Another reason why Vireya are uncommon is due to the primary nurseries dealing with them having closed or switched interest. Bovees was one of the biggest Vireya growers but apparently sold their collection or similar. There was also a HI nursery but they seem to have closed. Vireya do have a potential broad scale horticultural market in theory so a lot of effort was made into breeding new hybrids that are showy, especially using R. zoelleri. However, in the US that market was limited to frost free zones like California and Hawaii so the market was limited and never took off. It appears that breeding efforts in Australia were more successful.
Rhododendron christianae
Vireya are quite easy plants just like the Neotropical blueberries. However, they are sometimes reluctant to flower but typically do so once mature. They are also said to be slow but this seems to vary a lot with species, but most importantly, fertilizer use.
Rhododendron stenophyllum hybrid. Makes a very bushy plant.
Fertilizer use for Vireya can be vague in general. However, they are acidic loving plans that hate nitrate so ammonium/urea is important. Urea often hydrolizes into ammonium bicarbonate though which raises the soil PH for several days stressing the plant and the grower is none the wiser. When using fertilizer it's important to remember that the increased Nitrogen increases the demand for micronutrients such as iron so they become pale and veined easily. It is not an overfertilization problem! Vireya are almost always iron deficient but this is easily fixed by using high doses of chelated iron - in amounts comparable to regular soil (5 ppm) not the miniscule amounts used in hydroponics (1 ppm).
There is a few soil options for growing vireya. Traditionally, fluffy soil is key and it certainly helps. However, the fine roots don't like to dry out as claimed and when repotting a course media like bark can cling and break most of the roots leaving the plant vulnerable to Pythium attack. Sphagnum has the same issue but lasts a very short period and cannot be recommended. Coco husk again has huge clingy chunks that rot and massive sodium loads that can intoxicate Rhododendrons. So this is a dilemma.
The easiest option is buying growers grade peat (not home depot) and making it very fluffy. Perlite works fine here but a fluffier substrate would be better like polyurthane foam - sadly this is not sold cubed in the US. Peat allows for very easy repotting. Another option would be using fine seedling orchid bark which would need more frequent watering. In my case, I use rockwool which never degrades but it requires constant fertilizing otherwise the nutrients wash out completely due to no CEC.
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The species grows on limestone in situ and is from Vietnam - not China. It is a very durable and easy plant, much more so than Begonias which can be quite finicky at times based on fertilizer and temperature. I've read others say it is very slow, but really it grows at a good steady rate when fertilized at a high ppm (400 ppm of low nitrate fertilizer) and kept moist.
Fertilizer choice varies how dark the leaves will get, the clone pictured was originally a hunter green not the deep dark green it is now and it was simply switching the fertilizer that caused the change. Since it is a limestone species, using dolomite lime on top of the substrate is very helpful but otherwise this plant is very easy to grow and has no issue with low humidity. Highly recommended!
Sinovietnamica pulling.
]]>Of all the Nepenthes, only a few are usually considered endangered. The most famous of these are Nepenthes rigidifolia from various locations in Sumatra, and N. clipeata from Mount Kelam in the Kalimantan side of Borneo. However, other species such as N. tenuis and N. suratensis can be considered equally threatened based on what “we know” of their current populations.
In Sumatra, N. rigidifolia was discovered at a small population of plants. The plant superficially resembles the much more common N. spectabilis but with a squatter and darker colored pitcher. The species was named after its stiff leaves which are unlike spectabilis’ leaves. Both species occur together in the wild and as a result numerous hybrids between the two exist and have thwarted attempts to tissue culture N. rigidifolia, as the seedlings almost invariably end up being rigidifolia x spectabilis when grown out. Out of all the nurseries, only one, Malesiana Tropicals ever successfully got the real species into tissue culture, it is believed to be about 10 clones total that they have but only a random mix of 3-4 clones are ever released. This is a great way of saying the other clones died in TC. Of these available clones it is believed that all are male. Unfortunately, Malesiana Tropicals changed focus with the departure of Chien Lee and now produces agricultural crops. Their Nepenthes availability and consequently N. rigidifolia availability have suffered as a result.
The great shortage of N. rigidifolia in cultivation and its supposed rarity in the wild, only ever being found in small populations of a handful of plants which were subsequently wild collected, has caused a rather high demand to result for this species. This high demand has caused it to be worth as much if not more so, than N. edwardsiana which is well known for being one of the most expensive Nepenthes species. However, unlike N. edwardsiana with its striking color and disked peristome, N. rigidifolia is interesting but not remarkable. The desire for this species for the most part is simply because it is rare and endangered, not because of the plant’s merits.
In 2021, the “last” known population, if it can be called that, of N. rigidifolia was wild collected. That population comprised of a single medium sized specimen and no other plants had been found in the vicinity. As such, it can be considered extinct in the wild and in cultivation it is not much better off, with all known bloomed plants having turned out male although one plant at Leiden Botanic Garden is believed to be female based on gender tests. The species has essentially reached a dead end on paper.
However, this is not the full picture because all the discovered and now extirpated populations of rigidifolia have been strangely small. It is simply not possible for the species to sustain itself in the wild with such small populations, especially considering that Nepenthes are dioecious and the chances of both a male and female rigidifolia blooming at the same time with such small populations is incredibly unlikely. This means that somewhere in Sumatra there is at least one large population of N. rigidifolia that is unknown to botanists and all the populations thus far discovered are simply colonies from that population spread to their respective locations by various means.
In fact, it is quite clear that N. rigidifolia is still in the wild. Periodically since the supposed extinction, it is rumored about that a new population of just a few plants has been discovered by a local who just so happens turns out to be selling them too. And once more it is “extinct” and a couple months later the process repeats. Clearly, wild plant collectors have capitalized on N. rigidifolia being “extinct” to continue driving up demand by carefully releasing only a few plants at a time when the truth is that the population they are collecting from is much larger than anything they say.
Pictured, Nepenthes clipeata AW clone U grown at Leiden Botanical Gardens, Holland. This was the first Nepenthes grown by the curator Rogier.
Nepenthes clipeata is a charismatic species, unique from all the other Nepenthes with its extremely peltate round leaves and interesting pitchers with striped peristomes. Growing on the giant dome shaped Mount Kelam with its sheer granite cliffs surrounded in the lowlands by farms, it all seems a bit out of place. Leading up one side of the mountain is a rickety metal ladder that leads one up to the sweltering peak where it is relatively flat and covered by various shrubs. This ladder was put in to make access to the mountain easier and it certainly made the jobs of wild plant collectors much easier in comparison to the homemade ladders they used to use to precariously get to the top. Today, one would be very hard pressed to find any N. clipeata on the mountain since while there are some left, those remaining plants have already eluded many wild collectors and therefore are well hidden. More widespread to the point of being weedy, are Nepenthes reinwardtiana. The giant vining clumps that the species makes has been considered such a threat to the continued existence of N. clipeata that people have hacked the plants back with machetes in hopes that will lessen the amount of reinwardtiana blooming – since whenever a female clipeata blooms it would promptly be swamped by reinwardtiana pollen before a male clipeata ever has a chance.
As a result of clipeata’s status in the wild, it has been the subject of multiple conservation attempts. One was an attempt to make a list of all the N. clipeata clones in cultivation to keep track of them. However, this did not take off as many of the clones in cultivation are the same and also come and go as many clipeata die. To add to the confusion is the mysterious clipeata x (eymae x clip) hybrids that was made supposedly by the Munich Botanical Gardens. More information on this can be found on nepenthesaroundthehouse but apparently it was sold by BE once and originated in the TC of John deKanel who I believe helped BE starting out. This hybrid is rarely talked about now but I’m sure it is still floating about as real clipeata and therefore has or will be used eventually to breed “horticultural seeds.” At that point, it will be absolutely impossible to tell from the real thing. We can only carefully scrutinize the “clipeata” being sold and hope they are the real deal.
More recently apparently, a reintroduction effort of tissue culture clipeata was rumored to have been made on Mount Kelam. However, this really was a bad idea and likely won’t work as the plantlets were planted on the cliffsides supposedly out of reach of collectors. Supposedly many of the plants died soon after planting due to the sun exposure on the cliffs. But this effort is hearsay.
Like N. rigidifolia, N. clipeata’s status in the wild is likely not as dire as it seems, at least for now. While the Mount Kelam population has been devastated without a doubt, the species is rumored to occur on at least a couple other mountains, and on those hopefully it occurs in healthy sized populations still. In the US and Europe, there is a limited and mostly constant supply of this species unlike N. rigidifolia. While female clipeata blooming is a rarity still and clipeata seeds have only been made in cultivation a handful of times, there is a good amount of mature males in cultivation which have proven themselves as good parents in hybrids, although it is very dominant in its hybrids. Most plants floating around in Western cultivation are the old AW clones, but a few new clones and the natural hybrid clip x rein are sold by Floravitro from seeds collected by a German grower on the Mcpherson Mt. Kelam trip a few years back (seed stalk visible on the redfern video on the trip). There is other seed grown sources too, typically originating from one grower in Asia that periodically makes seeds and is then accused of being a “poacher.” The origins of the BE clones are mysterious, and I do not recall if EP has released their own clip before. Whatever the case in situ, we can enjoy the plants we have and try to grow them to the best of our ability.
]]>Pictured, destroyed Nepenthes maryae habitat. Unknown credit.
Nepenthes diabolica is one of the most wanted species in cultivation. From Sulawesi, it has been known about for years since its discovery by Chien Lee in 2004 and subsequently was circulated as Nepenthes “red hairy hamata” or RHH for short. Clearly this is not really a name but more of an actual description of what the species looks like with its red fuzzy pitchers with dagger like teeth not unlike hamata. Despite this species being properly named back in late 2020, this old name still has a lot of nostalgia of a time when the exact status of this species was not really clear, but one needed it in their collection regardless, and finally hearing the news that it finally had a real name and starting to call it diabolica instead of RHH. Then there was the hybrid made by English grower Simon Lumb of RHH x hamata lumut called Smilodon, which really is an incredible plant and was seemingly impossible to obtain. Technically, Smilodon was just a hybrid between two hamata locations until the real naming of diabolica. There was another name for this species, N. ronchini but this was just a place holder name and was slightly confusing as it did not seem to be a named species at the time, and indeed was not.
This species like so many is said to only occur on one undisclosed mountain, but its range is in fact much more extensive. From what I understand, the region that N. diabolica grows is not exactly the safest part of Sulawesi and as a result is under explored and will unfortunately continue to be so most likely. A similar example would be Nepenthes pitopangii, who’s entire existence for a long time was believed to consist of only a single male plant which frankly is a bit ridiculous as if this was the case then the species would not have evolved to start with. This single plant which happened to be discovered first was just a plant growing outside of its range, and later real populations have been discovered including the Ivory form from the Lore Lindu range which is now the most readily available form of that species in cultivation thanks to Wistuba’s male TC clone that was subsequently TCed by NE as well. Similarly, diabolica’s population at the original location was recorded at around 150 plants but sadly wild collecting has almost certainly exceeded this number. This does prove that there are other populations however, so it is likely diabolica is much more secure in the wild than previously thought even with the threat of wild collecting.
On this last comment, it is interesting to note that apparently one wild collector took the liberty of relocating a large population of diabolica to a more convenient location to access on a later date. Supposedly, the plants established quite well at the new location making a paradoxical event where what would normally decrease a wild population instead expanded its range.
An issue that has come to light recently, is the vague N. maryae named by Jebb and Cheek in 2016. There were no photos of the living plant to accompany the publication of this species, just the holotype (the herbarium “definition” of the species) which unfortunately only has upper pitchers and makes comparisons a bit difficult as a result. While just a short while ago this species was completely unknown to almost all growers, it is now generally accepted to be the strange form of RHH in cultivation that has a narrower peristome shape, rather looking like its relative, the widespread N. tentaculata. For a while these strange diabolica were believed to possibly be RHH x tentaculata, however it did not match up with the wild form of this hybrid or JH’s hort version. With this identity crisis of this mysterious plant solved it would seem that is the end of the story… but perhaps not?
Considering the incredible similarity between this supposed maryae and the known diabolica it seems very likely that they are one and the same species, as the differences between them appear to be no more different than what is typically expected within various populations of a species. A good example of this natural variation would be the populations of N. hamata found on G. Lumut compared to the Tambusisi form, or similarly, N. eymae who’s populations overlap the former species. While N. maryae, being part of the section Tentaculatae, was naturally reviewed in the publication of N. diabolica, the vague description in the maryae publication and poor holotype could easily have caused a second naming of this species. As for now, there is not anything definite that can be concluded until more information about N. maryae surfaces.
Nepenthes maryae growing at the destroyed site. Photo credit unknown.
]]>Considering the novelty of using rockwool as a substrate for the cultivation of Nepenthes, amongst other plants, I think a more detailed page on its use and history is necessary, to avoid undue confusion. I hope this helps clarify any questions that may exist on this media.
Rockwool is a green fiberglass-like product that conventionally has been used as an insulation material. As the name suggests, it is produced from basalt rocks which are melted, and whipped into fibers. Some suggest that the resulting product is not natural and could cause environmental damage upon disposal, however it should be noted that currently peat, Sphagnum, and coconut coir cause drastically more environmental issues and are technically more limited than rocks; coir in particular has caused massive issues in Sri Lanka while being promoted as an eco-friendly alternative to peat, to which it does not compare in truth.
Rockwool normally is not water absorbent and therefore the generic type is not useful for the cultivation of plants. However, Grodan, a European rockwool manufacturer produces a water absorbent type in various sizes that is quite useful in the cultivation of plants, their primary market being for hydroponics use. With this established, it is time to go into the history of rockwool’s use in the exotic plant world, specifically orchids.
Background:
Xavier Garreau de Loubresse of Select Orchids in Holland is the only commercial nursery to use rockwool cubes exclusively for the cultivation of numerous genera of orchids, aroids, and Nepenthes amongst other species. Xavier is known in the orchid world as an expert orchid grower, specializing in and supplying the majority of Paphiopedilum, slipper orchids, sold in Europe. This challenging genus is of particular interest because its range is sympatric with Nepenthes and cultivation is almost the same. Xavier does not appear to be widely known in the Nepenthes world which is surprising because he was Borneo Exotic’s advisor when they started years ago, and also was Besgrow’s technical advisor – the company that produces the coveted “New Zealand Sphagnum” so prized by Nepenthes growers. With decades of such experience, he has developed many unique methods of growing exotic plants to perfection including inventing the process of soaking coco coir with Calcium and Magnesium to exchange locked Sodium and Potassium salts (a process well established now in hydroponics and orchids but unknown in Nepenthes), and of particular interest, using rockwool.
The following information on rockwool’s history is based on communications with Xavier Loubresse and the following links, the latter being summarized in English here:
https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2022/sep/18/get-growing-with-rock-wool-an-old-tip-newly-learned
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TUYB4F6jnp8
In the mid 90s Grodan made a special offer to the famous Eric Young (now the Eric Young Orchid Foundation) and Hans Christian in Denmark to produce a special one-time production of rockwool for the cultivation of orchids. The result was the manufacturing of only 80 sq meters of a special two-part flaked rockwool using lignin additives to stabilize the PH, never to be produced again. This rockwool worked wonderfully on Paphiopedilums but the stocks were quickly sold out and that was the end of that.
Due to this supply running out, it was back to the conventional pine bark, mixed with a bit of coco fiber. At that time coco had started to reach the market and was simply a waste product that had been piling up literally from mature coconuts in Sri Lanka. This coconut husks had been sitting around in the open air piles since the 50s, the result was a very durable, long lasting, and clean media. When coco coir began to catch on, these ancient stocks ran out and coconut plantations switched to selling new husks from soft green coconuts used for coconut milk, or water. The quality of the product as a result plummeted, as the new coco husk was more comparable to using lettuce as a media and unsurprisingly it would decompose quickly, rotting. At this point the coir fad was fully underway and many did not notice the change in quality. Contrarily, the fresh coco husk contained high amounts of hormones (naturally because it is part of a seed) which stimulated fantastic root growth initially but would end up as a disaster due to Sodium toxicity amongst other issues (Coco is unique for containing insoluble Sodium compounds that normal washing will not remove, therefore a low EC is deceiving). The end result was many orchid nurseries, including AnTec which promoted coco use, abandoned it after heavy loses. It would appear that Nepenthes are more Sodium tolerant since this is not as problematic an issue as with orchids. However, it should also be noted that the most famous Nepenthes nursery using coco coir, Borneo Exotics, steam sterilizes their coco based on Xavier’s recommendations, this still was true as of Rob Cantley’s conversations during his visit to Florae in 2021. The sterilization kills fusarium and stabilizes the Sodium toxicity to a manageable issue if heavily watered. So heavily watered in fact that BE uses an incredible 6,000 gallons per day of ground water to water their Nepenthes.
A review of the stunting caused by coco coir:
https://digitalcommons.usu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1000&context=cpl_hydroponics
AnTec Lab’s flushing procedure and further explanation of how flushing with pure water only leaves as much as 2/3rd of the Sodium and Potassium remaining in Coco (lab tests were performed by XL, uncredited):
https://web.archive.org/web/20150820081512/http://ladyslipper.com/coco3.htm
Another substrate, peat became restricted as well. The German peat was the highest quality and could be used to grow orchids which conventionally need a very “light” media. This peat could be used in a few ways including growing Paphs in “mud” a technique Xavier and German orchid grower Popow used. Due to regulations the harvest and export of German peat was practically banned and growing in mud became an impossibility because lower peat grades rotted too fast. Due to the need for large quantities of high-quality growing media (decomposition and lack of repotting organic medias slows plant growth) and options for such a media running out, Xavier contacted Grodan asking if they could produce the special rockwool batch they had made for Eric Young again. However, it was impossible since Grodan stated it was too expensive and they had gotten rid of the necessary equipment. Grodan had instead began producing pure rockwool cubes for hydroponics tomatoes. While useful for tomatoes as a root stabilizer and nothing more, it was very difficult to use for growing orchids due to PH instability. This PH problem was not an issue for hydroponics due to the high quantities of nonstop daily watering which corrected the PH problems, but this was not possible for orchids that would only be watered a couple times per week in a pot rather than a hydroponics system.
Stephane Hebler, the interviewer, was the first to successfully use the rockwool cubes on Paphiopedilum despite the difficulties. However, soon even he abandoned its use for pine bark. Besgrow’s Orchiata line was proving very high quality, so durable that it would not decompose for over 8 years of use with a predicted lifespan of 15 years, rendering repotting only necessary when the plants outgrew the pot. The orchiata was made from high quality Pinus radiata bark from mature trees harvested for furniture production, but once again production changed and the supply changed to younger paper pulp trees which produced a shorter lasting bark, but still good for 3-4 years of use. However, like coco, its reputation was now set at this time and still is to this day as a “high-quality product” despite quality having dropped substantially. The parent company to Besgrow, “Pacific Wide,” more recently sold the company to “Dalton’s.” The size of the bags sold was reduced and the price per bag increased substantially, this change is still being seen with the Besgrow Sphagnum which has become increasingly rare as the wholesale price skyrockets forcing many Nepenthes growers to switch to coconut.
Stephane Hebler’s review on the old rockwool:
http://www.orchid.or.jp/orchid/people/tanaka/cult/Brachy/enBrachy.html
All this considered, it was clearly necessary a stable alternative media was necessary especially as some pine bark batches were ending up phytotoxic (Pines produce many compounds that can kill other plants if harvested improperly, a particular challenge for anyone trying to use fine fresh pine for Sarracenia). Many years had passed so Xavier purchased some more rockwool cubes to check if they had changed in any way. Surprisingly, the PH issue was gone. The PH on the cubes was neutral and therefore useable for orchids, furthermore the price was cheaper than pine bark. Apparently, Grodan had finally changed the manufacturing process from using Calcium carbonate (which turned into Calcium hydroxide, aka slaked lime, during the process) to using Ammonium carbonate which completely evaporates during the process leaving no PH issues. Finally, the use of rockwool was a real possibility.
Advantages:
Rockwool has since been promoted by many growers as their own idea. Hopefully, the above summary sets that story straight. It was upon meeting Xavier that he suggested that I try rockwool cubes due to the difficulties I had found with the inherit inconsistency of coco coir. Some batches of coco, from the same source, would be the right texture while other batches were mushy coir, and a complete waste of money. After seeing the best grown plants I’ve ever seen in his greenhouse, it was clear that this switch to rockwool had to be made. It should be noted by anyone wishing to order rockwool to make sure their rockwool cubes is from batches made the last few years, I found one source was still selling the old batch with PH problems.
Rockwool as a manufactured product is always consistent and overall affordable compared to most alternatives, the Grodan rockwool cubes being primarily of interest since it can be used in the same manner of coco chips or pine bark. There is also rockwool chunks, but they are a bit too large. The flat sheets of rockwool can also be useful for sprouting small seeds like Nepenthes that would otherwise fall into gaps. The media is void of organic material and therefore is a very clean substrate that lasts for years unless it compacts too much eliminating the need for repotting unless the plant outgrows the pot. It is also lightweight, a huge advantage for two reasons, first large pots are easy to move, a real issue with genera like Amorphophallus, and second the high airiness prevents root suffocation. The larger the pot, the airier the rockwool will stay, tending to compact faster in small pots. Plants should always be potted using wet, not dry, rockwool. This prevents sinking of the substrate after wetting and potential root damage.
The lack of organic material does mean the roots need time to adjust as it is different than organic medias, a process often taking a bit longer than a repot from Sphagnum into Coco etc. Aroids, including Amorphophallus, Begonias, ant plants, etc. all adjust relatively quickly to rockwool and do very well; slower genera understandably take longer. Many well-known Amorphophallus growers like Steve Jackson in fact use rockwool with great success after Xavier Loubresse’s flowering of the highly desirable Amorph. pendulus for the first time ever in cultivation. The relatively inert nature of this media also means it is free of fungal issues like fusarium which are an issue with coco, one only has to make sure to use an appropriate fungicide when first potting into rockwool to kill off any fungus on the existing plant’s roots.
Many people do not like the appearance of rockwool, especially when it grows algae on the surface. However, this algae and later moss, encourages better growth and should be promoted as long as the media is not kept saturated. The “star moss” which forms makes a more attractive appearance and in rockwool does not create the annoying root entanglements that occur in other medias, however for seedlings it should still be controlled.
Rockwool is overall free of available nutrients which for commercial growing is perfect as it allows exact fertilization, however for hobby growing this could prove more difficult and is an issue to hopefully be resolved in the future. Pure water should never be used for watering, some ppm is necessary to prevent root stress. Conventional medias like Sphagnum are actually not inert, after all they are made from plants, and plants hyperaccumulate nutrients. However, the overdependence on TDS meters (EC meters) have created a myth that Sphagnum, kanuma, etc. are nutrient free, what growers do not realize is that the media’s CEC (Cation Exchange Capacity) grabs and holds nutrients from dissolving into the pure water used for such tests, giving a false test result. This is the simple reason why nutrients don’t wash away from rain into the ocean - if it wasn’t for CEC we couldn’t grow vegetables outside. The same is true of the substrates we use for exotic plants. I think this should be an easy concept to understand and can be elaborated later.
The last concept that requires a brief mention is PH. As said, rockwool is now PH neutral and has little PH buffering, meaning it can fluctuate widely. Many growers have an idea that Nepenthes need an acidic media, this is true, but few people can say what PH that is or what their current PH is. For reference, PH is a measurement of Hydrogen ions in a solution, a PH of around 3 is roughly equivalent to vinegar – clearly vinegar on a plant’s roots doesn’t sound like a good idea. The PH range makes some nutrients easily absorbable by the plants and others difficult to absorb, this is the reason why plants in very old sphagnum or other medias (organic medias typically acidify over time) can get a growth spurt. It’s not because the roots enjoy being toasted by acidity but because certain micronutrients are easier to absorb at such low PHs, and thus deficiencies are partly remedied – and the plant’s growth resumes to normal. PH issues are often responsible for stunting and slow growth. As mentioned prior, Borneo Exotics uses hard water (not pure!) buffered to PH 5.5 using nitric acid. I hope this brief overview helps increase the understanding and use of this growing media.
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In September I was fortunate to be able to visit several Nepenthes growers in Germany. One of these was Robert Seeber, known as @carnivoresworldwide, who was a fantastic host and had some spectacular plants. Many thanks again Robert & Maria for letting me visit!
Nepenthes glandulifera, if I recall right this was a select clone originally from Simon Lumb in the UK. Quite a bit more colorful than the usual clones!
N. peltata AW clone. There was a few different clones of pelts but this one was especially nice.
Nepenthes naga?
Two Nepenthes x kinabaluensis (villosa x rajah) pitchers. This natural hybrid is incredibly rare in the US but a bit more common in Europe. One of the most stunning hybrids in my opinion.
Nepenthes lowiii needs no introduction! I believe this is the female mulu clone from Wistuba.
Nepenthes macfarlanei, now renamed.
One of Robert's mollis, this is a seed grown plant from Vincent Fiechtner. Better than veitchii in person!
N. leonardoi from Simon Lumb. This is the darkest clone I've seen in cultivation and hope that its offspring makes it into TC. All the other nursery releases seem to be a lot more brown and not like the type plants.
N. edwardsiana Tambuyukon easily being one of the biggest pitchers there is. Trusmadiensis Holotype Minor visible in background.
A bed of N. hamata, I forget if this was AW clone 1 or 4. Quite a showstopper regardless.
Last but not least, Nepenthes attenboroughii the fantastic giant species from Mount Victoria. This clone was originally from French grower Michael Negrini and looked just perfect!
]]>The genus Brugmansia is a wonderful group of flowering shrubs/small trees that has long been valued for their showy pendant flowers – often with a lovely aroma. As a result, numerous hybrids between the species have been made and circulated into cultivation, but for rare plant collectors it is still hard to beat the pure species… the rarer the better. Of the Brugs, the high elevation species are typically most coveted with B. vulcanicola being king. The clone we offer from cuttings is of the Southern range of the species, Zunac Ecuador.
B. vulcanicola is a very rapidly growing plant with a habit and appearance not unlike a regular tomato plant. If being cultivated in pots it is important to remember to use a large pot - around 5 gallons to get a good size plant. The root system is extremely robust and can suck all the moisture out of the substrate if given the chance, the larger pot helps prevent this from happening accidently. To grow quickly it is a heavy feeder and seems to have a wide range for fertilizer choices. However, we use a 15-5-30 fertilizer meant for bananas at a very high rate at every watering, around a teaspoon per gallon (1 gram per L). Dolomite lime is used on the soil surface to provide ample calcium, magnesium, and PH stability. During warm weather this species goes more K deficient which shows up as yellow margined old leaves that fall off - fertilizer application is doubled when this happens and the plant resumes to a normal lush green. Other times, uniformally pale old leaves that fall off is a Magnesium issue. I believe most grower's difficulty with this species especially during warm weather is entirely because of the plant starving for potassium. It is difficult to overfertilize it actually, it really is like a hungry garden tomato when in peak growth!
If growing indoors or in a UV protected greenhouse (almost all GHs block UV), it is absolutely critical to provide UV light. While not often known, many species in the Solanaceae family produce Vitamin D just like animals, which is a very rare trait in plants. As such, they require UV light to produce D3, or the leaves will begin to discolor and crinkle after a couple of weeks. This strange requirement is also true of the wild tomatoes such as Solanum habrochaites and its offspring, tomato rootstock hybrids. The UV can easily be provided via regular reptile UV bulbs. Just make sure that the bulb provides UVB in addition to UVA and position it to light up the plant along with the regular light source. This and consistent high rates of fertilization will make this species grow beautifully.
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]]>Macleania smithiana unopened flowers
Most of these tropical Ericaceae are considered to be cool growing. A lot of the species are epiphytic in nature with some terrestrials, but in cultivation a normal light substrate works well. In our case, rockwool. However, it is not recommendable to grow them in orchid bark since that media is really too course textured for the fine root system of these plants, and in fact can easily delay rooting.
Ceratostema aff. Zamorana flowers. This species has narrower leaves than true C. zamorana.
Ceratostema amplexicaule
Anthopterus wardii produces stunning red new leaves. This genus is poorly represented in cultivation, with only 2 species being grown from what I am aware.
Cavendishia melastomoides is a very vigorous plant once it reaches a certain size. This species produces flowers similar to grandifolia (which despite the size is still completely epic) but is much smaller overall. Overall, it seems that the Cavendishia do not flower as readily as Macleania and Ceratostema.
While often considered to be slow growing, they actually can grow at a remarkable speed when given the correct nutrients. In cultivation, the plants are necessarily limited by the nutrient availability in the given substrate and usually further limited by insufficient pot size. I have noticed that too small a pot dramatically decreases growth in fact. Considering all this, it is necessary to fertilize, at least occasionally. A high nitrogen Urea (for foliar) or ammonium based fertilizer (literally just buy a pure Ammonium salt if in peat) will work well at .5 g per L or around 500 ppm. Like regular blueberries they tend to go Iron deficient and to a lesser extent, Mn, causing a sickly veining in the new leaves. This is easily resolved by using chelated iron at higher doses. Similarly, a lower leaf chlorosis is usually from a Magnesium deficiency and will be fixed by using Epsom salts (Magnesium sulfate). There is absolutely no reason to have slow growing yellow blueberries!
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Back in the early days from the Victorian era onwards, the most common hybrids were between the various lowland and intermediate species. This is because the lowlanders were much easier and faster to grow in the hot greenhouses than the highland species. Today we still have traces of this time of lowland hybridization in hybrids like the male N. x dyeriana clone which is a complex hybrid supposedly having survived all these years in cultivation since it was originally made in the Victorian era. These lowland/intermediate weedy hybrids were a novelty to the upper classes and exotic plant collectors. However, the real goal of all dedicated Nepenthes growers was to be able to grow the highland Nepenthes which in these early days was simply not possible long term as sufficient knowledge and technology was not available. Eventually truly growing highland Nepenthes started to become possible and the few people who knew about this fascinating genus began to collect them in earnest. With low availability it became clear that mass propagation must be attempted and since cuttings and seeds were proving too slow, it left only tissue culture as a sustainable way to propagate Nepenthes swiftly and sustainably to satisfy demand. It was only a matter of time before highland hybrids between the species everyone dreamed of having would happen.
The most wanted species of Nepenthes was edwardsiana and today it is reasonable to say that it still is. In the early 2000s, this species was practically impossible to obtain and thus a substitute was needed. N. villosa was toothy but too slow, and most importantly it was not close enough to the rare edwardsiana. The famous “poacher’s hybrid” Nepenthes x harryana was even more impossible to get than edwardsiana at the time. Then Malesiana Tropicals discovered a hybrid in some wild burbidgeae seeds that Chien Lee collected. It had some teeth. Based on the plants nearby to the burbidgeae they decided it was burbidgeae x edwardsiana and capitalized on the extreme demand for “eddy.” This hybrid is clearly in fact burbidgeae x villosa as all the traits point to villosa and not edwardsiana. A horticultural cross of burb x eddy was made more recently by Klaus Keller, and it also differs vastly in appearance from the Malesiana Tropicals cross. At the time though, while some had doubts about the label, there was no way to prove that it was not burbidgeae x edwardsiana as no horticultural hybrids had yet been made with edwardsiana.
Years later, the German grower Michael Schach who is mostly known for his Heliamphora clones, bloomed his N. edwardsiana which turned out to be male. This resulted in one of the first if not the first horticultural N. edwardsiana hybrids, N. hamata x edwardsiana. This hybrid has remained one of the best hybrids made thus far and has been remade by other growers since such as Robin Hirst, Mike Smith, and the reverse by Jeremiah Harris. In addition, Schach’s edwardsiana would end up crossed with N. aristolochoides, flava, tenuis, izumiae, rajah, and spathulata, the later cross having been made at least 3 times by various growers for no apparent reason. In my opinion, these Schach eddy crosses are some of the best eddy hybrids made and few new crosses exceed them in quality.
Since those eddy crosses, many more have been made, some legitimately interesting while others seem to have been made merely to make something new. Among these latter ones is the exceedingly boring N. maxima x edwardsiana which has been made a few times now. The resulting cross generally lacks all the good traits of maxima and its peristome is just slightly ridged. Fortunately, despite the number of these that have been made and released, it is rarely seen and with luck it will go extinct in cultivation never to be made again.
Similarly perplexing hybrids are those made between species that are complete opposites. While such a cross like rajah x argentii, the generally agreed largest and smallest species, would be exciting even just to see what the end result looks like, that is not the sort of hybrids being made, and even those two species have complementing traits. Instead, we see crosses between the high potential toothy N. diabolica and the small dainty toothless Sumatran species and also hybrids between toothy species with flat peristome species like platychila. The results are mediocre with traits from the parents muted and washed out, platychila x villosa a case in point. While some of these are intriguing especially if one has the space, they do not have much going for them.
A critical factor in hybrids is if it sounds good otherwise no one will want it. N. mirabilis x jacquelineae for instance sounds dreadful. In fact, anything crossed with mirabilis sounds terrible. However, we often see such hybrids between a good parent and a species that is unique in its own right yet should never be used in hybrids such as thorelii. On the other hand, some hybrids that sound good in name are in fact not, for instance rajah x platychila or robcantleyi x clipeata. This is cause most of the time the end result is not thought about when making a hybrid so it is important to consider not just what sounds good but also which plants will blend well together to make something worth growing. Many great hybrids are like this in fact, one parent being something very desirable and nice, while the other is a nice but often-overlooked species that complements it. N. rajah x mira comes to mind along with N. ventricosa hybrids. Of course, there is certainly many hybrids between desirable species that are excellent such as the previously mentioned hamata x edwardsiana, diabolica x hamata, edwardsiana x mollis, and so on.
This also brings into consideration the high prevalence of ventricosa and truncata hybrids. Both of these Philippine species have found their way into hybrids due to their adaptability and flowering at smaller sizes. In cultivation, while it is easy to think one has large Nepenthes, they are in fact very small in comparison to the size of wild mature Nepenthes, so it is not so surprising that many Nepenthes are stubborn bloomers in cultivation. Both ventricosa and truncata generally make good hybrids that are quite popular, including lowii x truncata which is widely considered one of the best hybrids yet. Ventricosa is often considered a beginner’s plant yet in hybrids it is not too dominant in pitcher traits which lets the other parent shine through. One instance of this was when Johannes Marabini crossed his female lowii with ventricosa and many seedlings resulted. One of these seedlings was later named by US grower William Baumgartl after Peter D’Amato and the resulting “briggsiana” clone has since spread widely and is enjoyed for its lowii shape - without lowii’s slowness! Similarly, ventricosa x ephippiata was one of the few ephip hybrids that Exotica Plants released along with the impressively sized truncata x ephippiata. Both hybrids turned out great and are the only really available ephip hybrids in cultivation although not as stunning as Robert Severitt’s original N. lowii x ephippiata.
Unfortunately, despite the great potential of ephippiata hybrids there are very few in existence and there are few blooming size ephippiata in cultivation, at least in the US and EU markets. While EP did make a few other ephippiata hybrids and released the natural hybrid ephippiata Hose Mtns x glandulifera, it seems that they have stopped making ephip hybrids - presumably the male died. It seems the future for good ephip hybrids is in using lowii x ephip as a parent in complex hybrids until blooming ephippiata become more common, this step has already been taken by a few German growers such as Stefan Gladisch who made robcantleyi x (lowii x ephip) and ventricosa x (lowii x ephip). Another high potential hybrid is (truncata x ephip) x lowii which I think will end up as nice as lowii x ephip but with some slight differences. However, with the recent blooming of BE’s male ephippiata there is some potential that this shortage of ephip hybrids could be fixed in the coming years.
Certainly, a lot more could be said about this subject of hybridization and its history, but I think that this is a good compilation for now. These tangents to be continued!
]]>Nepenthes x trusmadiensis is a natural hybrid between N. lowii and N. macrophylla that was originally found on Gunung Trus Madi back in 1983. The hybrid, discovered on that expedition by German grower Johannes Marabini, was then named by him after the mountain it was found on, which is the largest mountain in Borneo’s Crocker Range and the second largest mountain in Borneo after Kinabalu. Since then, it has also been found on a couple other mountains along with its parent species, Mount Sinsing and Kaingaran. On one of these peaks, N. edwardsiana grows as well and another natural hybrid exists there between macrophylla and edwardsiana.
When Johannes Marabini climbed Trus Madi on John Brigg’s expedition, the large dentate Nepenthes they found growing along with N. lowii, and the ever so numerous N. tentaculata, was not the N. villosa they expected to find. Instead, they thought it was a different form of N. edwardsiana. However, the leaves on many plants were huge at 2 feet long each, dwarfing the already well-known form of N. edwardsiana found on Kinabalu and the nearby Tambuyukon that had been found by Sir Hugh Low back in 1858. This new edwardsiana consequently was named after its big leaves, Nepenthes edwardsiana ssp. macrophylla and then later was elevated to its own species by Jebb and Cheek.
At the time though, this realization that N. macrophylla was its own species was not apparent. Kinabalu made for a breathtaking view on top of the peak of Trus Madi, and any thought that these two mountains might not have identical flora when seemingly close by was quickly dismissed. However, unlike Kinabalu where N. edwardsiana and N. lowii grew at separate and distinct altitudes, on Trus Madi the species grew intermingled allowing the chance to find hybrids between them. Then the hybrid was located, an impressive toothy plant that was intermediate between the parents. Herbarium samples were taken for the University Erlangen including adequate samples of two of these hybrid plants which would become known as N. x trusmadiensis.
Back in Germany, the new hybrid species was described by Johannes based on a holotype, the definition sample of the species, that he pieced together from both of the plants he collected from, but primarily from the more impressive striped specimen. However, the herbarium samples had survived the transport back very well and as there was plenty for the herbarium, he went about growing cuttings of both plants from the remaining material. Both plants which were male, proved vigorous in cultivation, one striped while the other with a more solid red colored peristome. Slowly over time he released cuttings to other interested growers as it overgrew its allotted space. As a result, these two clones have been maintained continuously in cultivation for around 40 years spreading throughout German collections, then throughout Europe and the UK and finally to the USA, a snapshot in time of the diversity of that mountain it was found on.
Back in the day, as demand for Nepenthes increased Rob Cantley climbed Gunung Trus Madi and collected both N. macrophylla and N. lowii. While he never observed N. trusmadiensis on the mountain, it soon became clear as the seedlings matured that some were hybrids. Apparently, nobody who received one of these mislabeled seed grown hybrids while expecting one of the parent species minded too much as trusmadiensis was much rarer in cultivation than either parent at the time. It appears that all of these released seed grown trusmadiensis batches died out completely in cultivation except for a few plants at BE. Borneo Exotics released as well some tissue cultured trusmadiensis, BE clone 1 and 2, which were grown from N. macrophylla seeds. These two female clones have persisted in a few collections, primarily BE clone 2, however Borneo Exotics lost the cultures in a lab fire that destroyed many of their best cultures and as a result they stopped offering them. However, these two BE trusmadiensis clones are widely considered the most spectacular examples of this natural hybrid.
Later, back in Germany, Klaus Keller flowered his N. macrophylla which turned out to be male. He ended up crossing it with his female N. lowii Trusmadi which was flowering at the time. The resulting seeds he shared with his friend Andreas Wistuba who promptly tissue cultured them. The resulting clones of this horticultural cross are still offered by Wistuba as N. x trusmadiensis G. Trusmadi and are the most commonly available clones today.