Cady's Falls: Early May (The Cellphone Photos)

Pinguicula grandiflora

I was fortunate to have a very helpful intern at work this winter who also loved plants. He told me about a great little nursery known as Cady's Falls Nursery in Morrisville, Vermont. I looked it up online, found the website, and was thrilled by the photos of carnivores. So, I made plans and visited the opening weekend. To my delight, there were some carnivores for sale!

Sarracenia purpurea (front)
Sarracenia flava hybrid (back)

There was also a small display of carnivores near the sale plants. This was quite thrilling not only because Cady's Falls Nursery was actually selling carnivores (and had carnivores), but because carnivores are so rare at nurseries, nevermind the few nurseries up near where I live in the freezing Zone 4b.

Pinguicula grandiflora

I learned from one of the owners of Cady's Fall Nursery that they had had a bog garden for many years and had even successfully naturalized Pinguicula grandiflora in their own little botanical garden.

Pinguicula grandiflora

The majority of the Pinguicula grandiflora grows on damp-to-wet, mossy covered rocks along a small artificial stream. Some, however, grows in drier areas nearby, and others grow in the proper bog garden which is located atop a small hillside a short distance away.

Pinguicula grandiflora

I had been tempted, prior to my trip to Cady's Falls Nursery, to try my hand a bog garden in my yard, despite the obvious difficulties of our freezing winters, but, until I visited I hadn't really committed to the idea other than as an experiment. And, I had never considered trying a variety of hardy European Pings to see which, if any, would do well in my conditions.

Flower-bud of Pinguicula grandiflora

After my visit (and delighted purchase of some Pinguicula and Sarracenia purpurea), I fully committed to the idea of a bog garden and have since installed a nice set of bogs and filled them to the brim with Sarrs, Pings, and (semi) local 'dews. (More on all that in a later post).

Pinguicula grandiflora

On a second visit to Cady's Falls Nursery, I learned that the dozens upon dozens of Pinguicula grandiflora that you're seeing in these photos and which were available for sale were all propagated from the single seed which sprouted from a pack of four sent from Scotland. Quite neat!

Sarracenia purpurea

One of the other remarkable things I saw was this Sarracenia purpurea volunteer which was first noticed by the owners in 2014. As you can see from this photo, the plant appears to be growing in an odd place. It is surrounded by rather large rocks and there isn't too much water or wet soil around it.

Sarracenia purpurea

That's because it sprouted up (and has been successfully growing) in the middle of a dry(ish) rock garden! Talk about incredible! This Sarr gets no more water than the rest of the plants growing around it, which means it gets far less water than most of us give our Sarrs.

Sarracenia purpurea

I was just absolutely floored by this plant.

Sarracenia purpurea hybrid

Atop the hill where that Sarracenia purpurea was growing was the proper bog garden. In early May, with only a week or so of spring behind us, it didn't look like much.

Sarracenia purpurea hybrid

The thrilling thing for me, and the main reason I wanted to visit Cady's Falls Nursery after finding its website, was to see all the Sarracenia they were growing. I was curious to know what species or hybrids, besides Sarracenia purpurea subspecies purpurea, could grow and survive, unprotected, in our brutal winters. 

Sarracenia purpurea hybrid

It turns out, quite a few can. On the initial tour, it was obvious that the Sarracenia purpurea dominated this bog and purps and their hybrids had no issue surviving through winter, no matter how cold it got. (The winter before this mild one, there was a several day period of weather where the high was -15 F, the low - 30 F, and the average temperature was - 22 F).

Sarracenia seedlings

It was also great to see that the plants were breeding freely, causing a number of small seedlings to have sprouted among the sphagnum. The largest of the seedlings appeared to be two or three years old. (Larger seedlings were likely harvested and sold by the owners).

Sarracenia purpurea

I had been previously encouraged by a few fellow NECPS members to try some plants outside all winter in a bog. I was encouraged by their success, but also concerned about how their experiences would stack up against mine considering that my winter was longer by a few weeks, and usually colder by 10 - 15 degrees, on average.

Sarracenia purpurea (probably)

After my visit to Cady's Falls Nursery, I was no longer skeptical.

Sarracenia minor

It's not hard to see why. There were three little green stubs labeled Sarracenia minor! Those had clearly been planted before winter, and they were still alive! Pretty good for a plant best known in Florida and Georgia.

Sarracenia oreophila

One of the more lively looking plants was this massive Sarracenia oreophila. Among the Sarracenia, it is probably reputed to be more cold-hardy than all but Sarracenia purpurea. I think I can safely say that it has no issues with Vermont winters.

Sarracenia purpurea

Of course, as I said, the majority of plants in the bog were Sarracenia purpurea, but, I later learned, that was more a factor of them being more available when the bog was constructed and a conscious effort of the owners to focus on native plants, rather than any attempt to expand the bog to include all sorts of Sarracenia.

Sarracenia "Purpetrator"
a.k.a. S. purp x (purp x flava) "dark red"

There were also quite a few Sarracenia purpurea hybrids which were both acquired from elsewhere and naturally occurring in the bog.

Sarracenia purpurea

It was pretty stunning.

Sarracenia purpurea

I later learned that the majority of the bog plants - with the exception of the Sarracenia - had grown without the owners intentionally planting them. Kinda neat how creating a bog will lead to all sort of new plants sprouting up.

Pinguicula grandiflora

I do have to say, however, that my favorite plants at Cady's Falls were the Pinguicula grandiflora. That may have to do with the almost complete lack of Pinguicula in my area of the country.