UNH Summer 2016

Nepenthes spathulata

Over the weekend, I was able to stop by the University of New Hampshire to check in on their collection. Since I've mostly been posting field trips this summer (because I've been so busy every weekend exploring new carnivorous plant habitats), I wanted to take the opportunity to post some photos of a carnivorous plant collection.

Nepenthes "ventrata"

I was thrilled to see so many of the Nepenthes in the collection doing so well. Most had a plethora pitchers, especially this Nepenthes ventrata. Although it's a fairly common plant, it's one that does have nice pitchers and does well for collections without a serious commitment to creating highly specialized environments.

Nepenthes maxima

I really liked the striped peristome on this Nepenthes maxima. I was fortunate to get a few cuttings from it when we repotted and trimmed the plants in early spring. Those have all done well and are starting to put out some nice leaves.

Pinguicula

In the spring, we also repotted all the Mexican Pings into pure turface (calcined clay). At the time, they were looking very rough. Now, they look fantastic! It was remarkable the turnaround. I highly recommend turface for any Mexican Pings.

Oncidium Orchid

I also took some time to look around the orchid collection. There was a lot blooming, and some of it was pretty neat looking. (I'm not a big orchid guy, so I wasn't always quite sure what I was looking at, but there were some neat plants).

Nepenthes "ventrata"

One of the very neatly colored plants in the carnivore collection was this Nepenthes ventrata, which had a pretty clear distinction on the pitcher for where it was exposed to sunlight and where it was shaded. I thought that was pretty neat. (Most of my plants, since they don't depend on natural light, are fairly uniformly colored, but occasionally, I get one like this).

Sarracenia purpurea x oreophila

The Sarracenia were also doing well. This Sarracenia purpurea x oreophila caught my eye. Over the summer, I've been growing my Sarracenia collection, focusing largely on plants proven to do well in the cold. Most of those are purpurea or oreophila hybrids, so the cross was interesting to see.

Tree Frog

We were also privileged to see this little tree frog. (I had no idea tree frogs inhabited New Hampshire. I thought they were a southern-only creature). It was definitely a highlight.

Nepenthes 'Rokko'

As with my plant at home, UNH's Nepenthes 'Rokko' is producing some upper pitchers. This is such a wicked fast plant that I'm sure that we'll have to cut it back a bit next year when we do another maintenance day.

Sarracenia 'Scarlet Belle'

A few happy 'Scarlet Belle' pitchers also wanted their photo taken. Although remarkably common, I still find this plant charming.

Sarracenia alata

Lastly, I had to end with this beautiful Sarracenia alata. It's quite a nice plant and I'm glad the pitchers this year are much more robust than last year. It really is incredible!