Carnivorous Plants: Little Tiny Darlingtonia, 1 by FlytrapRanch

FlytrapRanch wrote:
Here's a current photo (March 30, 2007) of the regrowth of a near-mature Darlingtonia californica that I almost killed last year by piling so much long-fiber sphagnum moss on top of the growing medium surface (and plant crown) that the pitchers rotted from the crown up.

Once the plant's crown (its growing point) is gone, the plant is gone (or so I thought). However, this brave little plant decided to put up tiny green filaments from its roots, and now, after winter dormancy, it is beginning to grow again. I'm lucky it survived my well-intentioned but bad care.
:-)

Darlingtonia are reputed to like cool growing medium and to detest warm or hot conditions beneath the soil, which is why I covered the medium with long-fiber sphagnum moss in the first place. But it just caused rot. Now I have removed all the soil-surface mulch/dressing of long-fiber sphagnum and the plant is growing great (so far). My one concession to the cool-roots guideline for this species is that I planted it in an insulating polyurethane foam pot. This keeps the medium from overheating when the sun hits the side of the growing container. I'm very happy with insulating foam planters and use them for just about everything that is not planted in a traditional porous red clay pot (such as my orchids).

Steve