Yep

Do yaself a favour and visit the good guys at: www.cobraplant.com

Got myself one there, its a small one but in beutiful condition, cant wait for it to grow.

Cheers

Sheldon

Here is a link that might be useful: Here is the link to it :)

Yes, definitely check Cobraplant.com out. They're great.

Also, they're going to be completely updating their site on June 6th with new plants and whatnot. Very exciting news :) If I had any more room in my terrarium, I'd buy some more plants! Hahahaha!

hehe, I know what you mean, my wife was like, "sooo how many plants do you have now?", she says Ill have my own nursery soon,lol
Some GOOOD news!!!!!!!!!
I have been floating cut D. Capensis and D. Aliciae leaves in distilled water with a humidity dome on under light.
The D. Capensis leaves are growing plantlets finally!!
The biggest one is at about 1/2" so far, just hoping the D. Aliciae does the same now.
This still was my favorite sundew of them all.
I see Cobraplant should be getting more in June :)

Cheers

Sheldon

Yeah, the Cape Sundew is a wonderful plant. I'd say it's one of my favorites as well.

I'd like to know more about this leaf-cutting procedure. So, do you just snip a leaf off a plant and sit it in water under light and you get a new plant from that? How does that work?!

Hi

Well alot of Drosera can be grown from cutting, the normal method is to cut a healthy leaf right off at the stalk where it comes out, then most people use either a wet mix of peat/perlite (your normal potting mix) or pure sphagnum moss.
They lie the leaf tentacle side up on the soil and cover the very bottom with the soil mix or sphagnum moss they using.
A humid enviroment is needed so some form of cover is used with good lighting, it takes a while for plants to grow, some species take 3-4 weeks, some can take 2 or more months.
Once they grow you wait for it to get big enough that it has very fine long white roots on the leaf that it grows from as well, each Capensis leaf can grow about 10 plants.
When its big enough to carefully cut the leaf in parts to seperate the baby plants that have grown along the length of the leaf.
This is then either planted in the mix of your choice under high humidity until the plant gets big, it can then be transplanted.

The other method I tried is called "floating cuttings"
I just took a bowl filled with about 1.5" high of distilled water, the leaves are dropped on the surface tentacle side up, a humidity dome is put on and its left under good lighting everyday.
If the water stagnates, empty it without loosing the leaves and refill with fresh water.
If the leaves start to go black over time, DONT WORRY, this is normal, sometimes the leaves will nearly turn to complete mush, and just when you think its too late you see baby plants sticking through.
Just leave them floating util they get big enough with roots and as per the other way, cut the leaf into parts to seperate the plants and put them in your mix.

Ill get my wifes Cybershot tomorrow and take pics for you of the setup and what they look like.

Also read these links:
http://www.carnivorousplants.org/howto/Propagation/DroseraLeafCuttings.php
AND
http://www.geocities.com/quizibo2000/water.htm

Cheers

Sheldon

cobraplant.com - got my cobras nest there - growing fast and wonderful!

Ye rco911 I agree, they send beutiful looking plants huh :)

You growing your in or outdoors?

Cheers

Sheldon

greetings sheldon,
they do send wonderful plants! im quite pleased with the wonderful customer service they provide (jacob farin if you are reading this - you guys rock!!)

all of my plants are growing outdoors on my patio. i live in san francisco, and they are all doing well! they get at least 5 to 6 hours of direct sun each day. i just started growing carnivorus plants again a year ago, this is my 2nd season. it brings back a lot of childhood memories growing them. when i was younger i was so fascinated by them, but unfortunately killed em since i didn't know how to take care of them... (i would "over care" for them in too humid terrariums, insufficient indoor light... you know.) fast forward 18 years and im growing them (very) successfully!

current collection (still expanding):
2 darlingtonias, quite a few VFTS (including typical, big mouth, dente, red dragon...), many d.capensis's of both var alba and typical, a couple s. minors, purple pitchers, a few s. flavas, s. flava x purpurea, s. flava x orephilia's, 1 danas delight, 1 cobras nest hybrid pitcher, parrot pitchers, one white top pitcher,one s.alata, one pitcher hybrid (i dont even know the name of, just picked up at a local nursery for like 5 bucks since it was dying, i named it "fred"), a giant staghorn sundew, some bladderworts (that actually accidentaly came with a purchase with some aquarium plants for my fish tank.. SERIOUS!) and a nepenthes species that again i found at a local store that was not labled.

i am growing my plants outdoors in aquariums ranging from 3 gallons all the way to a big tupperware filled partially with water, but no covers. thus humdity, water, air circulation and wind screen while allowing them to catch their own food.

i wonder what next season will bring?!? i'll try to take some pictures and post... my collection is expanding and soon i think i'll need to move out of my condo to buy a house so i could build a greenhouse dedicated to CP. im running out of room!! :-) i love CP's and am happy i found this forum to share the passion of growin these things with you all!!

Well good to have you here rco!

It's always good to talk to other people who share the CP passion. Glad to hear your plants are going good! I look forward to seeing your collection.

Ye I agree!!

Your giant staghorn sundew, how does it do with catching food, and what kind of food does it grab?
Ive heard that they can deal with bigger prey, Im wondering if they could handle something like a yellow jacket though.

I love my VFTs (specially the big mouth I have) but am becoming more and more fond of my sundews by the day.

Cheers n thanx for sharing

Sheldon

Well, speaking for my Staghorn, I doubt it could handle anything as big as a yellow jacket. But it could handle bigger flies, especially if they get caught between several leaves (which could happen since the leaves grow all intertwined).

I agree with you about the sundews. They have become my favorite CP, by far! :D

Hehe cool.
Well with my S. Flava, when the hail hit and the 2 lovelry bigger pitchers (still young and small as to what they will grow too) fell to the ground, I carefully cut them off and out of interest cut them down the centre to see if it had caught anytihng.
Buried under 5-6 flies was 2 yellow jackets, I was quite impressed especailly that 5 days before the pitchers where still sealed.

Cant wait to see how much these pitchers eat when they are fully developed.
The amount of damned yellow jackets and box elder bugs here in summer is scary.
I hate those yellow jackets, they constantly go after me when Im outdoors,lol

Time for revenge me thinks *Grin*

Cheers LG

Sheldon

'tis good to be here, i assure you!
LL and Necro, i take it that you grow your plants outdoors?

my giant staghorns are not "giants" yet, they are standing only about 5 inches tall. they catch small gnats and other small bugs, havent seen them catch anything else. i havent seen a yellow jacket this season, believe it or not. i just deal with weevils (may i reiterate... i HATE weevils).

i started off with CP's as a child, after that moved on to bonsai, then cacti and succulents, then ... well everything else. i found success with everything else but CP's at the time. back in those days, the info i had was limited saying that they were exotic tropical plants that need high humidity and temps that should be around 60 degrees... that is how i killed em. i was fortunate to have a grandfather that was patient enough with me, since i was always bugging him to go to the nursery to buy some more for me! i was quite happy and surprised in my latter years in my discovery that they ARE relatively easy to grow! i just placed em outside, rain/distilled water, full sun, and viola! "e unum pluribus" (the reverse of "e pluribus unum", found on our currency... which means "from many, one"...) in my case it was, "from one... many!"

many of the d capensis's i have actually appeared from my red dragon vft pot. i guess there were seeds in the soil. they started popping up like magic and overcrowding my red dragon VFT! ive transplanted many of them. some into their own pots, some still grouped, some in a terrarium. ive divided a few VFT bulbs, and they are doing fine. a few of my plants were "rescued" - from various nurseries that had no clue whatsoever on how to take care of them. instead of paying $20, i paid $5. in one case for a dente flytrap, two bucks! (pocket change! yeah!)

you never know what you might find. im always on a constant quest to resuce those precious plants from the "cp ignorant"! :-)

I grow all my plants in a terrarium inside. How my spider got in there, no one knows :p

That's cool that you rescue plants from the "CP Ignorant." I'm always weary about buying plants from anywhere but online retailers because often times they're so mistreated that they end up dying on me.

But keep up the good work. I'm sure the plants appreciate it!

i know what you mean about being weary from buying plants from those who mistreated them..

after i found success with the plants i have purchased online, i couldn't help but to rescue those plants in despair! *if* you do find any that look like they are dying at a local shop, try to bargain it down! you never know until you ask! i paid 2 bucks for that dente and it has 3 new traps forming (its been about 2 weeks since i bought it...)

"frank" the sarracinea hybrid i rescued was covered in mealybugs, and aphids. (eww) the lady kept it in a dark corner of her store, watered with tap water... so of course it was dying. it was $23 bucks (large pitchers) but she offered $10 since it was "dying" done deal. i took it home, submersed the entire plant (pot and all using stones to weigh it down) in a bucket of distilled water overnight to drown the mealybugs and aphids. next day, brought it out, sprayed it down with a non-oil based pestacide. i then changed the soil to the peat/perlite mixture and wraped the roots in sphagnum as well, and used sphagnum as top dressing. now mind you, this was all about 1 month ago. frank had 1 new growth **under half a centimter**. now 1 month later is his picture... 3 new growths, that 1 centimter growth is the largest one that you see.

{{gwi:555769}}

i'll take more pictures of my plants this weekend and post em as well...

take care all!

Wow, VERY NICE!!!!!
That plant really looks happy, guess you know what your doing.

Say hi to frank for me :)

Cheers

Sheldon

Very nice! Good thing you rescued Frank :D

By being weary, I meant that I don't like buying plants that are half dead. I never have good luck with them. Today I had to chuck two Venus Flytraps I got from Home Depot :(

aww man. LL i understand what you mean now with buying half dead plants. i usually look at the new growth, if any, and determine its potential from there. its sad to see such wonderful plants go. may those flytraps rest in a peaceful bog somewhere beyond the sunset...

theres one store in my area that had terrific pitcher plants (purple pitchers) but they didnt know how to take care of them. no tray method or anything.

i spoke with someone there and asked them,"what do you do once they look like they are about to die?(seeing of course the potential in the new growth)" the man said, "we throw them away" . so i offered to buy them at a discount once they were about to throw them away "no, we cant do that, against store policy". i stated "that is poor business practice, im offering you a profit for your 'garbage' "

hey after all, one mans trash is anothers treasure.

sad to say, but i never got the pitchers.
*rrrgh* next time i should speak with the supervisor!

Ye that is pretty sad.
Sad also that so many pitchers and other CP's are getting less and less in nature due to humans (another thing for us to ruin)
And yet that store would rather haev the poor things suffer and die because they dont take the time to learn how to care for the plants they are selling, instead of making a profit off of something they will trash and kill, they would rather just chuck it.

Really makes one sad

Well good luck with the store bought plants, I know if I ever saw them in a store here I would also have to do a rescue.

Cheers

Sheldon

Dang, that sucks rco. I can't believe they weren't willing to come down in price, especially since they were just going to let them die anyways. Bastards...

By the way, what stores do you usually visit to rescue plants? I usually only see CPs at Lowe's and Home Depot.

I usually visit local floral shops in my area on my lunch break, as im picking up food or what not.

sometimes i would visit a nursery here and there as im in search for other plants, and i do come across cp's here and there. i just keep an eye out for them. theres quite a few here in san francisco.

i cant belive that they werent willing to sell! i just should of waited by the garbage or something! hahah!! ive seen vfts at home depot that were covered in mold and fungi... sad.

i appreciate the guys up at cobraplant, i had to email jacob when i rescued the pitcher plant, and they told me they do the same! they also check into other floral shops/nurserys and if any look bad, they also offer a discount and get them that way as well.