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.

It's very hot here , the temperature at night is no lower than 23 degrees celsius at night
Fans going almost 24/7 but the plants in the poly houses are doing well.
I'm doing what I can to make sure the highlander and intermediate plants become cool for a
enough time to keep them healthy.
A couple of the highland plants I can grow in these conditions with cold filtered  fridge water twice a day in a poly house are nepenthes lavicola (cutting)growing from 2000-2600 m and  nepenthes  chaniana.(clone) which  grows between 1100-1800. I just love the yellow of the chaniana and it is so hirsute, which usually means it doesn't require too much water and I only spray it twice a day.
I've found giving them cold water that it interestingly causes lower dormant buds to sprout .
The beautiful lavicola pitcher , a gorgeous contrast ,( the purple and yellow) comes from a bud
that sprouted when I began giving the plant cold water. 

 

nepenthes lavicola

nepenthes chaniana

Rattle ants shifting to new digs

Not so many in here now, I noticed that they were inspecting a

dried out horizontal
truncata pitcher ( I don't trim often) and were moving larvae from one to another.

Ants getting water in old nepenthes pitcher

Noticed this small colony of ants deep inside and surrounding a nepenthes maxima x .
I think they are getting a drink . They didn't like me getting too close either.
None had fallen in.

They are guarding the entrance , which is odd , I 've seen these small colonies before.
They like to live in irrigation pipe . I find odd bits of pipe with a colony living inside.
It has been very dry weather , and today is the first day of spring. The first warm day.

Behaviour of my nepenthes ampullaria

Does anyone else have this problem , I have a large nep ampullaria
that if I get too close to it, and my poly house isn't very large and I'm watering
I'll soon find I'll have to untangle myself from it's leaves.
This picture is from a year ago. I was giving them a good water as usual that day and
I hadn't kept my distance and its hard to avoid, but I had a camera at close range.
I'm always concerned that I'll damage it , accidentally rip it out the pot etc.
I think I remember being told that they have a basic sensor at the tip of the leave
for light and dark.  I've had other incidents where walking past with a pot in hand
past another  nepenthes suddenly it's leaf is wrapped around the plant I'm carrying,
(I'm not kidding.) ripping a pitcher off because it's being pulled away.

Stink horn fungi

Yesterday morning when I entered my poly house , where I keep most of my  highland nepenthes
and most of my sarracenias , it smelt has if a rat had got in and died.
I looked around and I saw what looked like feacel matter under the slats , It was a revolting sight.
I thought no animal that big could get in here. Then I realised it was a fungi.

Drosera schizandra

I had said in the last post I didn't have a problem with this plant.
Well , after I photographed it, the original plant ,it  just fell to pieces
and hasn't regrown from the roots. The plantlets growing off the leaves are still growing
and the other two plants that grew from the roots are doing well.
So I'm relieved I still have small plants growing, but the original was a
really lovely big plant. What a sensitive plant.
I keep them in the same place as the original , I'm nervous to move them.

Drosera schizandra

Today I thought I'd post about my drosera schizandra . I've read its a difficult one to grow
but I'm not having a problem with mine. I've accidentally grown  it in the right conditions .
 From my experience it needs low light, very high humidity and well drained very light
mix. I use 50 % perlite and 50% peat moss. Mine is at about 20 degrees - 25 degrees most of the time.
I don't fertilise or feed it. I placed a dead fly in with it thinking to feed it, and it was almost
a deadly mistake. It began to have a fungal problem and the leaves began to full apart.
I used the only anti fungal chemical spray  I had that I have used on my nepenthes
 before ,e.g Rose Gun
by Yates . I sprayed it once and left it. Slowly it has recovered . Before that, I had cut off two plants
that have grown from the roots of this plant and they are developing really well with new leaves.
The leaves on the original plant that had come apart I left in with it as the fungus had gone,
and partly buried them. Now there are new plantlets coming up from them. Exciting.

 
 

I'm finally growing sarracenia minor

I've tried to grow sarracenia minor in the past and they have always died after a few months.
I bought this one and another from different growers and they are really growing and thriving.
I don't know why these two are growing so well. I'm really happy about it, as its a species of sarracenia , I particularly wanted to grow. It's been extremely hot at night , not getting below 25 degrees celsius . Could that be a factor I don't know?

I did say more pictures

nepenthes gracilis I have a couple , both growing very well.

such dainty little vines.

My  nep ampullaria and nep vogelli a highlander .

 My bicalcarata enjoying the heat and humidity.

This one is my longest nepenthes vine , its a nepenthes merriliana x campanulata over two metres in length , I think its in an 18" pot. Not in any greenhouse , it lives in the backyard , In  winter
I cover it with towels at night.

More Nepenthes pictures

We had a quite a downpour of rain last night and its been 34 degress celsius most days
with the nights in the twenties. Very Humid with the insects being a nuisance.
I started diluting a teaspoon of lemon juice in a drinking glass about a month ago and
placing a small amount into each bromeliad and nepenthes pitcher that I saw after watering.
Somewhere someone had said that mosquitoes don't like citrus that I remembered.
A couple of days after I have done, this I've noticed a large reduction in sandflies and mossies
around the yard. Just one or two instead of many and here where I live there are natural swamps.
I don't see any larvae in the pitchers but I think the fluid attracts them.
I've now done it enough times to say it does work and the last couple of times I've used
citronella oil drops diluted into water (just a couple in a haws spray bottle I received at Christmas) and its effective.

I've been putting up another greenhouse , a smaller one to place the high altitude nepenthes in.
Its really difficult to keep them cool enough. I've resorted( apart from placing them in the shadiest area) to placing blue esky ice blocks around them in the morning touching them against their pots.
I started putting cold water in the nepenthes faizalana's pot because I realised it was a highlander from papua new guinea and it hadn't grown and it hadn't  pitchered, then

one morning I got foolhardy and put ice  in the pot and it was fine. So all through summer a couple of cubes of ice daily and it pitchered.
I did accidentally place ice cubes in a lowland nepenthes truncata's pot and it was dead the next day, so beware of doing this.

nepenthes burbidgeae x edwardsiana

I was so surprised a couple of days ago when I saw this pitcher because
for two years it didn't pitcher ,I then watered it every day.
I treat this nepenthes  x and my nep burbidgeae differently now to the lows and intermediates.
I don't water them every day like the others , I let them get quite dry.
before I water. I moved the burbidgeae to an eastern position (morning sun) as it was getting dark patches (looked like fungus) and wasn't growing
and when I bought  this cross , I noticed it liked the same conditions.
They get  good light every day and intense sun for about two hours a day

Its Spring in the southern hemisphere

I saw this pitcher nepenthes truncata x ovata when I was watering.
Looks like on many of them I will get upper pitchers this year.
Its an intermediate nepenthes , I have the most success with intermediates.

Almost end of winter .This post re: about my low land nepenthes

Its almost the end of winter and for the first time I've been able to leave the nep bicalarata in the polyhouse outside. What a relief . Those leaves get bigger and bigger every year.

 One day at work, I suddenly thought (at the beginning of autumn), .Here you have

outside electricity points, why not get an electrician to put some outside power switches on the outside wall of your house? The other thing is I double checked the safety switch in the power box to make sure it worked because well, power running outside the house can be dangerous.
I thought well I  could move the polyhouse up next to the house and have horticulture heaters working inside through winter. Now the poly house isn't gap free and I did wonder how much warmer it would be.So it was all done, a nice russian electrician came and installed the power points for me.
I left it late in autumn to move the poly house and had to do it by myself as I only had one day to do it in.I  moved all the plants out in the middle of the day and shifted it eight metres.
Moving it had fixed the gaps. I placed thin blankets on the top and sealed around the base gluing stips of heavy plastic and bubble wrap to insulate from the cold air from coming under.
Doing this, and with the heaters I've kept them eight degrees above the outside temperature.
I kept the bical on a thermostatically controlled heat pad ( one with a dial), I tried a simpler heat pad but it couldn't keep the temperature high enough and the other nepenthes I kept warm  with a tube heater .Most have done well though I lost a couple. I decided to repot when I shifted them for the move. bad decision.
Here are two pictures of my nepenthes bicalarata and one of my  nepenthes ampullaria.