GardenBanter.co.uk - View Single Post

07-04-2003, 10:20 AM

(Nick Maclaren) wrote in message ...
One of my Pinguicula grandiflora (at least) has survived!

Looking at the various flora, and ignoring Utricularia, there are
4 native, ex-native or naturalised species of Pinguicula in the UK,
3 of Drosera and a couple of North American Sarracenia plus a
Darlingtonia that take lower temperatures than we get here. This
leads to three questions:

Are there any genuinely hardy southern hemisphere carnivorous
plants?
I'm sure there are, you'd have to see which species lived in the
cooler regions of S.America/New Zealand....

Why should Sarracenia and Darlingtonia be more tender here than
in the USA? It can't be the dislike of wet!
I've not experienced them being more tender. The plants I bought were
from a guy in Notts. with a huge bog garden that was flourishing. This
includes S. alata X flava and S. purpurea as well as Darlingtonia.
Most of the reports I've read of people failign with Darlingtonia seem
to point to the cause being the plants weren't kept cool enough...

Why are carnivorous plants regarded as necessarily glasshouse
plants by so many writers? They aren't in Scotland!
Possibly a throwback to the Victorian practice of keeping them in hot
houses. Perfectly valid in the case of Nepenthes.

If you're interested in further reading I'd recommend 'The Savage
Garden' by Peter D'Amato.

Alastair