Here are some buds/plantlets

Hey Pixie, you gotta retake the photo of that plant when it leafs out and I can take a stab at identifying it for you. The berries are very pretty, but so many plants have berries in that same shape and formation that it would be difficult for me. The fir trees in the photo make a lovely back drop for the photo. I'll take your word that there are vines on them but I don't see them.

Love the idea Phil, and it is actually something I had thought about. Although my plan was to use 8mm double walled polycarbonate on the outside and then use the poly covering that most commercial GH use on the inside. I had never thought about using fiberglass on the inside. I definalty like the idea.

But I was under the impression that I would save money by partitioning it off so that I only needed to heat half of it to 50-60 at night for the neps and the other half I could just keep above freezing for the sarrs. I wonder if it would be sufficeint to just keep it at 50F at night. This should be fine for the H/L neps and should still be ok for keeping the sarrs dormant. I then could just box in a small area for LL, or just continue to grow them inside. Decisions Decisions.

Found a photo taken in the snow before the leaves actually fell off. This might help.

Wolf - As far as greenhouse temp controlling goes, the smaller the space the more energy it takes to control it. Smaller spaces get colder faster and require constant heating to keep them at the temp level you have set it for. The same goes for cooling -- the smaller the space, the faster it gets hotter and the more cooling there is required. Larger structures that are well insulated hold heat longer during the winter and are easier to cool during the summer. I would suggest keeping the structure as a whole, unless you can justify the expense of a partition. You may also consider building a large cold frame structure on the outside of the GH to house your Sarracenia collection. 55 degrees will be too warm for them during dormancy. These too can be made very attractive and constructed out of the same glazing that you use for the large GH.

If you want to just build a small structure inside for LL plants you can heat the remaining inside of the GH to 55 or so and then install a soil heating cabel system inside your lowland area. They are more cost efficient than electric heaters and use lower wattages. Just a thought.

The idea of using 8mm double wall on the exterior is smart...but for the very best insulation factor you would want to go with a solid interior as opposed to a poly sheeting. The more solid the material the better the insulation factor. But poly sheeting would work...just not as good as soild stuff. Another good product to use for the inside is a material called Solex. It is a double walled UV protected greenhouse plastic that works the same as twin wall polcarbonate. It's just a whiteish color so that would help keep temps down in the summer due to its shading ability. You can get material like this from Farm Wholesale Greenhouse Supply or Farmtek, www.farmtek.com.

Whatever you decide to do I am sure it's going to be really nice.

Today I potted up 48 little Pings from the leaf pulls. I dropped off two trays at the teacher's house for the kids which leaves me with 24 in trays to care for as well as about 10 or so plain old agnata in a land/water bonsai dish and two little P. 'John Rizzi' plants that are in a different type of pot. Here's a photo of the last tray that I prepared.

Here are the two 'John Rizzi' babies-

Get out your magnifying glasses....

Which reminds me, I want to get a big magnifying glass like the one Pixie has. I have magnifying glass envy.

Don't forget the drip tray tomorrow. Empty out the back seat of your car. You will need the space. I picked up that double tray from that house where the lady was a hairdresser on garbage day from the curb and it's bigger than what I remembered. That double tray is too cool! Want a few Pings to go in it or are they too puny ;)

I disagree...it is totally the public's fault. Do you really think the general public gives a poop about whether or not it's native? Or, if non-native, if it's aggressive or not? All one would have to do is go to google and type in the names of the plants they're ordering for their landscape. But no. That's too difficult for most people, apparently.

Hello,

I have been enjoying all the pics and thank you for sharing them. One question though, what is a ping?

Joanne

ping is short for pinguicula the scientific name for butterworts.

Hi wolf!

Oh thank you so much....I have one that is just about to bloom. Got them from Tropical Gardens on eBay.

Love the little guys!

See what you started now with me....LOL!!!

Joanne

Equilibrium...hope I spelled that right.

What is the medium you are using for starting the leaves? Do you just stick the tip of them into the mix?

Do you have to lead them sit a bit before you put them in the mix to harden off?

Thanks,

Joanne

Sorry Joanne, I got so used to not finding any new threads over here that I stopped poking around. Wolf answered you on Ping = Pinguicula.

The medium I used for the leaf pulls was regular old vermiculite that was damp, not moist. I used rain water I had bottled up last fall. What I did was I filled the food storage containers with about 2" of damp vermiculite and then I gently pushed each leaf down into the medium. From there I put a sheet of Saran Wrap over the top and rubber banded them off. I placed them in a western window and trained a 60 watt grow bulb over them. When I photographed them, I had peeled back the Saran Wrap to get a better picture.

After they started growing, I left them on the parent plant until the leaf had died back completely. Then I potted them up individually using a basic Canadian Sphagnum Peat/rinsed sand/ and gray pumice mix medium and placed them in a tray under lights in a southern window. They're double and triple the size they were from the photos I took the end of January. I am most pleased.

Lauren

Hi Lauren,

Oh that is okay...no apology needed. I used to only check every two or three days myself but I have posted more and am learning more also so I am always eager to see what is new..LOL!

This is a great site...I love it.

Thank you so much...I have copied your info into a text document and have saved it so I can start some leaves...do you just pluck them off?

Thanks again, appreciate you taking the time to answer.

Joanne

Hey Joanne,

It is so easy you are going to feel silly like I did the first time I did it. What I did was I waited until I felt I needed to re-plant them into new medium. I used plants I already had been growing but same theory would apply to mature plants you are newly purchashing. I prepared my pots by mixing my medium and the newly filled pots all aside. Then I gently pulled the first ping I was going to repot up and out of its cozy pot and systematically began sowly and gently pulling every leaf off the bottom tier of the plant. I removed about 20-25% of the plant. I then transplanted the parent plant into its new digs and then laid the lower leaves I had pulled on the top of the vermiculite and you know the rest from there. For what it's worth, I didn't lose one parent plant that I pulled the lower tier of leaves off from. I've done it a few more times to create more babies for a school and didn't lose any of those parent plants either. I still don't feel comfortable tearing apart my babies but seeing as how I am not losing the parent plant, I am considerably more comfortable with being uncomfortable. The big problem with one of the plants that I tore the lowest tier of leaves from was that it was a gift. I have to admit I checked in on that plant about 3x a day looking for signs of stress and for about the first week I was kicking myself in the rear for having had the gall to tear its lower leaves off. To be quite blunt, I was worried sick about that particular plant but soon enough, I saw a new leaf emerging from the center of the rosette and then I saw a flower stalk starting to emerge. I figured it was either sending up a flower scape as a survival mechanism to set seed or it was going to die on me. It did just fine and I suspect yours will also. I'll do it again... but I don't have to like doing it ;) There's nothing wrong with the process... just the person who is doing it. My hang up so don't let it be yours.

Please start a new thread and post photos start to finish. It's always so nice to see other people's handiwork.

Look who is having babies now! This is the Pinguicula I got from a friend. I took a chance on pulling a couple of leaves from below and laying them on the sphagnum moss by the mother plant. Voila! Now the mother plant is developing an additional crown. I hope it will flower again.

Oh Baby! More babies! And, you're one of those people who can get babies by just laying the leaves you pull next to the parent plant without all the fuss and muss! Good job!

I've always been fertile. :)

I deserved that! Pretty funny Pixie! That's the first really good laugh I've had all day.

I actually have a large diamter shallow tray that I grow live sphagnum in and this is what I use for my ping cuttings. They just get layed on top of the live sphag, I get excellent results.

Another fertile one!

I thought Wolf wasn't yet married! He better watch out! LOL

So, how come I don't have live sphagnum moss? I want some. I thought that some of the spagnum moss in the packages I bought of dried stuff would have spores that would grow, or some such thing.

Lauren, this will cheer you up from your winter doldrums: I found a pot for you at Goodwill the other day. It's totally white, round, shallow like a bonsai pot, with three little feet that it stands on. You just need to drill a hole. Here are a couple of photos of it. Sorry they are a little out of focus, but you can get the idea.

Here's the bottom. The little feet are cute. There is a very faint CCC impressed in the clay on the bottom. It's extremely hard to see and I only discovered it when I was tilting the pot underneath the light just so.

Wow, a personal shopper. The last time somebody found something really good at Good Will I went over there. I was all excited. I didn't find anything but... I did learn that they had a need for some things I had set aside at home so I brought them a few boxes of items. Helped me clean out the basement and helps them.

Pixie, you done good! That dish is awesome. Thank you!

:) It's a rare thing for me to go to thrift shops lately, although I used to haunt them when I was doing ebay selling. Around here, all the thrift shops have begun to think they are actually 'antique' shops and it's hard to find a good bargain like this one.

Hey Phil, what do you think of this greehouse-
http://www.farmtek.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?jspStoreDir=ConsumerDirect&mpe_id=11554&catalogId=10001&catalogId=10001&evtype=CpgnClick&intv_id=16501&division=FarmTek&langId=-1&storeId=10001&storeId=10001&partNumber=pgs104611&ddkey=ClickInfo

Hi everyone!

Now these pings are they the same thing as the butterwort or is the butterwort a ping I guess I should say.

I want to propagate them, can I start them from leaves and if so, which leaves, outer ones, younger ones.

Thanks for all those great photos of your pings Lauren!

Joanne

Hey Joanne, Butterwort is a common name for Pinguicula. There are many species of Pinguicula out there.

Use the lower leaves.

Hi Lauren,

Thank you and what medium do I put them into....the fine vermiculite? Do I need to cover them as well?

Can I root them in Sphagnum?

Joanne

I'd use the vermiculite. I stretched Reynolds Wrap over the tops of mine and put a rubber band around the rim. Please only water them with rain water or distilled water.

That's a great deal on that greenhouse, Lauren. A very nice deal, indeed.
I am so sad. I had a huge bud on my Sarracenia purpurea and couldn't wait for it to open. I went outside today and something had broken the bud completely off at the base of the bud. It's like it just snapped off. I can't figure it out.

I was just looking, not buying. I know which one I want but I can't afford it. I like the looks of the cedar ones best but I'm hyper allergic to the resins and they do vaporize.

Really sorry about your bud. Unfortunately, those things happen all the time particularly when plants are moved outside. Not much we can do. It was probably some sort of a critter running through. Yesterday I went out and found that Mr. Chippie had been in my pots. Time to stop feeding the birds. Chippie gathers the sunflower seeds that fall from the feeders in his cheeks and then seeks out to deposit them in my Sarr pots. Sort of the same deal as in the house. I have this one cat that just turned 23 and I swear when there is a potted plant she seeks it out to use it as a litter box. She's a little senile. Back to your bud, I have a few spare purps around here and I can find one that is going to bloom and send it to you. I found one bloom a few days ago and a few more this morning on other Sarrs so it's only a matter of time before I find them on a purp.

Thanks for the offer, Lauren. Maybe it will try to bloom again. Some of the sarrs are starting to bud out so I'll get my blooms at one point or another. The petals would have been a lovely salmon color, I think.