Celia is blooming! She's my fav pitcher plant, a weed found in some moss I bought, often does some tequila sunrise colors, thus Celia named after Celia Hodes on Weeds. Now I will be able to self pollinate her, and find clues to her parentage by examining what comes up, as well as maybe get a similar but even more beautiful plant :). I haven't seen a mostly veinless pitcher that produced such color, but I am only a dabbler.
#gardening #CarnivorousPlants
Poor Celia is looking scraggly, I divided her and then Romeo ate four of her remaining pitchers. But, she's showing me her flowers will have lots of color, even when her leaves are still green from dormancy :).
Just gave her the sniff test (some Sarracenia flowers smell like cat pee), and she smells sweet, almost rose like :). I can't wait to meet her seedlings.
Celia has started dropping pollen from her anthers, so I pollinated her and took some celebratory shots with the good camera :).
More on how this flower has designed itself to prevent self pollination, unless some fool like me interferes, found here:
I bet I found the species of purple pitcher plant that runs strongest in Celia's veins. Sarracenia rosea, Burk's pitcher plant. The only one with pink flowers, hardy (she's survived many gardening setbacks, even disastrous ones), and there are veinless and semi-veinless varieties. She's ticking off even more of these traits, she might not even be a hybrid!
The only one with pink petals, and look at my avatar. How appropriate this one is my favorite.
Okay, Celia, time for your dramatic lighting closeup! Sarracenia rosaea. Even your scientific name is beautiful.
How exotic & beautiful.