Insectivorous Plants in the Wilderness - A collection of amazing photos of CPs in habitat and information on a new Japanese photo book. How did he get the picture from inside the pitcher looking out? posted by chuckr
5/01/2003 11:13:00 PM
Agri-Starts III Carnivorous Plants - These folks are big tissue culture growers of carnivorous plants (and many other plants). Most of their stuff is pretty mainstream, but they have a very cool S. leucophylla variety called 'Titan'(tm). Wish I could find someone to split a 72 pack with. posted by chuckr
5/01/2003 10:54:00 PM
solar water - A solar water distiller. I don't know if this will work in SSJ, but I should give it a try. posted by chuckr
3/31/2003 03:04:00 PM
Monday, March 17, 2003
Florida waterscapes - Barry Rice put together a nice photo log of his trip to Florida. Not too much exciting in the way of CPs but an interesting travel log none the less. posted by chuckr
3/17/2003 03:39:00 PM
Monday, February 17, 2003
A WORLD OF PINGUICULA - A pretty complete French site all about Pinguicula. Good growing tips and nice overview of which substrates make the best media for these greasy little plants. posted by chuckr
2/17/2003 11:22:00 PM
Thursday, February 13, 2003
Dionaea photos - Venus Fly Traps (Dionaea) come in all shapes, sizes, and colors. It makes it hard to understand which plant you're after, especially since no one is bothering to register the various names. Here's a list of pretty much every variety of VFT for reference. posted by chuckr
2/13/2003 11:26:00 PM
Windowbox Micro-Bog - Kit Halsted has written instructions on how to create an urban "mini-bog". It's even squirrel-proof. Cool. posted by chuckr
1/08/2003 05:13:00 PM
Superior Enterprise - Yes, a reptile packaging store. The interest to CP growers is for the heat and cold packs that let you ship plants in the winter and summer. It's amazing how many products developed for the reptile trade are useful for CPs. Just goes to show you, nutballs flock together. posted by chuckr
12/03/2002 01:43:00 AM
CARNIVOROUS PLANT PHOTO FINDER - This guy has taken it upon himself to do his own little version of a Google image search - but just for CPs. His page includes hard coded links to pictures of almost every species of carnivorous plant. It will be a lot of work to keep the links live. posted by chuckr
12/03/2002 01:40:00 AM
Yahoo! Groups : hometissueculture - Here's a Yahoo Group about Home Tissue Culture. Seems pretty active: The Home Plant Tissue Culture Listserv was created at the request of several tissue culture hobbyists who wanted a site where beginners could share their experiences with other non-professionals or those with limited experience. Our goal is to share ideas, cultures, seeds, chemicals, protocols, recipes and sources of information with each other. We are all limited in funds and expensive equipment and want to share ideas of how we can do plant tissue culture in an effective but inexpensive manner. posted by chuckr
12/03/2002 01:25:00 AM
Tuesday, November 19, 2002
E-Trap - I love the net. Here's a "bug zapper" that doesn't zap the bugs into oblivion, but instead just stuns them so they can be collected later! They want you to throw the little dried out buggers in the trash, but for us CP people, this is an excellent way to get feeding material for the plants. posted by chuckr
11/19/2002 04:52:00 PM
Mutant Pinguicula leaf - Kit Halsted managed to grow a Ping with a mutated leaf. Usually Ping leafs are flat sticky things, but his plant produced a pitcher shaped leaf. Weird. posted by chuckr
11/11/2002 03:45:00 PM
Drosera hartmeyerorum - Barry took some interesting pictures of Drosera hartmeyerorum with an emphasis on the yellow, moriform structures that characterize this species. posted by chuckr
10/30/2002 02:09:00 PM
Monday, October 21, 2002
The Carnivorous Plant FAQ: human digestion - I guess it had to be done...Barry Rice did the unthinkable and experimented with feeding a Venus Fly Trap human flesh. The results are disturbing. Not for the feint of heart....the pictures and description are pretty gross. posted by chuckr
10/21/2002 11:31:00 AM
Friday, October 11, 2002
Greenhouse Gallery - Ah, to have a greenhouse - or two. This is Mike King's setup in the UK. Just tons of beautiful Sarracenia posted by chuckr
10/11/2002 03:34:00 PM
This was a post to the carnivorous plant mailing list from an old time CP hunter. Robert has some cool first hand observations about seeing CPs in the wild:
If you get out a map of Australia and look at the bottom, you will see
the Great Australian Bight. This is where the Indian Ocean meets the
Southern Ocean. Over in West Australia in the Bight the Cephalotus
grows in the wild. It is a sparsely populated place with forests of
Banksias growing in the wild and flights of brightly colored parrots
flying overhead. The Antarctic Ocean sends storms crashing up on its
shores. This is where the man in the gray suit (Aussie for the Great
White Shark) comes very close to shore. You could easily imagine
dinosaurs stealthily darting across the road. It is like no other place
on earth, and I love it so.
I used to go there every year looking for carnivorous plants. I have collected
Cephalotus and Drosera in the wild from Albany to Bremer Bay and around to
Esperance. I have noticed how they were growing and what they were growing in.
I found out that they like growing close to the coast. Many times I found them
growing underneath the W. A. Wattle tree in a lot of leaf mold. These were big
green pitchers. The others--smaller red pitchers-- were growing so very close
to the beach that the huge waves that pounded had to be sending salt spray over
them with no ill effects.
I brought some back to Queensland; those that did not die started growing
smaller pitchers. This puzzled me. I returned a year later and took soil
samples and talked to a local nurseryman. Then I came up with my own potting
mixture. This turned the corner for me. I know this is going to raise some
eyebrows, but I am going to spell it out anyway.
First let me say what I have always said: "We DON'T grow plants. What we do
is provide the right soil, water, temperature, and light, and they do the
growing. We try to duplicate nature and they do the rest. Okay, here
goes--1/3 peat, 1/3 leaf mold, and 1/3 sand from the seaside. I don't mean
from the edge of the tide, but beyond the beach--even over the hill. A man who
owned the plant shop in Albany told me that a little salt keeps down the fungus
that they are so susceptible to. Randall Schwartz in his book Carnivorous
Plants (1974) on page 80 wrote, and I quote, " While many people grow
Cephalotus, real success is rare. Occasionally, the plant flowers and
flourishes in captivity, but vigor seems sporadic. There's some talk of a need
for some salt in their diet, but I can't seem to pin down the rumors."
If you want to boo and hiss, go ahead....Now for the fungus that kills them so
fast. One of the carnivorous plant clubs that I belonged to did a lot of tests
on fungicides to find which one was the best. I can't remember if it was the
Brisbane CPS or the LACPS--or even the name of the fungicide. If it comes to
me, I will post it. ........Later, Robert
posted by chuckr
10/10/2002 12:39:00 AM
Wednesday, October 09, 2002
Drosera hartmeyerorum - By pure blind luck, it turns out I have this plant in my collection - even before it was discovered as a new species. Here are some tips on growing Drosera hartmeyerorum with some nice pictures of the "mystery organs". posted by chuckr
10/09/2002 12:43:00 PM
Monday, October 07, 2002
Welcome to the Bug Farm - Live bugs and critters to feed your plants. I think they expect people to buy this stuff for their reptiles and fish.. posted by chuckr
10/07/2002 09:41:00 AM
Monday, September 30, 2002
Cartogra: View Photo - I can't get enough of little frogs sitting in Sarracenia. They must think they've found a big fly funnel. posted by chuckr
9/30/2002 11:43:00 AM
Sarracenia Gallery - A German page that has an excellent overview of most of the most popular Sarracenia varieties with their flowers. Great reference site. posted by chuckr
9/30/2002 09:57:00 AM
Carni Flora - Floriade 2002 - One of the best looking indoor carnivorous plant compositions I've seen. This is from Carni Flora, a commercial CP grower in the Netherlands. They have some nice pictures and information on all the main CP species. posted by chuckr
9/27/2002 03:23:00 PM
Tuesday, September 24, 2002
Outdoor Carnivorous Bog Garden construction - John Green keeps a web site about bog gardening with some good starting steps for a smaller bog. If he could just grow something big enough to eat that dog, he'd be all set... posted by chuckr
9/24/2002 03:56:00 PM
KSL Radio Small Business Resource Center - John Green writes: The other day I heard something on the radio that may be of interest to
those of you involved with tissue culturing. There is (or soon will be) a
sanitizing product that uses ozone to kill germs and bacteria. It's
supposedly very effective and doesn't have any harmful effects such as
creating pesticide-resistant bacteria. posted by chuckr
7/08/2002 11:31:00 AM
Tuesday, June 25, 2002
Mepps squirrel tail recycle program can get you FREE Mepps lures - Yes, it's summer and the discussion on the CP list is back to squirrels and how much we all hate them. Someone posted this link, which is just a great idea on what to do with squirrel parts. Now if I can just figure out how to catch the suckers without going to jail...
posted by chuckr
6/25/2002 04:43:00 PM
Site Note - Back from vacation finally...time to get the blog back in shape. I need to get chuckr.net up and hosted somewhere again. Time to start bugging Tom.... posted by chuckr
6/25/2002 12:37:00 AM
Wednesday, May 08, 2002
CP database search on "Italy" - We're off for three weeks to Italy and France. The CP database shows all of 2 types of CP found in Italy. Yippie. Why can't we go somewhere good like Alabama? posted by chuckr
5/08/2002 11:35:00 AM
Wednesday, May 01, 2002
Welcome to Carnivorous Plants of Texas! - Michael Pagoulatos has put up a new site that has information on CPs in Texas. If you're in Texas, there's a lot of information on bog tours and conservation news. posted by chuckr
5/01/2002 11:59:00 AM
Slug-eating treasure stolen - This is either a real story, or some sort of "Weekly World News meets carnivorous plants" thing. Someone has stolen the world's only slug eating Sarracenia! posted by chuckr
4/19/2002 05:44:00 AM
Sunday, April 14, 2002
Bullscat---a tail of misplaced priorities - This is bad news...there aren't that many places where Darlingtonia grow and it looks like one of the major spots is being threatened.
Chris Teichreb writes:
As you may recall, Barry re-discovered the site where anthocyanin free
Darlingtonia grow a few years back. These plants were registered as a
cultivar (Darlingtonia 'Othello') and a campaign was started to save the bog
where they grow. Eventually, it was saved, and research has continued since
this time.
Sometime during 2001, cattle that were supposed to be on an adjacent plot
of land wandered on to the property, trampled or ate many of the plants, and
generally made a mess.
Uhaul SuperGraphics . North Carolina - You might have seen those U-Haul trucks around that have pictures representing
each state. North Carolina has a cool one with a Venus Fly Trap and Sarracenia
flava. Here's the U-Haul site for that graphic, which actually does a really good
job of presenting carnivorous plants. posted by chuckr
4/10/2002 11:00:00 AM
Monday, April 08, 2002
Gardener's Greenhouse - Here's a little mini-greenhouse that could easily be put somewhere in the back yard. I'm still trying to find the best solution for some sort of greenhouse out back. This could be a good way to try and see what greenhouse growing is like. posted by chuckr
4/08/2002 11:45:00 AM
Thursday, April 04, 2002
Salon.com:
Free speech and the Internet; a fish story - The story of an aquatic plant
mailing list and the people who sue it. This is relevant to the carnivorous
plant world as there has always been the freedom for people to discuss things
like dealers who are believed to be unscrupulous and sell plants that may be
harvested from the wild. This lawsuit stinks, because a major benefit of the
Internet is that it allows nutballs of various subcultures to get together and
discuss their opinions on every minute detail of their various nutball
pursuits. This lawsuit tries to limit that. (The good news is there's no way to stop it. The nutballs always win in the end.)
posted by chuckr
4/04/2002 11:35:00 PM
Elizabite is a carnivorous plant who eats insects as appetizers and enjoys hotdogs for snacks. Whether it walks, talks, flies, or barks, Elizabite is ready to make a meal of it. Her cheerful, hungry smile and infinite appetite attract much attention - a scientist examines her, a professor studies her, and everyone agrees that she is one of a kind. In an effort to control her diet and her unpredictable temper, Elizabite's admirers chain and muzzle her. But not even a barbed wire fence can prevent her from following her heart's (and stomach's) desire! Only when her unique appetite prevents a crime does Elizabite win the respect she deserves.
The story of Elizabite, written more than fifty years ago, keeps company with those of Curious George, Spotty, and others in the Reys' memorable cast of characters. Perhaps less well known than her compatriots, but equally well loved, Elizabite teaches the value of being oneself.
Things have been slow on the carnivorous plant front lately. The biggest news
on the mailing list is the massive flame war going on between the Carnivorous
Plant Newsletter editors and a pissed off hobbyist who's article on a new unnamed
Drosera was rejected. It boils down to the fact that this new Drosera has not
been officially/scientifically named and the editors will not publish the
article with the (incorrect) common name. This leads to hurt feelings and a
big debate on what the true purpose of the ICPS official journal is: scientific
publication or hobbyist newsletter. Quite the brouhaha, as you can imagine.
Personally, I'm all for waiting and getting the correct name established.
[Field Trip] - I took some quick pictures of the UC Davis Greenhouse Open House. You can see Barry brainwashing some poor, unsuspecting kid. Silvia, Aaron, and I had a great time - I just wish the Sarracenia were out of dormancy so we could see them. The greenhouse had a great variety of plants and a bunch of nice folks running the show. (Click the picture for more)
Amy Ritchie's Taxidermy - This kid is great - she's doing what she loves and expresses it very well. Figures, she's
also a CP fanatic :-)
Amy writes:
Hi fellow CP enthusiasts!
Since it has been at least two years since I last
participated in this email digest, I wasn't sure if
anyone would remember me. I'm Amy Ritchie .. I used to
make the venus flytrap puppets! I think I was twelve
or thirteen then.
But I am 15 years old now, and still a CP lover!
Sadly, I don't really have any CPs right now, with the
exception of one ping that is holding on to life. My
plants all died the winter before last, and the ones
that didn't have died this winter. For a while, I
almost forgot about my carnivorous plant hobby,
because another one of my hobbies was taking over ..
taxidermy (hence the email address). I have been
practicing taxidermy (skinning and mounting animals)
for about two years now and am beginning to get very
good at it. I think I am going to make it my
profession; I love it so much.
But I still love CPs! I have now gotten very
interested in starting another collection of CPs. I
hope to get some flytraps, pings, sundews, and
sarracenias soon. And this time I am determined to
make those things live through winters!
Some of you may be interested to know that I recently
did a 4-H public speech on carnivorous plants. I
called it "Growing a Savage Garden -- Plants With an
Appetite!". I explained, in seven minutes, the main
types of CPs and how to grow them. The competition was
tough, but I won first place and get to go to the
higher level now! hehe! I think I am going to order
one of those adorable venus flytrap shirts from
California Carnivores and wear it while I give my
speech!
I know this is a long email. I just thought people
might want to know what was going on with me since I
haven't talked to you all in so long. Unfortunately, I
had to shut down my rather extensive webpage, but I am
in the process of rebuilding it again. And, oh yeah ..
I am still selling the flytrap puppets, for those of
you who have never heard of them. $4 for finger
puppets and $10 for hand puppets. (:
Your CP growing friend,
Amy Ritchie
http://taxidermy.cjb.net
PS. Like I said, I am looking to start a new
collection, so let me know if you have anything you'd
like to sell/trade. I am primarily looking for VFTs,
sarracenia, pings, and sundews (preferably
easy-to-grow type sundews and pings). I will buy them,
if the price isn't too high, or I will trade puppets!
PPS. Visit my webpage if you want to see what I've
done in taxidermy.. viewers discretion advised (some
people have been offended by the photos of skinned
animals)
posted by chuckr
3/13/2002 10:36:00 PM
Friday, March 08, 2002
[Garden Note] - Yes, this is the best part about growing carnivorous plants....seeing all the dead bugs! Click the picture for more. posted by chuckr
3/08/2002 01:36:00 PM
WHYY 91FM - You Bet Your Garden - Radio interview of ICPS personalities David Gray and Barry Meyers-Rice, which should air Saturday 8 pm Pacific on the 23rd of Feb. It should be archived there for a month or so. posted by chuckr
2/21/2002 04:16:00 PM
Wednesday, February 13, 2002
[Garden Note] - Spent all weekend repotting the outdoor Sarracenia and
assorted Drosera that have sprung up around them. I've gone from two "mini"
bogs to moving the plants to individual containers - and one mini bog. Plus I
had a bunch of new plants that were obtained over the growing season that
needed a home.....most notably the S. minor "Tall and Lanky", and S. rubra
'gulfensis' that I got from Barry Meyers-Rice at the UC Davis plant sale.
These plants were pretty mature and split readily - so now I have two smaller
pots of the S. minor and one big pot full of S. rubra. It should really look
nice once they settle in. Other moves included: consolidating all my VFTs to one
deep 10" pot, putting all the S. purpurea varieties in one big "color pot" - along with any
hybrids that had a strong purpurea influence, and a bunch of other things that I'll log later.
One thing that took time was to pull all sorts of little Drosera binata and D. capensis from
basically every exposed surface of the old pots I was working with. I saved almost all of them and worked
them into the new pots to give some groundcover. It's nice to get these guys for free anytime a bog
pops up. I have no idea where they came from.
Finally, I have a try of Sarracenia leucophylla seedlings from BACPS seeds that are about 2" or 3" inches
tall. Some of these I moved in with the bigger pots. Others still need a home.
On the seedling front, I set up a seedling area in the sunroom using a capillary mat system from Gardeners Supply. Using a media of sphagnum peat/sand with dried sphagnum on top, I planted:
S. flava hybrid seeds from Gary.
S. minor "Tall and Lanky" seeds from my Davis plant
Ultra Sonic Water Fogger - Humidity is always an issue when growing CPs. These little ultrasonic mist makers seem like they'd be great for the terrarium. posted by chuckr
2/06/2002 03:50:00 PM
[Site Note] - Added a Daypop.com and Yahoo news news feed. I should build out the search string - they are currently looking for: "carnivorous+plant*"+sarracenia+drosera+nepenthes+"pitcher+plant"+"fly+trap" posted by chuckr
1/22/2002 12:23:00 PM
Alabama :: Events - Michael Catalani reports that The Nature Conservancy is hosting two field trips in Sarracenia country: The Nature Conservancy is holding a field trip to the Roberta
Case-Pine Hills Preserve on April 20, 2002. This 160-200 acre site
contains what may have been the best stand of S. alabamensis plants
ever known to have existed. There is a good possibility the plants
will be in flower at this time. A field trip to see the S. oreophila sites at the Chitwood Barrens
and Coosa Bog preserves in DeKalb and Cherokee Counties is set for
May 11, 2002. posted by chuckr
1/22/2002 12:13:00 PM
Thursday, January 17, 2002
STARDUST Technology: Aerogel - This showed up on the CP mailing list from one of the members (Ron Baalke from jpl.nasa.gov). How it relates to carnivorous plants is a long story, but Ron works with Aerogel and mentions that it would make excellent greenhouse insulation! posted by chuckr
1/17/2002 12:03:00 PM
Monday, January 14, 2002
[Garden Note] - Gary sent me more information on the Sarracenia flava seeds he sent. Seems pretty clear that the plant is a flava hybrid. Michael Catalani's analysis. posted by chuckr
1/14/2002 06:06:00 PM
[Garden Note] - A big thanks to Gary Kong for offering some free Sarracenia seed to the mailing list. I'm finally on my way to having some new varieties of S. flava. Gary writes: Here's a pic of how your plants will look at adulthood. As you can see, they're not like your
typical "Coppertop." I received my plant from Rick Moss in New Jersey, who gave them away for
FREE when he stripped his bog several years back. Its parentage is highly suspect. My guess:
there's purpurea in its blood. The lids are just way too large for a normal flava. Speaking of
blood, when backlit, the hoods are chillingly blood-colored. The flowers are traditional flava
yellow. I hope you enjoy your plants as much as I enjoy mine. posted by chuckr
1/09/2002 06:06:00 AM
Monday, January 07, 2002
[Site Note] - Paul's written up a Google Image Search scraper. For now, I'll use it to highlight a particular plant or species. It's over there on the left hand side. posted by chuckr
1/07/2002 01:21:00 AM
Saturday, January 05, 2002
[Site Note] - I've added a search box on the left hand side of this blog that will let you search the Carnivorous Plant Database (with the usual nomenclature options). Should be useful.
posted by chuckr
1/05/2002 04:22:00 PM
[Site Note] - I've begun to add CP news searches on the right hand side of this blog. By using moreover.com, daypop.com, and any other news browsers I can find, I'll try and keep track of any CP news that makes it to the popular media. Big thanks to my buddy Paul Nakada for all the code that helps pull and parse these news search engines. Paul's famous for MyNakada and the Segway Transport pages. posted by chuckr
1/05/2002 03:43:00 PM
Barnes & Noble.com - Carnivorous Plants of the United States and Canada - Ron reports: The second edition of Donald Schnell's book
'Carnivorous Plants of the United States and Canada'
is coming out this year. Barnes & Noble has it listed
with a release date of May 2002, and a suggested
retail price of $39.95, which will be available
at B&N for $31.96. The new version will be 348 pages and
the ISBN number is 0881925403.
Also at Amazon - pre-order for $27.96. posted by chuckr
1/03/2002 01:23:00 PM
[Garden Note] - Today I went out and cut back all the dead (and soon to be dead) Sarracenia pitchers that are in my potted mini-bogs. This seemed like a good time of year to do it...it's been getting very damp with lots of rain and I'm seeing fungus near some plants in the sunroom. Some of the pitchers were still in pretty good shape, but I cut them back and left only the strongest ones still standing upright. Of course, no gardening would be complete without some sort of screw up.....while moving the plastic "bowl" type pot I was going to use for all my S. purpurea, it slipped and I cracked it open. Have to add that to the list of things to buy when I get ready for the big spring re-planting - I'm probably going to use these types of pots when the time comes.
The best thing about doing the winter pitcher cutting is that you can slice open the pitchers and see what the plants have been eating all year. This year was especially gross as most of the pitchers were full of rain water, so the bug carcasses were a mushy black mass....made it hard to pick out what was what. From looking at the remains, the plants were eating mostly yellowjackets, wasps, and all sorts of housefly type bugs. No ants. There was still some maggot activity in some of the pitchers. That's always pleasant.
All the Sarrecenia look healthy. The only thing to watch is the scale infestation on the Darlingtonia. I've cut back all the pitchers and will try and clean up what remains over the next few weeks. The scale doesn't seem to be doing much at the moment....it's pretty cold and wet. Hopefully, they are suffering. posted by chuckr
12/30/2001 05:17:00 PM
New USPS stamp - In April 2002, the USPS will issue a new 10 pane stamp called "Longleaf Pine Forrest". Looks like S. flava and S. minor will be in there. Thanks to John Green. posted by chuckr
12/28/2001 12:57:00 PM
The Carnivorous Plant FAQ: Sarracenia flava - I'm on a quest - I'm trying to find more S. flavas to grow. I have plenty of S. flava var. flava, but need to find more red/copper forms of S. flava. It would also be nice to find an anthocyanin free variety...
posted by chuckr
12/22/2001 05:32:00 PM