Medium sized update with photos #1

Howdy howdy. Long time no see huh. Well I can't see you but... you get the idea. Holiday is over and today I took part in qualification test for career college, the results come during next week's Friday. Keep your fingers crossed for me.

Sometimes it's refreshing to start a meal with dessert so here we go with some Utricularia flowers.

U. sandersonii, which I get to bloom first time in my whole hobby!

U. dichotoma, first time blooming in my collection.Notice powdery mildew which attacked the flowerstalk.

U. uniflora took it's time to bloom but glad it did. Seems like this one likes the summery heat.

Then to my wannabe highland terrarium, which is for now a plastic box on my floor. The upper row D. venusta, G. roraimensis, U. asplundii and U. reniformis small form. Middle earth, I mean row D. natalensis with location data, D. roraimensis, D. regia. The sugar on the bottom is D. felix, U, nephrophylla and dead D. graomogolensis. D. graomogolensis was a bit ex tempore but I agreed to swap it for few sundews but unluckily the plant arrived when I was on my holiday and my parents potted it.
Rule number X: Never let your parents pot your carnivorous plants, unless they're carnivorous plants hobbyists too. Mine aren't.

U. asplundii are growing bigger leaves than before. I'll pot them in spahnum soon and hopefully it will improve their growing.

D. natalensis from Inanda road, Waterfall, Kwa-Zulu, Natal, RSA and D. kaiteurensis. Oops! File name of the picture says D. roraimensis. Maybe I'm getting old or I just have too many plants. :D

Drosera venusta is a true fighter. Now it is growing perfectly with even a flowerstalk.

I was shocked when I came home and saw my Darlingtonia with only few leaves. The biggest leaves had dried away and below is a picture that might reveal the reason why it all happened.

The base of the plant has turned purple coloured, which I think might be a symptom of fungal infection. Well at least I treated My Darling with some fungicide. But if you recognize this symptom and it is about something else than fungal infection, please comment or e-mail. 

Well here are the pictures for now. During the next week I'll post more  Take care of yourself and your plants, beware closed greenhouses. Happy growing!

Week of awesomeness!

This week is pretty awesome. You want to know why? Of course you do.
It is not for the weather, this day has been so far very cloudy and rainy day indeed but at least I get some rainwater collected for my plants. Plants, they are the reason why this day is awesome.

Three days ago I got one of the plants that I've adored since I googled Nepenthes and saw picture of pig beautiful pitcher of Nepenthes veitchii. I had this plant for a while but during the long, dark Finnish winter the plant got mold and after a long fight with no fungicides (They don't sell them for normal consumers in Finland. I don't know why.) the plant was infected by powdery mildew so badly that I had to throw the plant outside to the snow, all this to protect the rest of my precious collection. Now I have fungicide and a new Nepenthes veitchii 'Golden Perisome' which is of course a lowland form. Some lowland forms of N. veitchii seem to have more elongated pitcher shape compared to highland forms. In google only picture of this plant's adult pitcher is at http://www.nepenthesaroundthehouse.com/nveitch.htm and it does not seem too elongated compared to for example picture of a plant at http://www.cpjungle.com/nucvei.htm.
   So first addition to my collection in this week was Nepenthes veitchii 'Golden Perisome.' Thanks for CPUK's pmatil for this amazing plant!

N. veitchii 'Golden Perisome'

When potting N. veitchii I remembered that 2 of my Nepenthes pitcherplants have declined to grow for me for a while. These two Neps are N. albomarginata and N. ampullaria 'BR x H.' During thei repotting I noticed why they haven't grown well for a while. First reason for their reduced growth was of course peat based soil that has become like a brick. Second reason but this is mainly for Nepenthes ampullaria, it's roots have become massive. I swear in the pot there were many about 20cm(7.8") long roots, which had grown through the bottom gravel of the pot. Now the two plants have been repotted into fresh sphagnum and sealed in plastic bags for few days to improve their recovery by raising the humidity near to 100%.

N. ampullaria 'Brunei Red' x 'Harlequin' recovering.

Second are the plants that I received two days ago, Utricularia livida and Utricularia sandersonii. I've had these both in my collections earlier but they both somehow died. U. sandersonii died in sunburn and U. livida was first overgrown by moss and after that happened something I'm uncertain of and the plant just threw in the towel. Thank you Matilda from Finnish carnivorous plants forum for these!

And the best for the last! Yesterday's packet, which included Darlingtonia californica, Drosera schizandra, Pinguicula crystalina, Pinguicula grandiflora and Sarracenia flava var rubricorpora, of which the first 2 are my most waited plants.

My Darling in a pot with diameter of 18cm (7")

Potting mix is pure sphagnum and the plant is potted in a big white plastic pot and placed im my greenhouse.

Sarracenia flava. var. rubricorpora will hopefully show it's characteristic coloration later in this season.

"What are you taking pictures of? Get off my yard"

For me it is now baking for my graduation party, yes I'm a high school graduate and I shall press the fancy white cap on my head in a week. Last in this post, here's a picture of a squirrel wishing all of you a happy summer and great weather for holidays. Cheers!