Gemma Sarracenia
- webstuffs
- www.tippitiwichet.com
Nature, science, and art are super cool.
She/they cishet.
Joined Nov 2022
I have so many pics of this flower (my first pitcher plant flower, from a purple pitcher plant) that I thought I knew what my favorite pic was. I'm not even sure I've seen this pic before, just found it looking for art reference photos. I just had to stop and show it off.
Laughing at the fly that just landed on a sundew. I saw it touch the nectar. Don't know where it will end up, but the hunt is on. They hunt in packs, carnivorous plants. The sundews coat their spiracles, making them short of breath as they fly around. The pitcher plants make them intoxicated, and slowly paralyze them. The flytraps grab the spiders, who are too strong for the sundews, and seem unbothered by the pitcher plants, hiding in them and stealing their prey.
Browsing old photos today, decided to show you why Judith Hindle is such a popular pitcher plant cultivar. As hardy as she is beautiful, she's survived many gardening mishaps and setbacks.
Last night's gardening session involved potting up my new sundews :). I also took some cuttings from them, they had a lot of damaged leaves, especially the forked sundew. I also took cuttings from the flytrap. The pinches of moss are in there to see if they grow faster in pure water, I need more moss to grow as well. The cape sundew is for cheese making experiments :). The crystals in the moss mark the largest of my baby threadleaf sundews. More info in alt.
Okay, if anyone is interested, blog link shows the first two years of Celia's growth, showing why I love this plant so much. Keep in mind that most pitcher plants either have no pigment, or veins that deepen to burgundy with age, with various shades of autumn leaf between, maybe white windows to screw with insects. Or look like meat. Celia has decided to look like a tropical drink instead :).
Psst, @fernfren hoping you swing by, say hi.
#gardening #carnivorousplants
https://tippitiwichet.com/2024/02/01/sarracenia-rosea-from-seedling-to-bloom/
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:
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
I love the "hotrod" stage of purple pitcher plant color development, before the blooming color engulphs the hood.
The flytraps aren't recovering very well from when I was away. They still might make it, they seem rather unhappy. Thankfully, spooky season is when these guys start showing up at hardware stores and grocery stores, so new baby. The water in the tray after top watering tested at around 100 ppm, so I flushed it with filtered water at 0 ppm until the tray water softened to around 25 ppm, gave it a day of light, and it seems soooo much happier.
As promised, a better photo exploration of Celia. Let me show you why I occasionally give her a little kiss. She is an open pollinated hybrid, mostly veinless, though her smaller (older) pitchers are developing some veins as they deepen to the hues of autumn leaves. The mostly green leaves are ones that developed during periods of poor lighting, but the spring green has a nice golden tone that is still lovely. 1/2
#gardening #carnivorousPlants #containerGardening
I would really love to drop everything and take pitchers of my favorite pitcher plant right now, but that would be irresponsible, so I'll show you a preview, and a baby pic. Celia's latest leaf is magnificent. I have the lights aimed on the back of her hood to enhance the pigment developing there while I wait a couple of days to get around to setting up the good camera.
#gardening #carnivorousPlants #indoorGardening #containerGardening
Celia is starting to show the beautiful tones I remember, but I only saw immature pitchers. I didn't get to see the wavy ruffled midrib sporting a darker line. The tallest pitcher is still shiny with the potential for growth. Her hoods tend to darken more on the outside in maturity, and be lighter on the inside, with only a hint of veins. I've been staring at her so much, just admiring the subtle gradient. My little private sunset in the spring.
I was doing the kind of gardening that uses tiny brushes, tweezers, and an X-acto knife while doing mindfulness exercises concerning self-compassion, and having a lovely time. Then, it popped into my head that I once joked about what it would do to my psyche if I started meditating on my carnivorous plants, given their seductive and predatory nature. I guess I’m about to find out. Anyway, Scarlet Belle and the tippitiwichets had a spa day.
These turned out well.
Necessity requires I commit capitalism and add photos to my Redbubble account. I won't throw the spider pics in the previews, but I'm super pleased at how nice Teacup's drama photo looks on some stuffs.
I know you've been dying to know, so sphagnum moss is florescent, bladderwort is not. There. Now you can rest easy. (One of these days I'll get over the neon/velvet artwork influences surrounding me in my early childhood, today is not that day.)
#CarnivorousPlants #nature #gardening
Gemma Sarracenia
- webstuffs
- www.tippitiwichet.com
Nature, science, and art are super cool.
She/they cishet.
Joined Nov 2022