SBG's cold room

Nepenthes ampullaria 'Harlequin'

Yet another nepenthes to add to my growing collection. I'm not quite sure what it is but there is something innately fascinating about these plants. Then again, when you become a collector, you tend to go over board and even the most minute of differences can mean a world of a difference. As it is, some species do not look any different, but are in actual fact, not the same species.

I got this yesterday from a new nursery (Asiatic Green)which I discovered in Singapore quite by accident. The link to his online website came up whilst I was googling for hornstedtia. The guy behind the business sells his plants primarily through the internet and exports them mainly to customers abroad. It took me a while to find the place as there was no signage and its location was not particularly obvious. When I did find it, I was half expecting to see a middle-aged guy but was instead pleasantly surprised to see a fresh young face, probably no more than 30 years of age. It was deeply inspiring to see someone his age have such drive and passion for what he does, to the extent of taking it a notch higher by delving into the online plant business. He revealed that he spends most weekends manning the little nursery, tending to the plants and making sure that everything is ship shape and ready to go. In fact, with the terribly dry weather which we have been experiencing, he tries to make it a point to go every day to water his crop. To do that, maintain his website, run his business and presumably juggle all that with a day job requires hell of a lot, not to mention at the expense of one's social life.

Anyway, this chap was kind enough to take me through his little nursery and show me his stock. I eventually ended up with a small clump of Hedychium longicornutum, a Nepenthes ampullaria 'Harlequin' and a Nepenthes ventricosa 'Madja-es' and all that definitely made me one happy camper!

Nepenthes reinwardtiana

Another to add to my collection of Nepenthes, this time the Nepenthes reinwardtiana. Although this species is rather widespread in places like Sumatra and Borneo, commercial nurseries in Singapore do not appear to have it, which probably explains why I paid rather handsomely for it. 

This species can be found in a variety of habitats, including roadside embankments to lowland rainforests, exposed rock faces, peaty spagnum swamps and growing en-masse on trees. Although this is a climbing species and therefore mostly terrestrial in nature, it can also be entirely epiphytic, forming great masses on the larger tree branches of the canopy where light is plentiful. 

The pitchers are up to 25cm long, narrowed in the middle, then flared towards the large, oval, sloping mouth. The colouration ranges from a pure pale green to a dark red. The lid is also oval, with evenly scattered small glads all over the underside. This species is distinguished by the usual presence of 2 waxy "eyes" on the inside of the pitcher but the function of these remain unknown. 

N. reinwardtiana is an easy species to grow under typical lowland conditions with high temperatures and humidity resulting in larger pitchers.  It also strikes readily from cuttings, which is great news because I will be able to propagate them. 

little house of horrors

Whenever I tell people I collect carnivorous plants, they would immediately think of Seymour, the Venus Fly Trap ("VFT") from the movie the Little Shop of Horrors. I can't blame them for thinking that way, for carnivorous plants have only been introduced commercially fairly recently.

There is a lot more to these plants than just VFTs. For example, there are the nepenthes (Pitcher Plants), sarracenias (American Pitchers), sundews, butterworts and the aquatic bladderworts, just to name a few. I started collecting carnivorous plants sometime in early 2008. At the time, I was somewhat fixated with the idea of creating a terrarium consisting mostly of carnivorous plants. However, the set up didn't last very long as the artificial lighting couldn't quite replicate sunlight, which I found to be essential to the sundews and sarracenias. I have since placed the sarracenias in a trough in my balcony and I am pleased to add that they have grown quite significantly.

My largest collection of carnivorous plants has to be the nepenthes. To-date, I have about 10 different species of nepenthes and counting. There is something unique and very exotic about this genus of plants. However, many of my friends find them rather creepy and sinister, possibly the plants look that way.