2008-07-12 Sarracenia Northwest Visit

First time the public was allowed into the Sarracenia NW. nursery. Their website is http://cobraplant.com/index.php. Jeff and Jacob run a tight little nursery specializing in carnivorous plants. Very nice plants.

The whole nursery is run out of these plastic lined pools and the adjacent greenhouses. Thousands of divisions are made every year from their stock plants.



They use RO water for everything pumped out of their 700gal/day GE Merlin, which I am considering purchasing for my soon to be bog and pond (and greenhouse). They pot everything in a mix of peat moss and perlite 1-1. They would like to use sand, but its heavy and hard to get the right sand around here and it's heavy! The wrong sand has too much of any mineral that can leach out. They recommended pumice for my bog garden because it doesn't float as much as perlite.

I also learned that they are no longer recommending collecting rain water off of composite or wood rooves. Composite has copper added to help prevent moss growth, which is poisonous to Carnivores. Wood roofing has arsenic (sometimes...) which apparently can also harm plants.(?) They say if you have a metal roof, run off should be safe to use.

Sarracenia oreophila , a FE species that does fine in cultivation.



Sarracenia rubra jonesii, another FE species with awesome veins.


My favorite species is Sarracenia flava because of it's huge range of color forms. This is rubricorpa, the red tube variety. They wouldn't sell me one because they have so few. Their growth rate is very slow compared to the normal flava. In addition, they have to be propagated by division only since sowing seed (even selfed seed) does not produce red tube plants. It may produce some, but not many, apparently. They explained the only reliable way to do it is to cross a red tube with an ordinary flava and grow that seed. Then take those seedlings and cross them with eachother. These crosses should result in 25% red tubes... in 10 years.



And a wee Cephalotus. Almost got one, but I'll wait until the greenhouse is up and functional. They're a bit finicky, and did I mention weeee?

2008-07-02 UCSC Arboretum take II

Went back to get a personal tour from Ron, the S. Afr garden curator. Talked me through their propagation and cultivation methods for their Proteas, which was good to hear. People in S Afr swear that most Protea are hardy to -10C (12F), which would put them hardy to z8b. Since Portland is z8b, I have subsequently ordered 1400 seeds from South Africa to start in my soon to be greenhouse. I grew about 100 Protea seeds last year and I learned a lot about what kills them! I will have much better numbers this time around. I've sectioned off a large sheltered portion of my new yard for the S. Afr and Oz garden... Give me 5 years and then ask me how it's going...

Anyhow, here're some photos.

Protea Pink Ice, one of the hardiest hybrids. Blooms right through frosts, according to Ron.


One of my favorites, Protea repens. Notice the Aulax in the background.


Most arboretums worry about weeds. UCSC worries about the ever encroaching Leucospermum cordifolium. Poor them.


A neat Grevillea that looked like a pine tree. I don't know the genus well enough to ID it yet.


Speaking of weeds, here is a self sown 6yr old Leucadendron argenteum. Ron is checking the tag for the date.


Last, a Mandavilla laxa. One Green World sells this plant which is supposedly hardy to z8 also. It's going over my soon to be trellis.

2008-06-28 UCSC Arboretum

Ok, so at this point in the day, we'd already walked 11miles. While very cathartic, our feet were in so much pain... and the arboretum was closing in 1.5hrs! No time at all!

The UCSC Arboretum is, hands down, the best place in the USA to see South African and Australian natives. Go there! Having lived a mile away for 4 years, I know that the low each year is about 32-35F with extremes in the upper 20s. However, every 10 to 15 yrs, the temp gets down to about 18F for about 5 minutes. This wreaks havoc on their Leucospermum collection. Most things recover just fine since the ground temp is always above freezing.

They have a cactus collection. I didn't write this one down. You can see the Endangered Aloe polyphylla growing in the background. (Did I mention that I hate CITES? The USDA distroys endangered plant seed if you try to ship it without the correct paperwork because of CITES. SOMEONE PLEASE rewrite it!)



Epacris impressa var grandiflora: pretty flowers on such a straggly bush.



They have many Grevilleas from Oz, but I was there for South African stuff.



The Proteas were mostly done with, but a few were left: grandiceps.



The biggest (and therefore best) Protea in the world: magnifica. Its nearly the size of your hand with fingers outstretched.



The Leucospermums were in full bloom. Spectacular. This one is concarpodendrum, I think. If you live in Coastal California, why don't you have thes plants?! And If you do have them, why don't you have more!?!... Oh yeah, I forgot that your yard was the size of a postage stamp and that it's worth $1.3M. Nevermind.



Ls tottum or hybrid.



NOID.



Awesome NOID Ls cordifolium hybrid.



Brilliant Ls reflexum.



The all yellow version of reflexum. These plants are mostly very large. Your average Protea is a 10ft semisphere. Some like the Ls cordifolium and tottum only get to 3ft tall, but 9ft wide, as you can see at the bottom of the photo.



One of my favorites: Leucadendron argenteum, the Silver Tree. It is so silver it glows, if you've never seen one. Sadly, only hardy to z9! Too bad they get to 30ft so it won't fit in my Greehouse (yet...)



And here's one of the SAfr garden curator: Ron Arruda. He was nice enough to give us a tour the following week, so more photos to come. The blooming plants along the trail are all Ls cordifolium. You can see a large Restio on the left, and I think a Melaleuca or something white blooming off in the distance. Far center is UCSC campus in the Redwoods.



Last, my Favorite new plant: Mimetes cucullatus. It's in Proteaceae and from SAfr. Stunning color. Sadly, I've heard reports of only 4-5% germination at Kirstenbosch. And Silver Hill Seeds just ran out for this year! Bleh.

2008-06-26 Muir Woods

Redwoods are so much bigger than those other trees. You know the ones... That's right: All of them.


Estivating Ladybugs. Or Ladybirds if your British. Because in Britain, bugs are birds. Anyway, ladybugs aren't bugs since they don't have sucking mouth parts. What crappy names for a pretty little beetle.



Lily



Lisa and Art enjoying the quiet away from the main trail.



Art's Hard Work




Mine








Cairn City

2008-05-27 Cyp montanum...? Sort of...

So, every year for the past 4 years, I've driven to see the Cyp montanum on the East side of Mt Hood on pretty much the same day each year. This year, the mountain had a lot more snow... Usually, I see like a little tiny patch of snow at the entryway to Rd 48, and then drive on my merry 74F way. This year, I noticed that there was 3ft of snow on the side of the road near Government camp (near the turnoff for Timberline). Then I got to Rd 48. Never seen a flake of snow on it in late May...



Straight ahead is the road... supposedly... Mt Hood had a lot of snow (I think certain records were bent, if not broken); however, down in the Willemette valley, Portland received no more snow than usual (I think we got a whopping 2inches) but spring temperatures just refused to warm up. It was like March just extended itself into May. Global climate change or just a fluke? Probably both, just like everything else in life.

Anyhow, I turned around and went to one of the little camps along HWY26 at a lower alt and took some pics of Calypso to satisfy my orchid need. Again, these plants are usually blooming a full 4 weeks earlier! They were at their end, though. The one pictured was one of two still photographable plants out of several dozen faded ones.



So, I didn't get to see any Cyp montanum in N OR this year :-( Oh Well.

2008-05-24 Southern Oregon

Back to Southern OR again! Good trip... Too much driving for a weekend. Saw a lot though.

It was especially colorful this past spring since everything was 2 weeks behind due to cold weather. Lots of Castilleja, penstemon, asters etc... The color doesn't come out perfectly, but standing there in person it's like being in an impressionist painting: flowers of every color in every direction.

Castilleja pruiniosa


Lupinus


Triteleia ixioides, I think, possibly ssp. anilina.


Senecio


Eschscholzia, among others.


Penstemon


Never seen a white Castilleja before. Castilleja minata alba?


This Cyp montanum was especially good looking this year. Same number of flowers on the red plants as last year.


One of my favorite photos.


This was the same site with the green montanum. Apparently, some green montanums are just year to year morphological anomalies. This one has been constant for the past two years, so we have to assume that it actually is Cyp montanum forma praeternictum.



As I mentioned before, Spring was at least 2 weeks late in Oregon. Notice that the Cyp montanum above is not completely open. The dorsal sepal should stick straight up. This was the first time I saw entire plants in bud. Particularly Cyp californicum was not open when last year the temps were 15F warmer and they were all in full bloom.

The plant I called "Tall Sepals" was looking good. There are actually two plants somewhat close with similar dorsal sepals. Good genetic material for crosses ;-)



A nice Cyp californicum. This is the plant that called, "Oops".


Thousands.


Here in Southern Oregon, daytime temps over the summer are 85 to 92F (records near 110F), lows 52-56F (records near 40). There is little to no rain from May to October, so there is very low humidity. It has zone 9a or 8b winters with some rain and snow. Here is a photo of the native hillside in late May... By September, 4 months without a drop of rain, you would swear it should be a desert!



In contrast, the areas in which the Cyp californicum plants grow are where the ground water hits the surface of the hillside, creating a constant 1/8in deep stream running down the hillside. The groundwater is Cold!, even when it's 100F out. This water runs all through the summer, lessening until the October rains begin. They grow in serpentine muck, which has strange chemistry. Meeting all of these characteristics is Impossible, and unfortunately we don't know yet which aspects are the essential ones!...

Below, me pollinating Thousands. Looks so tiny with a scale! This really is the biggest plant in the whole valley, though... by far.



So far, I have grown Cyp californicum (from seed) in Portland with some winter rain protection and, of course, summer water! I grow them in my standard mix of pumice/perlite/turface and so far so good. Here in Northern Oregon, we have cooler summers (average 82F) and wet winters. We still don't get a drop of rain from June to September, usually, so we have naturally low humidity. And we get the nightly cool off, though not as drastic as down south. It usually goes from the mid eighties during the day to about 60F every night. There have also been successes growing this species, off the top of my head, in Germany, England, Australia, Minnesota and the wet side of British Columbia. Go figure.

I'm guessing that vigorous Cyp cal hybrids produced in the next 10 years will be the best bet for anyone in love with Cyp cal but just in the wrong place... No harm in trying a few, in the mean time, though.

I contacted several people regarding Cyp californicum conservation. One NF botanist summed up several of my concerns:"California ladyslipper is not a forest service sensitve and therefore forest service botanists aren't involved in active restoration... Active threats are most likely logging, mining and collecting... fire suppression might be a threat... during the Biscuit fire, a large portion of suitable habitat across the range of California ladyslipper did burn and the burns were beneficial... The best thing we can probably do is keep motorized vehicles out of suitable habitat & prevent logging and mining from occuring through wetlands."

So, it looks like no one is actively doing anything, aside from politely asking people to stay out. Again, the Cyps are fortunate to have such a large and very remote section of great potential habitat protected in the Siskiyou NF, so perhaps this species is under no real threat of extirpation. It seems that there are just too many plants to get areas monitored more closely. None the less, I will continue my attempts to grow these plants from seed, from as great a variety of plants as I can find, in case of the unforseen...

Back to the trip, I saw my first Federally Threatened species in the wild this day! Lupinus sulphureus ssp kincaidii, Kincaid's Lupine. Favorite food source for the Fender's Blue Butterfly, a FE species. (Not a plant though, so I can't grow it.)





That's all for now.