14Jun / 2017

Nurturing Endangered Pitcher Plants

Sarracenia flava at one time grew wild around Jamestown, Virginia

There are several good reasons to grow our native North American pitcher plants. Maybe you enjoy chic, sculptural foliage plants, and are curious to try growing something new. Maybe you want a striking plant that you can grow in a very small, sunny spot on your deck. Maybe you care about preserving endangered plant species. Or maybe, you would just enjoy growing something that will help reduce the population of ants and mosquitoes in your garden.

If you think that you need to construct a special boggy bed to grow these beauties, you might be pleased to see that there is a clean and simple way to grow them. You can create a mini-bog in a bowl, and grow your pitcher of choice for several years with little fuss or effort.

North American pitcher plants, Sarracenia, are endangered because so much of their natural habitat, along the Atlantic and Gulf coasts, has been drained and developed. There is precious little land left where they can naturally grow undisturbed. Enthusiasts all over North America have risen to the challenge of preserving, and further hybridizing these unusual plants in private gardens.

There are a few basic conditions they need for survival, and these are conditions many of us can provide.

First, the soil: Sarracenia naturally grow in acidic, peaty bogs. Peat comes from decomposing mosses. There is little nutrition in this soil, but there is a measure of sand. Standard potting mixes aren’t a good choice, and pitcher plants won’t do well planted into clay or compost. However peat is readily available in most places where other specialized potting mixes are sold. Mix peat and sand together, and you have a good mix for growing your own pitcher plants.

Second, pitcher plants prefer full sun. They will grow in partial sun, but their colors are better, and growth more vigorous, if you give them six or more hours of sun each day.

Pitcher plants want consistently moist soil. Don’t let the soil dry out. It should vary in moisture content, though, from fully hydrated to moist. In other words, let the pitcher plants’ roots get some air from time to time so they don’t rot from constant standing water. You also don’t want the water in their soil to sour.

Finally, all Sarracenia need a few months of winter dormancy each year. In other words, don’t try to grow them as houseplants and keep them growing year round. Allow them a few months of rest, even if you live in zones 9 or 10.

You can leave your Sarracenia outdoors in the winter, unless you live north of Zone 7. Then, be guided by the natural zone of the species you are growing. Some species can survive colder temperatures than others. But you may be able to keep tender Sarracenia through the winter in a cold frame or cold greenhouse, even if you are living in Zone 5 or colder.

If you can provide moist, peaty soil and full sun, you can grow a pitcher plant. Just remember that they are carnivorous, and the insects that wander into their tubular leaves provide all the nutrition they need, in addition to the sugars produced during photosynthesis. Never add fertilizer to your pitcher plants.

You can create your own little container bog in a pot. Choose a pot that will be large enough to hold your plant when it grows to maturity. While some pitchers, like Sarracenia purpurea may grow to only a few inches tall, other species, like Sarracenia flava may grow to 40″ or more. Taller pitchers will need more substantial pots, of course.

I ordered Sarracenia ‘Tarnok’ from Sarracenia Northwest about a month ago. It has been growing on in its nursery pot in my larger bog garden since. But now I’m ready to move it to a miniature bog garden on my deck.

If your pot has a drainage hole, then keep it in a shallow container with an inch or two of standing water. If your pot doesn’t have a drain hole, then let the soil begin to dry out a little bit in the top few inches between waterings. Many experts suggest watering with rainwater, spring or distilled water. I have to admit that I often use tap water.

This is the first pitcher plant I brought home some years ago. Planted in a mixture of peat and sand, the pot sat in a saucer filled with gravel and water.

Abundant moss often covers the natural bogs where pitcher plants grow in the wild. Moss is the appropriate ground cover for a container bog, as well. The pitcher plant you find at a local garden center, or that you order through the mail, may already have moss growing in its pot when you get it. Just keep the soil moist, and that moss will keep on growing.

If your new pitcher doesn’t come with its own moss, you can transplant moss you collect onto the soil of your container bog.

I prefer to cover the bottom of my closed container with a few inches of sand to serve as a drainage area and reservoir. Then, I fill the rest of the container with a moist blend of pure peat and coarse sand. You can make your mix with up to half sand. My mix is about 1/4 sand by volume.

Pack the peat mixture fairly tightly in the bottom and onto the sides of your pot, leaving a well about the same size as the pitcher’s nursery pot. Carefully tip the nursery pot over, supporting the soil mass with one hand, leaves through your spread fingers, and tap the bottom and sides to loosen the root ball.

Gently invert the freed roots, original soil, and leaves as you slip the entire mass into the well you’ve created. Gently pack additional moist peat mix into any open space around your plant’s roots.

Leave an inch or so of head space between the top of the finished soil and the rim of your pot, then gently water until there is a little standing water on top of the soil.

Finish your pot with bits of wild moss, if you choose, or with fine, clean gravel. I often add a few bits of glass or stones on top of the soil, too.

Pitcher plant, Sarracenia leucophylla, native to the Southeastern United States, in its first season in our garden. I eventually moved this growing plant into a larger pot and added it to our bog garden.

Site your new pitcher plant in any sunny spot outdoors where you can relax and enjoy it. Even though your newly purchased plant may have tiny leaves when you get it, it will bulk up with time. Soon, you will see it mature into its potential.

I usually move my potted bog gardens under shelter in heavy rain, since there is nowhere for overflow to drain. While the plants won’t mind sitting in water for a day or two, let the excess water evaporate so the top few inches of soil are just moist before watering again. Peat holds a lot of water, and you never want it to dry out entirely.

Just as in nature, let the moisture content of the soil vary.

Pitcher plants are found in abundance at Forest Lane Botanicals in York County, where owner Alan Wubbels propagates several species.

I began with a single pitcher. I was a little unsure whether I was really interested in pitcher plants, but soon grew fascinated with these strangely beautiful plants. My collection continues to grow, and my ‘wish list’ for different species and cultivars grows as I learn more about them.

You will find many sources for native pitcher plants once you begin looking for them. I bought an unnamed Sarracenia at the Great Big Greenhouse in the Richmond area this spring. They had a fine display of various carnivorous plants, and I bought a Venus flytrap, which is native to coastal North Carolina, at the same time.

The Venus flytrap is another native carnivorous plant that has become endangered in recent years as its natural habitat has been developed. These are hardy and relatively easy to grow, if you provide the growing conditions they require. The leaves close to digest insects that wander onto the leaf pads.

I hope you will give these beautiful plants a try. Maybe you, too, will discover their charm and beauty, and will dedicate a bit of your gardening space to preserving these amazing native carnivorous plants.

Woodland Gnome 2017

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01May / 2017

Bog Garden: Early Summer

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Maybe you don’t have a pond or spring in your yard, and would still like to grow a few special plants who like their roots wet. We’re not talking a full-fledged water garden here, filled with Lotus and water lilies. That requires an excavation or above ground water-tight construction. which will hold a foot or two of water; maybe with a stream or a waterfall with a pump and filter worked in.

A ‘bog’ garden tolerates variable amounts of water, from several inches to slightly moist. These plants enjoy moist soil, but don’t want to remain submerged all the time. Our bog garden has evolved in a mysterious old rock and cement construction in our back garden. Maybe, at one time, it was water tight. But it’s not water tight anymore. Its uneven bottom of cemented gravel and large rocks allows for water to collect in several little pools before slowly draining away.

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I cleaned out the old leaves and accumulated silt a few years ago, and began massing pots of moisture loving plants in this mostly sunny spot to create a potted bog garden. That is also when I began adding to our collection of a Southeastern North American native carnivorous plant, the Sarracenia, or Pitcher Plant.

Sarracenia produce tubular, brightly colored leaves all summer long, starting about now. Each leaf holds a pool of digestive solution, just waiting for a curious insect to fall into the brightly colored hollow opening. Their ‘Dr. Seuss’ flowers emerge early, in bright reds and yellows, looking like the sort of flower a child might draw. These are very unusual looking plants which naturally grow in the sort of wet, insect filled swamp most of us tend to avoid.

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Our first pitcher plant, in late May of 2014

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But they prove easy to grow in a pot, so long as you use their preferred potting mix and keep them moist. Sarracenia want moist soil, but not water-logged soil. Their roots need some oxygen and don’t like the sour/stagnant soil often found in water gardens. Dr. Larry Mellichamp, in his book, Native Plants of the Southeast, recommends a 50:50 mix of pure peat moss and clean quartz sand for pitcher plants.

I began collecting pitcher plants four years ago. My first one spent the summer with its pot set in a ceramic bowl, about 2″ deep, which I filled with the hose when I watered that part of the garden. It was gorgeous all summer long, and a conversation piece for every visitor. That first pitcher plant inspired me to set up a bog garden, the following summer, with space for a community of more pitcher plants mixed with other plants that like wet soil.

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Pitcher Plants growing in the swamps around Jamestown were collected by John Tradescant the Younger around 1638. It was difficult for English gardeners to keep them alive until they learned to grow them in pots of moss standing in water. These are displayed at Forest Lane Botanicals in York County, Virginia.

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Pitcher plants, like other perennials, grow in clumps and may be divided every few years. The plants we’ve collected were still growing in modest sized pots. But I wanted to change the look of our bog garden this year, and so tracked down a huge, shallow pot to hold divisions from several of our Sarracenia cultivars.

Following Dr. Mellichamp’s instructions for potting mix has brought us success. The one plant I purchased, and didn’t re-pot myself, didn’t make it through the winter of 2015. It was in a compost based potting mix and failed to thrive. But the grower made it good, and I’ve relied on the peat/sand mixture for my own re-potting.

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Mix and re-hydrate the peat at least a day before you plan to use it. It is important to have very moist soil when you re-pot pitcher plants. I knocked three of our Sarracenias out of their pots, pulled out or trimmed back the old, brown leaves, and then gently pulled the clumps apart. I potted some of the smaller clumps into this new, large pot; and re-potted the largest of each division back into its original pot. Pack the peat mixture into the pot fairly tightly, and then water it in to settle the soil and rinse off the pot.

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You never fertilize Sarracenia. That is one reason it doesn’t work to use compost or a standard potting mix which would work perfectly well with most potted plants. Sarracenia take their nutrition from the insects that fall into their leaves. And they thrive in acidic conditions, which the peat provides.

In addition to pitcher plants, I’ve grown Colocasia, Canna, Asclepias, Hibiscus, Coleus and Zantedeschia in this bog garden. All of these have at least a few cultivars that enjoy full sun and wet soil. This year, I’ve added Colocasia ‘Tea Cups’ to the Colocasia ‘Mojito’ we’ve had in years passed. Colocasia ‘China Pink’ grows around the outside. This year I’ve potted up a few divisions from our yellow flag Iris to add to the mix.

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Colocasia ‘Tea Cups,’ saved from last summer’s garden, spent the winter in our basement. We’re happy to have it growing again. This Colocasia loves damp soil and could even grow submerged in a pond.

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A bog garden like this one, where there is usually at least some water, provides important resources for wildlife. Birds, frogs, turtles and many insects come here to eat, drink and find shelter. Once the plants grow in, there is cool, moist shade on even the hottest summer days.

Rain provides sufficient wetness for the bog garden during much of the year here in coastal Virginia. But during dry spells, I try to visit this garden several times a week with the hose, filling it and watering the various pots. Creeping Jenny, originally planted around the border as a ground cover, has colonized the interior of the garden, too. I was a little surprised to learn that it, too, tolerates growing in shallow water.

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Tadpoles and other tiny creatures can often be found in the bog garden. This photo is from its first summer, 2015.

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If you don’t already have a wet spot in your own garden, you might consider building something similar to this with stone and concrete. If that is too much trouble, you might follow Dr. Mellichamp’s advice and begin with a child’s wading pool. You can put a small drainage hole or two, if it doesn’t have a crack or hole already, and either excavate and sink the liner in the ground, or build up some landscaping blocks around it to make it more attractive.

Line the bottom with some gravel and sand, and then fill your new bog garden with the peat/sand mix, or just set ceramic pots into it as I’ve done. Dr. Mellichamp shows a beautiful bog garden he built, in his chapter on bog plants. His is filled with peat and sand, with the plants growing as they would in a natural bog. The peat is overgrown with moss and the effect is stunning.

If you don’t have Sarracenia at a garden center near you, you can order a wide variety of pitcher plants, and other water loving plants, from Plant Delights nursery in North Carolina. Sarracenia Northwest, a grower based in Oregon, offers a wide selection of pitcher plants, and other interesting carnivorous plants. Their service is excellent. The plants I ordered arrived in excellent condition.

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Pitcher plants are easy to forget during winter. Most are hardy in zones 5-9. They stay outdoors, dormant, and need no special care. It is only when those psychedelic flowers suddenly appear in late spring, and the first new leaves emerge that you take notice.

That is when I’m moved to clean them up, and begin assembling a beautiful collection of plants for our summer enjoyment in this quiet spot in our back garden.

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Woodland Gnome 2017

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22May / 2014

Pitcherplants

Sarracenia flava growing at Forest Lane Botanicals in York Co. Virginia.

One of our strangest and most flamboyant native plants grows in bogs from Canada to Mississippi along the Atlantic and Gulf coasts.

The Pitcher Plant, Sarracenia species and cultivars, grows in areas of poor, very moist soil. Not always at the coast, these bogs may be further inland, at greater altitude, and areas of scrub wherever water gathers.

Sarracenia leucophylla grows to three feet tall. Its showiest pitchers appear in late summer and early autumn.

Preferring very acidic soil, pitcher plants rely on prey, rather than rich soil or fertilizer, for their nutrition.

The beautifully colored “pitcher” is a modified leaf. Open at the top, there is an area where sweet smelling liquid collect at the base.

Can you spot the fly on the leaf?

Small insects, spiders, mites, and even small frogs and birds may be lured into the pitcher.

Once inside, sharp hairs, angled towards the base, prevent them from climbing back out.

Pitcherplants bloom each spring.

The unlucky creatures fall into the pool of liquid, which slowly dissolves them.

Many beautiful varieties of Pitcherplants are available.

I was amazed at the bright colors and intricate patterns on the Pitcherplants at Forest Lane Botanicals when we visited this week.

The Wubbels grow many different native species and hybrids.

Bog plants for sale at Forest Lane Botanicals.

I would definitely make any future purchases from the Wubbels, or from a nursery where I could choose my plant and bring it home.

Since liquid remains in each leaf at all times, and the leaf can dry out if the liquid is lost; this is not a plant I would want shipped if it could be avoided.

Sarracenia flava

Pitcher plants are very long lived perennials. The leaves and flowers arise from an underground rhizome, which may live for more 20 years when conditions are right.

They mostly require uniformly moist soil and full sunshine. Different varieties have specific needs, but most are hardy to at least Zone 6.

Sarracenia purpurea, known as Purple Pitcherplant, is hardy in Zones 3-9 and is the floral emblem of Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada.

Plant Pitcherplants in an equal mixture of pure dampened peat moss and sand. If potting into a free standing pot, as I did, allow for a deep saucer to always contain water, so the mix remains constantly damp.

The Wubbels had all of their Pitcher plants in plastic nursery pots, standing in pools containing several inches of water.

If you decide to build a “bog garden,” then you might construct a suitably sized container for your situation. It could be as small as a bowl borrowed from the kitchen, or the size of a child’s swimming pool. You could build a bog along the edge of an existing water feature, or perhaps construct a “rain garden” with an area kept constantly wet for bog plants.

Other plants you may grow with your Pitcherplants in a bog garden include native orchids, Sundew or Dew-threads, certain Iris, and a variety of other moisture loving native flowers.

Once established, Pitcherplants quietly take care of themselves. So long as they are kept moist and given full sun, they will attract their own dinner. They never need pruning.

You might clean up damaged foliage each spring, but nothing is needed beyond that.

Some species and cultivars will grow to several feet tall, and they will spread as the rhizome grows.

When crowded, they can be gently divided like other perennials. When cutting the rhizome into smaller sections, make sure that each section has at least one leaf. Do this in early spring before flowers emerge.

Pitcherplants bloom, and form seed. I was amazed at the lovely flowers on the Pitcherplants at Forest Lane Botanicals.

The seeds need a period of cold stratification for a month or more before they will germinate. Seeds sown outside, in moist soil, and left over the winter in the “bog” where the parents are growing will meet this requirement.

These beautiful foliage plants prefer high humidity, damp acidic soil, and bright light. If you can provide these conditions, then you can grow one of the most beautiful and interesting native plants North America offers.

This is the Pitcherplant I brought home from Forest Lane Botanicals yesterday. Planted in a mixture of peat and sand, the pot sits in a saucer filled with gravel and water. This area gets morning sun, and stays in the sun until late in the afternoon. I plan to make a hypertufa tray to set this pot in, large enough to add a few pots, perhaps…..

Another Genus of Pitcher plant, Darlingtonia, is native to Northern California and Oregon. Known as a Cobra Plant due to the shape of its leaf. There is only one species, but it easily hybridizes with Sarracenia, which makes classification of the offspring complicated.

Other Genera are found in Australia, China, Borneo, and other warm locals around the Pacific. All are carnivorous.

All Photos by Woodland Gnome

Most of the photos were taken at Forest Lane Botanicals earlier this week.

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