Tuesday, August 31, 2010

A First

While sitting on the deck yesterday, grilling dinner, I noticed an emerged flower bud in one of my mini-bogs. Normally, this wouldn't be that big of a deal, as I always get a few flowers every fall. However, this is a flower from a plant I raised from seed, and it is the first flower I've ever got from a seed-raised plant, and it happened 30 months from germination. Now hopefully it blooms again in the spring as I think this is an excellent plant to breed. It's an open-pollinated alata x flava, that turns completely dark red. Here's some pics of the bud and the pitchers:
Photobucket

Sarracenia alata x flava - open-pollinated

Thursday, August 26, 2010

Hybrid Seedling

Here is a pic of the first new seedling to start showing some adult characteristics. It is mitchelliana x 'Wilkerson's Red', one of roughly 15 in total I have of this cross. I originally got the seeds from Wes Buckner in the fall of 2009. The seeds germinated around Christmas '09. This particular one looks to be really leaning towards the mitchelliana look. Of the 15 seedlings I have, this one, at this point, appears the most colorful. Some of its siblings are mostly green, others just appear strongly veined in red, while one looks like it might be mostly pure red. They are still pretty young, so it's tough to read too much into the coloration at this point, but I'm pleased with how they look so far.