Flying fox in black sapote

I dont know how good this will be.

The leaves on the tree are 19 cm long.

The fruit were delicious this year

Its eating the last one. Too high for me to reach.

I've been thinking about how often I should water my nepenthes.

It's summer here. Yes nepenthes need good drainage. The heat loving

nepenthes low landers need watering every day, but it's the highlanders

that I get concerned about. 

I'm glad I don't have time to water them a great deal because I

think I would have drowned them.

They are all under dappled light , poly houses under trees.

Never in the force of full sun. I give them probably  two teaspoons each  of

cold fridge water or the real highlanders one small ice cube on a pile of spaghum

in their pot , daily .Careful not to touch the roots.  ( I do this because I'm in the sub tropics)

Don't give nep truncatas ice. It will kill them.

Thinking about nep  truncata I don't even properly water them, I just spray them twice daily.

from a 150 ml spray bottle.  I don't even check their pots and they thrive. 

 My hamata the same , just enough water . it's doing well and the emaye.

Friends of mine own two nepenthes , one a dyeriana  and every time I visit.

I check the pots of their plants and they are bone dry. They tell me they water them.

Each has one large pitcher and that is it. They are in dappled light under a grape vine.

They look healthy and they have had them at least 3 years. It made me think.

nepenthes emaye

nepenthes truncata

nepenthes hamata.

It was one of the coldest days in May today for the south east coast of Australia.
So how could I make sure the plants in the hot house are going to be warm enough.
I am  using ( apart from the heat tube)  pool cover material that I bought from a pool shop  to help keep the warmth in.
Just tying it down to the top of the polyhouse. When I went into the shop I told them
about my need and they made a cover for the polyhouse but my measurements were wrong.
Too small and I had to cut the cover into sheets.
I've made sure that all the heat loving plants are close to the heat tube this time, It's looking good.
 As it's getting cooler the cold loving nepenthes have produced some beautiful pitchers.
I'll post a couple , one back in april. My nepenthes vogelli gave me it's first upper pitcher ,
very beautiful.

Here is a picture of my Nepenthes veitchii x Hurrelliana

I bought it from Gotcha plants a few years ago , back in 2017. They had a stall at Lindmar open Garden. John had told me that he had had a x hurrelliana amongst those for sale. I searched through
them , finally finding the label, there wasn't a pitcher on it but it's leaves were thick different to the others for sale.

Look at that wide peristome. I love the colour.

Rain and more rain

 Well the rain is and was needed.
 Cyclone Uesi is filling up the water table and the dams.
I was thinking before we might have water restrictions.
I'm wondering how long the outside nepenthes can deal with the soaking though
There are plenty of them that flourish in this weather.
I'll place an older photo on , no photos today. the rain is howling down.13.02.20
Today is fine , lovely day. `15.02.20
This top photo is today. The two underneath , a couple of years ago.
My two nepenthes mirabilis are now putting on new pitchers . I grew them from seedlings.
I think they are the cairns nepenthes mirabilis.

 

It's raining

I'm so glad It's now raining thank God.
We've been safe from fire this summer season , but a couple of days there on a weekend
the entire island was bathed , surrounded by smoke, so much so it looked like it was on fire.
I'm so glad that most of australia are now getting much needed rain.
We actually reached 39 degrees celsius in brisbane hot and dry , it was appalling.
During that time it was difficult to keep my nepenthes humid enough.
I placed an extra large bucket of wet peat moss inside the poly house  beside the low land plants to try to help.

Update on my nepenthes

My nepenthes bicalarata has opened  its first upper pitcher this week as below . It hasn't pitchered since last year when I decided to put in new shelving. It's seems to have sulked because I moved it.
It's now hitting the top of the poly house. I'm nervous about trimming it and taking a cutting,
 I would rather it would side shoot. If I cover the apical bud would that take away its dominance causing side shoots? I did try to do some  marcotting on a large nepenthes six weeks ago  with no success. I'm not experienced with propagating from cuttings.

My Answered Prayers

In my Christian faith walk , I've had a couple of real times of answered prayer that I would
like to mention.
My brother had bought a home very cheaply on one of the bay islands and had invited
us to visit at Christmas. We had  Christmas there.
 I visited him again afterwards and returning home ( when I was alone in the car) I prayed this prayer.
Lord God if you think I should purchase a house close to my brother's would you
give me a sign that I should , because I don't like debt and all the weight of responsibility would
be on shoulders and I know if it's your will you'll help me to pay this and get through it .
let this be the sign, if  the first word's on jan the 1st 1994 I hear from my mother are 
"if I give you a deposit would you purchase a house near your brother's on the bay islands"
In Jesus name Amen. 
And then I forgot it until sitting having  my first cup of tea about 7.00 in the morning
on Jan the first 1994 , I was first up , wondering what I should do this morning.
Mother was at the kitchen sink , she turned around and said" if I give you the deposit would you
seek a loan to purchase a house on the bay islands ".   No good morning , these were her first words.   
What can I say by february I had purchased a house out here.
I make it sound easy , it wasn't .There was an enormous amount to do, and the debt and most
of the work was on me, I've now paid all the debt off and my house and land are my own.
Looking back I see the goodness of God all the way.
I knew how hard it was going to be to go to my job from here ( I had to cycle 4 km a day hail, rain or shine) and then do a physical job (2 hours travel a day) for years. I had a small collection of carnivorous plants and over the first six months lost them all.( one to a dog) .I had to make sure my sister and mother's needs were met in this very rural spot. Over time it all improved and services to these islands improved as more people have come to live here .
Well Jeremiah 29:v11 sums it up.

Here is another testimony of the goodness of God in my life.

I was about 3 years into the house loan (totally broke), My car wasn't in the best condition so I would
drive it to the train station and go from there.
one afternoon returning to the train station I walked to my car and I couldn't find my car key.
I only had the one key on a small keyring. I checked my pockets and checked the ignition in the car,
checked my bag . My heart begun to race, because I knew I only had one key and I had no money to
get home. I begun to pray Father please help me to find the key , I've looked everywhere.
Deep in my heart as I went to walk from the train station was the word Wait. I thought wait for what.
I sat on the seat again. I went to leave three times and it came back strongly to stay and wait.
So the next train came in about half n hour later , and a woman I knew was an islander and I
had spoken to her that morning got off the train station . I thought this is why I'm waiting she may be
able to give me a lift or money to get back home at least. I approached her and told her my plight
and she said Oh, I found this key this morning as I went to leave the train, and as it had my  island written on it, I was going to leave it at the post office there . It was my key with a little crab icon on it. So she gave it to me and It ended well.
He is a personal God , he doesn't want to be distant. He makes it interesting.
He can be contacted through Jesus Christ ,he is Jesus Christ. a personal relationship is a two way street. Read what Jesus Christ said and what he did.You must be willing to give up on wrongdoing,unforgiveness towards others , selfishness .
Ask him to make you willing , you can't do it on your on and even though life is very
difficult at times., he'll help you through.