Tuesday, December 03, 2002
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.
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.
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.
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.
Monday, November 18, 2002
The 2003 Carnivorous Plants of Texas Calendar - Michael Pagoulatos has put together a nice looking calendar featuring native Texan carnivores.
Monday, November 11, 2002
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.
Friday, November 01, 2002
Giuseppe Misseri, Virtual Gallery - Giuseppe Misseri of Italy does some beautiful paintings of carnivorous plants.
Yahoo! News - World Plants Near Extinction Close to 50 Pct-Study - Something the CP growers of the world already know. The interesting part is that this article used a picture of Sarracenia flava as the accompanying photo.
Wednesday, October 30, 2002
Another shot from Barry.
Another shot from Barry.
Drosera hartmeyerorum - Barry took some interesting pictures of Drosera hartmeyerorum with an emphasis on the yellow, moriform structures that characterize this species.
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.
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
Organic Matter Soil Amendments from Home Harvest® - Another place that carries "Leaf Mold".
Thursday, October 10, 2002
Pet Flytrap Discussion Forums - Yet another CP forum. Quite a bit of traffic.
CPUK Forum - A UK based CP forum. Looks like it's starting to generate some traffic.
Greenhouse, Nursery & Garden Center - Mellingers Garden Catalog - Leaf mold! Hopefully this is what Robert Shands was talking about.
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:From: reshands@xxxxx.net (Robert Shands)
Subject: growing CephalotusIf 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
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".
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..
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.
Sarracenia Gallery - A German page that has an excellent overview of most of the most popular Sarracenia varieties with their flowers. Great reference site.
Saturday, September 28, 2002
Tree frogs in Sarracenia pitcher Funny picture of little tree frogs living in and on Sarracenia flava - patiently waiting for some poor fly to come along.
Friday, September 27, 2002
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.
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...
The Garden in the Woods at New England Wild Flower Society - Missed this - a PBS show called "The Victory Garden" did a bog garden episode. Features S. flava and S. purpurea.
Tuesday, July 30, 2002
Nursery Pots and Saucers from Home Harvest® - Finally found a cheap place for bulk pots and saucers. Now I just need the greenhouse to put them in.
Monday, July 08, 2002
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.
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...
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....
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?
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.
Friday, April 19, 2002
The Scotsman - International - Rare slug-eating plant stolen - Man, this is quite the international incident...
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!
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.
Wednesday, April 10, 2002
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.
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.
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.)
Chuck Ripper: Cephalotus follicularis - Another example of a carnivorous plant stamp. This is the original artwork for a first day cover of a 34 cent U.N. stamp featuring Cephalotus follicularis. The actual stamp is here.
Monday, April 01, 2002
Amazon.com: buying info: Elizabite : Adventures of a Carnivorous Plant- Well, I just found the first book I'm buying for Aaron. Illustrated by H. A. Rey, famous for Curious George.
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.
Tuesday, March 26, 2002
eBay item 2011959293 - Carnivorous Plants - Artificial Pitcher Plant- Further proof that you really can find anything at ebay. Your search for artificial Sarracenia is finally over!
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.
Thursday, March 14, 2002
[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)
Wednesday, March 13, 2002
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)
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.
Thursday, February 21, 2002
BOOKS - Carnivorous Plants of New Zealand - Home page of the author, Bruce Salmon. It's just been released.
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.
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 S. rubra gulfensis seeds from my Davis plant S. hybrid #1 from my S. "Ladies in Waiting" S. hybrid #2 from my S. purpurea Drosera filiformis seeds from the ICPS seedbank I set up two trays using two different fungal control agents. One tray is using SoilGard(tm) Microbial Fungicide and one is using Root Boost Endomycorrhizal Inoculant. We'll see what happens.
All in all, a lot of work, but it was fun.
Thursday, February 07, 2002
Cephalotus Follicularis, Albany Pitcher Plant, West Australian Pitcher Plant - A well organized site with information on Cephalotus. Great pictures and cultivation information.
Wednesday, February 06, 2002
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.
Thursday, January 31, 2002
Yahoo! Health - Herbal Remedies - Turns out that Drosera rotundifolia is considered an herbal remedy? Won't catch me drinking it.
Tuesday, January 22, 2002
[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"
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.
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!
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.
Thursday, January 10, 2002
Gardens Alive! SoilGard™ Microbial Fungicide - I found these two products for fungus control at Gardens Alive!. The first one contains Gliocladium virens while Root Boost™ Endomycorrhizal Inoculant doesn't get into specifics of what the beneficial fungi are.
Wednesday, January 09, 2002
[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.
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.
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.
[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.
Friday, January 04, 2002
Termitenfalle: Gefräßige Pflanze lockt mit eigenem Fleisch - Wissenschaft - SPIEGEL ONLINE - The original German article about N. albomarginata.
Timber Press: Books on Gardening and Horticulture Jeff spotted information on the new edition of Don Schnell's book over at Timber Press.
CNN.com - Study: Killer plant choosy about its prey - January 3, 2002 - CNN has picked up the Reuters story about N. albomarginata eating termites.
Carnivorous Plant Database - Keeping this link as a reference....need to add a box on main page.
Thursday, January 03, 2002
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.
Plant has taste for termites - From Ron: Here's an article in Nature magazine about Nepenthes albomarginata having a preference to catching termites.
Wednesday, January 02, 2002
Discover article on Nepenthes of Borneo - This article shows up in syndication at various sites. It just turned up at the San Diego Union Tribune. Pretty cool account of Nepenthes hunting.
