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I should probably state off the bat, that 2017 hasn’t been the best Pinguicula growing season for me. 2016 everything was going really well, I had lots of new species and new growth over that summer. Come early 2017 I repotted a large proportion of my pings into a new mix. Some have thrived and others have seemed ok but shown little growth, or at least less than I’d expect. Losing my patience I repotted some of those much later in the year than I should have, in a different mix. A number then died, thankfully they were all species I have multiples of.  After that, I learned my lesson and left them alone to grow.

So now I’m left wondering which of the two mixes that should both be suitable is worse and if the totally crap grey summer has played its part. For species native to Mexico, even UK summer sun is probably pretty weak compared to the bright shade they’d be used to, and the seemingly unrelenting grey we had between May and November (Its been sunny so far in Dec!) was maybe just a bit too dim for good growth. I’m going to leave them over the winter and into spring and only repot for propagation (from leaves) or from species that are overcrowding their pots.

Its not all doom and gloom – as I mentioned a number of species have thrived this year and most have seemed happy enough once I left them alone. I’m especially happy with my success in propagating Pinguicula gypsicola which has been said to be tricky. I’ll be doing that again in the new year and in larger numbers as I seriously love this species.

On the good stuff. My Pinguicula ehlersiae x immaculata is flowering again, and my Pinguicula moctezumae and Pinguicula ‘Aphrodite’ are now flowering. I’ll ignore the fact that my other ‘Aphrodite’ was one of the ones lost in the repot experiment. Pics below, some taken as part of another experiment in to what I can actually get my cheap ‘point and shoot’ camera to come out with. Pretty happy with a couple of the results.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

As we go into winter most Mexican ping species have a dry winter dormancy period where they loose their wet dewy leaves and form tighter succulent like rosettes. During this time I give little if any water. Some species like the gypsicola are very noticeably different, others like my ‘x Tina’ hybrid only get a little smaller during this time. The rule of thumb seems to be, the tighter the rosette the less water needed. The gypsicolas will not get a drink now until the spring. The ‘x Tina’, ‘x Weser’ and agnata plants (and similar) get a few drops from time to time. Below you can also see how one of my young gypsicolas changes in a month from its small fronds to a tighter rosette.

The highland tank is doing well in the cool weather;  the unknown masdevallia hybrid is still blooming and looking fine. Its been joined by a masdevallia glandulosa which is showing a huge number of spikes/flowers.  You can clearly see the glands which give it its name and unusually for a masdevallia it has a pleasant scent.  Most Masdevallias dont smell, and most of those that do are somewhat unpleasant. The glanulosa however smells of cinnamon biscuits!

Last and by no means least in the tank – masdevallia caloptera is just starting to open its flowers spread across two spikes.

My Ludisia discolor (the Brit in me really wants it to be discolour) is also in spike.  I really like this jewel orchid both for its foliage, but also enjoy its spikes of small white flowers.  Think it last spiked back in Feb and the flowers really cheered up my otherwise grey dull kitchen windowsill!

There are many things in Australia that are deadly with curved vicious teeth and in parts of ‘straya, even the plants look like they’re about to come after you!

The Cephalotus follicularis plant (pictured above) is the only species of its genus and native to Western Australia.

Some people seem to struggle with growing this plant, but in my experience its actually quite forgiving as long as you mostly leave it alone to grow and remember to periodically give it water.  It does seem to occasionally just give up by some accounts, but if you are able to keep it alive and happy, its a fascinating plant to grow with its red/green slipper shaped hairy, hooded pitchers surrounded by curved green teeth.

It grows well in a fairly wide range of conditions in the UK as long as kept above about 4°C up to around 35°C. The plant pictured above and below is my large Ceph’ affectionately called ‘big momma’ and it grows on a south facing windowsill. Summer temps are usually between 17-25°C in the summer and 14-20°C in winter which is reasonably close to its native range.  I’ve stuck some plants I propagated into my highland tank for the winter, so it will happily cope with lower temps.  Even a warmed greenhouse that stays above the frost limit will suit it well.  Under-glass in summer,  temperatures of 35-40°C shouldn’t concern it too much.

Usually a good growing mix is the standard peat/perlite mix for carnivorous plants but perhaps with a slightly greater percentage of perlite for extra drainage, also its recommended to add a horticultural sand to mimic its natural habitat.   Don’t keep them as wet as the bog growing Venus flytraps and Sarracenias, but stand them in about a cm of water and let it dry before refilling.  In winter a longer drying period should be used.

The plants grow fairly slowly – although ‘big momma’ seems to be flying in Ceph standards.  Below is a picture from Jan when she was repotted next to a picture from today in late October.

 

 

 

 

 

This may be down to a healthy appetite – below you can just see a fly drowning and being digested in the plants small, toothed pitcher.

Although (usually) slow growing, the plant isn’t that difficult to propagate. Leaf pullings seem by far the easiest way.  Late summer/Autumn 2016 I planted a range of leaf pullings – some in peat/sand/perlite, some in pure chopped sphagnum moss and others in the peat mix but with a ‘plug’ of sphagnum holding the leaf.  The pure sphagnum seems to have given rise the the larger plants, but the peat with sphagnum plug works really well. This also means easier repotting down the line, as Cephs don’t like root disturbance and its often easier to break the old pot away and plant the entire thing into a ready made gap in the larger pot.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

As we come to the end of September, and certainly here in the UK the weather doesn’t just embrace Autumn (Fall if you’re over the pond) but roll around in the rain and mud (so much mud) with it. Most of the plants outdoors are now either dying down or dying off.

That said  – one quick piece of British botany I did find a massive patch of red valerian (Centranthus ruber) next to a main road after I’d found it in a display garden (thus labelled)  the day earlier. Never realised it was an invasive.

My cool growing Masdevallia orchids however are cheering right up.  In the humid (60-90%) air of my growspace as they get the cooler nights they love, things begin to flower.  I have had some blooms in the previous months, but  mostly from the warm growing species like the Masdevallia lata  and an unknown hybird (gratuitous shots on twitter). I’m really looking forward to some of my other often younger plants flowering this winter.  Starting off early are the three species below; Masdevallia striatella,  Masdevallia nidifica and the amazingly vibrant Masdevallia infracta.

 

The infracta flowered late into the spring and early summer and is shown on the blogs banner but its absolutely amazing to see it again with its bright purple swirls and yellow tendrils.

The striatella looks great although I’ve not had it long. Hoping to get much more from it.

In comparison to the other two, the nidifica looks almost dowdy but I love its almost alien like flower buds and subtle colouring.

Side note:

Masdevallias are all members of the pleurothallis alliance of orchids.  The UK pleurothallid alliance had their AGM a few weekends ago, but typically of UK orchid growers, they have no website, don’t use facebook and made almost no mention of the fact.  By the time I knew it was on, I’d made other plans.  Its probably a subject for another post, but I really do despair of UK orchid groups and growers for a total lack of engagement with prospective members.  The USA has a much better culture of growers where as the UK suffers from clique groups of usually elderly members.  /me breaths and goes back to looking at plants.

As winter approaches, my summer project on British botany (see below) becomes less do-able, although I’ll keep looking for new species.   As an excellent way to spend my time a few nights ago I learnt how to distinguish hairy bittercress (Cardamine hirsuta) and wavy bittercress (Cardamine flexuosa). Mostly I now know hairy bittercress isn’t as hairy as you think it is….and wavy bittercress is hairy.

Anyway, winter posts will hopefully go back to talking about orchids and carnivorous plants, but I still want to grow something else in the meantime….so

Project 1.

Grow cyclamen.

I got a bunch of cyclamen coum seed. This comes dangerously close to gardening and there are people out there much better than me at writing about that.  The short version however is first soak the seeds for 24 hours on a wet kitchen towel with a tiny drop of fairy liquid to rehydrate the seeds and wash off the germination inhibitors.

Then plant in seed compost and cover with a layer of fine vermiculite.  Keep them dark (mine are wrapped in black bin bags) and at a temperature of around 16degress C.

More will follow once things germinate.

Project 2

So from germinating the ‘normal’ way to using sterile media to (hopefully) germinate orchid seeds.   The larger pod is a hybrid of two supermarket phalaenopsis orchids.  I’m hoping that if it gets to that point (in about 5 years) it should have large purple flowers.  The smaller pod I’m quite excited about, its my own masdevallia hybrid and currently unregistered in the RHS list so if I get it to grow I can register it.

I have microbox containers and suitable media ready, so once the pods are ripe I’ll need to work on getting everything sterile and then crossing my fingers.

When it comes to carnivorous plants, everyone knows the Venus fly trap with its snapping jaws capturing its insect prey, but there is another carnivorous species that is often overlooked that is just as deadly and perhaps even more beautiful.

The Butterworts or scientifically Pinguicula (which is a much prettier name) are plants that use their sticky leaves to entrap prey. The nutrients they receive then aid growth in their normally minerally poor growing conditions. Having a plant that dissolves its prey in juices that ooze from its skin may not be quite as dramatic as a fly trap but its still disgusting enough to impress your friends, should you have friends with a taste for the macabre!

Due to the UK’s ever changeable and often dimly lit climate, Venus fly traps or Dionea to give their scientific name tend to grow rather poorly on peoples windowsills, add in the need for rainwater and a winter dormant period and what is usually peoples first foray into carnivorous plant growing usually ends in a dead plant.

Those few species of the Southern hemisphere inhabit the deserts of South America, stretching down to Tierra de Fuego. However it is in the humid hills and canyons of Latin American and the Caribbean that Pinguicula really reach their full diversity, it is here the tropical forms thrive and new species are still being discovered.

Most of these tropical ‘Mexican’ species of Pinguicula make fun, interesting and easy to grow windowsill plants that will last and flower for large portions of the year as well as in some cases changing their leaf structure with the changing seasons. They’re usually small plants with attractive bright flowers and forgiving of lower light levels, potting mix and even water type when compared to their better know carnivorous cousins.

A good starting point is one of the common hybrids. Pinguicula x Tina (pictured below), P x Weser (also below) or P x Sethos (similar to Weser). I’ve seen those available in garden centres and certainly from growers on ebay/amazon etc. They prefer a loose mix with some organic material. They dont suit the wet peat & perlite mix you’d usually use for other carnivorous plants. That said, those ingrediants in different quantities would be fine. The first mix I used and still have plants in, largely consisted of perlite (about 80%) with some peat and a bit of sand thrown in. I’ve also used successfully a mix of Tescos ‘low dust’ kitty litter with peat added. I’m finding that a largely ‘gritty’ mix means plants grow slower but stronger. A more ‘peaty’ mix gives the opposite. I’m experimenting now with a largly gritty mix and a sprinkling of peat over the top. In short, Mexican Pings will grow in almost anything and certainly perlite/peat in about 80/20 ratio should do the job just fine.

I give them about 1.5cm of water in a tray over the summer, allow it to dry for a day or so and then repeat. These plants have a dormant winter when I give them either much less water or none at all depending on the species. For the hybrids above, they tend to stay ‘fleshy’ over the winter, but much smaller and tighter in appearance. They get a little water (again from the tray) every few weeks. Keeping them too wet in dormancy will encourage rot. For those species that form a tight ‘rosette’ in winter months no water is really needed until the spring. I water with rain or reverse osmosis water along with all my orchids and carnivorous plants. There have been reports of Mexican pings being much more forgiving of water hardness and not seeming to mind UK tap water so in a pinch I’d have no issue doing that.

If you’ve been looking for an interesting carnivorous plant to grow inside all year round in the UK, these really would be only natural choice. As mentioned above, the usual ‘issues’ can largely be avoided and they’ll even cope with grey weather if they get some sun from time to time. A south or east facing window should do fine. You may even have to shade them a little if in full sun in the height of summer. I’ve not had to do this this year due to the totally rubbish summer we’ve had however.

I’m a huge fan of these little plants and am working on propagating my existing species and hopefully bringing up a hybrid or two, so I’m sure they’ll feature in later blog posts.  A few examples of my plants are below.

 

Despite growing the things in my garden, on a windowsill and in specially designed terrariums, I’d never actually seen any of the British native species in the wild.  I’d had more than a few lonely walks across desolate heathland trying to find some, stopping only to poke in every single wet pool and patch of sphagnum moss I could find however.

Finally on a blazing hot bank holiday in the beautiful Devonshire countryside I found not one, but two (maybe three) species.  Drosera rotundifolia  is the ’round leafed’ sundew and Pinguicula lusitanica the ‘pale butterwort’.     I had in fact actually given up and was walking back to my car when saw some bog asphodel (Narthecium ossifragum) then looked down and started to find the Drosera.  Ten minutes of filling up my cameras memory card later and I found the beautiful Pinguicula in flower!  I did also find a single example that looked too ‘elongated’ to be rotundiflolia so may have been ‘English sundew’ – Drosera Anglica, but I can’t say for sure as I didnt want to poke at it too much.

Didn’t do much else in terms of ID’ing species, mostly just enjoyed the environment, but did find some nice patches of Marsh st Johns wort (Hypericum elodes) and some huge Hedge bindweed (Calystegia sepium) flowers amongst all the gorse and heather.

 

Ok…so the blog was originally supposed to be about carnivorous plants (especially Cephs and Pings of which I know a fair bit about) and orchids (Masdevallias). Growing under lights, inside, outside and pretty much wherever I can.  I had blog post ideas for pinguicula potting media (coming soon!) and how I grow highland orchids in my garage.

Instead I’m getting more excited about UK botany which is something in which I’m very much a beginner.  My first post was about how and why I started to attempt to learn to identify native species of wildflowers (trees too) and how I set myself the challenge of key’ing out 50 species.

Well as of last night I’ve gone past that barrier.    I’d headed off up to my nearby greenbelt to forage for early blackberries but got a bit distracted by some easy to key species.  Summer is very much coming to an end (see last post) but I was surprised to find a few little pockets of species flowering when the larger populations had long since ceased.

Crossing a major A road, in the central reservation there is still a few Common toadflax (Linaria vulgaris) flowers and in a little hollow where I found many blackberries there was a small patch of Betony (Stachys officinalis).  Both species are common nearby, but I’ve not seen Betony for about a month and the toadflax had stopped flowering even earlier than that.

For posterity the list is below.  No laughing please – obviously most of these are very common UK species but now I know A.What they’re called and  B. how to key them out by identifying characteristics of leaves, stems and flowers.  Last night was a prime example.  Previously I’ve have said ‘big daisy’ but now I know its a Scentless Mayweed ( Tripleurospermum inodorum).  And in my small way I was amazed that ‘little yellow weed thing – probably a sick dandelion) is in fact Pineappleweed (Matricaria discoidea) and if you crush it, it really does smell of pineapple!

1. Spanish Broom (Spartium junceum)
2. Common Ragwart (Senecio jacobaea)
3. Lesser Celandine (Ficaria verna)
4. White dead nettle (Lamium album)
5. variegated Yellow Archangel (Lamium galeobdolon subsp. argentatum)
6. Dogs Mercury (Mercurialis perennis)
7. Cleavers (Galium aparine)
8. Purple Toadflax (Linaria purpurea)
9. Lords-and-ladies (Arum maculatum)
10. Golden-Saxifrage [Opposite-Leaved] (Chrysosplenium oppositifolia)
11. Common Broom (Cytisus scoparius)
12. Thale Cress (Arabidopsis thaliana)
13.Creeping Woodsorrel (Oxalis corniculata)
14. Field forget-me-not (Myosotis arvensis)
15. Red Campion (Silene dioica)
16. Greater Periwinkle (Vinca major)
17. Common Field Speedwell (Veronica persica)
18. Cow Parsley (Anthriscus sylvestris)
19. Greater Plantain (Plantago major)
20. Ribwort Plantains (Plantago lanceolata)
21. Yarrow (Achillea millefolium)
22. Teasel (Dipsacus fullonum)
23. Indian Balsam (Impatiens glandulifera)
24. Treacle Mustard (Erysimum cheiranthoides)
25. Self heal (Prunella vulgaris)
26. Marsh Pennywort (Hydrocotyle vulgaris)
27. Water Mint (Mentha aquatica)
28. Tufted Vetch (Vicia cracca)
29. Common Birds foot trefoil (Lotus corniculasus)
30. Field Bindweed (Convolvuls arvensis)
31. Garlic Mustard (Alliaria petiolata)
32. Giant Bellflower (Campanula latifolia)
33. Common spotted orchid (Dactylorhiza fuchsii)
34. Scarlet Pimpernel (Anagallis arvensis)
35. Common Toadflax (Linaria vulgaris)
36. Monk’s Hood (Aconitum Napellus)
37. Hearts Tongue Fern (Asplenium scolopendrium)
38. Hedge Woundwart (Stachys sylvatica)
39. Common Fleabane (Pulicaria dysenterica)
40. Hedge Bedstraw (Galium mollugo)
41. Ladys Bedstraw (Galium verum)
42. Sun spurge (Euphorbia helioscopia)
43. Harebell (Campanula rotundifolia)
44. Betony (Stachys officinalis)
45. Fools Parsley (Aethusa cynapium)
46. Knapweed (Centaurea nigra)
47. Sneezewort (Achillea ptarmica)
48. Musk Mallow (Malva moschata)
49. Mugwort (Artemisia vulgaris)
50. Pineappleweed (Matricaria discoidea)
51. Scentless Mayweed ( Tripleurospermum inodorum)
52. Devils-bit Scabious (Succisa pratensis)

I decided NOT to return to the Wye valley as the weather was vile. Continued to be vile on the Sunday when I did get to walk over my local greenbelt. Couple of new species (to me) and some nice patches of Harebell but nothing new in a SSSI meadow I was in a month ago. Its slightly surprising just how much summer flowering season seems to be almost over in early August. This time a month ago I was able to find huge patches of Self Heal (Prunella vulgaris), Birds foot trefoil (Lotus corniculatus) and tufted vetch (Vicia cracca). Now mostly gone. The wild common spotted orchids (Dactylorhiza fuchsii) too have all gone to seed. It was great to find the exact same plants I’d photographed a month ago still there, but with empty seed pods. Hopefully meaning more next year. I was also concerned to find lots of himalayan balsam (Impatiens glandulifera) on the edges of the SSSI meadow as well as growing all along a brook next to several fields. I keep looking out for local wildlife groups who may help pull this stuff up, but for some reason this particular area seems to be ignored by everyone, despite being on the edge of a large urban conurbation and a major motorway.

 

I’d been growing carnivorous plants for a while with a few orchids kicking around as well (that bug hadn’t fully bitten yet) when I was walking in the Wye valley about a year ago. The weather had been very changeable with earlier rain but I was now walking in sunshine. All around me everything was lush and green with these vibrant splashes of colour and I started to wonder just what the hell everything was.  I took a few pictures and was able to later identify a few things, which led me to further reading and buying copies of the Poland and Clement ‘Veg Key’ and the Rose, O’Reilly Wild flower Key.

At the start of 2017 I set out to use either of the keys to positively identify 50 plants and learn a bit about them, as well as their scientific name. So far I’m up to 45 so pretty happy with that. The rules were a bit arbitrary but basically plants had to be identified with a key and couldn’t include things I already knew (nettles for instance) or things I identified from pictures. I did get a bit lax on that last one in places….

So far I’ve discovered I hate trying to ID Umbellifers, my driveway supports a surprising number of plants and I’m able to find new species on my local patch of greenbelt every time I visit. The bug seems to have truly bitten and I now look out for species I recognise every time I’m out and about.  I’m returning to the original site of my ‘epiphany’ this weekend, so who knows… maybe I’ll finish the 50.  Of course there are still many more species so I wont be stopping there!