Can anyone ID this plant?

[mabudon]

Yeah, about the stress- even down here in Niagara it seems a lot of the southern types struggle with flowering if left outside year-round - once we get our data from the loggers we might be able to figure some stuff out- as I posted elsewhere, Rick and I are both going to stop ALL our plants from flowering next year and see if the following year brings any change- maybe letting them flower every other year could be a workable strategy?? We shall have to look into it

Glad you finally know the specs on ONE of your plants Brian

[brian]

S. Rubra rubra it is then! Thankyou all, I think I can work up a reasonably accurate grow list.

[jay]

what are hopeing to do by not letting the plants flower , incourage stronger plant growth?

[mabudon]

Yes, why, do you not think it matters??
I know we (Jay and I, just for those following along) were talking about VFTs flowering and you said that you just let 'em go and they're fine, but I swear with Sarrs, it seems every time I have a REAL good crop of flowers, the darn plant is doomed the next year and I can't figure out why, plus I don't think much of the flowers anyways

Would there be any reason NOT to cut the flowers off??

[Rick Hillier]

I intend to nip them all off as soon as they appear next spring.

This year, I had a bumper crop of flowers in my bog. I let them all go, not touching them at all. The result was that this years crop of pitchers were the smallest I've ever had, and there were fewer of them to boot.

I had a couple of very large purpurea purpureas that were very large and robust last year put out 3 and 4 flowers per crown this year... but what followed were pitchers that were closer in appearance to that of a seedling than a large plant.

I think that in nature, where there are a ton of insects and virtually 100% humidity, it's okay to let them flower, as the more optimum growing conditions will allow them to recover easier.

Let's face it, in most of our bog gardens, the conditions aren't exactly optimal. The humidity is significantly lower, the growing season is shorter, and while it is often enough to allow the plants to grow and survive, they don't quite flourish like they do in the wild.

If we could assign a unit of measure to growth potential (let's call them tribbles - for the old "trekkies" in the group), a plant in its optimum habitat might have 100 tribbles, whereas a plant in our bog might have 60-80 tribbles. Let's assume that for good forward vegetative growth, the plant may require 50 tribbles. Just barely hanging on might require 25 tribbles, and anything less than that might cause the plant to decline.

Let's say that flowering requires 50 tribbles. In the optimum setting, that leaves 50 tribbles, so the plant has enough to grow and expand. In a great bog garden, the plant might have 30 tribbles left over, so it can hang on and maybe progress just a tiny bit.

But let's go to the other extreme and take a bog garden in a "rougher" neighbourhood where there is only 60 tribbles available. Letting the plants flower would reduce this to 10 tribbles, resulting in the overall decline of the plants.

If you nip the flowers immediately as they appear, even in the rougher case, the full 60 tribbles are available for vegetative (i.e. pitcher) growth, allowing the plant to grow, thrive and increase in size.

Sorry for rambling on like this, but this is just a theory of mine and I'm going to try it out next year, as is Carl.

Wish us luck,

>>> Rick <<<

[jay]

I think you should take a second look at your cultural methods , Plants really pushing flowering is a sign when they are going down hill . Stress in the plants will cause extreme flowering (gotta get the genes out there quick) Something in that plants environment or group of elements is stressing it out , unless you correct it , water,sun,pH, soil mix or lack there of ,its going to be a uphill battle ....

anyway hope it works for you ,

and please don't use the term tribbles that much in one message please

[Rick Hillier]

Sorry about the tribbles being all over that message, but try to state what I did while removing most of them.

If you look at the history of my bog, I started out with many smaller plants, most of which were not blooming size. They would all put out healthy crops of pitchers and would get successively larger every year. I noticed that a plants flowering resulted in fewer and smaller pitchers. This year, I had several plants that were going to flower, but the buds got eaten by slugs as they were forming. Those plants continued their pattern of producing more and larger pitchers while plants right beside them that put on their colourful show went backward somewhat.

The worst were my purp purps. I had a couple of huge specimens from Northern Ontario which had 12" pitchers with 2+" mouths. They grew for years in my bog, always producing a nice crop every year. The crowns would divide every once in a while resulting in a clump. This year, every crown bloomed and the resulting pitchers that followed were juvenile in appearance.

These observations are what spawned my little theory last night.

>>> Rick <<<

[bugweed]

Unfortunate for you guys! Naming the species S. rubra ssp. rubra. In a lot of cases, the edges of the S. rubra ssp. rubra hood are straighter, but occasionally are curved down. There is a S. r. ssp. gulfensis "red form" in my bog right now that looks a lot like this, but redder. Also, there seems to be a discernible bulge in the upper pitcher. A trait that S. r. ssp. jonesii, and S. r. ssp. gulfensis share. Flowers are better than leaves when it comes to discerning the species, but I am enjoying all your guesswork. Like the old days. Keep it up, and ask Carl M. when he comes online. I think I know, but leaves can throw you for a loop.