Question
Judith Hindle Pitcher
Are you familiar with this hybrid? It's called a "Judith Hindle" Pitcher-Saracenia.
On a separate note, though it's taken two years, all except one of my Trumpets and even my Northern Pitcher are dead. All seamed happy even flowered, yet simply didn't thrive. I wonder if they caught enough bugs? I planted them all around my 2 ponds 9BTW I live in Cleveland), however I have a lot of Frogs and dragonfly's, also with the exception of the Northern pitcher, I bring them into the Garage in the winter and leave them in a bucket of water. What do you suppose I did wrong? Should I've gone to the pet shop and bought some crickets? I have one left, but the Trumpets are so small I don't think it'll last till Spring... Anyway, I'm eying your hanging pitchers if I keep one in door would I feed it crickets?
Hope to hear from you ,
Doug Downs
Cleveland
AnswerHi Doug,
We're familiar with Judith Hindle. We have roughly 500 or so of them in the nursery. :)
Let's start with a little carnivorous plants 101. Insects for carnivorous plants are fertilizer, not energy. Outdoor grown plants catch more than enough insects to meet their needs. When troubleshooting problems with plants the amount of insects is the absolute last thing we ever consider when problems arise. A plant would have to be grown for years completely isolated before it would show signs of not enough minerals from prey. Then it would probably only slow down in growth. You always want to look at first, sunlight, then are they in proper soil, and then water. Sarracenia pitcher plants should be grown outdoors (which you're doing! yeah!) in full sun, and in a peat moss based soil with absolutely no fertilizer, compost, or soil nutrients of any kind. They should also have their soil wet at all times. Their water should be low in minerals. In general carnivorous plants detest hard water.
From your set-up is sounds like you had them outside and wet along side the pond and that was great. However, how much sun were they getting? What kind of soil media were they in? Did they ever get fertilized? How hard is your water in Cleveland? You also mentioned overwintering in the garage in a bucket of water. How deep were the pots in the water? Did you ever see mold or fungus develop? Write me back with this information and I bet we can narrow down the problem.
Just a preliminary guess is that it's hard water, or soil that is too rich. Hard water and fertilzer both will cause a slow decline in health eventually killing them. Visit our caresheet pages at http://www.cobraplant.com to look at our caresheet on Sarracenia. There you can also see the care for a Nepenthes that you are considering. They make great houseplants.
Good Growing!
Jeff Dallas
Sarracenia Northwest
http://www.cobraplant.com
