fog every morning and sometimes there might be water veins underground where they grow.
Here I posted some of my previous experience in the high planters.
https://icps.proboards.com/thread/7249/drosophyllum-mycorrhiza

And this is my just running experiment with next to none substrate. Very flat. I hope they survive the first winter.

[partisangardener]

After the first strong frost some unlikely plants survived as it seems.
I used old substrate mixture from a Drosophyllum pot and lo seeds from it germinated. I left them outside because there were seeds of other plants on this island which I wanted to leave outside.
Now everything defrosted and the Drosophyllum seedlings don't look dead. This changed my mind. I keep them now inside to check if they really survived this -15C° for some days.

The Drosophyllum on the first island , are of course in my frost free studio, since November.
At the moment it rains all the time and I have no pictures yet.
I heard sometimes they survive frost periods, but not that strong. I will see if they make again dewdrops.

[partisangardener]

Thats  what the Drosos looked like today.

[partisangardener]

Cistus laurifolius on these islands don`t look dead yet.

[partisangardener]

My Cephalotus settings in their special ceramic environments looked very spectacular, but this hot summer revealed: I have to look for them even more than once a week after them.
https://www.srgc.org.uk/forum/index.php?topic=13701.15
So I decided to move them to a floating system. Since mid summer I have them on some islands. The little Ulmus parvifolia "Hokkaido" like the new situation too.
It will take another spring or maybe even summer to make them as attractive as they were on the ceramic planter if ever.
But there I have to look after them every other month or so. Even in the heat of nowadays summer heat.

Surprisingly this is the only island where Sphagnum moss has some problem. It did not take off at once. Quite the contrary it grew backwards.
I will observe how it fares the coming year.

[partisangardener]

Another little highlight is the last survivor from a full pot of Darlingtonia/Oregon mountain form.
They all died while in care from a drought spell.
I got it back as a pot full of brown shriveled specimens. This pot stood one year always in some water looking dead.
The next spring I discovered some life shoot, which I I transplanted to a small island with some Cephalotus seedling.
It is still quite small but has a beautiful color.
So don't give up too early especially with Darlingtonia.
 

[partisangardener]

A friend of mine found this interesting hydroponic system from Jeong-Pil Lee.
https://cpn.carnivorousplants.org/articles/CPNv50n1p29_31.pdf
Jeong-Pil Lee found an easy solution for a usually difficult plant, which tends to die after the first flowering and seed setting.

Most notable I find his cooling cloth which might be used efficiently for other plants like Darlingtonia to keep their roots cool.
Mr. Jeong-Pil Lee mentioned a problem in an outdoor situation, that it might fill the water-reservoir up, and the roots suffocate in this case.
This could be helped with some holes at the optimum level.

And while I was thinking  about it: I would rub some dried Moss (Hypnum f.e.) onto the cloth, it will then soon cover the whole cloth and look like a mossy tree trunk  with a dewy crown.

[partisangardener]

The Drosophyllum "Frostheroes" are again growing. Light level  was indoor very low. I put some Aluminum foil behind it to increase light level.
-15 for some days is more than I supposed the might survive
Picture from today.

[partisangardener]

Last winter I sowed some Primula seeds from Gabriela (Yours Botanically inclined). It was a European species and a very similar one from Canada.
One is Primula frondosa (Europe) the other is Primula mistassinica (Canada)
Most of the seeds I kept in the fridge until last fall. This ones will germinate this spring.

The first set fared very good in my wet environment. I expect some flowers.
Thank you Gabriela lots of other seeds from you are waiting for spring.

[partisangardener]

One of my smaller islands on my windowsill (15 cm). I started this one in December, because I needed some space for new Pygmy Drosera gemmae. The Utricularia is U. monanthos mostly hardy under my conditions (6b) but a backup is never a mistake.
While eating a exeptionally good Strawberry I saved one nut and lo it germinated there. Must be transplanted soon.
Such places are always handy