Drosera capensis Hercules seedlings

I wrote a post about my sundew Drosera capensis Hercules.  Back then I had sown a few seeds and the seedlings were still tiny.  

Some time has passed, the seedlings have grown, I have almost lost my original plant once or twice, and I thought it time to write a blog post about the seedlings.  

Just like in my previous post, I seem unable to take nice looking photos of my Hercules plants.  They do catch incredible numbers of small insects, so it is rare to see a leaf that is nice and dewy without being covered by many tiny dead things.

Drosera capensis 'Hercules' true clone

Seed grown plants (Hercules x self)

Originally, Hercules was registered as an interspecific hybrid between Drosera capensis 'alba' and Drosera aliciae.  Since then things have changed and the current belief is that Hercules is a wide leaf variant of Drosera capensis.

For me this clone seems reluctant to grow from cuttings.  Some are successful, but not the high percent that I normally get from capensis.  

My Hercules plan seems to grow really well, then for some unknown reason it dies back badly.  Then it grows bigger than before, and mysteriously dies back again.  I have come very close to losing this close a few times.  Hopefully I never lose it, it is such a great plant.

Drosera capensis seed grown (Hercules x Hercules)

D capensis Hercules - cutting grown

My parent Hercules plant is the true clone.  This was sent to me as a plant that grew from a cutting taken from the original Hercules plant.  

Judging from what my parent plant has done, and based on what the seedlings are doing, I would be pretty confident that this is not an interspecific hybrid, and is a form of capensis.

The seedlings (Hercules x Hercules) so far are true to type.  I had expected only a small percentage to look similar to the parent, but so far there have not been any off types.  

The seedling grown plants appear the same as the parent in every respect.  They grow the nice wide leaves, and grow a bit slower for me than typical.  They are so similar that if I did not keep them separate I would not be able to tell which was which!

Hercules x self - seedlings

Capensis Hercules grows wide leaves, has the typical colouration, produces many flowers per stalk with the typical colouration, and produces rather large flowers that are more open than 'typical' or 'alba'.  Last year when it flowered I saved some seed, and planted some, but unfortunately lost most of the seed.  This year it is flowering again, hopefully I am able to save and plant some more self crossed seed.

The self crossed seedlings have not flowered yet so I don't know what the flowers will be like, but in every other respect I am unable to tell them apart from the parent.  

If Hercules was the first cross between two different species I would expect to see some diversity in the seedlings.  To be entirely honest, even if this is a spontaneous mutation of pure capensis I would still expect to see some diversity in its seedlings.  I can't explain why the seedlings are so homogenous.  Perhaps there is more to the history of Hercules that I don't know about.  

Hercules - true clone

From here I plan to plant out a bunch more seed, and grow out a few more seedlings.  They appear to grow a bit slower than typical or alba, or at least they have grown slower for me so far.  

If I ever have any spare seed or seedlings for sale I will label them as Hercules x self, or Hercules x Hercules, and offer them through my for sale page.  Being in Australia I can probably can't send them overseas.  I would probably consider a trade for other carnivorous plants.  

Drosera capensis Hercules - cutting grown in live sphagnum moss

Utricularia subulata cleistogamous and chasmogamous flowers

Utricularia subulata, the zig zag bladderwort, is a small terrestrial carnivorous plant.  The leaves are tiny and often go unnoticed even among other tiny carnivorous plants such as pygmy sundews.

This carnivorous plant grows easily from division and far too easily from seed.  

Utricularia subulata flowers

U subulata flowers

This terrestrial bladderwort has lived in my carnivorous plant collection for quite some time.  

For years they have produced tiny flower stalks with cleistogamous flowers.  These were spherical flowers with no petals, these flowers never open yet they self pollinate and produce copious amounts of seed.  

These uninteresting flowers that never open seem to spread seed everywhere, as such I do my best to pull them out whenever I see them.

This year my Utricularia subulata sent up rather tall flower stalks and chasmogamous flowers.  

These are larger showy flowers that do open and do have petals.  These flowers look rather nice.

Utricularia subulata flowering

Flowers of Utricularia subulata

U subulata in a pot with pygmy drosera

This plant has been growing in my carnivorous plant collection for a number of years, under a variety of different conditions, and has never flowered like this before.  

I wish I understood what conditions it requires to send up flowers like this because they are nice.  

Pinguicula flowering

I got some Pinguicula butterworts a few years ago.   Butterworts are carnivorous plants that have sticky leaves, similar to sundews but without the glandular hairs.  They prefer to be a lot drier than most species of sundews, but still require a lot of water.  

I grow them with a wick that goes down into a reservoir of water, similar to how I grow African violets.  They seem to like similar light levels to African violets too.  I have been told by a very knowledgeable grower that many species of Pinguicula should be grown almost exactly the same as African violets, just without the fertiliser.

They have grown well in the time that I have had them.  They go reasonably dormant over winter and get chubby little non-carnivorous leaves.  Then once spring arrives they grow larger carnivorous leaves again.  

Pings are such lovely little carnivorous plants.  

This year as they are emerging from dormancy one of them is flowering!  

Looking at the flower I can't imagine that they are self pollinating.  Given their morphology I don't think I have the ability to pollinate this one without destroying it.  So chances are it will not produce any seed.  

I don't care about that too much, I am enjoying growing these plants and think the flower looks nice.  The flower has stayed on the plant for a few weeks now, which was unexpected.

Drosera peltata complex

There is a native tuberous sundew that grows naturally in my area, I am entirely certain but think they are Drosera peltata.  Peltata are said to be one of the easier species of tuberous drosera to grow.  

They are so local that there is a population of them less than 50 metres from my house!  

I have grown this species years ago, but only ever got 3 or 4 years before they all died.  

Back then I grew some from seeds, some from tubers, and always had similar results.  They did well for a few years, and then my entire collection died out.  I figured growing them long term was beyond my ability.

As these grow locally I figure that the climate here is good for them and decided to give growing them another try.  Hopefully this time I get more than a few short years out of them.

Drosera peltata starting to flower

These used to all be lumped in to species Drosera peltata.  Now this has been broken into several very similar looking species, all within the peltata complex.  I am not entirely convinced that these are distinct species, or if they are subspecies, or if they are merely local variants of the same species, but it really doesn't matter.

These sundews are perennials, but are only above ground for a few months each year.  They have an active growing phase over winter/spring, this is where they flower and set seed, then they die back to tubers over summer.  

It is over summer that the tubers must be kept a lot more dry, otherwise they will rot.

They can pe propagated by seed and the tubers tend to divide a little.  I have not tried to grow them using cuttings so have no idea how difficult that would be. 

Foreground D peltata, other carnivorous plants in background

I am by no means an expert at growing tuberous sundews.  I have grown this species before using either peatmoss or the poor soil that they were originally growing in.  I don't think either of these are ideal mixes for growing them in pots.

This time I am growing them in peatmoss mixed with sand.  There is more sand than peatmoss in this mix.  I hope that this is a better mix for growing them.  

This year I am growing them in a plastic cup with a few holes punched in the base because I only had short pots at the time.  Next year I plan to use a taller plant pot so the tubers can bury themselves deeply.

I have them in a tray of water that is very shallow.  'Tray' is probably a misleading term, I cut off the bottom of a milk bottle and am using that as their water tray.  I plan to let this dry out completely as summer approaches.

Tuberous sundews

Tuberous Drosera peltata

Drosera peltata are not the most effective hunters of the sundew world.  They tend to catch a few ants and moths and other little things.  I still find them interesting and hope that they grow for me.  

If they perform well for me I have a few people who I plan to send a few tubers to let them have a try at growing them.  Hopefully between us we can work out how to successfully grow these fascinating native carnivorous plants. 

Drosera burmannii

Drosera burmannii is a small annual sundew that is native to warmer parts of Australia.   

This species has snap tentacles, which are longer tentacles on the edge of the leaf which flick prey into the sticky tentacles further in the leaf.  These are meant to be the second fastest snap tentacles of any species, and they can move very fast.

Ever since I saw a picture of these I wanted to grow them.  I think they look really cute, plus I found the concept of snap tentacles to be alluring.  They produce a lot of seed and I am told they are so prolific at self seeding that they can become weeds in carnivorous plant collections.  

Drosera burmannii sending up a flower stalk

One day I bought some seeds of Drosera burmannii.  Like all sundew seeds, they were tiny.  

I grew the seeds, the seedlings looked great.  Then winter came and the seedlings all died.  Apparently this species does not handle cold weather.  Not just frost, but low temperatures above freezing made them die.

The following spring some more seeds in the same pot germinated.  By this time I had planted some tiny venus flytrap offsets in that pot.

This time my plants flowered and produced seed.

Drosera burmannii and venus flytraps

The snap tentacles really can move fast.  They do not have dew, instead when triggered they flick up pretty fast and throw prey into the sticky tentacles.

I have a little trouble growing these.  If they get too hot they die, if they get too cold they die.  They are only annuals so if you wait long enough they die.  I have no idea if I could grown them from cuttings, but assume the cuttings would die from cold before maturing.

D burmanii mature plants

That being said, I really like Drosera burmanii.  They are small and cute, but not too small.  The leaves are nice and round, but not too round.    

D burmannii full size plant

Hopefully one day I work out how to grow these properly and I can have a lot more of them.  Until then I will do my best and hope that they set seed for the following year.

In summer I should have a few extra plants available for swap or sale.  I am not keen on posting these just yet, so would be limited to people who can pick up from the Canberra region.  If I do have any extra plants they will be listed on my for sale page.

Drosera burmanii and venus flytraps

Venus Flytrap variety comparisons

Venus flytrap is a single species (Dionaea muscipula) that can not hybridise with anything else other than venus flytraps.  All of the venus flytraps we grow are pure Dionaea muscipula.  That being said, there are numerous venus flytrap cultivars.   

Most (if not all) venus flytrap varieties will not grow true to type even if self pollinated.  Every seed you grow will end up as a unique plant.

Some Venus flytrap varieties have upright growth over summer, some have low growth all the time, some are completely green, others are red, others have coral coloured traps, some are tiny plants, others grow impressively large, some have weird traps, some divide like mad, etc.  This diversity has come about mostly by conventional breeding and a few have arisen from mishaps in tissue culture.  

There are no blue venus flytraps, and there are no black venus flytraps.  

Growing venus flytraps from seed is not for beginners, you are far better off getting a mature plant rather than growing out a seed for 4 or so years.

I grow a few varieties of venus flytraps.  I have written a few blog posts on individual varieties:

Venus Flytrap 'Low Giant'

Venus Flytrap 'Wally'

Venus Flytrap 'Big Vigorous'

 Venus Flytrap 'DXCL'

Venus Flytrap 'Schuppensteil'

While describing a variety is good, I thought it would also be useful to do a side by side comparison of different varieties.  This is only in my garden in my conditions, and may be different if you did these comparisons in different climates.  While some Venus Fly Trap varieties may thrive in my climate, they may struggle elsewhere.

I have used 'Wally' Venus Flytrap as the standard to compare everything against.  Wally is such a great clone and I have good numbers of them so they made an obvious choice for me to use as the standard to compare everything against. 

Wally vs Low Giant Venus Flytraps 

Wally Venus Flytrap and Low Giant Venus Flytrap are both low growing clones that tend to clump.  Both are hardy, simple to grow, and not too finicky about growing conditions.

These two were both similar sized divisions taken from large healthy plants.  They were potted in the same media, on the same day, in the same size/type of pot, and grown in the same tray of water side by side.

Wally on the left has clumped and produced  more divisions than Low Giant on the right.  The traps of Wally are larger, it has produced far more leaves, and the plant has more colour overall.  The colour of Wally vft tends to be red/purple and starts in the trap interior but can be over the entire plant.  

Low Giant has produced smaller traps, fewer traps, has less colour overall, is a noticeably less vigorous plant, and is more of a red colour in the trap interior.  

Venus Flytrap comparison: Wally VFT on left vs Low Giant VFT on right

Wally vs Big Vigorous Venus Flytraps

Wally Venus Flytrap is a low growing clumper, Big Vigorous Venus Flytrap has upright summer growth and tends to divide less frequently.

These two plants were both similar sized divisions (both larger than the ones above) taken from mature and healthy plants.  They were potted in the same media, on the same day, in the same size/type of pot, and grown in the same tray of water side by side.

Wally has low summer growth with large traps that are significantly smaller than the traps of Big Vigorous.  The trap colour of Wally is much redder.  Wally has divided into many new plants meaning that there are plenty of open traps in the clump.

Big Vigorous Venus Flytrap has very tall upright growth with very large traps.  The trap colour of Big Vigorous is more of a coral colour.  Big Vigorous has only divided into a few plants but still has a decent number of open traps making it an impressive looking plant.

Venus Flytrap comparison: Wally VFT on left,  Big Vigorous VFT on right

Venus Flytrap comparison: Wally VFT on left,  Big Vigorous VFT on right

'Wally' Venus Flytrap

'Big Vigorous' Venus Flytrap

Wally vs Upright Red Traps (possibly schuppenstiel) Venus Flytraps

I got some unnamed venus flytraps, one of them impressed me and I kept it and because I can't be certain of the variety I call it 'upright red traps'.  Mature plants develop leaf scaling during summer and I think it may be Schuppensteil, but I am not certain.  Wally is a low growing clumper, while Upright Red Traps has upright summer growth.

The plants below were similar sized division, planted in the same size/type of pot of the same media on the same day.  They were grown side by side in the same tray of water.  I only planted one division of Wally on the left, and multiple divisions of Upright Red Traps on the right.

Wally had more colour, both in the traps as well as on the leaf petioles.  Wally produced more leaves and more traps on the plant.  You can't see in this photo but Wally also produced a few smaller divisions.

Upright red traps produced taller upright growth over summer, and basically disappears over winter.  The traps get very red in the interiors and green everywhere else.  The scaling on the petioles only shows up in larger plants over summer so is not seen on any of these smaller plants.  You can't see in this photo but none of these plants produced any divisions.

Wally vs DCXL Venus flytraps

Wally is a low growing clumping venus flytrap with large colourful traps.  DCXL venus flytrap has tall upright growth, very large traps, and makes an imposing looking plant.

The below comparison isn't great, but it is the best I can do this year.  I got DCXL as a small plant and over the growing season it has not yet reached its potential in terms of upright growth.  It is growing in a different sized pot and in different media than Wally vft.  They were growing in the same tray of water next to one another, other than that pretty much everything was different.  This is the best comparison I can do of these two varieties this year, next year I should have some smaller divisions (grown from a flower stem cutting) to grow in the same way to provide a better comparison.  The differences between the tiny flower stalk plants of these varieties is pretty incredible.

Wally has divided a lot, stayed low to the ground, and has lots of colour in the traps.  DCXL has very large traps, has divided a little, put on a little upright growth (but nowhere near its potential), and has less colour in its large traps.  I expect DCXL to be a lot taller next summer and produce even larger traps.  DCXL is a big, beefy, impressive looking plant.

DCXL Venus Flytrap 

Venus Flytrap DCXL - a large robust carnivorous plant

Wally Venus Flytrap

Wally Venus Flytrap

I have also written a few other blog posts on Venus Flytraps and how I grow them.  If they are useful, links to these are as follows:

• VFT growth rate over a year
  
  
• VFT Winter Dormancy
  
  
• VFT - how I grow them 
  
  
• VFT Seedlings

Venus flytraps handle being posted bare rooted really well.  I sell extra plants over the warmer months, some named varieties as well as unnamed typical plants.  I am more than happy to consider a trade rather than selling if you have another variety or another carnivorous plant that I am after.  

If you are interested they are listed on my for sale page along with other carnivorous plants I have for sale.  

Utricularia sandersonii - rabbit ear bladderwort

Years ago when I first started to grow carnivorous plants I heard about Utricularia, the bladderworts.  

Bladderworts are a genus of carnivorous plants that can be roughly broken into two groups, aquatic bladderworts (which live in water), and terrestrial bladderworts (which live on land).  There are also epiphytic ones, and semi aquatic ones that live in the riparian zone, some aquatic ones that are free floating, and other aquatic ones that need to be anchored to the sediment, but to keep thinks simple I try to think of two groups.

The traps of Utricularia are the most fascinating and complex of all carnivorous plants.  They are more intricate and faster moving than Venus Flytraps.  Ironically the traps are on their roots (technically stems) so you tend not to see them work or to be able to feed them easily as they are under the soil level.  You can watch the traps of the aquatic ones, and some of the larger trapped aquatic ones make a popping noise if you lift them out of water, but watching the traps of terrestrial ones is a little more difficult.  Terrestrial Utricularia also tend to have rather tiny traps, which makes them even harder to watch. 

When I first growing carnivorous plants I had a book on carnivorous plants with a description of Utricularia sandersonii accompanied by one out of focus photo.  The description said words to the effect of: "the simplest to grow and most beautiful of terrestrial Utricularia".  I had never grown any Utricularia at that time so the next time I was ordering carnivorous plants I included one of these.

Utricularia sandersonii typical flowers

My plant arrived in the post, and was a small 2cm cube of peatmoss with a few tiny green leaves.  I planted it and waited.  It didn't take too long before my little pot was brimming with flowers.  This truly was an easy to grow carnivorous plant, and it had unique little flowers that I liked.

I grew this for years, and loved it.  Now that I am growing more carnivorous plants again I looked around for anyone selling Utricularia sandersonii.  Strangely enough nowhere listed it for sale.  

I find this odd because this is incredibly simple to grow, it is not weedy, it flowers freely for most of the year, and it looks nice.

Small Utricularia sandersonii flowering

I kept looking and eventually found someone with a plant that was willing to send me a piece.  This person sent me a part that was already flowering.  Over the next few weeks it grew a few leaves and more and more flowers.

The white flowers have distinct 'rabbit ears', and my daughters say the flowers look a little like ballerinas or princess dresses.  I think this plant is lovely, and my daughters really love it.

Rabbit ear bladderwort growing near sundews

I find that Utricularia sandersonii does not like frost, nor does it like to freeze solid.  It is pretty hardy though, and tends to survive winters if given a little protection.

I grow them in either pure peatmoss, or peatmoss mixed with sand.  I grow them in a pot that is standing in a few cm of water.  I grow most of my carnivorous plants with the tray method like this, so I can either grow this in a pot with a larger species, or can grow it in a pot beside other carnivorous plants.  They like to be occasionally flooded, and seem to eat all kinds of tiny soil microbiota.

They seem to flower for most of the year, only having a break when it is really hot or really cold.  Most years they will flower continuously as long as they don't get too crowded.

As long as water is covering the drainage holes they seem to thrive.  I have also seen these grow happily in a mug or tea cup with no drainage holes.  They can look really pretty growing in the right mug.

I tend to give them dappled shade, but am told that they can withstand full sun.  I hope to divide my plant in spring and grow some in different locations to see what they can tolerate.  These are simple to divide, just pull off a little part, plant it, and it will grow.  I find they do best if they have roots, but if they do not have roots they still grow, it just takes them a little longer to get started.

These tend to spread underground and pop up new leaves here and there over their pot, as well as popping out of the drainage hole.  Once they fill a pot they don't flower too well, and it is time to divide the plant.  Simple.

Bladderwort still flowering

Dividing these is simple, either carefully dig out a part, or just tear a piece off, and plant it.  If you put a few small pieces in a pot they seem to grow larger pretty fast.  I don't know the best way to do this, but I just use tweezers.  Give them lots of water and they are good to go.

From what I have seen, this species does not set seed.  Or at least it does not set seed under my conditions.  Perhaps it needs certain temperature, or lighting, a certain pollinator, or even two clones to produce viable seed.  

It grows so simply that a lack of seed is not an issue.  Not producing seed may even be a good thing, as it prevents this species from being a weed throughout my carnivorous plant collection.

The leaves of this plant are small, green, and unimpressive.  Unless they are flowering they are really not much to look at.  Luckily they flower for most months of the year.

My plant is still small, but it is pumping out flowers.  Seeing a more mature clump in full bloom is really impressive.  I can hardly wait for my plant to fill out a bit more.

Utricularia sandersonii and sundews

To the best of my knowledge there are two clones in Australia.  The typical one which I have, and a 'blue' flowered clone.  

The 'blue' one looks much the same as the typical one, except the ears are shorter and the flower is wider.  The photos I have seen don't look all that blue.  I am told that the blue clone can be reluctant to flower under less than ideal conditions.  I have never grown it, or seen it in real life, so can't really comment.

My typical clone flowers like mad, and does not stop just because the conditions are less than ideal, so I am more than happy with it.  It slows down flowering over winter, but that is ok.  I am really glad that I was able to track down this species again.

My plant is still flowering in winter, and is slowly growing and filling out its pot.  In spring if I have any extra plant I will offer them through my for sale page.  They handle postage really well 'bare rooted' (with minimal peatmoss).  I may also be keen to swap for other carnivorous plants if you have anything that I am after.