Nepenthes Ventrata and Nepenthes Mirabilis pitcher plants hanging in shady spot to rest after travel

Starting to grow carnivorous plants again

So 2016 had been a pain. With my father ill for the first three months, then dying, Nisarga going through three surgeries and spending five months out of it in a cast in total, personal stress…. my carnivorous plants got neglected and died at some point. For that matter, my balcony too was mostly barren and pests on the few plants that remained. I decided to begin 2017 on a fresh note for my balcony farming as well as carnivorous plant growing. And the start is looking promising. I will be posting updates, but for now, here are some images of my first nepenthes plants to kick things off.

I confess, sick of my barren balconies, I went on something of a spree. These Nepenthes are the first to arrive.

Nepenthes are commonly called pitcher plants and grow in humid, tropical climates. They are broadly divided into highland and lowland nepenthes, depending on the altitude at which they grow. I’m mostly buying lowland nepenthes, given that Nalasopara (near Mumbai) is hardly any elevation from the sea.

All in all

Nepenthes mirabilis and Nepenthes Ventrata
Nepenthes Mirabilis and Nepenthes Ventrata soon after unboxing.

All in all, they were pretty well packed and traveled well. The Nepenthes Mirabilis is the one on the left. Its leaves look a bit worrisome with the dark spots and overall unhealthy look. The Nepenthes Ventrata is the one on the right. It seems just fine – at least to my inexperienced eye.

 

unhealthy nepenthes mirabilis
Unhealthy Nepenthes Mirabilis pitcher plant showing damage from travel.

I sent the pictures of the Nepenthes Mirabilis to the seller, and he assures me that it is just dampness and travel stress and that he will replace the plant for me at no cost if it does not recover. I am supposed to keep the plants in a shady location for a while and give them some humidity to keep them happy. I have just misted them before taking these photos.

The Nepenthes Ventrata seems to be doing fine. The water in the pitcher had spilled during travel, so I put very little distilled water inside it. All my reading indicates that this may or may not be useful and there is nothing conclusive about it, but I figured that if the plant likes humidity, having a dry pitcher may not exactly be fun after travel stress. Don’t we head for a glass of water on returning home tired? So I gave it some :p

nepenthes ventrata pitcher
Pitcher on Nepenthes Ventrata pitcher plant had lost water in shipping. I put very little distilled water into it to help it settle. I have no idea if it helps.

The pitcher itself looks fine, though many have said that it is common for a nepenthes to lose all the pitchers that it shipped with as it acclimatizes to a new location. I do hope it doesn’t lose this one. On the other hand, it is a good measure of how well the plant is doing, I guess. If this pitcher doesn’t die and the other one just forming forms normally and opens, I suppose I can say all is well.

So, fingers crossed. Hope the rest of the plants arrive safely and thrive here as well.

2 thoughts on “Starting to grow carnivorous plants again”

    1. No, the smaller ones didn’t make it. They were really too crushed and were too tiny. For a while they seemed to hold thier own, then simply collapsed. I can ship drosera burmanii and byblis seeds. Also drosera burmanii seeds. I don’t have enough of the others to sell.

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