Another Sundew Plant in my collection

beetleman · Post by **beetleman** » Mon Jan 01, 2007 8:00 am

This is Drosera falconeri, a tropical sundew from northern Australia that I bought on Ebay. It is a cloned plant and was not taken from the wild. I have had them about a month now. When I received them, they were bare-rooted and I planted them in small glass cookie jars that lay sideways with the mouth facing you. They are starting to grow nicely and some new leaves are out ,so I wanted to take some pictures of them. The first one is looking into the jar and the second one is a stack of 25 pictures using HF to capture a whole leaf. I took these photos right after the metallic raindeer shoot and that orange vase was behind the cookie jar also. That is what is giving the jar shot that saturn look in the background.

Bill D · Post by **Bill D** » Mon Jan 01, 2007 8:14 am

Doug- Happy New Year! Both of these photos are great! But, I love the second one! The color is really neat. Your stacks are perfect. There is one place in North America where sundews grow in the wild. I have been there many years ago. They are mostly all green. I seem to remember there was some red on the stem and leaves?

Ken Ramos · Post by **Ken Ramos** » Mon Jan 01, 2007 8:25 am

Got to agree Doug, both are really good and I too especially like the second one the best. We have a place which is a good distance from where I live but worth the weekend drive, that is called "Pink Beds," Bill may have heard of this place. A mountain wetland and paradise where the ferns are almost as tall as you are. Anyway I went hunting for sundews around there one summer but never found any, not to say that they were not there I just never spotted one.

Gordon C. Snelling · Post by **Gordon C. Snelling** » Mon Jan 01, 2007 8:46 am

That is absolutely one of my favorite Drosera. I grew it many years ago and had great luck with it including propagating it from leaf cuttings, alas I no longer have my plants due to several moves. Beautiful

beetleman · Post by **beetleman** » Mon Jan 01, 2007 10:25 am

Thanks for the comments guys...sundews are more common than you think. There are two native ones in new Hampshire, Drosera rotundifolia and D. intermedia, both I have seen in the wild. They are kind of hard to spot at first, but when you see them, they get easier to spot after that. Gordon, I too had a larger collection in the late 70s and I am now just getting into them again (I don`t really need another hobby or more plants) but they get addicting once you buy one. they are also very photogenic.

Bruce Williams · Post by **Bruce Williams** » Mon Jan 01, 2007 10:42 am

I really like these two photos Doug - great colour, interesting form and interesting subject.

Other than admiring them at plant nurseries, I know very little about carniverous plants. Todate I've been reluctant to try my hand at keeping them because of their need for light, heat and humidity - but I'm off to Google to find out more about their cultivation

One probably very naive question... do you feed them insects and do different species have particular tastes in insects?

Bruce

Carl_Constantine · Post by **Carl_Constantine** » Mon Jan 01, 2007 12:08 pm

LIke that second shot the best. Nice pictures Doug.

Happy New Year!

beetleman · Post by **beetleman** » Mon Jan 01, 2007 3:02 pm

Bruce, these plants still have Chlorophyll so they still make their own food. You can put small spiders or ants on the traps but I don`t usually feed mine much. The sundews I have on the windowsill have lots of small nats on them that seem to come with all the houseplants I have (they like the moist dirt). I do usually put them out for the summer and they attract lots of food items on their own. The insects are attracted to the red color on most of the plants and the dewdrops are mistaken for nectar. Any insect of capture size is fair game

Glad you like them Carl