tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-68261689040852325652024-02-19T09:19:46.000-08:00The Sarracenia BlogThe trials and tribulations of trying to successfully grow Sarracenia in Wisconsin.Aaronhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16145815042088629503noreply@blogger.comBlogger39125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6826168904085232565.post-58740550337549195572011-12-31T07:09:00.000-08:002011-12-31T07:09:38.095-08:00It's Been Awhile, Part 2Finally I am back with another post. The past few months have seen a lot of turmoil, for lack of a better word, but things look to be settling down now. Anyway, we've been experiencing a most of unusual of winters here in NW WI so far. As of today, there is no snow on the ground. We've had a couple of minor snow events, but temperatures have remained mild enough that the snows we've gotten have melted after a few days. Even today, the high is supposed to be 40, although it looks like colder temps will finally be moving in. I moved my plants into the garage a little after Thanksgiving, and over the past 2 weeks I've trimmed off dead foliage here and there, when I had some free time. I also finally got my seeds into stratification in the garage. I found these plastic christmas ornament storage boxes at walmart, for $5 each, and I thought, how perfect for starting seeds. They have a clear plastic hinged lid, and 20 depressions for holding ornaments. I bought 2 and filled each depression with live sphagnum that I ran through the blender first. It's probably not the most space-efficient method, but with only 2 it's not a big deal.
Back in October I visited one of Wisconsin's State Natural Areas, called the Namekagon Fen. It's about a 3 hour drive north of me and it's a place I've been to once before, a few years ago. It's a really pristine wetland kind of out in the middle of nowhere (you have to drive down a dirt road a few miles to get to it). It has a very large population of pitcher plants in it, so much so that you pretty much have to watch each step to avoid stepping on them. Also, being a sphagnum/sedge bog, it is very wet and you sink at least above your ankles while walking around. I also some sundews in there, the ones I saw were all submerged on Sphagnum at the edges of open water. And according a US Forest Service website <a href="http://www.fs.fed.us/wildflowers/regions/eastern/Namekagon/index.shtml"></a> there is a large population of Pogonia and Calopogon bog orchids. Unfortunately, the two times I've been there have been past the blooming period for the orchids and pitcher plants. Hopefully I can make it up there in late June/early July of this upcoming year. Here are some of the pics I took in October:
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi5wOsUyZp_J5Rw-WRV_GWdWjPuggZiushVIr6As73pobhm3Ts5LG91WIqOaIqUnH3-67k1w8w7odAkJpcrbq5gz6TdpCkrXWp8O4uwBnbSRSsrBxTjlxAqDLNIshva3xpJBJ3eZL9_BzI/s1600/aaa.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear:left; float:left;margin-right:1em; margin-bottom:1em"><img border="0" height="214" width="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi5wOsUyZp_J5Rw-WRV_GWdWjPuggZiushVIr6As73pobhm3Ts5LG91WIqOaIqUnH3-67k1w8w7odAkJpcrbq5gz6TdpCkrXWp8O4uwBnbSRSsrBxTjlxAqDLNIshva3xpJBJ3eZL9_BzI/s320/aaa.jpg" /></a></div>
A landscape shot showing the overall nature of the Namekagon Fen.
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLHcCuepba-XQvULmRqZaYrTuEqLcdPYUvhCUb_cXGkWSUU2UYwexcN3ttvTVT7G24gpgrmH1l9heFrGC29VBnnvoL5xUMNOVw17P1X7aVuqOVj5zi5LpAdsbfsZQpxRHY-pIeL97LK_o/s1600/aaa.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear:left; float:left;margin-right:1em; margin-bottom:1em"><img border="0" height="218" width="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLHcCuepba-XQvULmRqZaYrTuEqLcdPYUvhCUb_cXGkWSUU2UYwexcN3ttvTVT7G24gpgrmH1l9heFrGC29VBnnvoL5xUMNOVw17P1X7aVuqOVj5zi5LpAdsbfsZQpxRHY-pIeL97LK_o/s320/aaa.jpg" /></a></div>
This is a composited image of the bog mat there (several photos stitched together to make one large image). Unfortunately, I wasn't thinking and took this picture in an area that was in the shade, so the picture quality wasn't ideal. But you can see some Sarracenia in there, as well as the nice red Sphagnum. The broad-leaved plants are ericads, the darker green leaves are leatherleaf, and there is some bog rosemary in there as well, which is a slightly paler green. The grass-looking plants are white beak rush, I think. Here's the interactive photosynth of this imgage:
<iframe frameborder="0" src="http://www.photosynth.net/embed.aspx?cid=a047443c-cebe-4c50-9274-d662248fe128&delayLoad=true&slideShowPlaying=false" width="500" height="300"></iframe>
Here are a couple of different pitchers, showing different coloration. They were pretty close to each other, so I think the color difference must be due to genetics:
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7ndS12wWbOKsAhooO7jZdPK7fiOBGQm8gaWLAJEphDEsY-4sVzaFKCVZK067cG66xqUEL9MEs5_8-kB2K3qTXOOStrTNl_D4PBCxHRG1f5wN8zH0_VfEo2mjWccJQiIImBT8O8BLr8-I/s1600/aaa.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear:left; float:left;margin-right:1em; margin-bottom:1em"><img border="0" height="214" width="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7ndS12wWbOKsAhooO7jZdPK7fiOBGQm8gaWLAJEphDEsY-4sVzaFKCVZK067cG66xqUEL9MEs5_8-kB2K3qTXOOStrTNl_D4PBCxHRG1f5wN8zH0_VfEo2mjWccJQiIImBT8O8BLr8-I/s320/aaa.jpg" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgY4RhcPAawtDZAnyZpGBjDCzrh60-U4WDDJithFtM7PzBHTqpsvD63lDoD5LfKenVuO433fOoZMhiwLpiHsojE3-UOVg7vFAR7WXb-WZ78LDYFcxR_8oLRNN78US3pVsZbMJH7SmfUx-Q/s1600/aaa.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear:left; float:left;margin-right:1em; margin-bottom:1em"><img border="0" height="214" width="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgY4RhcPAawtDZAnyZpGBjDCzrh60-U4WDDJithFtM7PzBHTqpsvD63lDoD5LfKenVuO433fOoZMhiwLpiHsojE3-UOVg7vFAR7WXb-WZ78LDYFcxR_8oLRNN78US3pVsZbMJH7SmfUx-Q/s320/aaa.jpg" /></a></div>
And here's a picture of my son from my previous trip, in August 2009:
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Lastly, here's a pic of a sundew, that I had to manipulate a little so it wasn't submerged:
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I guess that's about it for now. Being winter, there probably won't be much to report on until my seeds start germinating.Aaronhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16145815042088629503noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6826168904085232565.post-84757620703619131362011-09-20T17:01:00.000-07:002011-09-20T17:01:48.923-07:00It's Been AwhileI've finally gotten around to posting here again. Why has it been so long? I guess primarily my own laziness, but there's other factors, doing other things, distractions, my pending unemployment, etc....Anyways, it's been a pretty good summer for my Sarracenia. We had a wet enough summer that I didn't have to rely a whole lot on supplemental watering. Of course, there were a few hot, dry spells that had me scrambling for water, but they were few and far between. We had an early frost last week, but the Sarracenia seem unfazed by it and I'm not sure how cold it actually got. The surface of the soils were not frozen, although I did have a thin layer of frost on my car window in the morning. This is kind of a bittersweet time of the year - the biggest and best pitchers of most plants are currently being thrown up, but you also know summer is pretty much over and it won't be long before flakes are flying through the air. We had an early October snowstorm two years ago, and last early October, I was hiking with my family through a bog with 80 degree air temps, so anything is possible from here on out. I've been taking a lot of pictures over the course of the summer, but haven't published a whole lot of them. If you peruse any of the CP forums, you may find them. I've been using the Photosynth application by Microsoft, which stitches images together for creating panoramas, but you don't have to use it on a landscape scale. Here's a few I just did this evening. I don't think they turned out the greatest, but I didn't put a whole lot of effort and time into it. If you zoom in a little, you'll see some errors in the stitching process. This first one just shows a couple of the tubs I grow most of my Sarracenia in. Yeah, they look a little ragged, but I think that's to be expected when you grow outdoors, and they're probably a little overcrowded now too:
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This second one shows a bunch of Sarracenia that are still in individual pots. They're mostly seed-grown plants of my own, anywhere from 1-4 years of age. There's also a couple of older plants that should be moved to larger containers or into a tub:
<iframe frameborder="0" src="http://photosynth.net/embed.aspx?cid=697c7c84-588a-4dbc-b993-cd8a6d75ce16&delayLoad=true&slideShowPlaying=false" width="500" height="300"></iframe>
This one really got messed up during the stitching process, but I guess I'll go ahead and post it anyway. It's my giant mini bog, with a layer of live sphagnum topdressing. The sphagnum has a bunch of cranberries growing in it, although I have yet to see a single fruit, and I also planted a couple of native bog plants in there: bog rosemary, labrador tea, and grass-pink orchid. They all seem to be doing very well. I can see the bog rosemary may need to be reined in - it's really starting to spread. And I planted 2 grass-pink orchid corms in there last spring, and this year, there were 6 separate plants that came up - 3 of which bloomed:
<iframe frameborder="0" src="http://photosynth.net/embed.aspx?cid=775720c8-f11c-4e6f-b84b-b6113d760a33&delayLoad=true&slideShowPlaying=false" width="500" height="300"></iframe>
This last one was just for fun and shows 3 pots that each have an open-pollinated "Boob Tube" seedling (2 years old). I thought it was kind of neat how the sphagnum in each pot has all kind of grown together, so you really wouldn't know there were 3 separate pots underneath. And then next to them is my one and only venus flytrap:
<iframe frameborder="0" src="http://photosynth.net/embed.aspx?cid=73f7f543-6bb1-4958-b28a-b35e1ca89bd8&delayLoad=true&slideShowPlaying=false" width="500" height="300"></iframe>
So there's some amateur Sarracenia photostitches. I've actually been doing many of them in my hikes and explorations around the state. As an example of how good the photosynths can actually be, here's one I did a month ago at the Great River Trail Prairie State Natural Area, near LaCrosse, WI:
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So now I can't wait to get out to some of the bogs in this state and do some of these, although it may be some time before that happens.
Aaronhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16145815042088629503noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6826168904085232565.post-43820670641784538012011-06-26T17:56:00.000-07:002011-06-26T18:51:02.156-07:00June 25, 2011 PicsAfter a lazy day, I finally made my way outside in the evening to grill dinner and have a couple Mooseheads and thought it was perfect lighting conditions to take some pics:<br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/59003943@N00/5871013437/" title="Sarracenia minibog by aarongunnar, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5230/5871013437_357ec7ff71.jpg" width="500" height="432" alt="Sarracenia minibog"></a><br />This is a shot looking downward on my largest minibog, with several 'Tarnok' flowers on the left. The large pitcher opening up on the right is a leucophylla x flava rugelli.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/59003943@N00/5871567398/" title="Sarracenia flowers by aarongunnar, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3088/5871567398_999a888f01.jpg" width="500" height="494" alt="Sarracenia flowers"></a><br />Another perspective, with my daughter's tricycle as an accent.<br /><br /><br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/59003943@N00/5871013305/" title="Sarracenia oreophila x psittacina by aarongunnar, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3089/5871013305_cfdfcd4298.jpg" width="489" height="500" alt="Sarracenia oreophila x psittacina"></a><br />S. oreophila x psittacina. An old plant I got from Cook's many years ago, possibly when I lived in Missouri, which would be at least as far back as 2002, but I really don't remember. This is a fairly typical pitcher shape for primary hybrids between S. psittacina and upright species. On this particular plant, some pitchers will have the hoods actually expand and flatten out, some will stay like this, and others will remain closed, with only the smallest of pitcher entrances.<br /><br /><br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/59003943@N00/5871013079/" title="Calopogon tuberosus by aarongunnar, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3272/5871013079_fb20c604d8.jpg" width="463" height="500" alt="Calopogon tuberosus"></a><br />This is actually a developing flower stalk of the grass pink orchid (Calopogon tuberosus). I purchased the bulbs from Meadowview last spring. I was wondering if they'd even survive the winter in my garage, but they did, although they were very slow to emerge this spring, and at one point I thought they likely perished. At one point I dug into the minibog where I thought one was planted, and sure enough, I found the bulb with a 1 cm shoot emerging from it. Of course, we will be out of town for nearly a week in early July, just when this guy should be in bloom. They do have a drawn out blooming period - 1 flower at a time - so I should be able to see some of them, hopefully.<br /><br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/59003943@N00/5871569808/" title="Sarracenia 'Boob Tube' x open-pollinated by aarongunnar, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3126/5871569808_763f5c2fc5.jpg" width="458" height="500" alt="Sarracenia 'Boob Tube' x open-pollinated"></a><br />A rear shot of the pitcher of an open-pollinated 'Boob Tube'. This one is 3 yrs old now, from seed and sent up 2 flowers. The first one is already done, the 2nd has yet to open. I didn't get a pic of the first flower, but it was interesting. The petal color was pink, but the petals were tiny, no more than 1/2 inch long. I'm not sure if that's a genetic expression, or some environmental factor. I'll be keeping my eye on the next one.<br /><br /><br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/59003943@N00/5871568598/" title="Sarracenia 'Boob Tube' x open-pollinated by aarongunnar, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5270/5871568598_ba24d896db.jpg" width="287" height="500" alt="Sarracenia 'Boob Tube' x open-pollinated"></a><br />Here's another open-pollinated 'Boob Tube', a pod sibling to the previous plant. Roughly a similar shape, but this one has fully white areolae on the back of the pitcher, similar so Sarracenia minor, whereas the areolae on the previous one are stained pink.<br /><br /><br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/59003943@N00/5871012915/" title="Sarracenia (oreophila x willisii) x open-pollinated by aarongunnar, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3114/5871012915_71a0c3d382.jpg" width="354" height="500" alt="Sarracenia (oreophila x willisii) x open-pollinated"></a><br />Another 3 yr old from seed - an open-pollinated oreophila x willisii. This one has sent up some large pitchers this spring, but no flowers. The coloration is similar to its mom, but the pitchers look more like a pure S. oreophila. Here's a pic of the mother plant, taken last year in early June:<br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/59003943@N00/4673660788/" title="Sarracenia oreophila x 'willisii' by aarongunnar, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4067/4673660788_ee24505904.jpg" width="245" height="500" alt="Sarracenia oreophila x 'willisii'"></a><br /><br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/59003943@N00/5871569596/" title="Sarracenia 'Ladies in Waiting' x open-pollinated by aarongunnar, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3069/5871569596_9ba359a0a5.jpg" width="486" height="500" alt="Sarracenia 'Ladies in Waiting' x open-pollinated"></a><br />This is an open-pollinated 'Ladies In Waiting'. This one is sort of reminiscent of 'Ladies in Waiting', but with a slightly different hood shape and a little more subtle coloration. Here's a pic of mom:<br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/59003943@N00/4914182798/" title="Sarracenia x 'Ladies In Waiting' by aarongunnar, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4081/4914182798_8f6f5c44d6.jpg" width="394" height="500" alt="Sarracenia x 'Ladies In Waiting'"></a><br /><br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/59003943@N00/5871012623/" title="Sarracenia minibogs by aarongunnar, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5157/5871012623_20e1e65913.jpg" width="500" height="345" alt="Sarracenia minibogs"></a><br />a group shot taken from ground level on my deck<br /><br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/59003943@N00/5871568856/" title="Sarracenia purpurea x flava by aarongunnar, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5227/5871568856_b2685becd1.jpg" width="491" height="500" alt="Sarracenia purpurea x flava"></a><br />A shot of a minibog I just put together this year, with a bunch of purpurea hybrids that were struggling in the greenhouse. We were gone for 4 days this past week, and apparently we got a nice amount of rain, and I got this reminder that I forgot to drill some drainage holes in the tub.`<br /><br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/59003943@N00/5871012261/" title="Sarracenia [(oreophila x flava) x leucophylla] x open-pollinated by aarongunnar, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3257/5871012261_7fd2bd5621.jpg" width="500" height="407" alt="Sarracenia [(oreophila x flava) x leucophylla] x open-pollinated"></a><br />Another open-pollinatd 3 yr old from seed, the mother plant being an (oreophila x flava) x leucophylla. This one has some really nice white coloration on it and I can't wait to see the late summer pitchers, well, maybe I can, because I don't want summer to end.<br /><br /><br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/59003943@N00/5871568982/" title="Sarracenia (oreophila x flava) x leucophylla by aarongunnar, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3078/5871568982_0ff4812afe.jpg" width="317" height="500" alt="Sarracenia (oreophila x flava) x leucophylla"></a><br />This is (oreophila x flava) x leucophylla, and is the mother plant of the previous plant. This one is in the process of opening up for dinner.<br /><br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/59003943@N00/5871011877/" title="Sarracenia (leucophylla x purpurea) x 'Wilkerson's Red' by aarongunnar, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3157/5871011877_bf5a11f984.jpg" width="500" height="393" alt="Sarracenia (leucophylla x purpurea) x 'Wilkerson's Red'"></a><br />Sadly, I've lost probably 85% of the seedlings that would be entering their 2nd year now, due to the issues in the greenhouse I've previously mentioned. This is probably the most promising-looking of the survivors, although many are still in recovery mode. It's a mitchelliana x 'Wilkerson's Red', a cross by Wes Buckner.<br /><br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/59003943@N00/5871011589/" title="Sarracenia (alata x flava) x open-pollinated by aarongunnar, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5305/5871011589_566ab93948.jpg" width="500" height="459" alt="Sarracenia (alata x flava) x open-pollinated"></a><br />Another open-pollinated 3 year old from seed, the mother plant is alata x flava. I have at least 3 or 4 siblings from this seed pod, 2 turn a dark red color (this being one of them), the other 2 are a little different and I'm waiting for some decent pitchers to get some pictures. I still have the mother plant, but it has not been growing well for the past couple years and is just putting up seedling-size pitchers. It's in an older minibog that is in definite need of TLC. It was on my to-do list this spring, but I never got around to it. Here's a pic of mom from a few years ago:<br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/59003943@N00/4917974472/" title="Sarracenia alata x flava by aarongunnar, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4117/4917974472_509a767066.jpg" width="422" height="500" alt="Sarracenia alata x flava"></a><br /><br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/59003943@N00/5871011051/" title="Sarracenia x 'Bug Pipes' by aarongunnar, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3006/5871011051_9a2f98ede7.jpg" width="500" height="493" alt="Sarracenia x 'Bug Pipes'"></a><br />Still have some flowers in bloom, and even a few that have yet to open, and I actually noticed one flower bud just beginning to emerge on one plant. Anyways, these are from a plant going by the name of "Bug Pipes", although I don't think it was ever officially registered. The plant originated from wild-collected seed (not by me - I don't know who, but it would've been many, many years ago), and it was collected from a Sarracenia minor. Subsequent growing of the seeds revealed that the flower the seeds came from had been cross-pollinated by a S. psittacina, based on the appearance of the pitchers. I originally obtained this plant in 2003, from David Crump in Charlotte, NC, while visiting his place. The plant died after the first or second Wisconsin winter, but I obtained another last year, and it rewarded me with 3 flowers this year. <br /><br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/59003943@N00/5871010193/" title="Sarracenia purpurea x flava by aarongunnar, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3227/5871010193_59a7936ccc.jpg" width="500" height="361" alt="Sarracenia purpurea x flava"></a><br />An unknown hybrid, most likely purpurea x flava, received in a grab bag from Lois Ochs. This one has 3 of the probably 10000 of these beetles that go rampant in our backyard every summer. Man, I hate them. They chew up a lot of plants in our garden and they are putting on PDA's all the time. At least they leave the Sarracenia alone, only giving them an occasional meal.<br /><br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/59003943@N00/5871566782/" title="Baptisia and Sarracenia by aarongunnar, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5266/5871566782_ef3189cb58.jpg" width="500" height="341" alt="Baptisia and Sarracenia"></a><br />A big Baptisia shrub that grows in front of our back deck. It blooms when the Sarracenia are starting to wind down, and makes a nice composition. The hummingbirds seem to like it, although it's not what you normally consider to be a hummingbird plant. It's in the pea family. One of these days I would like to get a pic of the hummer feeding on it. I like to think it would be the only photo in existence to have a Baptisia, a hummingbird and a pitcher plant.<br /><br /><br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/59003943@N00/5871009727/" title="Sarracenia x 'Hummer's Okee Classic' by aarongunnar, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3252/5871009727_4ac3924cfe.jpg" width="500" height="344" alt="Sarracenia x 'Hummer's Okee Classic'"></a><br />Lastly, a pic of a crane fly feeding on the nectar on a 'Hummer's Okee Classic'. From other pics I've seen of this plant, I really like it, but it seems every single pitcher this thing produces for me ends up misshapen in some way. I'm still waiting for a perfect pitcher.Aaronhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16145815042088629503noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6826168904085232565.post-6841227349600507382011-06-19T12:43:00.000-07:002011-06-19T12:53:50.260-07:002011 CrossesFlowering season is winding down and I've made a bunch of crosses this year. We're leaving on a 4-day trip tomorrow, and there are a few flowers that will probably be in their prime while we're gone, including a few that could yield some interesting crosses, like Judith Hindle, Dixie Lace & Bug Pipes, but I guess that's the way things go. However, I was able to do a bunch of them that, hopefully, yield some nice plants down the line. Here's the list, mom listed first:<br />-'Snowflake' x unknown (moorei?)<br />-(leucophylla x moorei) x 'Snowflake'<br />-(leucophylla x moorei) x 'Fireworks'<br />-(flava x ???) x 'Snowflake'<br />-'Fireworks' x oreophila<br />-'Snowflake' x 'Fireworks'<br />-'Snowflake' x oreophila<br />-(purpurea x jonesii antho-free) x 'Snowflake'<br />-oreophila x ((alata x flava) x OP)<br />-'Godzuki' x ((alata x flava) x OP)<br />-(minor x ???) x ((alata x flava) x OP)<br />-(leucophylla x moorei) x 'Godzuki'<br />-(oreophila x willisii) x (oreophila x purpurea)<br />-(oreophila x willisii) x 'Medusa'<br />-'Godzuki' x 'Medusa'<br />-((alata x flava) x OP) x 'Fireworks'<br />-'Lady Bug' x 'Red Sumatra'<br />-'Snowflake' x 'Red Sumatra'<br />-'Red Sumatra' x 'June Bug'<br />-'Fireworks' x (alabamensis x oreophila)<br />-((alata x flava) x OP) x 'Red Sumatra'<br />-(oreophila x purpurea) x ((alata x flava) x OP)<br />- moorei x ((alata x flava) x OP)<br />- ((oreophila x flava) x leucophylla) x ((alata x flava) x OP)<br />-'Lady Bug' x ((alata x flava) x OP)<br />-'Cobra Nest' x ((alata x flava) x OP)<br />-'Lady Bug' x moorei<br />-('Boob Tube' x OP) x 'Ladies In Waiting'<br />-'Gin Goblin' x 'Ladies In Waiting'<br />-(alata x leucophylla) x 'Ladies In Waiting'<br />-(purpurea x flava ornata) x (alata x leucophylla)<br />-'Mardi Gras' x (alata x leucophylla)<br />-moorei #2 x 'Ladies In Waiting'Aaronhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16145815042088629503noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6826168904085232565.post-80473638491152902472011-06-09T15:35:00.000-07:002011-06-09T16:13:07.906-07:00Flowers Up The You-Know-WhatThe pitcher plants are in full swing, as far as flowering goes. I'm probably around the halfway point, as far as number of flowers that have opened vs. the number that have yet to open. We had a few days of really hot (97F) weather, coupled with very strong sustained winds. I have no idea what kind of effect that is going to have on the crosses I did. It seems 3 days of strong, sustained winds would stir up a lot of the pollen in the flowers and lead to at least some self-pollination, if not cross-pollination. Oh well, I've still been out every day doing my own cross-pollinations. I'll post a complete list when all is said and done, and I'm probably at around 15 right now. Anyway, on to some flower pics:<br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/59003943@N00/5815543282/" title="Unknown Sarracenia hybrid by aarongunnar, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5194/5815543282_dd3eabd3eb.jpg" width="500" height="467" alt="Unknown Sarracenia hybrid"></a><br />This is from an unknown hybrid I received from Lois Ochs a year ago, as part of a "grab bag". It is some kind of S. minor hybrid, and based on the flower color, I would guess it's something like S. minor x alata, although it could be something more complex than that. I pollinated it with an open-pollinated alata x flava, which produces mostly all-dark red pitchers.<br /><br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/59003943@N00/5815543042/" title="Sarracenia x 'Fireworks' by aarongunnar, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5029/5815543042_1bc0d700be.jpg" width="500" height="311" alt="Sarracenia x 'Fireworks'"></a><br />These are flowers from 'Fireworks', which is also called 'White Sparkler'. I pollinated one of the flowers with S. oreophila. The other just opened today, so I haven't decided what to do with it yet. I've also used it to pollinate a leucophylla x (leucophylla x flava) and 'Snowflake'.<br /><br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/59003943@N00/5806466553/" title="Sarracenia 'Snowflake' by aarongunnar, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3592/5806466553_330bfb2bcc.jpg" width="500" height="358" alt="Sarracenia 'Snowflake'"></a><br />Speaking of 'Snowflake', here are its flowers. I have 5 all together, with a couple yet to open, I will have a lot of 'Snowflake' crosses this year. Besides the cross with 'Fireworks', one flower was pollinated with an unknown (probably a moorei), and one with oreophila, and has been used as a pollen donor so far on leucophylla x (leucophylla x flava), an unknown flava hybrid, and an anthocyanin-free purpurea x jonesii.<br /><br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/59003943@N00/5814974513/" title="Sarracenia oreophila x purpurea by aarongunnar, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3078/5814974513_17cc27ed87.jpg" width="482" height="500" alt="Sarracenia oreophila x purpurea"></a><br />This nice large pink flower is S. oreophila x purpurea. I've been excited to use this in some crosses, as it produces some very large, heavily veined pitchers. I have yet to pollinate it yet (i will starting tonight), but I've used it to pollinate an oreophila x 'willisii'.<br /><br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/59003943@N00/5815542680/" title="Sarracenia (alata x flava) x open-pollinated by aarongunnar, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5307/5815542680_34c9d0f97e.jpg" width="468" height="500" alt="Sarracenia (alata x flava) x open-pollinated"></a><br />This is the open-pollinated alata x flava mentioned previously. This is flowering for the first time, at 3 yrs from seed. I also have a sibling of it that is about to open its flower. Both produce tall, all-red plants that turn nearly black after a few weeks in the sun. I'm excited to cross these too. The one that is open now has been pollinated by 'Fireworks', and used to pollinate oreophila, 'Godzuki', and the unknown minor hybrid shown above. I'm hoping to use its sibling in a cross with 'Red Sumatra' - that should produce some striking red-pitchered plants.<br /><br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/59003943@N00/5814975601/" title="Sarracenia x 'Medusa' by aarongunnar, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2134/5814975601_9f6b6443b4.jpg" width="466" height="500" alt="Sarracenia x 'Medusa'"></a><br />This is S. x 'Medusa', a plant from Sarracenia Northwest. I have no idea what the parents of this plant could be, other than it does show some S. rubra characteristics - namely weak, floppy spring pitchers followed by stronger, upright late summer pitchers. I've used this to pollinate 'Godzuki' and oreophila x willisii, but never got around to pollinating it with anything. So it will be another open-pollination.<br /><br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/59003943@N00/5814975489/" title="Sarracenia [leucophylla x (leucophylla x flava)] x open-pollinated by aarongunnar, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5073/5814975489_1e4a731008.jpg" width="475" height="500" alt="Sarracenia [leucophylla x (leucophylla x flava)] x open-pollinated"></a><br />Lastly, this is another plant I raised from seed that is flowering for the first time, at 3 yrs of age. It is an open-pollinated leucophylla x moorei. The flower is kind of deformed for some reason, so I decided to not use it in any crosses, and we'll just see if it ends up with any seeds. It's not the greatest looking plant, mainly just tall green pitchers with slight colorations, but being seed-grown, it'll always have a place in my heart.<br /><br />As I said earlier, the string of hot, windy weather really took a toll as far as watering is concerned. It kind of came out of nowhere and wasn't really forecasted until a day or two before it happened. We had a cool, wet spring, and I really hadn't had to water any of the minibogs at all until this week, and of course, I didn't stock up on water beforehand. So things really got dry, and I actually lost the flowers on 1 plant (BobZ hybrid H2), that was the only casualty though. Even now, the soil in all the minibogs are very dry, all live sphagnum has gone dormant, I've been able to basically just keep things moist enough to prevent wilting. What made things worse was a couple of nights of forecasted rain that didn't pan out. It's supposed to be a cold, rainy day tomorrow, which I'm actually hoping comes true, at least the rain part of it.Aaronhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16145815042088629503noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6826168904085232565.post-31387501042065058382011-05-29T12:55:00.000-07:002011-05-29T13:05:09.759-07:00First FlowerIt finally happened, about 3 weeks later than last year, the first blossom opened up on my garage-overwintered plants. It is a purpurea x flava, and it's the same plant that bloomed first last year, while I was in Canada, so I never got to see it last year. I thought it would've opened up sooner, but we had some pretty cool temps the past week, including a frost advisory on the night of May 26th, although we ended up not getting any frost. Unfortunately, there's nothing to cross it with. There's a few more that are probably a few days away from opening, one of which may be a duplicate of this one. Another week or so and there should be dozens opened. I don't think I'll save any of the pollen from this one though. It's not exactly the prettiest plant, the only trait that may be desirable is its large pitcher size.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/59003943@N00/5773178302/" title="Sarracenia purpurea x flava by aarongunnar, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5221/5773178302_e339fca36d.jpg" width="444" height="500" alt="Sarracenia purpurea x flava"></a><br /><br />In other news, I moved all of the plants from the greenhouse back home, but most were/are in pretty bad shape. Besides the misting of hard tap water and the uneven table they were sitting on, which led to some plants being probably too saturated with water, while others were too dry, there is also a recurrence of an insect problem. I noticed some aphids, but there is a lot of mealy bugs. I ended up throwing a bunch more away, they were already dead, and time will tell how many end up surviving. Hopefully most!Aaronhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16145815042088629503noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6826168904085232565.post-20333362539465306532011-05-20T17:39:00.000-07:002011-05-20T18:23:44.672-07:00Mid-May 2011Took some pictures last night of the minibogs in the backyard.<br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/59003943@N00/5738705726/" title="Sarracenia leucophylla 'Hurricane Creek White' by aarongunnar, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5182/5738705726_7e90d6fbee.jpg" width="351" height="500" alt="Sarracenia leucophylla 'Hurricane Creek White'"></a><br />This is S. leucophylla 'Hurricane Creek White' showing some new growth. This is the one plant I thought may have not survived the winter. It did have some kind of saprophytic fungi on it when I moved the plants outside. You can see some dark coloration on some of last years leaves, which is what remains of that assault. Obviously, the plant survived though.<br /><br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/59003943@N00/5738705512/" title="Drosera filiformis by aarongunnar, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5181/5738705512_6828b2630c.jpg" width="349" height="500" alt="Drosera filiformis"></a><br />Here is some Drosera filiformis coming out of dormancy. This species seems to have no trouble surviving the winters up here in WI. I get more and more every year, and I've never purchased one before. I must've originally got one as a hitchhiker, and it has slowly spread by seeds around most of my minibogs. I'm not complaining!<br /><br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/59003943@N00/5738703992/" title="Sarracenia oreophila by aarongunnar, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5262/5738703992_ae9a164225.jpg" width="500" height="332" alt="Sarracenia oreophila"></a><br />S. oreophila. It kind of appears to be two separate plants, but it is one. Just a lg. branched rhizome. As the literature will tell you, they are pretty cold hardy, and this is probably one of the older plants I currently have. Totally unfazed by the growing conditions here.<br /><br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/59003943@N00/5738703524/" title="Sarracenia purpurea x jonesii - anthocyanin-free by aarongunnar, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2361/5738703524_a00007b6b5.jpg" width="500" height="484" alt="Sarracenia purpurea x jonesii - anthocyanin-free"></a><br />An anthocyanin-free purpurea x jonesii, with a flower bud and emerging pitcher. This is the first year this plant has bloomed for me, although it too is one of my older plants. It is in an individual pot, not a minibog, so it must be pretty cold-hardy as well.<br /><br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/59003943@N00/5738703328/" title="Sarracenia 'Snowflake' by aarongunnar, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3286/5738703328_5e25945b39.jpg" width="500" height="366" alt="Sarracenia 'Snowflake'"></a><br />S. 'Snowflake'. This plant was purchased last spring from Meadowview, and in a testament to the quality of their plants, it has 5 flower buds on it this year, the most of any of my plants.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/59003943@N00/5738703048/" title="Sarracenia unknown hybrid by aarongunnar, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5267/5738703048_9c0c824f2d.jpg" width="459" height="500" alt="Sarracenia unknown hybrid"></a><br />An unknown hybrid, one of a series of unknowns from Bob Ziemer. This one was given the codename of H12 by him, and may be an S. oreophila, or a hybrid with it. This particular plant was received from Robert Co last spring and did not produce a flower this year, but it has sent up a nice crop of early pitchers.<br /><br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/59003943@N00/5738152659/" title="Sarracenia 'Gin Goblin' by aarongunnar, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3405/5738152659_630a72523e.jpg" width="410" height="500" alt="Sarracenia 'Gin Goblin'"></a><br />This is S. 'Gin Goblin'. I have 2 of these. They were released by California Carnivores and is a cross of (rubra x oreophila) x 'Adrian Slack'. They are seed grown, so all are different, and the two I have are certainly very different from each other. This one was planted in a minibog last spring and is flowering this year. My other one is still in its original pot and did/will not flower this year. An interesting note on this one, if you look at the pitchers of this one, you would swear that S. purpurea is mixed in with it. I sent an email to Peter D'amato, of CA Carnivores, and he replied that 'Adrian Slack' may actually have some S. purpurea in its heritage, although there's no way to really know. So either it does, or this particular plant was mislabeled or something. Here's a pic of the plant from last summer:<br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/59003943@N00/4914423679/" title="Sarracenia x "Gin Goblin" by aarongunnar, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4122/4914423679_6ee74f26fd.jpg" width="347" height="500" alt="Sarracenia x "Gin Goblin""></a><br /><br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/59003943@N00/5738152493/" title="Unknown Sarracenia hybrid by aarongunnar, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2085/5738152493_dbaa511751.jpg" width="500" height="336" alt="Unknown Sarracenia hybrid"></a><br />This is the flower bud on another of Bob Ziemer's unknowns, H6. This one appears to be some kind of S. flava hybrid, maybe a flava x (flava x ???) type. You can see his "H-series" at this URL: http://users.humboldt.edu/rziemer/zphotos/SarraceniaUnident.html<br /><br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/59003943@N00/5738702590/" title="Sarracenia 'Boob Tube' x open-pollinated by aarongunnar, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5268/5738702590_795dacfb70.jpg" width="271" height="500" alt="Sarracenia 'Boob Tube' x open-pollinated"></a><br />This is a 3-yr-old open-pollinated "Boob Tube". This is one of a few of my own seed-grown plants that are flowering for the first time this year. I posted previously on an open-pollinated alata x flava hybrid that flowered last fall, at about 30 months of age. That plant too has sent up a flower stalk this spring, as well as one of its siblings. So this group is the first set of plants that I've raised from seed to flowering size, at 3 yrs old. Thank the regular foliar application of a Miracid solution the first 2 years of growth.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/59003943@N00/5738702436/" title="Drosera rotundifolia by aarongunnar, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2047/5738702436_3c636971a0.jpg" width="500" height="343" alt="Drosera rotundifolia"></a><br />Here's another sundew, Drosera rotundifolia (i think). I have never purchased a sundew in my life (not counting the carnivorous plant kit I purchased in the 1980's, none of which survived very long!), so this was another hitchhiker that has made itself at home. I blame California Carnivores, well not really, but it seems a lot of plants purchased from them have hitchhikers. Once again, I'm not complaining.<br /><br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/59003943@N00/5738151977/" title="Sarracenia (leucophylla x (leucophylla x flava)) x open-pollinated by aarongunnar, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5062/5738151977_d4bf3d55db.jpg" width="382" height="500" alt="Sarracenia (leucophylla x (leucophylla x flava)) x open-pollinated"></a><br />Here is another 3-year-old plant I raised from seed, flowering for the first time. The label has totally faded away, so I'm not 100% sure what it is, but I'm about 95% sure it is an open-pollinated leucophylla x (leucophylla x flava), the mother plant originally purchased from Cook's Carnivorous Plants back around, say, 2001. It's still alive too, and actually is blooming again this year, for the first time since these seeds were harvested. If I remember correctly, it had some really nice pink flowers. I'll find out in about a week or so.<br /><br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/59003943@N00/5738151807/" title="Sweet White Violet (Viola blanda) by aarongunnar, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5269/5738151807_638d7e211f.jpg" width="500" height="491" alt="Sweet White Violet (Viola blanda)"></a><br />This is a plant that I'm pretty sure is called "sweet white violet", or Viola blanda. I don't know if this was a hitchhiker, or the seed was present in the bales of peat moss I've purchased over the years, but this plant has spread everywhere and is pretty difficult to eradicate. It eventually forms these underground runners and just spreads everywhere. It seems to do no harm, but I have my reservations.<br /><br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/59003943@N00/5738701936/" title="Bog Rosemary (Andromeda glaucophylla) by aarongunnar, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5101/5738701936_12b24ec7e1.jpg" width="490" height="500" alt="Bog Rosemary (Andromeda glaucophylla)"></a><br />This is bog rosemary, a plant native to bogs in Wisconsin, and elsewhere I presume. I purchased this from a garden center last spring and, obviously, it seems to be doing fine in this minibog so far. I still wonder if that garden center propagates these or digs them up. I've never seen them for sale anywhere else.<br /><br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/59003943@N00/5738701704/" title="Sarracenia purpurea x flava by aarongunnar, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2347/5738701704_b083e7d71b.jpg" width="444" height="500" alt="Sarracenia purpurea x flava"></a><br />Lastly, this is a flower bud on a purpurea x flava hybrid. This looks like it'll be the first to bloom this year, and it was last year. I have several purpurea x flava hybrids, but there are two that look identical. This is one of them. I received one from California Carnivores many years ago, in a "fancy Sarracenia hybrid collection". The other I received from Lois Ochs 2 years ago, and I think she used to work there. The pitchers definitely look identical, and they are both going to flower this year, so we'll see. I guess there's no way to know for sure without some DNA testing.Aaronhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16145815042088629503noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6826168904085232565.post-26865792576656000302011-05-16T19:44:00.001-07:002011-05-16T20:05:53.008-07:00Bog VisitsMy wife ran a marathon this past Saturday. I knew I'd have a few hours to kill, so I had planned to go geocaching with our 2 kids while she ran. I selected a bunch of geocaches more or less along her marathon route, so we could periodically cross paths with her and cheer her on. It so happened the marathon was in Vilas County, WI, an area full of bogs. And I was able to find some geocaches that would put us within walking distance of a few of them. So we braved the 39 degree day, with on and off drizzle, and went bogtrotting/geocaching. <div>One stop was at the Scott & Shelp Lake State Natural Area, SE of the small town of Three Lakes, WI. A pretty desolate area with a really nice bog margin around the lake. Pitcher plants were not that abundant, but were present, including this very large one not far off the boardwalk. I wonder how old it is:<br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/59003943@N00/5723863997/" title="Sarracenia purpurea by aarongunnar, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5168/5723863997_672fa89eb1.jpg" width="500" height="334" alt="Sarracenia purpurea" /></a></div><br />Here's a view of the actual bog area, pretty typical for this part of the country:<br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/59003943@N00/5723850583/" title="Scott & Shelp Lake State Natural Area, Forest Co., WI by aarongunnar, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3522/5723850583_9b5dc1aacc.jpg" width="500" height="334" alt="Scott & Shelp Lake State Natural Area, Forest Co., WI" /></a><br />It's still pretty early in the year, and I think things are probably a couple of weeks behind the usual spring. I didn't even see any buds emerging on the pitcher plants. The only thing I saw in bloom was Leatherleaf, a shrub in the same family as blueberries and rhododendrons that is commonly found in bogs around here. Here's a shot of the blooms:<br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/59003943@N00/5723867403/" title="Leatherleaf by aarongunnar, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5063/5723867403_8a1c7c0002.jpg" width="500" height="292" alt="Leatherleaf"></a><br /><br />This next photo is at Katie Lake, a small bog lake in the Vilas County Forest, west of Eagle River, WI. This bog is a little different than the previous one, in that there is not much of a shrub layer. Leatherleaf was the predominant cover at Shelp Lake. Here, basically just a carpet of Sphagnum with some sedges growing amongst it:<br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/59003943@N00/5724429324/" title="Katie Lake by aarongunnar, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5226/5724429324_f5869747e2.jpg" width="500" height="334" alt="Katie Lake"></a><br />And here's a single pitcher plant mostly obscured by the Sphagnum:<br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/59003943@N00/5723870415/" title="Sarracenia purpurea by aarongunnar, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2036/5723870415_7fe84899f3.jpg" width="500" height="459" alt="Sarracenia purpurea"></a><br />Besides some sedges, you can also see cranberry growing, mainly in the top half of the photo, it's the plant with the small green leaves.<br /><br />This last photo is at Mud Minnow Lake, also in the Vilas County Forest. Here, leatherleaf once again was the predominant groundcover. The conifers are black spruce and tamarack. Black spruce is the one with the needles present. The trees that look like they have no leaves are the tamarack. It's a conifer than sheds its needles in the fall, and at this time, they are just beginning to leaf out:<br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/59003943@N00/5724440574/" title="Mud Minnow Lake Bog by aarongunnar, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5267/5724440574_d3ae777fc5.jpg" width="500" height="334" alt="Mud Minnow Lake Bog"></a><br />Here's a close-up of the tamarack leafing out (this one was taken at the Scott/Shelp Lake State Natural Area):<br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/59003943@N00/5724400506/" title="Tamarack, Scott & Shelp Lake State Natural Area, WI by aarongunnar, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2672/5724400506_12ae1eb8c9.jpg" width="500" height="287" alt="Tamarack, Scott & Shelp Lake State Natural Area, WI"></a><br /><br />In other news, my outdoor plants are moving along nicely. Alot of new pitchers are extending up, although not quite close to opening yet. I've counted 64 flower stalks, and that will probably be about as many as I'll get, there may be a few more that haven't quite emerged yet. Still probably a week or two until the first ones open.Aaronhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16145815042088629503noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6826168904085232565.post-25514440980005076482011-05-05T08:50:00.000-07:002011-05-05T10:51:08.732-07:00FinallyFinally, spring has arrived, and I hope it stays! We actually had snow flakes in the air on May 2nd, but hopefully that's the last of that stuff until autumn. At this time, it looks like all of my garage-stored plants survived the winter. Just about every one of them now either is sending up new pitchers and/or flowers. There's probably around a couple dozen visible flower buds now, and I'm assuming more will be forthcoming, now that milder temps have moved in. I'm especially excited to see a few 3-yr old plants with buds. It'll be my first year of doing crosses with plants I raised from seed. If the flowering times work out, I would like to cross two open-pollinated siblings that have buds right now. I'm curious to see what such a cross could create. I also noticed a bud on one of my 'Gin Goblin' plants. I'm not sure how many others that have one of those has gotten a flower yet, but I haven't seen any publicized crosses with that plant yet. I also see a bud on an anthocyanin-free purpurea x jonesii. AF plants intrigue me and I look forward to having a few crosses with that plant, although the offspring won't be AF (unless crossed with another AF plant), but the offspring will carry the gene(s) and can pass it on to future crosses.<div>So now the waiting game begins for the flowers to actually open. I expect it will be at least a few more weeks until that happens, depending on temperatures. To give a perspective on this spring, compared to last, I was in British Columbia from May 4-May 15 last year, and a couple of flowers on my plants opened during that time frame. This year, there will definitely be no flowers open by May 15. The tallest flower stalk now is about 2" high. Things should be getting into full swing by the end of the month though. I even hear whispers of some very warm weather possibly settling in about 10 days from now. If it does occur, that should really speed things along. For the time being, high temps are in the 60's, and lows in the 30's.</div>Aaronhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16145815042088629503noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6826168904085232565.post-51898290566066561452011-04-22T07:35:00.000-07:002011-04-22T07:42:04.877-07:00'Royal Ruby' x 'Judith Hindle'Purchased this plant roughly a month ago and it recently sent up a very large pitcher. I think it's a really nice plant! <div><br /></div><div><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/59003943@N00/5643552840/" title="Sarracenia 'Royal Ruby' x 'Judith Hindle' by aarongunnar, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5026/5643552840_01cae4b2cd.jpg" width="500" height="403" alt="Sarracenia 'Royal Ruby' x 'Judith Hindle'" /></a></div><div><br /></div><div><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/59003943@N00/5643553176/" title="Sarracenia 'Royal Ruby' x 'Judith Hindle' by aarongunnar, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5070/5643553176_d53eae6b5e.jpg" width="475" height="500" alt="Sarracenia 'Royal Ruby' x 'Judith Hindle'" /></a></div><div><br /></div><div><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/59003943@N00/5642985411/" title="Sarracenia 'Royal Ruby' x 'Judith Hindle' by aarongunnar, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5030/5642985411_4d47518198.jpg" width="500" height="384" alt="Sarracenia 'Royal Ruby' x 'Judith Hindle'" /></a></div><div><br /></div><div><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/59003943@N00/5642985961/" title="royalrubyjudith4 by aarongunnar, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5050/5642985961_ab1410ed63.jpg" width="500" height="497" alt="royalrubyjudith4" /></a></div><div><br /></div><div><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/59003943@N00/5643554014/" title="royalrubyjudith5 by aarongunnar, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5046/5643554014_49ffafa4ae.jpg" width="326" height="500" alt="royalrubyjudith5" /></a></div><div><br /></div><div><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/59003943@N00/5642986265/" title="royalrubyjudith6 by aarongunnar, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5026/5642986265_ec09d638f5.jpg" width="283" height="500" alt="royalrubyjudith6" /></a></div><div><br /></div><div>Lastly, here are some 4-month-old seedlings from a cross I did last year. The father is 'Judith Hindle', the mother is [readii x (catesbaei x flava)]. These particular seedlings are probably showing the most color of all the ones that sprouted this year:</div><div><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/59003943@N00/5643554242/" title="Sarracenia [(leucophylla x rubra) x ((purpurea x flava) x flava)] x 'Judith Hindle' by aarongunnar, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5070/5643554242_8748e54632.jpg" width="500" height="410" alt="Sarracenia [(leucophylla x rubra) x ((purpurea x flava) x flava)] x 'Judith Hindle'" /></a></div>Aaronhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16145815042088629503noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6826168904085232565.post-78188066470255998902011-04-16T14:24:00.001-07:002011-04-18T15:31:47.250-07:00Mid-April Flowers and Snow ShowersAfter hitting close to 80 degrees 8 days ago, I awoke Sat. morning to a thin layer of snow that fell overnight. I'm hoping the flower buds survive, it didn't get that cold (around 30F), it seems the flower buds are reasonably cold hardy as long as they haven't emerged too far. I covered my plants with a tarp Sat. night, and moved some in to the garage, as it the temps sunk into the upper 20's, combined with 30 mph winds. Now, we have a winter storm watch for tomorrow night/Wed. Right now, they're saying 6" of snow, but the track of the system still has some uncertainty. I know this isn't unusual for April in WI, but it isn't that often we get this kind of weather at this point in the year. All I can say, is it better be in the 70's every day in May, or I'm gonna take a hostage.<br /><img src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5105/5625101537_013e6af9dc.jpg" width="435" height="500" alt="Sarracenia x catesbaei flower bud, covered by a mid-April snow" />Aaronhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16145815042088629503noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6826168904085232565.post-2598960815499107422011-04-14T20:18:00.000-07:002011-04-14T20:46:01.341-07:00Old Man WinterWell, after a week or so of abnormally warm weather - we were in the 70's this past Sunday - the old man is deciding to come back for a visit. Forecasted lows for this weekend are in the upper 20's/low 30's, along with a weather system that will include a lot of wind and some rain/snow mixtures. We could get an inch or two, but I wonder how much will actually stick, considering the ground has warmed up a bit. This wouldn't be too terrible, but our warm spell has awoken with a bang many of my outdoor Sarracenia. I'm starting to see several flower buds emerging, and even a x catesbaei whose flower bud is about 2" tall now. that guy is always the first to flower. i'm also seeing some new pitchers starting to shoot up too. Past experiences have shown that freezing temps alone won't do any harm at this time of year, however, combining that with the wind we're supposed to get, that's what can kill off any emerging flower buds. At this point, I really don't want to drag everything back into the garage, so I may use a tarp or large sheet of plastic and try to cover everything at night.<br />I did not, nor have I yet, gotten around to dividing any plants. The warm weather this past weekend, combined with some unexpected company, led me to do a bunch of geocaching this past weekend, a family activity we've been itching to do as soon as the weather turned nice. So I'm shooting for sometime next week now, as I don't want to do it in the cold. I do have peat prepared for the divisions though!Aaronhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16145815042088629503noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6826168904085232565.post-14629598576158214702011-04-06T10:25:00.001-07:002011-04-06T10:35:02.985-07:00The End of WinterWell, I finally moved all of my plants back outside last night. That's always a good feeling. We've been having some real nice weather so far this week, and it looks to continue. I even see some forecasted highs in the 60's this weekend, along with some rain. Can't ask for more than that. It's only April in WI though, so below freezing temps and snow can't be ruled out for another 6 weeks or so, but if/when it does happen, it should be brief. I did notice an S. rubra with a flower bud already starting to emerge. Hopefully that's the first of many. I noticed one of the growth points on a 'Gin Goblin' that is especially swollen, like near golf-ball size, I wonder if that will bloom this year? There are a few plants that have a surface covering of some kind of fungus growing on them, so I will have to watch that. Mostly, it occurs when the garage warms up in the spring, along with the very little light in there. It usually disappears when I move them outside. I did do a lot of dead foliage trimming in early winter, but I can see another round of that is in order. Anyway, looks like some awesome weather this weekend to sit on my back deck and divide some Sarracenia. I just have to get some peat prepared this week for it. At this point, I have no idea what I'll have, but if there's anyone out there looking to trade, let me know.Aaronhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16145815042088629503noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6826168904085232565.post-40445074784344742852011-04-03T11:49:00.000-07:002011-04-03T12:23:24.645-07:00Finally Some Decent PicsWell, decent by the fact there's some decent growth occurring in the greenhouse. Sure enough, the morning I go to the greenhouse to take pics, it's very cloudy and rather dark in the greenhouse. The shots didn't turn out too bad, but it would've been nice to have some direct sunlight. It seems that's the only way I can get crisp photos with our camera. Anyway, a brief weather update. The snow that was being discussed has now been almost completely removed from the forecast, we're supposed to get some, mixed with rain, overnight and in the morning, but accumulations are expected to be minimal. After that, it looks like some slightly above average temps are moving in. The low on Monday night says 26F, after that, the lows are above freezing for the long term forecast, so my plan is to move the plants out of my garage on Tuesday, and hopefully get to dividing them this upcoming weekend. Now, onto the pics:<br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/59003943@N00/5584861527/" title="Sarracenia 'Odyssey' x leucophylla by aarongunnar, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5102/5584861527_4b9feb6ca9.jpg" width="419" height="500" alt="Sarracenia 'Odyssey' x leucophylla"></a><br />This is 'Odyssey' x leucophylla, a plant I picked up at Oudean's Willow Creek Nursery last May.<br /><br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/59003943@N00/5585453496/" title="Sarracenia 'Boob Tube' x open-pollinated by aarongunnar, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5253/5585453496_ed9843c5ab.jpg" width="491" height="500" alt="Sarracenia 'Boob Tube' x open-pollinated"></a><br />This is one of many open-pollinated 'Boob Tube' seedlings I have. I have some from my own 'Boob Tube' that are about 4-years-old now, and then another group of seeds that I got from Wes Buckner, and those are all 1-year-old now. This particular one looks very psittacina-esque, and is from the Wes Buckner batch. Most of the ones from his seeds are very psittacina-esque, whereas the ones from mine are more upright.<br /><br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/59003943@N00/5584859085/" title="Sarracenia 'Boob Tube' x open-pollinated by aarongunnar, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5258/5584859085_1caf9f2744.jpg" width="388" height="500" alt="Sarracenia 'Boob Tube' x open-pollinated"></a><br />Speaking of my open-pollinated 'Boob Tube' seedlings, here is one of the 4-year-olds. Actually, very reminiscent of the pod parent. The pic doesn't show it, but the pitchers on this plant all stick out at about a 45 deg. angle and have a snake-like appearance. This particular pitcher is about 12" long, so I can't wait to have a whole mess of them opened up.<br /><br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/59003943@N00/5584861349/" title="Sarracenia leucophylla x flava var. rubricorpora by aarongunnar, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5270/5584861349_f68ff326eb.jpg" width="448" height="500" alt="Sarracenia leucophylla x flava var. rubricorpora"></a><br />This is a leucophylla x flava rubricorpora hybrid, also aquired at Oudean's. I was there in early May, so there wasn't a whole lot of growth yet on any of her outdoor plants, so I was kind of just going on the tags when I picked plants out. I'm pleasantly surprised with how this one looks. Can't wait to see it when I move it outside into full sun. I've mentioned it before, but whoever designed the greenhouse didn't take into consideration sunlight angles and whatnot. The greenhouse doesn't get a whole lot of direct sun.<br /><br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/59003943@N00/5584860995/" title="Sarracenia mitchelliana x 'Wilkerson's Red' by aarongunnar, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5147/5584860995_3d18f02f1a.jpg" width="301" height="500" alt="Sarracenia mitchelliana x 'Wilkerson's Red'"></a><br />This is another 1-year-old from seeds I got from Wes B. This particular one is mitchelliana x 'Wilkerson's Red'. I'm liking the color development on this one, especially considering the sunlight levels in the greenhouse. Can't wait to see this one after a summer on my back deck. I actually had about 18 or so siblings of this plant, but the winter has not been kind and I'm probably down to about 8 or so.<br /><br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/59003943@N00/5584860785/" title="Sarracenia (oreophila x minor) x leucophylla by aarongunnar, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5178/5584860785_b83a001727.jpg" width="271" height="500" alt="Sarracenia (oreophila x minor) x leucophylla"></a><br />Another Oudean's plant, (minor x oreophila) x leucophylla.<br /><br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/59003943@N00/5585452586/" title="Sarracenia 'Doreen's Colossus' by aarongunnar, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5176/5585452586_d953f0d698.jpg" width="409" height="500" alt="Sarracenia 'Doreen's Colossus'"></a><br />Another one I picked up at Oudean's - 'Doreen's Colossus'. It's too bad the aphids picked on this one earlier, leading to the distorted appearance. I should've included my hand in the photo. These pitchers are enormous.<br /><br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/59003943@N00/5585452236/" title="Sarracenia 'willisii' x leucophylla by aarongunnar, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5293/5585452236_bf1268bd8e.jpg" width="333" height="500" alt="Sarracenia 'willisii' x leucophylla"></a><br />Another 1-year-old from Wes B's seeds. This is 'willisii' x leucophylla. I know there's some controversy over S. 'willisii', and I don't know if he had a true willisii when he did this cross or what. I do have a lot of siblings of this, and they all more or less look like this.<br /><br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/59003943@N00/5585451990/" title="Unknown Sarracenia hybrid by aarongunnar, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5253/5585451990_98b9bc7327.jpg" width="357" height="500" alt="Unknown Sarracenia hybrid"></a><br />This is an unknown hybrid at 4 years old. For years, any flowers I didn't use in crosses, I just left to mother nature, and would put all of the seeds in one container, mix it up good, and plant some every year. This is one of those. It looks pretty close to a S. flava cuprea, but, it's hard to see in the photo, but there are a lot of small translucent spots on the lid and around the opening. They don't really look like the ones you see on S. leucophylla, more like the ones you sometimes see on S. alabamensis. I know I used to have a flowering flava cuprea, but never a flowering alabamensis. So I really don't know what this could have in it. Certainly looks like a flava x rubra hybrid. I'm still waiting for it to flower to maybe help clue me in.<br /><br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/59003943@N00/5584859307/" title="Unknown Sarracenia hybrid by aarongunnar, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5188/5584859307_d251274bc0.jpg" width="264" height="500" alt="Unknown Sarracenia hybrid"></a><br />This is another unknown from the same batch of seeds mentioned in the above pic. No clue what this could all have in it, besides S. leucophylla. Perhaps some S. purp and maybe even S. minor. What's interesting, is I don't think I've had a flowering leucophylla until a year or two ago, and this plant is 4-years-old, so the leucophylla influence would have to be from a leuco hybrid. It is a pretty plant, with the pink coloration and all the white spots, however, it is fairly floppy, and a decent rainstorm will knock over most of the pitchers.<br /><br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/59003943@N00/5585451620/" title="Sarracenia 'John Wyndham' by aarongunnar, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5023/5585451620_489a71c2bd.jpg" width="293" height="500" alt="Sarracenia 'John Wyndham'"></a><br />This is 'John Wyndham', a cross of (leucophylla x minor) x leucophylla 'Hurricane Creek White'. I bought this from CA Carnivores last spring, and it pretty much did nothing last year, any new pitchers were no bigger than the ones it had when it arrived. This is its first pitcher this year and it is 15" tall, so I'm curious to see how this one looks by then end of summer. It's also another one the aphids especially liked, judging by the sort of misshapen look to it.Aaronhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16145815042088629503noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6826168904085232565.post-62609123484040389012011-03-31T10:51:00.000-07:002011-03-31T11:10:12.297-07:00Winter Doesn't Want To LeaveThis has been one of the most depressing early springs so far, at least since we moved back to WI. We had a nice little stretch of milder temps about 2 weeks ago that melted most of the snow that had accumulated over winter. Then, last week, we got a nice 9" snowfall to nullify all the snowmelt. Now, we've slowly been getting a couple of degrees warmer each day for the past week or so. I think 45F is the forecast for today. A good chunk of that 9" is about gone, but they're saying maybe an inch or two tonight of slushy snow, which should melt during the day tomorrow, but the major depressing point is a big low-pressure system forecasted to come through early next week. The different forecast models are not in agreement of the path this cyclone will take, but the further south it is, the more of a chance of us seeing snow. If it takes the most southerly route, they're saying we could see a signifcant snowfall. This is really depressing. Another big snow means it'll be that much longer until I can move my plants outside - as snow melts, and in turn evaporates, it sucks up a lot of heat energy from the air, which means temps will stay low, this also keeps the ground a lot colder, and so on. It doesn't start warming up too much here until the snow melts and the ground dries up. Due to the angle of the sun, my garage is getting fairly mild now, despite low temps at night still in the upper teens/low 20's, my minibogs have remained thawed, and it warms up probably into the 50's during the day. So I've actually been seeing a few flower buds getting ready to emerge. I'm also seeing some saprophytic fungi develop, which is always an issue this time of year. Conditions are perfect for it in the garage now - low light and milder temps. This is usually when I move them outside, which pretty much eliminates the fungi, but it is still too cold at night. So, I just hope this turns out to be a rain, or mostly rain event next week. If so, it should melt any remaining snow, and allow temps to finally start moderating.<br /><br />I visited the greenhouse, briefly, earlier this week, to check on the aphid situation, and was happy to see that there are very few remaining. That insecticide I used was awesome! I will try and get in this weekend and take some pics, some of the plants are looking pretty good. I noticed a couple of huge 'Doreen's Colossus' pitchers, that, unfortunately, are a bit malformed from the aphids, I presume. I can see why the plant got that name though. Wow! I also need to start repotting this years new seedlings, some are getting pretty crowded.Aaronhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16145815042088629503noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6826168904085232565.post-39731655164556009082011-03-16T06:33:00.000-07:002011-03-16T06:51:50.796-07:00Seedlings & BugsI've been to the greenhouse twice in the past week, which is probably a record for me. Since moving the plants into the greenhouse, I've been noticing a slowly increasing aphid population. I've kind of not thought to much about it, because I've never really had any bug problems before. Well, my trip to the greenhouse last weekend exposed me to a pretty sizable aphid population on many plants. Some developing pitchers were nearly completely covered. So I ran out and got a topical/systemic insecticide and let 'em have it. I visited again last night (2 days later) to check on things. Definitely less aphids now, but there are still some isolated pockets of resistance. Here's a pic I took last night of one of those isolated pockets of resistance:<br /><img src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5173/5532116554_e8da78ed00.jpg" width="402" height="500" alt="Aphid infestation on a Sarracenia hybrid" /><br />I should mention the light looks weird because of the greenhouse lights that were on (I was there at night), and I could not figure out how to get my camera's flash to fire while in the light.<br /><br />I also had to add more material to the compost bin, several plants had died at some point over the past couple of weeks. I really don't know what the problem could be. Most plants look pretty good, and some that look good, don't by the next week. One of the casualties was the open-pollinated oreophila x willisii that just flowered (at 3 years old) that I mentioned in a previous post. What a bummer. I did learn that the misting system in the greenhouse uses tap water. All this time I thought it was RO water, but my wife said the powers-that-be decided not to allocate funds to an RO system, during the planning phases of the greenhouse. Perhaps that is the reason for the casualties. Next year, I will put the plants in the "cool room" of the greenhouse, which uses the misters a lot less often.<br /><br />To end, here a few pics of some of this years seedlings, most about 3 months old now.<br /><img src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5097/5531533169_061754396b.jpg" width="402" height="500" alt="Sarracenia minor x 'Love Bug'" /><br />This one is actually 1 year old, S. minor x 'Love Bug'<br /><br /><br /><img src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5179/5531532787_0ab85a1453.jpg" width="500" height="391" alt="Sarracenia ('Ladies In Waiting' x 'Judith Hindle') x 'Leah Wilkerson'" /><br />S. ('Ladies in Waiting' x 'Judith Hindle') x 'Leah Wilkerson'<br /><br /><img src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5177/5531532713_39f250f0a8.jpg" width="500" height="307" alt="Sarracenia leucophylla x 'Adrian Slack'" /><br />S. leucophylla x 'Adrian Slack'<br /><br /><br /><img src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5216/5532116054_5e465e3f56.jpg" width="500" height="244" alt="Sarracenia oreophila x 'Toadmaster'" /><br />S. oreophila x 'Toadmaster'. I posted a pic of these in a previous post, right when they first germinated.Aaronhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16145815042088629503noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6826168904085232565.post-42959429839214897432011-03-05T13:46:00.000-08:002011-03-05T13:56:01.658-08:00Early March Update, or lack thereofIt has been too long since I've been to the greenhouse. Starting to worry a bit about the seedlings, as there is no one watching over them. There are all mostly covered, but I've had to water some of them a little, from time to time. Mainly, I've been sick as a dog for the past week. I was starting to feel the onset of a cold late last week, and then last Saturday, we (the fam) headed to Madison, WI, to participate in the workers protests going on there. So I was outside all day, in a steady snow and about 28 degrees. Needless to say, by Sunday morning I was in misery, and continued to be all week, and still am, a little, although I definitely feel much better. To top it off, my wife has temporarily misplaced her swipe-card to get into the greenhouse, so I don't know when I'll get there.<br />As it is March, temps should finally start trending ever-so-slowly upwards. We're forecasted to get a major snowstorm next week, so winter is definitely gonna be here for awhile yet, but the long-term models show a warming trend is coming. Which means I need to start dividing the stuff that's in my garage. So far, everything still looks alive in there, but I've learned that doesn't mean anything. Every garage-wintered plant I've lost looked fine until I moved it outside, at which point it turned to mush in a matter of days. So I'm hoping that I can move everything outside by early April and have stuff divided a week or two before that. My only fear is losing flowers to frosts, which can occur up through mid/late May, although it's pretty rare to get one after the middle of May.Aaronhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16145815042088629503noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6826168904085232565.post-86489721914599142062011-02-16T08:57:00.000-08:002011-02-16T09:03:01.489-08:00PollinationIn the midst of doing some pollinations in the greenhouse. I've been using 'Doreen's Colossus' as the father on 3 other plants so far: (oreophila x willisii) x open-pollinated, 'Tapestry', and leucophylla x flava rubricorpora. The last two should yield some nice looking plants, I think. The cross with the (oreophila x willisii) x OP, I'm not so sure what I'll get out of that. Probably just some large, mostly green oreophila-looking pitchers. Both plants don't have much color to them, but there was nothing else to pollinate it with at the time. I guess there could always be some surprises. Being open-pollinated, I have no idea what the father was. I'm guessing it was self-pollinated, but you never know. Also, with 'willisii' in the genetics, there's always a possibility of getting a more decumbent pitcher. Time will tell.Aaronhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16145815042088629503noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6826168904085232565.post-67539252093611066402011-02-06T14:46:00.000-08:002011-02-06T14:57:07.044-08:00First Flowers of the YearPaid another visit to the greenhouse on this Super Bowl Sunday. Being a huge Packers fan, I needed something to calm the nerves, so a visit to the greenhouse was the perfect remedy. I was happy to see germination in just about every pot of seeds I had sown this fall/winter. Also, the first flowers have opened up. First is the open-pollinated oreophila x willisii shown in the previous post. It has some interesting lobes on a few of the petals. Not sure if this is a genetic thing, or just due to environmental factors:<br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/59003943@N00/5422683203/" title="oreoxwillxop3 by aarongunnar, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5137/5422683203_25be9569db.jpg" width="500" height="401" alt="oreoxwillxop3" /></a><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/59003943@N00/5422683627/" title="oreoxwillxop5 by aarongunnar, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5179/5422683627_39abf58501.jpg" width="491" height="500" alt="oreoxwillxop5" /></a><br />The other flowers to have opened up are 'Doreen's Colossus', a flava x oreophila hybrid:<br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/59003943@N00/5423289488/" title="doreenscolossus4 by aarongunnar, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5177/5423289488_b3b6e27c98.jpg" width="500" height="310" alt="doreenscolossus4" /></a><br />I crossed the 2 plants, using 'Doreen's Colossus' as the pollen donor on the open-pollinated oreophila x willisii.<br />My last order of business for the day was discarding 1-year-old seedlings that were deceased, which turned out to be more than I had thought. I'd say roughly 1/3 to 1/2 of the pots had dead plants in them. Here is a pic of the empty pots following the mass burial:<br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/59003943@N00/5422685629/" title="culledherd by aarongunnar, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5216/5422685629_d8d3a81983.jpg" width="500" height="215" alt="culledherd" /></a><br />There are still a lot of seedlings left, so I am not too upset, although I did lose 100% of several crosses that had potential. On the bright side, this frees up some space, and pots, which are in short supply.<br />There should be several more flowers open by next weekend. I will have to invest in some paintbrushes.Aaronhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16145815042088629503noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6826168904085232565.post-54269749698363746502011-01-24T16:15:00.000-08:002011-01-24T16:25:44.468-08:00Picture UpdatePaid a visit to the greenhouse this past weekend and was amazed at what I saw. First, I noticed the first seeds are beginning to sprout. S. oreophila x "Toadmaster" is the first out of the gate:<br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/59003943@N00/5378422427/" title="Sarracenia oreophila x "Toadmaster" - germinating seeds by aarongunnar, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5004/5378422427_2c9483752a.jpg" width="500" height="460" alt="Sarracenia oreophila x "Toadmaster" - germinating seeds" /></a><br /><br />Second, many of the one year old plants have sent up new growth, even ones that appeared to be dead:<br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/59003943@N00/5378422835/" title="Sarracenia purpurea (Drummond, WI), @ 1 year old. by aarongunnar, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5246/5378422835_c27f36e106.jpg" width="500" height="362" alt="Sarracenia purpurea (Drummond, WI), @ 1 year old." /></a><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/59003943@N00/5378422979/" title="1 year old Sarracenia seedling, waking up from dormancy by aarongunnar, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5123/5378422979_ee475c9a2c.jpg" width="500" height="362" alt="1 year old Sarracenia seedling, waking up from dormancy" /></a><br />There are definitely many that I'm about to give up on. It seems the ones that suffered most were the second "batch" that sprouted last year. I had basically 2 batches of seeds that were sown. The first batch sprouted around Christmas of 2009, and the second batch sprouted in early spring of 2010. I will definitely be more careful with this year's batch of seedlings.<br /><br />Third, I noticed a flower on a seed-grown plant, 3 years and 1 month after it germinated. It is an open-pollinated S. oreophila x willisii:<br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/59003943@N00/5378422713/" title="Sarracenia oreophila x 'willisii' - open-pollinated. by aarongunnar, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5242/5378422713_3371c30125.jpg" width="376" height="500" alt="Sarracenia oreophila x 'willisii' - open-pollinated." /></a><br /><br />Lastly, I noticed a bunch of flowers emerging on some older plants, including many that I purchased at Oudean's Willow Creek Nursery last May, including 'Doreen's Colossus' and 'Tapestry' (what a nice cross that would make):<br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/59003943@N00/5379022888/" title="Sarracenia flower bud emerging by aarongunnar, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5282/5379022888_fdbbc93487.jpg" width="500" height="492" alt="Sarracenia flower bud emerging" /></a><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/59003943@N00/5379023422/" title="Sarracenia x 'Doreen's Colossus' flower bud emerging by aarongunnar, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5210/5379023422_4b984d022d.jpg" width="500" height="410" alt="Sarracenia x 'Doreen's Colossus' flower bud emerging" /></a><br /><br />One last shot, of an unknown S. purpurea hybrid that kind of sums up how things are looking in the greenhouse. It shows a new pitcher emerging, as well as some Drosera filiformis waking up, as well as some weedy white violets, that I've given up on trying to eliminate:<br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/59003943@N00/5378424243/" title="Unknown Sarracenia hybrid and Drosera filiformis waking up by aarongunnar, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5090/5378424243_a0659df990.jpg" width="500" height="396" alt="Unknown Sarracenia hybrid and Drosera filiformis waking up" /></a>Aaronhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16145815042088629503noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6826168904085232565.post-74319825100069105952011-01-19T08:15:00.000-08:002011-01-19T08:26:03.248-08:00Mid-January UpdatePaid a visit to the greenhouse this morning, where all of my younger plants were moved recently. I also dropped off the rest of my seeds that were in cold stratification. I obseverd a lot of new growth on seedlings from last year, although there are still a good number that pretty much look dead. I'll keep them in there and hope for the best, but I don't feel too confident they are still alive. There are enough showing new growth that I don't feel too upset about it, but I definitely learned a lesson on seedlings this year. Some of the older (2-3 year old) seedlings are also waking up, and I even observed a flower bud, about 2" tall now, on a 3-year-old open-pollinated oreophila x willisii. Unfortunately, there will be nothing to cross it with, other than itself. So maybe someday I'll have some self-pollinated open-pollinated oreophila x willisii. Something to look forward to years from now. <br />I also checked on the seeds I had moved in there a little while ago. I don't remember the date off hand, but I did observe some germination! The first to sprout this year are a cross of S. oreophila x 'Toadmaster', which I got off Ebay. They just very recently sprouted, as there are no cotyledons visible yet, just the root shoots curved into the soil. I also observed one seed of S. flava x 'Medusa' just beginning to sprout. Hopefully, the rest of its siblings soon follow suit. The other two sets of seeds that were brought into the greenhouse with them show no signs of anything yet, but I will definitely be increasing the frequency of my visits now.<br />I still am meaning to get in there and divide some of the older seedlings that have multiple growth points, but life has just been too busy with the holidays, plus a death in the family, so I haven't really had much time to do anything. Hopefully things settle down now.Aaronhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16145815042088629503noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6826168904085232565.post-61411457587850212322011-01-02T15:32:00.000-08:002011-01-02T15:46:15.447-08:0020112011 has begun, although this is generally a slow time of year. A long stretch of bitter cold froze everything in the garage, although some milder weather moved in over the past week and a half and thawed everything out. I finally moved 3 trays of first-year seedlings into the greenhouse about a week before Christmas. I moved another two trays today, and noticed a few of the ones that got moved in before Christmas starting to send up new pitchers. I probably should've moved everything in sooner, as I don't think first-year seedlings can take freezing too well, but so far, just about everything at least looks like it's still alive. A few seedlings look like they may have perished, but I'm not counting them out yet. One of the seedlings showing some new growth looked like it was dead to me, but low-and-behold, there's a new shoot. I also moved some seeds from stratification into the greenhouse, they were put into stratification around the 20th of November. I'll be moving more into the greenhouse, in batches, during the coming weeks, as they were put into stratification in batches up to about mid-December. I also have another couple of trays of younger plants that will go into the greenhouse soon.<br />During the past week I finished trimming off the rest of my plants and noticed several 3-year-old plants that can definitely be divided. I was actually amazed how well-developed the rhizomes are on some of them. I will be watching closely over the next few weeks, as they get moved into the greenhouse, to see if any flowers develop on these youngsters, as I had one plant from this cohort bloom this past fall.Aaronhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16145815042088629503noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6826168904085232565.post-12406329647542398622010-12-09T11:45:00.000-08:002010-12-09T11:58:24.570-08:00WinterProbably the most boring period of time has begun. All plants were moved into my garage the week of Thanksgiving. I have yet to insulate the garage, which I had hoped would've happened by now. I did set out an electrical heating mat. Supposedly it warms to 10 degrees warmer than the ambient air temperature. I haven't plugged it in yet. I may never use it. I don't know what the temp is inside the garage, but the plants that are on the floor are unfrozen as of today. I do have one tray of large pots that is sitting on a table, and at least the surface moss on those is frozen. I guess I'll have to move it to the floor. Sometime over the Christmas break, I will move all of the 1-year-old seedlings into a greenhouse, so they can get started up again. I'm looking forward to that, as it seems they really start showing their adult characteristics after the first year, although some already were this past fall. <br />I also have a bunch of seeds stratifying, mostly from my own crosses I did this year, as well as a couple I got in giveaways on the terraforums.com website, and a couple of Ebay purchases. I also have to give a shout out to Rob Co for a bunch of seeds from some very exciting-sounding crosses he did. I just received those in the mail this week, so they will get into stratification this weekend.<br />My wife is a botany professor and is about to undertake a research project involving Sarracenia. I will add details as they get sorted out, but it will involve tissue-culturing. We've already started a trial run using seed. Still awaiting germination, but there are no signs of contamination. She used a bunch of older, open-pollinated seeds I've been collecting from my collection over the past several years.<br />Anyways, there's probably not a whole lot to write about anymore until stuff starts growing in the greenhouse, and hopefully everything that remains in the garage pulls through the winter again. I can't wait 'til April!Aaronhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16145815042088629503noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6826168904085232565.post-69642822862130535012010-10-11T12:39:00.001-07:002010-10-11T12:39:00.964-07:00Sarracenia purpurea in the wild<div style="float: right; margin-left: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/59003943@N00/5070012336/" title="photo sharing"><img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4092/5070012336_2e279acde6_m.jpg" alt="" style="border: solid 2px #000000;" /></a><br /><span style="font-size: 0.9em; margin-top: 0px;"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/59003943@N00/5070012336/">Sarracenia purpurea</a><br />Originally uploaded by <a href="http://www.flickr.com/people/59003943@N00/">aarongunnar</a></span></div>Went hiking yesterday, at a place called the Hunt Hill Audubon Sanctuary. The main reason I wanted to go was the presence of a high-quality sphagnum bog. I wasn't disappointed. Pitcher plants were everywhere, and you could definitely see a color gradient from the tree ring to the open lake shore - the ones in the open were nearly pure red, whereas the ones in the shade were pretty much all green. We definitely plan on coming back next summer, as it's only about a 90-minute drive from my house, and I'd like to see them in full bloom, as well as the several bog orchids that are reportedly present.<br clear="all" />Aaronhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16145815042088629503noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6826168904085232565.post-73039262398824225672010-09-19T07:34:00.001-07:002010-09-19T07:34:23.413-07:00Sarracenia 'Boob Tube' x open-pollinated<div style="float: right; margin-left: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/59003943@N00/4980401244/" title="photo sharing"><img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4124/4980401244_970ffef571_m.jpg" alt="" style="border: solid 2px #000000;" /></a><br /><span style="font-size: 0.9em; margin-top: 0px;"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/59003943@N00/4980401244/">Sarracenia 'Boob Tube' x open-pollinated, at 8.5 months old</a><br />Originally uploaded by <a href="http://www.flickr.com/people/59003943@N00/">aarongunnar</a></span></div>Here is a shot of a first-year seedling, at about 8.5 months old, to be exact. It is an open-pollinated 'Boob Tube', from a batch of seeds I got from Wes Buckner. I have probably a dozen seedlings from this batch of seeds. I also have approx. 8 plants from my own open-pollinated 'Boob Tube'. They are all 3 years old, so it has been interesting comparing the ones I got from Wes to my own. For the most part, my set of plants are more upright-growing than the ones I got from Wes. Most of the ones I got from Wes are prostrate and resemble S. psittacina. At this point, this particular seedling is my favorite because it looks very close to S. psittacina. Regardless of pitcher shape, every other seedling of Wes' or my my own seeds has an open lid, however, this one's lid remains closed with just a small, tubular opening, just like S. psittacina. I don't know what the parents of 'Boob Tube' are, or if anyone even knows, but it looks to have S. minor and S. psittacina as parents, and probably something else too, perhaps S. purpurea.<br clear="all" />Aaronhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16145815042088629503noreply@blogger.com0