A Maine Collector’s Garden with a Bite

Not each plant assortment is mushy and candy. Harriet’s carnivorous plant assortment in Otisfield, Maine, options pitcher vegetation, sundews, and Venus flytraps in a slate sink summer time show that’s each decorative and splendidly uncommon. Harriet says:

GPOD lately requested for collections. Mine is a collector’s backyard put collectively as if it have been a decorative backyard. There are peonies, daylilies, and irises, a lot of which have been featured within the weblog through the years. Two compact collections are newer, and each characteristic smaller containerized vegetation. The rock backyard troughs are one, and the carnivorous vegetation, on this group of pictures, are one other.

I turned fascinated about rising pitcher vegetation from a submission to this weblog just a few years in the past. A container with one plant was a part of somebody’s backyard. I now develop a number of species of pitcher vegetation (Sarracenia cvs., Zones 6–9), a number of species of sundews (Drosera cvs., Zones 3–10) in addition to the Venus flytrap (Dionaea muscipula, Zones 7–10) in my Maine backyard. All are outdoors in the summertime. I show them in a slate sink. I exploit tiles to lift them if we’ve got had ample rainfall and take away them as the extent lowers. They have to be watered with rain or distilled water, and by no means faucet water, due to minerals. I stockpile rainwater collected from my roof for them.

A slate sink holds the gathering through the summer time: tall in again, from left, inexperienced pitcher plant (Sarracenia oreophila, Zones 7–9) and yellow pitcher plant (Sarracenia flava, Zones 6–9). There are a number of pots of purple pitcher plant (Sarracenia purpurea, Zones 2–9) with shorter reddish pitchers. A hybrid pitcher plant is flowering within the entrance, second from the left. There are additionally three Venus flytraps within the picture, together with the entrance left. There are a number of sundews, that are small and brief, and several other pots with germinating seeds (on the proper).

The hardiest pitcher vegetation are the purple pitcher plant, that are native to Maine. They will overwinter outdoors submerged in a vegetable mattress.

I grew some from seed, and the primary bloomed this season. Like different pitcher vegetation, the flowers are uncommon and final all season.

My present favourite is inexperienced pitcher plant. Its pitchers are tall, and it flowers prolifically. It’s mentioned to be endangered in its native habitat, the Southeastern United States, however I discovered the seeds I collected from mine simple to germinate. It’s mentioned to be hardy, however I don’t dare check it. So I put it with many others, which I additionally suppose could be marginal however may have winter dormancy, in coolers in my storage, the place they’re buffered from temperature fluctuations. They do freeze. In a very bitter chilly snap, I transfer the coolers into my mudroom simply in case the low will get too low however then again out to the storage as quickly as I can, in order that they don’t break dormancy.

Yellow pitcher plant can be from the Southeast and mentioned to be hardy but additionally goes into the cooler for the winter.

Venus flytraps want a winter dormancy to do effectively and thrive outdoors in the summertime.

Within the entrance is the tender spoon-leaved sundew (Drosera spatulata, Zones 8–10), and behind it’s a single Tracy’s sundew (Drosera filiformis, Zones 5–8), a sundew native to the Jap United States from Nova Scotia to the Gulf Coast.

My Tracy’s sundew appears to return again from seed (within the earlier image by itself in a mattress of self-seeded sphagnum moss, and on this image self-seeded with a purple pitcher plant).

My favourite sundew, Cape Sundew (Drosera capensis, Zones 7–10) bought too dry earlier this spring, however I’m now nursing it again to its former glory, seen right here in 2021. The opposite is doing effectively as a clump within the earlier picture. Each tender spoon-leaved sundew and Tracy’s sundew overwinter indoors by a cool window.

Thanks for sharing this splendidly uncommon assortment with us, Harriet!

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