You are so kind to share, Francois!

Oh my goodness! It's like looking at plants from another planet!

They sure are beautiful, Francois! How big is the Giant one?

I'll bet you don't have any flying insects in your house, ever!

Hey Elaine :)

On my h.minor var pilosa giant, the giant pitcher is around 20cm, but as i can read on some carnivorous plants forums, they can reach 25cm.

Thanks for your kind words !

Francois, can you recommend some easy introductory carnivorous plants? I want to get into this world, too, but don't know where to start. I have a Nepenthes, who is happily sprouting pitchers, but want to delve a little deeper.

Nepenthes can be 'hard' for novices, so if your lil guy thrive under your care, thats mean you are quite good :)

From my opinion, easy species are: Sundews, Sarracenias, Pinguiculas, Stylidiums, Utricularias, Dionaeas
Medium easy species are Genliseas, Catopsis, Brocchinias, Roridulas, Nepenthes, byblis
Harder ones are Cephalotus, Heliamphoras

But all carnivorous plants, even the harder, can be unkillable beasts if you give em good growing conditions.

My favorites CPs are Heliamphoras, by far :)

They came from the lost world; sky islands, in south america. Due to these very high square mountains(tepuys), the animals and plants evolved very differently. This place is the inspiration for the movie jurassic park. Of course no dino up there, but the plants are very differents and ancients. You can clearly see heliamphora are in fact simple rolled leaves. Very primitive plants. I give em meat once a week, and they just thrive. These plants should not be on earth anymore, scientists and taxonomists just dont know why they are still on these mini sky islands.

Also they can be very tricky to grow. One of the harder plant to grow IMHO. They need 90%+ relative humidity; they grow almost in clouds. Cool day temperatures, and cold nights (24C/10C).
They require crystal clean water, like rain or distilled water. They grow in acid soil mix, like peat moss. And they need a very high amount of light. I have to blast them with many t5 tubes.

BUT they are so beautifull !

Gosh, maiden, you really know your carnivorous plants. It will be interesting to see how those Nepenthes alata cuttings root and then grow for me. My experience is in tropicals, and then mostly orchids. But those tropicals I grow are all "warm-loving" varieties. Since the young, horticultural student who gave me those three cuttings grows the alata, and the picture I posted was of his plants, I assume I can too. Time will tell. If/when I purchase a handful of other carnivorous plants, they will probably be of the Drosera genus. They appear easier to grow and I simply like them (at least pictures I see of them).

Hey, if anybody out there has more carnivorous plants than they need and want to do some trading..........well, I have orchids, staghorn ferns, bromeliads, and other tropical plants!

Stunning photo Francois! Is that sphagnum growing with them?

eclayne said:Stunning photo Francois! Is that sphagnum growing with them?

Yes :)

Ken: I have a truck load of drosera seeds, many species. I can send you some for free if you need to !

Spectacular plants, Maiden!

Francois, that is very kind of you, but with all the plants I have, I might/would have trouble growing those plants from seeds. I assume they are NOT like germinating vegetable seeds? Besides, I think I would like the instant gratification of having plants large enough to eat some bugs!

I am not going to purchase any of them until I can start getting some of my plants outside. I don't have space for them in either GH right now. Besides, it is so cold here, I couldn't get them shipped in anyway.

Thanks, Francois. My Nepenthes is doing well because of your guidance a few months ago. All the pitchers dried up and died and after talking with you, the plant is twirling happily down its "tree" and is covered in new pitchers as well as shooting up new plants at the base.

Heliamphora are my absolute favorite, too. My Florida conditions are less than ideal to grow this plant. Perhaps in a fish tank style terrarium??

karmatree said:Thanks, Francois. My Nepenthes is doing well because of your guidance a few months ago. All the pitchers dried up and died and after talking with you, the plant is twirling happily down its "tree" and is covered in new pitchers as well as shooting up new plants at the base.

Heliamphora are my absolute favorite, too. My Florida conditions are less than ideal to grow this plant. Perhaps in a fish tank style terrarium??

:)

Yes all my helis are in terrariums and old aquariums. A/C is a must if your outside temps are too hot!

Yep, we are very hot in the summer. We don't really like things too cold so we keep the A/C at around 76-77 during the peak of summer. Would the Helis mind that?

Back to the water needs. So far, everything I see is that tap water is a no-no. Can someone tell me specifically what it is about tap water that is "harmful" to the carnivores?

Hi Ken, the salt content, fluoride, dissolved minerals will kill the roots and leaves. But some carnivores can tolerate tap water, my Pinguiculas don't mind. But the others I use distilled water. I save some rain water if we ever get any collectible amount, but it is too infrequent here in our area, so distilled water it is.

The vendor were I got my Nepenthes says his Nepenthes tolerates tap water too, but tap water varies from area to area, so I am sticking to distilled water for my new addition.

Our tap water has an average of 32 ppm solids (I think that's a measure of hardness?).

Heavy metals:
1. Chromium - .003 ppm
2. Barium - .l ppm
3. Selium - .004 ppm
4. Lead - .003 ppbillion

Our chlorine content averages 0.7 ppm and our fluoride content averages 0.4 ppm

Perhaps you water quality buff/experts will tell me whether these are good numbers for using my tap water on most of the carnivores, or perhaps bad numbers. I don't really have a clue what reverse osmosis numbers would look like or for that matter, rain water. Distilling water would/should result with zero of all of these substances (I think).

Aside from the water, if you intend to grow Nepenthes, check if it is the highland or lowland type. The lowland type requires more warmth at night. Pretty much reminds me of some of our orchids, some being warm humid growers and some can go more intermediate.

I don't yet know what specific plant(s) I want and don't even know when I will get those Nepenthes plants. There is no use to order any now, even IF they could be shipped (they can't), since I have absolutely no space to put them in the greenhouses.

Kate: 77 is ok, but barely. You can put your terrarium close to your a/c, with the cold air flux redirected on the closed tank. This will keep the inside's temps lower. Also try to start with a hybrid, like h.minor x heterodoxa, they are more forgiving :)

Kent: The problem with tap water is the solid minerals. They stick on the roots, and the most sensible plants(like carnivorous plants) will struggle. They can 'survive', but they will not thrive. 0ppm water will keep you away from many 'unknow' culture problems ;)

Also, be carefull with the commercial vendors, they often said a lot of things, just to sell more plants..