Flowering of Drosera cistiflora

 I have 2 kinds of Drosera cistiflora to grow. One is red flower, the other is pink. I have kept both for more than 2 years but no flowering. Even if the buds appear, the plants usually go dormant before flowering at my place.

 But both plants have succeeded in flowering this year. It's wonderful! This is probably because we've been having cold spring this year and the plants could keep growing themselves until now.

First pink flower opened 30 March. And the red one was supposed to follow very soon. But as the weather had been so bad, it didn't open until 11 April.

Turions of Utricularia japonica

 It's been warm recently, and finally cold winter seems to have gone. Then turions of Utricularia japonica in my cultivation have started floating and forming small leaves. Hopefully spring will be coming very soon.

 They are originated from Niigata prefecture Japan as my friend living there sent them to me exactly a year ago. I could keep the plant growing with no trouble last year and hopefully this year too.

These photos below are U. japonica in a growing term last year. It is said this bladderworts is a natural hybrid between U. australis and U. macrorhiza. The appearance doesn't so much differ from U. australis but the shape of the turion is round while the one of U. australis is elliptical. So they can be distinguished only in winter in my cultivation. 

These are the turions of U. australis native to Shiga prefecture Japan. They look like almonds.

Australian Tuberous Sundews in 2014

I collected 8 tubers of D. menziesii which started with seeds from ICPS Seeds Bank last year.

They are not so many and still mere seedlings though, I have some Australian tuberous sundews. Then finally they've got all in dormancy. So I dug the soil and collected the tubers so that I could count the numbers and compare with the numbers last year. Here are the species below.

D. collina - 10 (2013) ~ 11 (2014)

D. menziezii - 0 (2013) ~ 8 (2014)

D. ramellosa - 5 (2013) ~ 8 (2014)

D. stlonifera - 7 (2013) ~ 9 (2014)

D. whittarkeri - 7 (2013) ~ 5 (2014) 

As for D. menziezii, I sowed its seeds last year and I could gain 8 tubers after all although they are still so tiny. And I gained more tubers of most of the species this year except D. whittarkeri.

The most of the tubers increased, but the thing is that they didn't get bigger at all... I think I should have added more fertiliser in the soil. I hope their safe germination and healthy growth to the coming term.

This is  D. whittakeri in the last growing term. Should I have fed more fertiliser last year???

This is D. collina,which just germinated last winter.

Sticky leaves of D. stlonifera

This is D. ramellosa. I've been keeping this tuber sundew for 4 years that is the longest of all I have.

Venus Flytrap in spring!

Well, I've been away from this blog for a half year. Meanwhile, winter is gone and spring has come. In fact this is the first entry in 2014. I hope I will write something more often from now on.

Then the first topic in 2014 is Venus flytraps. They started growing and stretching their arms vividly. Our rainy season is coming soon and after that hot and humid summer is waiting. I hope it won't be too hot for the sake of their healthy growing....

A series of Venus flytraps at my terrace

Big Vigorous from TP

Gold Strike from Carnivoria EU

Bohemian Garnet from BCP

Pink Venus from TF

No brand forming comparatively big traps, almost 5 cm in length. I found and picked up this plants at a local DIY store some years ago.

Germination of Utricularia gibba

A flower of U. gibba

I know! No-one dare to propagate U. gibba from seeds as it is the easiest aquatic bladderwort species to grow. So it is just a curiosity to go through it.

I used a 500 ml plastic bottle as its container. And as for water in the bottle, I boiled mineral water with a pinch of peat. So its colour is slightly brown. After the water cooling down, I put the seeds in the bottle. First of all, they were floating around the neck of the bottle but soon later sinking down on the bottom. 

The seeds; to obtain seeds, it seems to be better to self-pollinating.

Then approximately 3 weeks after sowing, I found a very tiny green thread floating up and down in the water. It already has some bladders on it. And a bit later on I confirmed some more germinations.

the germination of U. gibba

And soon later they got entangled together like fishing nets. They grew amazingly fast. So I gave up counting how many buts appeared......  

2 months later after sowing

Drosera indica White flower 'Tsukuba'

My cultivated Drosera indica 'Tsukuba' is showing a tiny white flower. I didn't expected that early flowering as the rainy season is still going on.

The flower has only four petals, but one missing. It is perhaps because the plant hasn't fully grown and the flower is the first one.

In this pot Drosera indica red flower 'Toyohashi' is growing. This looks bigger and more robust than the white flower's above. I hope this will also make lots of flower very soon, and seeds after all.

Pinguicula lusitanica

I've been growing Pinguicula lusitanica for about 2 years. I don't have so many butterworts as I am not good at cultivating the species. But P. lusitanica is not so difficult to grow even for me! Fruiting the seeds, they tend to wither. So I sow the seeds on a year basis.

There seem to be regional variations in colour of their flowers. So it would be interesting if correcting them in different locations.