It’s the end of April and plants here in the PNW are on the move. After a long dormancy, it is so refreshing to see growth happening. It’s been pretty busy in the garden the past few months. A lot of the work happens right before the explosion of growth. There’s the traditional pre-growth clean up. This includes (but not limited to) re-potting, dividing, trimming, and also building some things. As of 30 Apr, most of the trimming has been completed. (Just a couple bins left…)

These are strange times we are currently in. This new norm is so surreal. As things continue to dynamically unfold, I’m thankful to have the opportunity to tend to a garden. Working with these plants helps to ground my being. It’s almost like they are watching over my mental well being. In working with these plants, something I’ve come to admire about them is their ability to adapt and thrive in what would otherwise be adverse conditions. It’s good energy to be around.

Dormancy feels like it can just drag on here in Oregon. It’s cold. It’s wet. It’s cold. It’s dark. But then – a little bit of sun and blue sky would peek through. (Even during a hail downpour. See hail video below.) Then it would happen more often. Then I started to see signs of new growth show up in the garden. New pitchers starting to form and flower buds starting to rise. Then – it happened. I saw the first Sarracenia flower open on 27 Apr. And at this moment, many more buds are getting ready to burst. Gardening – it’s something I really appreciate. It’s something that gives me hope for a brighter future.

Trim: 20 Feb 2020
My favorite trimming clippers provided by the homie Jenn.

There was some hail in early March. Here’s some dried hail hitting Sarracenia ASMR for your enjoyment.

Hail in reverse.

Snow (in reverse) – 14 Mar 2020.
To think I was once growing these plants in a greenhouse in California doing pollinations as early as January.

***

Here’s a few photos of how things are coming along.
There’s a lot to look forward to. Stay tuned!

With the weather warming up, the plants are gaining a lot of momentum and pushing up new growth. Here are a few photos from this first week of May. There is a lot to look forward to; and there is a lot to enjoy in this present moment. It’s fascinating watching the garden evolve through the season.

It’s that time of year when plants start to wake up and send up their flowers. Buds are rising!

If you’re not using the flowers for breeding, do you snip buds off to promote more vigorous pitcher growth? Or do you leave the buds to enjoy the flowers? I usually leave the flowers on to do their thing. It’s kinda nice to see the vibrant colors all over the place. I may do some bud snipping on certain plants to encourage more pitcher growth. For example, I snipped most of the buds off my mother S. ‘Saurus’ in an attempt to see what kind of pitchers I’d get this season. There were about 15 emerging buds throughout this rhizome mass. After snipping I left about 3 buds, just in case I needed it for breeding efforts this season.

Here’s a few more photos of buds happening from the back yard. It’s always cool to see those little spheres explode into the colorful jellyfish-looking flowers.

Sarracenia flava var. ornata – Bulloch Co, GA – Black Veins
This plant was gifted to me a few years ago by friend and fellow grower extraordinaire, Phil Faulisi. This flava has a shorter growth habit and has some great contrast with those veins. I especially like the vertical stripe this clone gets in the middle of the hood. As the season rolls on, the veins darken to black.

Sarracenia flava ‘Pastel’ – from Steve G. Early season June traps starting to get that faint blush of color. This will be my first season growing Pastel outdoors, I’m pretty excited to watch this one evolve. (Thanks, Steve!)

A sweet catesbaei cross I did back in 2016: Sarracenia purpurea montana x flava var. ornata – lidless. These babies resulting from this cross sport an upright pinched hood and some glorious veins. Fun stuff!

A very special seed recently germinated. It may not look like much now, but this is one that I’m pretty excited about. As some of you may know, I’m into strange and interesting looking plants. This recent sprout is no exception and is one that I’m really looking forward to watching develop. The parentage uses two lidless plants – S. leucophylla ‘Bris’ as the pod parent and the pollen parent is S. flava “lidless giant.” (Photos of the parents below.) This is the second successful pollination I’ve done using S. ‘Bris’ as a pod parent. In 2020 I successfully crossed the strange lidless leuco with S. flava var. ornata – lidless. That year there was only ONE seed in that pod. That one did germinate — but unfortunately that seedling died shortly after germination. It was due to my neglect though. Hashtag facepalm. I had left town for a few days and that seedling got cooked outdoors during a heat wave. Perfect timing, am I right? (GAWD so frustrating! DOH!) Lesson learned. This year I’m playing it safe growing these seeds under lights until they’re large enough to go outdoors. Only five seeds came out of this cross this year. As of 15 Dec 2021, three out of five have germinated. It is still very early but I’m glad that there was something that came out of that cross. Stay tuned, I’ll post updates on how they develop here.

Hope everyone out there is doing well. Stay safe, stay healthy. Happy growing!

The first flower of 2022 goes to an interesting plant that resulted from 2016 cross I did: S. purpurea montana x flava var. ornata – lidless. This is the first bloom from anything of this batch. For the winter season this, along with a few others plants, have been under lights which has helped push some growth along. Outdoors is a different story; plants out there are still dormant and covered in frost most mornings. Those blooms will follow closer to April/May.

Since no other flowers are available at this time, I selfed this flower. When I didn’t see any lidless plants from the initial cross, I figured it could be a recessive characteristic. The subsequent crosses from this set of plants are ones I have my sights on. By self pollinating this flower, I’m anticipating it will unlock that lidlessness in some of the next generation. One can hope, right? Shorter/stocky lidless plants maybe? Is this approaching heliamphora-esque territory now? Who knows. It’s certainly interesting to think about what those could look like.

Even with the unknown lidless potential, I thoroughly enjoy these plants. They’re interesting and have a great shape and vein pattern about them. Some of the plants that came out of the S. purpurea montana x flava var. ornata lidless cross can be seen here and here.

Pitcher plants come in all sorts of colors and forms. They look pretty unique already … but those lidless ones? Oh, those lidless ones are on another level of strange and I like it! They are beautifully bizarre and appear heliamphora-esque. I enjoy the overall look of their simplified shapes. Back in 2019, I crossed S. flava var. rubricorpora – lidless and S. flava – lidless giant. That cross did not give me many seeds – only three. But even with a small seed set, I was glad to grow something from it. Truly fascinating to see characteristics from both parents, such as the red body and dark throat markings, be put on display on an unconventional pitcher form. Fun stuff for sure and I am excited to see these babies grow and evolve!

A few observations…

Clone I carries over some of the red body coloration from S. flava var. rubricorpora lidless and displays veined patterns on the interior hood column. The lidless hood column has subtle undulations and the peristome is slightly warped.

Clone II pitchers start off mostly red with pale yellow/cream undertones. The hood column is also undulated, but appears to be slightly wider than the other two. Column interior veins spread and darkens up as the pitcher develop. I like how the peristome stays bright as the colors shift.

Clone III develops a deep red body. The pitcher coloration and veins are complimented quite nicely with the bright yellow peristome. The undulating column appears to rise higher than its siblings with a slight arch over the pitcher opening.