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The 2nd EDITION of REAPERS Garden Est Spring 2012 is available for viewing on Page 16.

Hey guys!

It's been almost 2 years now since I took on this addiction . With extensive research and reading throughout the forums of this awesome website, well...here are my results. My hobbie lives on. Thanks Matt and members...ENJOY!

Carnivorous Bog Bowl of Horrors Est Spring 2010

As shown in the following photos, this Carnivorous Bog carries many varieties of VFTs and a few Sarracenias. The pots in the forfront contain a baby Cephalotus Follicularis as well as a Drosera spatulata and various Drosera capensis.

That is a beautiful minibog! And the plants look very happy in their setting and in your care. Great growing, and thanks for posting.

As Steve said, that minibog is beautiful! Great growing!

Beautiful minibog! I love the pond section! I really like that plant (Dente?) by the S. catesbaei.

Nice minibog garden

Thanks for the kind words guys and to those of you who enjoyed viewing.

VERY nice!

Very nice. Very nice indeed.

The NEW set of pictures above were taken with a standard digital camera thus replacing the originals taken via cell phone. These pictures were taken at dusk at the opposite end of my roof deck for photo purposes due to the beautiful natural lighting. During the summer days they mainly take in the morning sun and by late morning they are in the shade. They are outdoor hardened and now as September is here, during the night they are put into a mini greenhouse to stablize lower temperature drops and steady growth for beauty sake of the bog. I learned that drastic temperature changes send up shock traps on my VFT's. Come mid October the consistant lower temperatures will send the whole bowl into dormancy awaiting it's 3rd year in my care. Once again, ENJOY!

Great idea

I really like this, giving me ideas for a minibog myself. Very neat.

Is that a catesbaie in the centre? its fantastic, one of the best best ive seen.

How wide is the bowl and is it undrained?

Thanks PatsPlants!

PatsPlants wrote:Is that a catesbaie in the centre? its fantastic, one of the best best ive seen.

I believe the Sarracenia you are referring to is a Pupurea X Flava as it was labelled when I bought it.

PatsPlants wrote:How wide is the bowl and is it undrained?

The bowl is 17 inches wide and 6 inches deep which is a lot deeper than what most pots that carnivorous plants come in. Keeping the depth in mind and what is at the bottom of the bowl is what helps keep the bog itself striving, though it involves a bit of human up keep during the warmer weather. Because the bowl itself is undrained, I built it to compensate that through research and experiment. The bowl is constructed in the following method from the bottom up:

a) 1 even layer of planter rocks for drainage.
b) The following method serves two purposes and so far is works well. I used 2X9 inch aquarium air lines for drainage via water evaporation and under bowl watering during accessive warm weather to keep the soil beneath moist.
c) 1 plastic cross stich mesh sheet (precut to the circumference of that part of the bowl). In this precut sheet, I put two holes on either side for the air line access. With these two layers in place the air line slightly curls around the planter rocks, up through the mesh and on through the following layers for outside access for its intended purposes.
d) On top of the mesh I put a layer of live sphagnum moss to absorb and retain moisture at the bottom of the media.
e) On top of the live sphagnum moss goes about 4 1/2 inches of media that contains 40% peat, 40% (salt free) garden sand and 20% perlite.
f) The next step would be to put in your CP plants (with rhizome and roots rapped in live sphagnum moss for moisture stability during warmer days) along with any fixed decorative items.
g) The final step would be to lay live sphagnum moss around you plants and decorative items. Even though during warmer weather the live sphagnum moss tends to dry out, but is certainly helps retain the moister in the media. On top of the live sphagnum moss you can place bark chips and rocks to give it more of that garden look.

I usually let the rain do the major watering, but when rain is not available for awhile I mist the plants 3 times a day with distilled water. The final mist at night I tend to also soak the dryed sphagnum moss helping it give that edge of higher humidity at night.

I know I gave more information than asked, but I figured by doing so would answer many more questions in mind. I hope much of the curiosity is answered and as you can see from the pictures of one full season of growing with baby and adult plants...so far so good .

Even better! What camera did you use for the updated clearer pictures?

jamez wrote:Even better! What camera did you use for the updated clearer pictures?

Thanks jemez. For these set of photos I simply used my SONY Cyber-shot DSC-P93, though I do have a Digital Canon SLR on hand.

nice bog. i see you got the little skulls thing going on there too.

i was looking for a skeleton off a keyring or something to lean against the sign in my minibog (see avatar --> )