Gardening - Getting Ready for Darlingtonia Californica

Hey Blog,

There is a guy named Phil Golding who I got to know him through eBay, where I purchased VFT Creeping Death seeds. I had a lot of fun growing them but due to inexperienced of handling VFT... I lost every single one of them... I was very upset because Creeping death is my favourite cultivar... What made it more sad is Phil no longer has any Creeping Death... He had some issues in his life back then :( sigh...  the feeling... Why... I am so blaming myself for fail to grow it :( 

Anyway... To think of the positive side, Phil has gotten back his feet to grow Darlingtonia , Cobra Lily. Here is his blog about his success, experience and passion on growing Darlingtonia.

What make me overwhelmed with feeling is that Phil decides to send me one Darlingtonia!!! You know in Singapore, there isn't any successful grower to grow Darlingtonia into adult stage due to weather and its dormancy issue. One of the most challenging issues in growing Darlingtonia is to keep its root cool. 

There is one guy who still growing Darlingtonia, he is Ifurita. What he does, is to grow it in big pot and drop some ice cubes when he leaves his house. Currently still growing for him. 

Here is what he told me, "Here are pics from 2 plants in slightly different setups. They really are tiny, heh. The setups aren't anything much so I didn't take any pics of them. Basically the plants are growing in pots which are sitting in containers - one in a normal plastic container, one in a styrofoam box. The water level is kept high, around half the height of the pots. Every morning, I place a small mineral water bottle of ice in the water. The air-con is on when I go to bed, off when I wake up.

It is way too early to consider this a success tho: larger plants are known to be more cranky and these are slow growing, so they're probably not that happy. If they can stay alive and get large, then it'll be something."

Hmmmm okay...

Here is my plan on settling the Darlingtonia cooling of its root issue.

Plan detail:

- ice cube drops to ensure water cool (I am thinking to get an ice stone)

- white pot to hold water. Why white? Because I like white! Nah! It is because white is bad conductor of heat/light. It won't absorb heat easily.

- the cover is to shut off any mosquitoes breeding in here; I don't wish to kill any larves.

- make sure I change water every week

- have another pot in there, to hold the plant.

So I visited the nursery and scouted for pots. After a few visits in different nurseries, I decided to stop by one quiet nursery - Candy Nursery along by Thomson road. I am kind of loved that place. I consulted the worker about my plan, they introduced me to their lady boss and she showed me this.

This one is a middle size pot. I love it immediately because the design and concept is the best growing plant pot ever! I have a pot of nep which grows in a big pot with this concept and it is growing very well!!! 

Look how healthy it is!!! I believe is due to the pot which allows the soil media to "breathe". Anyway, back to the pot. Let me show you how it looks like.

You can take out the center pot where the plant and soil media sit, and inside there is a valve.

Honestly I don't know how it works... Basically it controls the water flow. Quite nice. The center pot has two holes for the water to flow up.

Honestly I still wonder how it works... Well you can simply fill in the water from this opening. 

And let's look into the 2nd level pot.

This is where it stores water keeping the water from holding. Here is the overview of this pot.

I am getting a bigger one for Phil's Darlingtonia. Hope it works and at least gives it a try. 

Wish me luck. Blog

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Updated on 19/3/2018
Ended up... I didn't get any from him.... So sad... As he quit from CP...

Jeff