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Well, my hopes came true! This morning I saw that all three colors of my Cypress Vines (Ipomoea quamoclit) have opened. I planted five seeds in the pot, hoping I’d end up with red, pink and white. And I did. I’m going to manually pollinate these and label them and will continue doing that so when seed pods develop, I’ll know what color the seeds will grow to be. Now, it would obviously have been much easier to plant a single seed in each of several pots so I could have individual plants of each color, but the funny thing about random situations is that they are not always random. I could have had five pots with four white and one pink and no red… See? Since Cypress Vine blooms within 30 days from seed, now that I know exactly what color the seed will grow to, I’ll grow them separately next time! |
| My Hideous Sea Onion (Bowiea volubilis) seems to have gotten the hint after I tied it to the pole. In fact, it’s grown about five inches in the past 24 hours and is on its third revolution around the chrome pole. The other vines you see that I also tied to the pole are my Mouse Melons (Melothria scabra). Those are going to be a challenge – because I’ll have to choose between letting the grape-sized fruit ripen so I can collect seeds, or eat them – crunchy and lemony. I’m a big boy. I think I can maintain enough self-control to be capable of letting at least some of them ripen. Though, they do have a tendency to slow production of new fruit as they direct energy to the older fruit that are developing mature seeds. |  |
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The Pygmy Sundew (Drosera paleacea) is native to Australia and is among a group of Sundews that have a fascinating means of dispersal, discussed further below. The plants are small, and the one thing that MUST be adhered to above all else is that once they start growing in a spot/pot, they can never be transplanted! That’s because when they start growing, they produce a single threadlike taproot into the medium they are growing on (usually peat and sand or perlite). However, that said, they are one of the easiest Pygmy Sundews to grow! And, like pretty much all other carnivorous plants, they are never to be given any fertilizer or tap water. Distilled or reverse-osmosis water is their friend. |
| Although they do bloom on the rare occasion, the absolute number one way they reproduce is through gemmae. The Pygmy Sundew is seasonal. In the autumn they stop regular production of leaves and instead begin producing fascinating tiny modified leaves that each have a fully formed bud on it. As they mature, raindrops hitting the center “cup” of gemmae will cause them to eject and pop out up to 15 centimeters (just under 6 inches) away from the mother plant. However, growers will often lay the pot on its side over a piece of paper and gently nudge the gemmae to come loose and fall onto the paper. They are extremely tiny! |  |
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The gemmae are the primary means they are distributed among growers like myself. I received a tiny vial of 10 gemmae ($9.00) on eBay and scattered them across a damp paper towel inside a ziplock baggie. The high humidity helps to coax the gemmae to sprout. They don’t really germinate because they are not really seeds. And since they are not seeds, they must be treated carefully and grown quickly – they generally start growing within about one to two weeks. In fact, if you look closely you can see black ones – those died! So it’s not foolproof. |
| I cannot emphasize enough just how tiny they are. And as I mentioned above, they have a taproot that is very delicate, requiring that the plants are never transplanted. I’m sure if you scoop around them enough they could. But why risk it? Just put them in the pot or terrarium you want them to live in and leave them alone. This one you see here I need to carefully transfer to a pot soon before the taproot tries to burrow into the paper towel (NOTE: many people simply place them in a pot from the start, but I had problems a few times, so this time I wanted to see them start to grow and then move them to their permanent home). Place pots in a tray of distilled water so they are always moist. |  |
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Almost two months ago I ordered some Sphagnum moss from China (didn’t realize it was China at the time, as I’d ordered it from Walmart online). When I received it I was a bit shocked at how small the package was (it was around $5), but I knew Sphagnum expands a lot. And boy oh boy did this expand! Since I was going to be using it with my carnivorous plants, particularly Sundews, I was careful to find a Sphagnum that wasn’t infused with plant food and I expanded it with distilled water only. |
| It’s always an interesting surprise when you receive a compressed brick of something such as this Sphagnum moss, Peat moss or Coconut coir and put them in water. I was definitely surprised when I did this with the small flat brick of Sphagnum moss in distilled water. It was an interesting tactile experience to feel the outer surface “melt” from solid to light and fluffy. I then kept breaking the hard interior and pushing it under the water and felt it expand and expand and expand under my fingers. |  |
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It absorbed a whole half gallon of distilled water! The dark line at the lower edge of the label is where the water level was. Since the label wrapped all the way around, and since I have other bottles like it but with spring water – NOT for carnivorous plants – I couldn’t just remove the label so it was easier to see. Anyway, what you can see is that the little brick of Sphagnum moss expanded to fill the tub about three inches deep. I guess a half gallon of water will do that! And it absorbed it all! |
| This morning I also woke up to my baby Cape Sundew (Drosera capensis) having captured not one. Not two. But THREE gnats all on the same leaf! I’m wondering how far it will curl up. You can see it started curling over the gnat near the tip, but it will be cool if it curls all the way up the leaf to also cover the two at the end. I’ll post photos either way. |  |