Nepenthes hirsuta x spathulata raceme

My Nepenthes hirsuta x spathulata has grown a flower stalk ^_^ I'm kind of excited about it, but also a little disappointed because none of the other Nepenthes are flowering (and/or are female! I think this Nep is male, based on the type of flowers it has produced). But I'm thinking about collecting some of the pollen, seeing whether it keeps alright and then using it if I have any female Nepenthes at all.

Tobaica x Ampullaria

I bought this Nepenthes Tobaica x Ampullaria around the middle of last year as a very small, very weak, very yellow-looking tube stock plant. It had no pitchers, and the leaves were tiny. I think I bought it because I felt sorry for it. When I got it home, I repotted it and put it into one of the greenhouses, which is home to a few of the other pitcher plants. It took a long, long time for it to start growing properly. The first three leaves it produced when it recovered were very small - perhaps about two centimetres long at the most. They did all grow small pitchers on them, though, which were all actually larger than the leaves.

However, since this Summer, the plant's put on a lot of healthy growth and some great pitchers. I'm really glad that I bought it and took the risk without knowing what sort of pitchers it would grow, or whether it would grow at all. It turns out that its pitchers are gorgeous - they're my favourite, other than the pitchers that Morticia produces. I love the shape and the colours.

The other weekend, I purchased another small, sickly, yellow-leafed Nepenthes that's meant to be a Ventricosa (it had been there for the past few times I'd been to that nursery and I think it's another case of feeling really sorry for the plant). I'm hoping that one will have the same success as the Tobaica x Ampullaria. Since repotting that, its leaves have turned a nice healthy green and a second basal shoot has appeared on it. So I have some hope for it :)

Morticia's pitcher

Morticia's new pitcher

Pink lid

Nepenthes hirsuta x spathulata pitcher

Traps

Baby sarracenia purpurea trap

Hungry mouths

Nepenthes "Jungle Bells"

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Morticia

Leucophylla hybrid

Nepenthes Lantern

Sarracenia flava var. rugelii

Sarracenia leucophylla x formosa

Well, according to the label it has, this is what this sarracenia is. Not sure I believe them though. If anyone else has a better idea of what this one might be, let me know :)

Sarracenia minor "Giant"

More sarracenias...

Went to the local nursery that sells carnivorous plants today. There were some amazing nepenthes there, but I already have enough of those. Although the Gothica looked so tempting. But the sarracenias caught my eye today - loads of different varieties, a few were flowering, the lids were big and fancy... It was impossible to resist. Bought five sarracenias and two dionaea.

One of the sarracenias was labeled as being a sarracenia flava, although I think judging by its appearance, it's actually a sarracenia flava var. rugelii. Which is cool. I also purchased a couple leucophylla hybrids, a leucophylla x formosa and a minor "Giant." The "Giant" was flowering, and also came with a lot of little droseras of different varieties in the pot too (bonus!). Although there aren't any other pitchers starting to poke up on that one, so who knows how it'll go in the long run.

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Little pink blossoms

Flowering

Tube

I really like the pink hints on the pitcher of this sarracenia. Judging by one of the small pitchers on the plant from before I bought it, they might darken up considerably to a rather nice purple. Hoping they do. But the soft pinks at the moment are lovely too. In some ways, I think I've bought enough nepenthes and would like to focus more on building up a little swamp/jungle of sarracenias. Which is a plan that's encouraged by the fact that sarracenias are a bit cheaper than nepenthes (unless you're buying the baby nepenthes, in which case it's about the same price).