The roof garden!




Chickens for @Esperanza

That's quite an array of plants, Sandi. Those are huge pitcher plants. They might just do well catching/cannibalizing roaches!

Oh how I miss the nurseries in Austin, though way better for my wallet
My two "closest" to me real nurseries ( don't count the big box stores) are about 45- 60 minutes away. So they are trips, not just stop by destinations.

@drdawg I've never seen so many hanging baskets of pitchers. The baskets were $20. And the small pots were $14. I had to keep telling myself, "You know you're going to kill it!"

@teacup754 For two years, I was the state council delegate for our Master Gardeners. Four times a year, I'd drive up to TX A&M for the mtgs. I also took the landscaping classes for two years offered by Dr. Welch. I usually tried to make time to go to a nursery near there called Bonnie's (?), or some first name. I would find the neatest plants! Can't remember the name of it and it's going to bug me all day now!

I only have my single pitcher than I rooted last summer. Though I was warned to ONLY use rain water/distilled water with it, it only got tap water until recently. I have begun to use rain water now that it formed its pitcher. Apparently these plants are not nearly as difficult to grow or as picky about water as the "experts" would have us believe.

I killed a Venus Flytrap by overfeeding it!

teacup754 said:Oh how I miss the nurseries in Austin, though way better for my wallet
My two "closest" to me real nurseries ( don't count the big box stores) are about 45- 60 minutes away. So they are trips, not just stop by destinations.

Wow! I could have written this post word for word. So far my biggest regret about moving, is the lack of a good local nursery. The two close to me are OK, but seem to me to cater to the more casual gardener. I haven't found anything to get excited about at either one of them. However, that won't keep me from going back. I used to love to spend a Sunday afternoon just browsing in the Austin nurseries.

Bubbles said:I killed a Venus Flytrap by overfeeding it!

Death by chocolate?

needrain said:

Death by chocolate?

No, overeating chocolate is how I plan to die!
I was fascinated by the way those little "hands" gripped the gnat or whatever I fed it. I was told I had overfed it to death.

How do you over-feed a carnivorous plant, Sandi?

I guess the same way you can overfeed any plant, or human. I just kept slipping a bug to it until it wouldn't open anymore. . . and then it croaked! One of my garden club friends told me I had overfed it, or as she put it, "You just loved it to death."

I don't thinks it's a question of to much food but over use. If I remember correctly each trap only has a limited number of time it can trip before it dies. You could cause the same problem if you manually trip them without food. If you have a young plant with only a few traps and you continually trip them then it will eventually lose all it's traps and die.

Now that's interesting. My pitcher plant just stays open, so I guess it won't die of "trap-use".

I don't think pitchers have that problem since they don't move. They can eventually get to full and individual traps will die eventually just like any leaf, which is what they are. But I don't think to much food is an issue.

I will keep mine on a strict diet then. One insect per week, if I can capture an insect that is.

Thanks, Horntoad. Mine was small and only had one trap. I bought it from a big box store. Now, I really feel bad. It didn't have a chance with me caring for it.

SALL20 said:

Wow! I could have written this post word for word. So far my biggest regret about moving, is the lack of a good local nursery. The two close to me are OK, but seem to me to cater to the more casual gardener. I haven't found anything to get excited about at either one of them. However, that won't keep me from going back. I used to love to spend a Sunday afternoon just browsing in the Austin nurseries.

Have you been to Arbor Gate in Tomball. It's one I go to when I need a nursery fix

Yes, I enjoyed the Arbor Gate, but it's an hour from me, so can't just pop over I also have gone to Maas' Nursery in Seabrook. It's good, but it's an hour in the other direction!

@teacup754 The name of the nursery is Martha's Bloomers in Navasota! Drove me crazy trying to remember. Finally had to Google "nurseries near College Station." Loved that place!

wow wow wow @Bubbles !!! Great pix. Thanks for posting them Did The Great Outdoors have lots of their perennials out?

I can't wait till Wednesday

We went to the Plant Haus in New Braunfels and GreenGate today, they didn't have any perennials out but got lots of info for my shade gardens in Seguin