Question
Hi Jacob and Jeff

  I hope your holiday was good.

  I have two cephalotus that are just starting to put up adult pitchers. The Pitchers seem fully formed, but are not opening. The are both growing in a terrarium, under four 100w equivalent compact florescent  bulbs. The are about 12 inches from the light source.

My second question has to do with nepenthes cuttings. I have made numerous nepenthes cutting ans would say that I have a 75% success rate rooting them. The thing that has me confused is that none of my rooted cuttings are pitchering. Like the rest of my Nepenthes, they are in a south facing kitchen window. During the winter I run a vaporizer to keep the humidity up. The nepenthes these cutting are from do pitcher. Is this simply a case of 'nepenthes have a mind of their own' and they will pitcher when they are good and ready or is there something else I have to do ?  

Answer
Hi Nicole,

Your Cephalotus pitchers probably just haven't opened up yet.  They will look like little closed pitchers for quite a while, then they just suddenly pop open.

Your Nepenthes not pitchering this time of year is probably just a light issue.  During short days this time of year, nearly everything in our Nepenthes house either slows down in pitchering, or stops.  New development usually starts in February.  With the new cuttings you may just need to give them time also.  They do tend to do things on their own schedule.  The only other thing may be if you are fertilizing.  If you are, cut back some.  Starving them will encourage them to produce pitchers.

Good Growing!

Jeff Dallas
Sarracenia Northwest
http://www.cobraplant.com