It's that time of year to play "Dead or Dormant"

Yup, for us midwesterners, it's time to start the annual guessing game coined "Dead or Dormant" by aprilbaby1.

I'll start.

I think the Sarracenia minor sent to me with butchered pitchers while it was actively growing by a person who should have known better is deader than a doornail. He "trimmed" the plant so that he could ram it into the cheapest box to ship imaginable.

I think the Sarracenia red/black that dried out while being shipped to me late last fall is dead.

I think I killed a Sarracenia psittacina but I have no idea how ;) maybe it didn't like being frozen solid like a brick last November when we had a week stretch of temps in the upper teens. I'm thinking that might have done that Sarracenia in. I should have quick fast brought that in.

I think some of my S. flava ornata are dead. This one actually perplexes me. I'll have to do a little checking but that might be because of that bad batch of Canadian Sphagnum Peat I got that I didn't realize smelled like manure. I probably killed that one too by not repotting it in a fresh mix of good quality CSP.

So, whose next to play dodecatheon's game of dead or dormant?

Well I can say that I did not lose one sarr, vft or drosera to dormancy. But I have the feeling I may have lost a couple of sarrs to the frost we had last week. Will have to wait and see if it just killed the new growth or the whole plant. But the S. 'Red Sumatra' I recieved in a trade that I was soo excited to see new growth on is not looking well from the frost. I hope it makes it.

Truth be known, some of those plants were sent to me dead and I just potted them up in hopes they might somehow resurrect themselves. The ornata is probably my fault. That bad batch of CSP I bought was pretty rank and I never noticed. The psittacina was definitely my fault. That's no purpurea there.

How exactly are you overwintering your plants? In your basement? In your garage? I forgot what you did with yours over the winter.

I can't say I'm playing this year. All my natives are up, blooming, or will be blooming. I lost a 4 year old Liatris Ligulystylis. 38 of the 50 containers of natives that I Winter sowed are up and healthy. I can't be too upset about 76% germination. I'm getting ok at propagating native plants. Finally.

The Sarrs...well, they're another story, though with the warm weather today, I do see hopeful signs. This was my first full year of CPs, so I'll give myself a little break. The learning curve is steep with these plants.

The S. Oreophila is dead as a doornail. Makes me so dang sad, Philcula sent it to me and, through inexperience, I killed it. It was a huge, beautiful plant. I have reservations about the S. Rubra Gulfensis, but I do see some teeny pitcher-like things, and the growth points still look lively. All my S. Purpurea are dead, and my S. Minors. I love S. Minors, and am sad again at their demise. A couple of D. Capensis, likewise, but they were abused in a black light experiment.

In the good news dept., My S. Oreophila x S. Flava has 3 buds, and 3 pitchers, with smaller pitchers on the way. One of the complex S. hybrids I have is pitchering. I'm still waiting for the S. Rubra Gulfensis, but the growth points are still nice and red/green, so it's a matter of time. I have about 7 of 15 rescue Sarrs that might make it. I bought an S. Dixie Lace and and S. Tarnok from a greenhouse last weekend, and so far, so good.

Lauren, I overwintered my sarrs in three different methods to see if I could see any difference. For most I put in my garage with a fluor light over them set at 5hrs per day, and then just gradually increased the length of time as the natural daylight got longer. These plants by far look the best and have started growing sooner and with more vigor. I then took about half of what was rest and unpotted them sprayed w/ a fungicide and put into ziplock bags. I then put all my bagged sarrs into a large cooler filled the remaining space with packing peanuts and sat in my garage. All of these came out of dormancy alive, but I did lose a few of the smaller growing points to fungus, but I just cut the bad parts off and they are doing fine. Then what was left I dug a hole in my yard and stuck the pots up to the rim into the ground and covered the plants with pine straw and just let them do there thing. These all appear to be alive but no new growth is showing and all of last years pitchers are brown. Will have to wait on them, I dont think I will try the last method again.

what temps did your garage drop to?

It never got beloew freezing, but other then that I do now know. Most of the time when I checked it with a thermometer it was about 40-45F

I'll play. I'm almost positive my P. primulaflora are dead. Sorry, Lauren. And the jury is still out on some of the pitiful sarrs I took pity on from home depot They are in my new bog garden so we'll see. Likewise with some rescue vfts They were all overwintered in the greenhouse, which is cool, but never below freezing.
Things are breaking dormancy in earnest now, so we'll see.

On the plus side, all of the plants I got from Philcula are thriving! Yea!