Question
Allexperts,

I have a question about which is hard to grow, Nepenthes Hamata or Helianphara?  If I am able to grow a Cephalotus , should I be able to grow a nepenthes Hamata?  Do nepenthes Hamata and n. Mira share the exact same conditions.  In other words, if I can grow that plant (nepenthes Mira) could grow Hamata.  As always thank you for your time.  

Sincerely,

Weylin

Answer
It's not so much of which is hard to grow, but what is best suited for your particular environment.  Some growers can grow Nepenthes hamata and Heliamphora in a windowsill just fine because they happen to have the right conditions.  Others aren't so lucky.  

Nepenthes mira is similar to Nepenthes hamata.  Both require cool night temperatures, mild day tempetures and bright filtered sun.  If you can grow mira and produce nice pitchers, you most likely can do the same for hamata and Heliamphora.

I tried growing hamata in a windowsill in my home in Oregon.  I kept it there for a year.  It flowered, but it didn't produce any pitchers.  I placed it back in the highland greenhouse.  After 6 months, I'm still waiting for it to produce pitchers again.  At least the leaves look much healthier in the greenhouse than in my windowsill.  This plant takes a long time to recover!

I've also grown Heliamphora in a windowsill.  It did OK.  It produced pitchers, but the nectar spoons were tiny.  This is a sign that the humidity is too low for the plant.  When I placed it back in the greenhouse, it produced large nectar spoons again.

So it really depends on your particular growing conditions.  If you can afford to experiment with these plants, you can give it a try.  Otherwise, these two plant I would recommend growing in an open terrarium to stabilize the humidity and protect the plants from draft.  Of course, you'll need to have strong artificial lights to also keep them happy.

Good growing!
Jacob Farin