FlytrapCare Carnivorous Plant Forums

Looking to expand my collection of CPs and was wondering what types of nepenthes I can grow outside all year in South Florida(Tampa)

These are some reqs I've found, but I see some are Highland and I don't think I can grow those here:

Bicalacarata
Ventrata
sanguinea
maxima
gracilis
coccinea
ventricosa

thanks!

ventrata, ventricosa, and sanguinea are all very hardy and adaptable species (vetrata is venticosa x alata), and should do well for you with little hassle. They are also some of the more affordable Neps.

As long as your outdoor temps do not go below ~40, they should be pretty happy.

This is a wonderful guide for picking good Nepenthes species and/or hybrids based off their natural growing conditions.

Good growing, and sorry about your incoming Nepenthes addiction!

Nick wrote: Good growing, and sorry about your incoming Nepenthes addiction!

It's already in full force...

Thanks again Nick!

Tell me about it. I had zero Nepenthes this spring and now I have 10 different plants.

Nick wrote:Tell me about it. I had zero Nepenthes this spring and now I have 10 different plants.

My VFTs and sundews are thriving here in Tampa so I figure I might as well keep the collection rolling.

Have you ever seen nepenthes seeds show up on the Seed Bank on this forum?

I have not looked for seeds, personally, so I do not know how often they come up. They are a little harder to come by since Neps are only one sex per plant and some hybrids (such as alata) are sterile.

As with other carnivores, growing from seed is a very long process, so it never hurts to pick up a decent sized ventricosa/sanguinea/alata for <$30 and have a good specimen to look at while your seeds develop.

Nick wrote:I have not looked for seeds, personally, so I do not know how often they come up. They are a little harder to come by since Neps are only one sex per plant and some hybrids (such as alata) are sterile.

As with other carnivores, growing from seed is a very long process, so it never hurts to pick up a decent sized ventricosa/sanguinea/alata for <$30 and have a good specimen to look at while your seeds develop.

yeah, I'm definitely going to start with an actual plant, but I like growing from seeds, something about it.

There aren't any necessarily any true highlanders on your list so I would think you should be able to grow any of them. They are all pretty easy except for maybe bical, it's prone to go into shock after root disturbance and likes hot temps. X coccinea is not going to be an easy one to find in the US.

X ventrata, sanguinea and ventricosa are probably the best to start off with. Get the others as the addiction kicks in.

TampaTraps wrote:Looking to expand my collection of CPs and was wondering what types of nepenthes I can grow outside all year in South Florida(Tampa)

These are some reqs I've found, but I see some are Highland and I don't think I can grow those here:

Bicalacarata
Ventrata
sanguinea
maxima
gracilis
coccinea
ventricosa

thanks!

As others have said, sanguinea, x ventrata, and ventricosa will be the easiest and hardiest Nepenthes to grow in general. Very adaptable, even to lowland conditions (ventricosa doesn't seem to like hot temps as much as the other two, in my experience). As for the others, knowing the winter low temperatures would greatly help. If it doesn't get below 60F in the winter, you could possibly even grow bicalcarata outside all year. If it dips below that then you may need a greenhouse or an indoor growing tent for bical during the winter.

Gracilis would also be an easy lowland Nep to grow - mine loves the hot summers and does fine on the windowsill during the cold months. There are numerous maxima clones out there (some highland, some lowland, some intermediate), but I've generally found them to be tolerant of wide conditions as well.

Bicalc won't do well year round outdoors in Tampa, even growers in Miami have to take precautions in winter for it

ventrata is easy, same for sanguinea, maxima, ventricosa, etc. Not 100% sure about the ones I didn't mention
I know a grower not too far from us in St. Pete that had a huge khasiana before he moved
truncata could probably do really well here as long as you bring it in if it gets to the mid 40s

An easier thing to grow if you have enough sun would be Sarracenia for sure

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thanks guys... My next question is... Which one can be grown the largest or are all nepenthes pretty much the same in size?

Looking at a couple sangs:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/CARNIVOROUS-Nep ... Sw6YtZTuF0

http://www.ebay.com/itm/2-Nepenthes-San ... SwxGRZhU8Y

thoughts?

My sanguinea put out the tallest pitchers most quickly, but my ventricosa is just now starting to produce the squat, bulbous pitchers that it is known for (the younger pitchers are more peanut shaped). Both species are vigorous growers, though, so you shouldn't have to wait very long once they've acclimated.

Nepenthes also respond very well to feeding, producing almost comically large "leaf jumps" during maturation. Blood worms are great, Maxsea is great, undisturbed osmocote pellets are great (compromised pellets can cause pitchers to prematurely rot). Lots of options.

I went with the 2nd link I posted as it comes with TWO plants for $15!

As far as medium to plant them in, can I just use the LGSM that I use for my VFTs?

TampaTraps wrote:I went with the 2nd link I posted as it comes with TWO plants for $15!

As far as medium to plant them in, can I just use the LGSM that I use for my VFTs?

Lgsm ?

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