Post by meizzwang on May 22, 2023 18:12:38 GMT -5
This clone takes the cake for being the epitome of GENETIC GIANTS: they're slow growing, don't want to perform worth a damn for me outdoors, but once the rhizome sizes up and the plant has been happy for several years without being disturbed, they can really size up and cause raised eyebrows and popped out eyes, if that's such a thing.
Back in the late 1990's, my homie Art Junier invited me to his greenhouse in Soquel, CA. He has taken over the previous renter's greenhouse, who defaulted on payments and left a lab full of carnivorous plants in vitro! Anyways, I really wish I still had a picture of this exact flava clone: it had maybe 10-12 traps, all of which exceeded 3' in height! It was absolutely gigantic and not just that but it filled up the pot!
One of the most peculiar aspects of this clone is it's growth habit: it'll shoot out 1-2 GIANT traps per growth point and then BAM! That's it, show's over! the plant will then send out phyllodia all summer long, much like an oreophila, except this plant doesn't produce tons of spring traps like oreophilas do.
Anyways, back to the story: Art hooked me up a division so I took it home, grew the damn thing for 25 years, and it never sized up UNTIL NOW! Other growers complained about this plant being super slow and just not really doing much. I complained about it being really slow and never doing much! I mean, maybe a few times it produced decent sized traps, but nothing giant. Is this a greenhouse only type clone where it only will size up under glass/polycarbonate/enter whatever glazing material you have on your greenhouse? Was it worth the wait? No, it wasn't, but it never died and I kept growing it. Almost lost it several times, but babied it back from tiny side shoots!
This is the only Sarracenia clone in the collection, besides Schnell's ghost, that reminds me of Donnie Schnell, and the plant clearly has epic genetics that are like no other flava var. flava in the collection, so now that it's doing something, I've decided to breed with it and see what can be done. Given that it's from Don Schnell, who probably collected this thing 40-50 years ago from the wild, and given that it has an oreophila like growth habit, these genetics are definitely rare in cultivation and probably originate from a site that has been destroyed in the wild. Too bad we don't have location data on this one.
S. flava var. flava GIANT Don Schnell, pic taken mid May 2023.
The trap I'm holding is borderline giant: it's big but not quite enormous. Nevertheless, this is the best I've ever seen it outside of Art Junier's collection. The newly developing trap on the same plant, on the other hand, looks like it'll be pretty darn big:
I looked at this thing the other day and thought, man, I can't believe it's still alive!
looks like a typical flava var. flava. check out those Brunswick co, NC flava var. flavas photo-bombers in the background:
Back in the late 1990's, my homie Art Junier invited me to his greenhouse in Soquel, CA. He has taken over the previous renter's greenhouse, who defaulted on payments and left a lab full of carnivorous plants in vitro! Anyways, I really wish I still had a picture of this exact flava clone: it had maybe 10-12 traps, all of which exceeded 3' in height! It was absolutely gigantic and not just that but it filled up the pot!
One of the most peculiar aspects of this clone is it's growth habit: it'll shoot out 1-2 GIANT traps per growth point and then BAM! That's it, show's over! the plant will then send out phyllodia all summer long, much like an oreophila, except this plant doesn't produce tons of spring traps like oreophilas do.
Anyways, back to the story: Art hooked me up a division so I took it home, grew the damn thing for 25 years, and it never sized up UNTIL NOW! Other growers complained about this plant being super slow and just not really doing much. I complained about it being really slow and never doing much! I mean, maybe a few times it produced decent sized traps, but nothing giant. Is this a greenhouse only type clone where it only will size up under glass/polycarbonate/enter whatever glazing material you have on your greenhouse? Was it worth the wait? No, it wasn't, but it never died and I kept growing it. Almost lost it several times, but babied it back from tiny side shoots!
This is the only Sarracenia clone in the collection, besides Schnell's ghost, that reminds me of Donnie Schnell, and the plant clearly has epic genetics that are like no other flava var. flava in the collection, so now that it's doing something, I've decided to breed with it and see what can be done. Given that it's from Don Schnell, who probably collected this thing 40-50 years ago from the wild, and given that it has an oreophila like growth habit, these genetics are definitely rare in cultivation and probably originate from a site that has been destroyed in the wild. Too bad we don't have location data on this one.
S. flava var. flava GIANT Don Schnell, pic taken mid May 2023.
The trap I'm holding is borderline giant: it's big but not quite enormous. Nevertheless, this is the best I've ever seen it outside of Art Junier's collection. The newly developing trap on the same plant, on the other hand, looks like it'll be pretty darn big:
I looked at this thing the other day and thought, man, I can't believe it's still alive!
looks like a typical flava var. flava. check out those Brunswick co, NC flava var. flavas photo-bombers in the background: