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Post by brian on Mar 24, 2007 15:01:53 GMT -5
I finally dared to look today at my Niagara Falls outdoor planter. Last fall Lloyd asked "Do any of the S. flava and rubra pitchers stay green over the winter?" in another thread but its now 13 pages long so I'll start one here> I haven’t forgotten your question but to answer it I had to watch the plants over the winter. Here in Niagara Falls I have Dana’s Delight, Scarlet Belle and Red Dragon. The best way I can describe the plant’s response to winter is that they obviously do not expect it. By late fall to early winter everything that normally grows around here has taken one of two tracks. Either it has prepared by turning brown, dropping leaves and dying back, or it is evergreen. So normally I would only see green in the cedars, euonymous and lawn grass. The pitchers stick out in my yard by stubbornly staying colored, but on the green side due maybe to lower light levels, even when they are pelted by snow. Eventually they succumb from the top back to drying and now all the pitchers are dry and brown. The bottom inch or two are still green and the crowns look firm and robust, so I expect to see good growth reappear in a couple of months although the pitchers may take until mid summer to fully develop. The crown of the Dragon looks firm with a couple of traps and trap sprouts still intact. I will wait and see on this one because last spring a VFT fooled me with a dead cat bounce, it turned to mush by May. Snow still melting in Bancroft so I’ll report on that later.
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Post by brian on Mar 26, 2007 9:19:07 GMT -5
I'll try one image first since I'm out of practice. "This is my surf and turf" garden at the start of spring:
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Post by mabudon on Mar 26, 2007 9:38:41 GMT -5
Looks about right, very nice Funny how almost all us Niagara area folks have them prickly pears, mine are about the same distance from my bog...
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Post by brian on Mar 26, 2007 9:45:17 GMT -5
I think they all survived. Here are close-ups of the crowns, first Red Dragon: Danas Delight: Scarlet Belle:
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Post by mabudon on Mar 26, 2007 9:52:14 GMT -5
Yeah, they look FINE Brian, no probelms there- I didn't even mulch my stuff outside and lost NOTHING- some stuff I thought I'd lost last summer even re-appeared
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Post by vraev on Mar 26, 2007 13:00:48 GMT -5
I can only imagine how beautiful that bog will be in spring. ... lush greenness, nice CP's. WOW!!
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Post by brian on Mar 27, 2007 13:00:13 GMT -5
Mabudon I'm really looking forward to seeing your list of survivors especially since you volunteered for one of the hobo loggers. I did say to prep your bog whatever way you planned but I'm kind of pleased you decided to skip the mulch. With the coldest February in 30 years we'll get some great data on what these plants can do! As for the cactuses yeh I know, prickly pears are the only ones really hardy in Canada. There was a guy named Dave Nagler in Georgetown that sold cultivars with different colour flowers. I once had a barrel style though that overwintered for years. Vraev thanks for the compliment. Sorry it looks kind of ratty now but I'll see lush greenness (maybe in July tho!)
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Post by mabudon on Mar 27, 2007 13:28:37 GMT -5
Ahh, yes Brian- I held off on the mulch for science, not cos I was lazy I like that, and will use it from now on... EVERYTHING Survived the winter, I am now positive about that, only thing is I am in a situation right now that might actually be harder on the plants than the winter was... we shall see, we shall see
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Post by brian on Mar 27, 2007 16:31:50 GMT -5
You know, today we had a heat wave like summer.. in March yet! I swear I checked my red dragon every hour and could see the new traps getting bigger! Wish I had a time lapse camera
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Post by brian on Apr 1, 2007 7:36:50 GMT -5
My red dragon is huge! Here is the latest photo (the dime is for scale): If you look closely at the trap you can see by the feather sticking out it has already consumed its first robin of the spring.
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Post by mabudon on Apr 1, 2007 8:25:07 GMT -5
I hadn't looked at my red dragon for about a week, yesterday I was watering stuff and got treated to the same view almost- them ones they had at Hasselmans were FREAKISHLY large eh?? lol "already consumed its first robin of spring" THAT was funny
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Post by insectivore on Apr 1, 2007 21:53:49 GMT -5
Cool to see stuff is growing my Drosera and Sarracenias are waking up pretty good too! Cya
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