I'm Looking For Carnivorous Plants

[Chef]

Hello Everyone,

I went on holiday down to Victoria for a week and nearly all of my Drosera, Nepenthes and Sarracenia have died from lack of water

The nurseries around my neck of the woods dont supply carnivorous plants except "fangs" at Big W.

I'm after any variety of all three, and will pay money.

They have to be one of my favourite type of plant.

I should have got that nosey neighbour of mine to water them

Cheers in advance.

chef

[The Deb-One-Amine]

ive only ever seen venus fly traps at bunnings but i havent seen any lately.

[Amazonian]

Bugger about your plants. What are you using as a substrate for the Nepenthes ? Some of the ones that i have brought has Sphagnum moss as the base and does dry out pretty quick. Is there not a society in your area that you could hook up with? In the past , i have purchased Nepenthes seeds from Ebay but never had any luck germinating them. You can find plants on line too ,but i prefer to look at them before i buy. Have you kept Nepenthes for long? Was there other factors that added to their death? What is the weather like there at the moment? You are aware of Lowland and Highland varieties ? I don't grow Drosera but it grows here in Melbourne. I could dig you up a bit, but i don't know how it would fare the trip. Here's a link to a society in N.S.W. Maybe the plants might come back,don't throw them out yet!

http://www.auscps.com/

This is the Sundew that grows near me. I took this pic' about a month ago and dont know if they are still about but can go and check it out.

Edited August 13, 2010 by Amazonian

[The Deb-One-Amine]

This is the Sundew that grows near me. I took this pic' about a month ago and dont know if they are still about but can go and check it out.

 

If its Still There You Should See If It Grows At home Id Even Get A Set up Just To Support Them I Love The idea Of these Plants i remember feeding venus flytraps Bugs When i was younger

[Moses]

try here

http://www.triffidpark.com.au/

[Chef]

Thanks for everyones input,

There probably is a society I just havent checked it out yet, thought i would source out you guys because the plant would probably be in better health

I get alot of salty air from the ocean with full sun basicly, the nepenthes is recovering but the Drosera just went crusty and dead. I havent gotten right into nepenthes but i'm pretty sure its Sphagnum moss, i think they just dried out from no water.

Lowland & Highland?

Does that Drosera near you Amazonian grow in the wild?

Maybe I'll try to source out my local ways of getting them or even online.

Hmm

Thanks for all the input everybody!

[Amazonian]

Lowland & Highland?

Does that Drosera near you Amazonian grow in the wild?

 

Some of the Nepenthes (pitcher plants) are from the mountains and so do better in cooler conditions, where as the Lowland varieties are better suited to warmer conditions. I have the highland type which are more suited to Melbourne and they seem to go alright. Amazing plants. I do love them.

The Sundew in the photo grows mad around here and comes in red as well. I think they are seasonal. As yet, i haven't grown any of them.

Edited August 13, 2010 by Amazonian

[shortly]

There are a couple of societies, both have Seedbanks.

CaptiveExotics.com.au have some really choice plants

I do have seeds of a couple of drosera's atm and possibly a ping or two if you want to have a play.

I'm going to have to hack back some of my Nepenthes so i could tidy some up some for cuttings but mine are all warm climate species & hybrids so i'm not sure if they will like Melbourne weather?

[Amazonian]

I'm going to have to hack back some of my Nepenthes so i could tidy some up some for cuttings but mine are all warm climate species & hybrids so i'm not sure if they will like Melbourne weather?

 

I don't know if you are referring to me or not but it is actually Chef who is after some carnivorous plants. I think he's from NSW ( mid north coast) somewhere, so the warm climate species would probably suit his growing conditions ....maybe. Over to you Chef.

[Chef]

Hey guys, I havent had the chance to post, work has been busy.

My drosera's dead brown leaves have a tiny touch of green back so who know's.

I like the sounds of those seeds, yeah Amazonian's right im in NSW so it would be all good.

I think my nepethes is a ventrata? My Drosera was a Capensis i think.

How much would postage be do you think Amazonian for an old dug up Drosera

I've never attempted to grow them by seed, I'll go and do some research but are they hard to germinate?

Chef.

[Amazonian]

How much would postage be do you think Amazonian for an old dug up Drosera

I've never attempted to grow them by seed, I'll go and do some research but are they hard to germinate?

 

I am very impatient when it comes to germination of seeds. I tend to neglect the medium after a few weeks if i haven't seen any sprouts. (and i do know some seeds can take months). Depending on how much dirt i dig up with the Drosera will depend on the cost of postage. Being a small plant, i assume the roots will be shallow and small, not requiring much soil for transport.( bare rooted with sphagnum an option /maybe). The trickiest bit will be keeping stuff out of contact of the sticky leaf droplets. I have been thinking about this and believe it can be done (with a little bit of ingenuity). I will go for a look in the next few days and see if they are still about. I will let you know if i got a few, weigh them , calculate postage and then if you are still interested you can PM me your postal address.

@ shortly,what germinating techniques have you found successful?

Edited August 15, 2010 by Amazonian

[Chef]

hehe this is getting exciting

[shortly]

Most of the warm climate drosera are dead easy, just wack em into a pot of shredded sphagnum moss, sit them in a shallow tray of cloud juice & cover them with a softdrink bottle glasshouse. to easy

[Amazonian]

What may i ask, is cloud juice ???

[shortly]

Cloud Juice is the wet stuff that falls outa the sky without the chloramine, fluoride, nitrates etc etc.

The stuff outa the tap will kill a lot of CP's pretty quick

[Amazonian]

 

That is too easy, i was thinking it was some sort of new fertilizer. So obvious, i should have guessed. Yeah, am aware of the watering requirements for these type of plants. I've got a big atomizer/ spray bottle with a long arm on it to water the hanging Nepenthes. I only ever fill it with tank water.

[Amazonian]

Hey Chef. Well i went for a bit of a squiz today and dug up a few sundew. For a small plant, they have a surprisingly long taproot. PM your address if you want and i will send them to you. If they survive, then ,we can do an I O U. I got a few extra for myself also.

[shortly]

Fertilizer bad, very bad

Actually just the nitrogen and phosphorus in "normal" quantities. I feed with a 5% strength solution.

You would have been better off collecting seed heads Amazonian, Drosera often don't survive that kind of root disturbance but they do grow easily from seed.

Perhaps you'll get lucky, sometimes it go's well.

[Amazonian]

I am an optimist.( Its worth a try). I will do some seeds eventually. Spring is my time of the year to get propagating( just love it). I don't fertilize my carnivorous plants as they get plenty of insects.( i think) . (i hope).

I have found some cool packaging containers from the supermarket that had mini-muffins in them. I reckon,with a bit of sphagnum moss and a few seeds, these would be the perfect mini-glasshouse, 'til the plastic broke down that is , but by that time your seedling should be established enough to plant out.

Edited August 18, 2010 by Amazonian

[shortly]

That looks like it might be worth a shot Amazonian, just keep an eye on them, a lot of CP seedlings resent having a lot of condensation dripping on them constantly.

And to make sphagnum moss a nice consistency for seed just put equal parts rain water & sphagnum in a blender & chop it up for about a minute or so.

Just dont let your other half catch you

[Amazonian]

Good tip. And I dont worry about the ol' man catching me doing anything. I am always doing odd things ( well, odd to other people)

Edit: in reference to the term "ol' man," it could mean, a father, a husband or just an old man. For me ,it's the husband :|

Edited August 18, 2010 by Amazonian

[Chef]

I found almost the exact same thing at the shops.

I have never tried to germinate CP seeds and I havent even got them yet and I cannot wait untill i get to do it!

I really miss my Drosera Capensis something or other and it was awsome how it wrapped it leaves around what ever it got it hands on,

aaand it even threw off an entire new part of the plant, and then.... I went away to VIC.

Atm the dried out Drosera is very brown and crispy, I'm hoping it will throw something off through the roots?

That mini green house sounds good. I cannot wait to get some seeds/plant Drosera are my favourite!

chef.

p.s thanks again you two, Started me off again on my CP adventure lol

[Chef]

Its been a while and I got helped out by two great members of this board,

I know of other kinds of CP's but i can never find the websites that i occasionaly stumble apon.

Not that I want to grow it but I heard of a blackish looking vine that has a resin on it that is almost impossible to get off and the seeds are so sharp that when an animal steps on them it is that sharp that it gets lodged into the foot/hoof/trotter untill the day the beast dies and then the body of that animal then acts as a fert!!!

I have nepenthes and a few drosera and saracenia, pings interest me

BUT I want to get ahold of some other strange CP's

I know thers others like the cobra (cephalotus or something or other) and those other ones.

I just really like freaky strange plants. Carnivorous or not but strange and weird CP's get me.

If anyone can help me out with something crazy, crack a post :D

Cheers in advance for input

and Cheers to those helpers from before ;)

Chef