I was very lucky to get these beauties from Diane Meucci of Gardens Oy Vey and keep them in a non-draining shallow bowl to thrive. They originally were in a well draining hypertufa bowl I had made, but it was too well draining and the pitcher plants were having none of it, drying out and being sad.
I keep them by the water barrel next to some horsetail I keep confined in a pot in the drain hole of the rain barrel. My theory is that the mosquitoes and flies like to hang there and it's a good spot to keep the pitcher plants happy and well fed.
Well call me Seymour and eat me alive, aren't they pretty? They really get your heart going when they bloom, which I hope is either this or next year because those flowers are just unearthly and beautiful.
2 comments:
I've seen pitcher plants at the botanical gardens here in DC. I didn't think they were hardy as far north as Memphis.
They look awesome. I think I would be too tempted to stick my finger down one out of curiosity... it can't bite my finger right?
Actually some pitcher plants are hardy up to Canada if I recall correctly. The ones I have should be perfectly fine and perennial, though my plan was to repot them into a large glass fish bowl to keep the humidity in, though I am a little worried about the sun magnifying it a bit much. As long as it's in not too high light in the summer it should be fine.
I am tempted to separate some and bring it indoors because I love how they look, but I understand too that they need a cold period... so some inside some out? In the pic I actually have 3 different varieties, I think a purpuera and leuco--something or another... I can't remember the other one.
I always want to stick my finger down them :) I haven't done it yet, but I know it doesn't bite and it would take a good while before it digests your finger, and you prob would have left by then out of boredom.
There are some really frightening ones, fanged ones: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nepenthes_bicalcarata
in Borneo (of course, that's where all the cool stuff is...)
It'd be cool to get some Venus flytraps and sundew too, but I don't know how difficult they would be to deal with
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