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Melbourne Venus Fly Traps

Posted: Mon Nov 07, 2011 4:46 am
by BenWilliam
See here for previous thread.

After a wet winter, and so far, a wet Spring, I have taken advantage of some good solid sunshine to take a few pics. Compared to my pics from my previous thread (see above), you can see the difference between dormancy and Spring growth.

One unlucky cricket
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A number of juvenille Low Giants
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And a good deal of Shark's Tooth
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Some great seedlings
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I'm off on holidays for a few weeks shortly, so knowing my luck I will completely miss my plants blooming, and along with it any chance I have for slective breeding. Eitherway, I just happy to have happy healthy growing plants ;)

Re: Melbourne Venus Fly Traps -Spring Update-

Posted: Mon Nov 07, 2011 10:21 pm
by Darkrai283
They look great! :) shame you can't see the blooming or cross breed any if the plants. :( is the last pic of a d.linearis or a typical capensis?

Re: Melbourne Venus Fly Traps -Spring Update-

Posted: Tue Nov 08, 2011 2:56 am
by BenWilliam
Honestly, all of my sundews hitched a ride in with one VFT I purchased about a year back, and since then they have absolutely taken off! Almost becoming invasive! So all I can assume is that they are just typical capensis forms. Any suggestions with what to do with so many?

Re: Melbourne Venus Fly Traps -Spring Update-

Posted: Tue Nov 08, 2011 6:02 am
by swat007j
wow thats alot of VFT any for free or sale :P

Re: Melbourne Venus Fly Traps -Spring Update-

Posted: Wed Nov 09, 2011 3:30 pm
by tgplp
Those look great! They look very hungry. :D Thanks for the great pictures!

While yours are waking up from dormancy, my vfts are going to sleep for the winter... Their soil has already froze! :o

Happy growing,
Taryn

Re: Melbourne Venus Fly Traps -Spring Update-

Posted: Thu Nov 10, 2011 4:25 pm
by Daniel_G
Looking great!
Thanks for sharing!

Re: Melbourne Venus Fly Traps -Spring Update 11 Nov-

Posted: Fri Nov 11, 2011 2:54 am
by BenWilliam
Update before I go away in a few hours. Totally relieved that they flowered before I left! I would have devo otherwise!

Typical Fly Trap Flower
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Dutch Delight VFT Flower
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Sundew D. Spatulata Flower
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Some more top seedlings
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Overview of two of my pots, pictured are Dutch Delight, Big Mouth, Big Vigorous, Shark's Teeth, B52, Bristle Tooth, Typicals, and some seedlings. As an interesting side note, the tub on the left is composed of Long Fibered Sphagnum moss and perlite, the tub on the right is tradtion sphagnum peat, perlite and sand. The results from pure LFS and perlite have been outstanding in my opinion, and I definately won't rule out using the same mix in future.
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Re: Melbourne Venus Fly Traps -Spring Update-

Posted: Fri Nov 11, 2011 4:39 am
by Matt
Great photos! It's so great to see plants from growers in the southern hemisphere actively growing and just starting the season while watching ours go dormant. Thanks for sharing :)

Re: Melbourne Venus Fly Traps -Spring Update-

Posted: Fri Nov 11, 2011 5:28 am
by BenWilliam
Thanks Matt, the majority of my seedlings most probably started life in your very own back yard! There are some great young plants growing from the numerous seed packs I've previously ordered through FTS, and all, like those prictured, are showing some great promise!

Re: Melbourne Venus Fly Traps -Spring Update-

Posted: Mon Nov 14, 2011 1:32 am
by pieguy452
You are lucky, while your experiencing spring and your plants look awesome, im experiencing winter and my plants are cold and small :lol:

Re: Melbourne Venus Fly Traps -Spring Update-

Posted: Sat Dec 10, 2011 6:07 am
by technowizard12
Did you cut the LFS at all? Is it just a 50-50 mix between the two? I'm quite curious.

Re: Melbourne Venus Fly Traps -Spring Update-

Posted: Sat Dec 10, 2011 11:51 am
by BenWilliam
technowizard12 wrote:Did you cut the LFS at all? Is it just a 50-50 mix between the two? I'm quite curious.
No, it wasn't cut at all. I just mixed it with a lot of perlite. To say it is a 50-50 mix would probably be right. I topped it off with some small white pebbles to help retard moss growth on the surface.

Re: Melbourne Venus Fly Traps -Summer Update-

Posted: Sun Jan 29, 2012 1:03 am
by BenWilliam
Mid-Summer now, and everything is growing like crazy!

Drosera Capensis forest:
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In the first pot, Dutch Delight, Big Mouth, Big Vigorous, Shark's Teeth, and Baby Traps down the back:
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In the centre pot, B52's, a typical, and Bristle Tooth:
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In the black pot, started as just a few Shark's Teeth and Low Giants, now I think it's time to devide! Also in shot are Bristle Tooth, more Low Giants, more Sharks Teeth, and Drosera Spatulata.
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Low Giant:
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Two seeds germinating from my Typical plants:
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Some very very small Drosera Capensis seedlings:
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A seedling from FlyTrap Store seed:
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A successful flowstalk cutting, this will yeild many young healthy Bristle Tooth plants:
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Drosera Spatulata flower:
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Drosera Capensis flower:
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Re: Melbourne Venus Fly Traps

Posted: Sun Jan 29, 2012 1:11 am
by Steve_D
Wow, BenWilliam! Thanks for the update and all the photos. Your plants look as healthy and happy as they could possibly be. They look like they love your care. :D

Re: Melbourne Venus Fly Traps

Posted: Sun Jan 29, 2012 1:31 am
by BenWilliam
Thanks Steve! I love caring for them as much as they like giving me a show! Some of my bigger traps are staying quite green at the moment compared to last year. After reading many other threads and postings here, I cn only conclude that they must be stuffing themselves silly with insects which must be keeping the traps green.

Last year, the Dutch Delight and Big Vigorous in particular were very vibrantly red inside, but no so this year. Like I said, I can only assume that this co-incides with the abundants of insects that are being caught.

They've taken a bit of a battering of late with some very hot weather, but nonetheless, they'll recover no doubt.