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!

Pinguicula primuliflora

Hello. Now just a quickie update because my new plant!
Today my growlist gained one more plant Pinguicula primuliflora, but lost one, Utricularia livida, which died for yet unknown reason. U. livida just got weaker and weaker until the plant was half dead so just in case I removed it from my growing area.

Macro shots

Hello everybody!

Recently I purchased a macro lens adapter, which is basically just 2 adapter pieces, one for the camera and one for the lens and 3 aluminum tubes. The magic this adapter set does is it makes it possible to focus the lens closer than normally by moving the lens further from the camera body.  The set cost me only about 6€ or 8$.

Here are some flowers and other small details of carnivorous plants that I took photos of.

Flower of Drosera paradoxa 

Drosera venusta

  Drosera venusta

  Drosera tomentosa Morro do Jambeiro, Grao Mogol, Minas Gerais, Brazil

Pinguicula emarginata x (moranensis x ehlersiae) leaf with a mosquito. In the middle of the winter there's a mosquito on my pinguicula's leaf. Could this possibly be a Culex pipiens molestus, a.k.a. London Underground mosquito, which can possibly lay eggs in any place with standing water?

Flower of  Pinguiula emarginata x (moranensis x ehlersiae). 

Another flower of  Pinguicula emarginata x (moranensis x ehlersiae)

Flower of Pinguicula emarginata 

Flower of Utricularia livida 'Blue'

Flower bud of Pinguicula moctezumae 

A tiny drop of water on Utricularia nelumbifolia x remiformis, showing hydrofobic properties of leaves of this plant. So far I have not seen a trait like this on my individuals of U. nelumbifolia or U. reniformis.

Leaves of Utricularia pubescens .

Flower of Utricularia nephrophylla.

I want to especially thank my readers from the United States of America for following my blog. At the moment I see that my flag counter on the right navigation bar shows 526 hits from the US and 525 hits from Finland. Also thank you readers from other countries as well for following my green life.

Spring is starting here because the temperature at the moment is only slightly over zero celsius. Soon the snow starts to melt and summer returns to the north again.

Have a happy spring!

Cross succeeded!

Mini update. My first cross ever has succeeded. As you can read from my previous post I pollinated P. moctezumae with pollen of  P. emarginata and seeds were ripen 4 days ago. The seeds have now been sown and hopefully they will grow into beautiful plants.

This is not a new cross but I hope I can see how the different abilities of the parent plants have transmitted to the hybrids.

Seeds of my another cross P. emarginata x moctezumae have not ripen yet but I have seen no signs of withering in flowerstalks of P. emarginata.

I will keep you up to date how the seeds are doing as soon as there is something to tell about.

Colours of the Fall

Hello! Long time no see.

I have a good reason why I haven't written here for a while. I just had the big tests that mean a lot for my future and I really wanted some time to focus on them.

Thanks for everybody reading my blog. I was just amazed when I saw that on 20.9.2012 my blog had 59 pageviews. Only during one day. Total of my pageviews are now over 4000 and it's all thanks to you. Thank you for reading my blog.

In my previous post I promised you some news about my Sarracenia. This blog post I'll start with my favourite. Sarracenia psittacina.

Followed by some hybrids including Sarracenia purpurea



This year I'm especially proud of all of my North american plants. Flytraps made a big suprise this year growing better than ever because of greenhouse conditions.



Flytrap in this picture used to have only those 2 brown leaves which you can see dried in the picture. Plant then started producing nicer leaf rosette after repotting and made another plant right beside another. They will grow into some beautiful flytraps during next summers.



Drosera venusta was first happy about greenhouse conditions but then started dying the biggest rosette and now the plant has smaller rosettes which are growing well.



Drosera binata grew all nicely during summer forming many flowerstalk but didn't produce any seeds.



Non carnivorous bromeliad Cryptanthus sp. turned all red in the greenhouse Ending this blog post with flowers



Drosera capensis. Not special but still pretty.



Pinguicula moctezumae. Received this plant from Zlatokrt.
The plant had a flowerstalk when it arrived and after a while it flowered and is now pollinated with pollen of Pinguicula emarginata because it was only other Pinguicula blooming at the moment I'll be waiting for seeds of Pinguicula moctezumae x emarginata to rippen. I also made this cross vice versa pollinating P. emarginata with P. moctezumae's pollen so I will hopefully have Pinguicula emarginata x moctezumae seeds soon too.

That's all for now. Soon I will put my temperate plants in regridgerator for their winter dormancy and I will then focus on my tropical plants. See you later.

Ping-Ping-Pinguicula update

It has been a while since I've posted pictures of my Pinguicula.



One of the loveliest pinguicula at the moment are P. emarginata x (moranensis x ehlersiae) triplets.










Pinguicula emarginata has totally conquered it's pot and is blooming non stop



Pinguicula x Tina has revived and is flowering again but is not too happy about it's small pot.



P. esseriana is a nice plant, which I think I should propagate more through leaf cuttings. One big plant looks too lonely.



P. moranensis x ehlersiae a.k.a. fake Weser. Nothing special about this plant but it would be nice if it was just a bit bigger.



P. laueana is having nice reddish colour on it's leaves and I hope that the plant is soon ready to bloom.



That's all so far about my Pinguicula. The summer is soon gone and autumn is coming. Just hoping that the weather would warm a bit for the end of the summer. All the plants have grown very rapidly and most of the plants have developed very beautiful colour in my greenhouse. Next post will 100% sure include Sarracenia and flytraps because I want to show you how you can have good results with them even in this north.

New Utricularia and Pinguicula

Yesterday arrived P. moctezumae and U. geminiloba from Zlatokrt. Big plants in very good condition. Posting new blog post with photos soon.

Spring coming

Howdy! Spring is now coming to Finland too. Some kind of Crocus sp. Flowering outdoors If you look carefully you will see a bumblebee in the most right of the flowers.

Phalaenopsis orchid continues making flowers to old flowerstalk.

Ludisia discolor cuttings growing alongside with Nepenthes ampullaria 'Brunei Red' x 'Harlequin'


N. ampullaria's so far biggest pitcher. It's 7 cm (2.7") high including the height of lid.

Pinguicula emarginata is enjoying the new growing light.

Pinguicula laueana is growing nicely too. It's just making more and more leaves and growing more rapidly. I wish to see the plant flowering someday.

Utricularia livida 'Blue' gaining a nice color on it's flower.

Flower of seedgrown Utricularia calycifida from Gran Sabana.

Flower of Utricularia nephrophylla from Serra dos Orgaos, Brazil. Inspired by Sebulon from CPUK I wanted to see how root system of my Utricularia alpina is doing. Here's the plant.


and here's the root system

  I'd say that's pretty well if you notice that when I got this plant it had only two leaves and one tuber. It tried to flower for me but then I over watered it and the flowerstalk rot away.
Spring coming and temperatures are slowly going up. I think I can start ordering plants in following few weeks if the temperatures keep rising so that we will not have frost during night. Enjoy the spring!