Winter

Probably 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.
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.
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.
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!

Sarracenia purpurea in the wild

Sarracenia purpurea
Originally uploaded by aarongunnar

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.

Sarracenia 'Boob Tube' x open-pollinated

Sarracenia 'Boob Tube' x open-pollinated, at 8.5 months old
Originally uploaded by aarongunnar

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.

Winding Down

Sadly, the end of summer is fast approaching. Being in WI, means that the first frost is probably not that far away. I don't know when our earliest frost date is, the record is probably some time around now, average is probably another month or so. I know last year we had a big snow sometime around Oct. 7th, although it warmed up again after that. It's been a good year for the Sarracenia this year. I should be able to divide a bunch of my first cohort of "seedlings" (those in their 3rd year), next spring, for trading or I may try a few on Ebay just to see how much they go for, for curiosity's sake. I have too many seedlings to count from those that I started at the beginning of the year. Many are starting to show their true colors - I will try and get some pics up of the best of them here at some point. I also have started harvesting seeds - 3 pods so far with the rest at least a couple of weeks away. I can't wait to get them stratifying, as I only have 1 plant right now that is my own cross - everything else is either open-pollinated, or other people's crosses. I still hope to get my hands on some other people's seeds too.

As of now, the plants are still sending up their late summer pitchers, although the amount of daylight really goes downhill this time of year, so they don't get as much coloration as they would in the summer. That's kind of a bummer, there's a few plants that are sending up their first large pitchers, and I'm curious to see how they look, color-wise. One of my 'Abnorma' plants has recently sent up a very tall pitcher, too bad it will probably stay mostly green.

I'm also starting to think about what I will do with all of them this winter. As I've posted earlier, the mature ones I've been keeping in my garage, while the youngsters I move into a greenhouse after a little taste of the cold. While this has largely been successful, I'm always paranoid about losing a bunch. I've been contemplating the fridge method, but first I have to buy a fridge. I've also contemplated building some kind of insulated enclosure in the garage, with some lighting inside it to keep the temps up. Federal funding for the lab I work in is in jeopardy after this fiscal year, so now is not the time for any costly projects. I may be unemployed by next summer!

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:

Hybrid Seedling

Sarracenia (leucophylla x purpurea) x 'Wilkerson's Red'
Originally uploaded by aarongunnar

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.

Sarracenia 'Red Sumatra'

Sarracenia 'Red Sumatra'
Originally uploaded by aarongunnar

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