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I am finally starting to learn some of the tricks of this finicky species, and I’m hoping to harvest my first seeds this or next year I have five plants of really varying happiness right now, but here’s what I’ve noticed about them so far:

*They prefer much lower light than my other highland plants from the same altitude band. All of mine have been shuffled to the lower rows after complaining and are much happier.

*I haven’t tried them in a lower humidity setup yet, but other people report that they do not tolerate it very well. My tent dips to around 60% during the day and floods with fog overnight which seems to be plenty moist.

*Whether or not they can adjust to intermediate temps/warmer nights seems to be VERY dependent on locality. Both of my pure 'Sibuatan' plants are growing foliage fine but way too cranky to put out any pitchers in my intermediate tent, while my three plants with parents from slightly warmer regions to the south are doing great.

Interestingly, although the pure species has been a little extra tricky, both of my spectabilis x ventricosa hybrids are just about the hardiest and prettiest plants I have found. I would highly recommend them to any spectabilis fans looking for a windowsill/beginner’s plant. Spathulata x spectabilis is a pretty universally successful cross that adds a lot of vigour, too.

Right now I am most excited about these guys:

“Satin” - N. spectabilis ('Bandahara' x 'Sibuatan') is a confirmed female that flowered a few weeks ago for me. She’s such a tiny plant that I decided to snip this one but I am looking forward to the next.
“Spectacle” - N. spectabilis ('Bandahara' x 'Sibuatan') is the only sibling I have, and I am hoping it is a male. I also have two pure ‘Sibuatan’ clones, but neither one is very happy with me, and a very vigorous but very ugly young ‘Perkinson’s Giant’ that might get thrown in the mix someday.

I am definitely looking for more people to trade pollen/seeds with down the line! Priority for this breeding group will be given to pure spectabilis, then anything dark-striped and/or toothy, but I have a bunch of other plants I’m going to be looking for matches for soon too.

I recently picked up the BE-3322 clone. I think it has a while before it'll flower, but I'll keep my eye out

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i picked up a seed grown sanguinea(red) X spectabilis that is a very easy grower. i love the red and yellow colors.

I never knew it was a finicky species, mine have been pitchering and growing a lot, maybe I’m lucky and I have good conditions for their location data. My setup isn’t very humid and they’ve been growing fine. They are also under some decently bright lights and the leaves are all red, though not in an unhealthy looking way.

murrkywaters wrote:I recently picked up the BE-3322 clone. I think it has a while before it'll flower, but I'll keep my eye out

That would be good. Mine is very happy and growing fast, but, um...let's just say hopefully the other plants think it has a nice personality. I think that batch is a mix of individuals so hopefully yours is vigorous and pretty!

optique wrote:i picked up a seed grown sanguinea(red) X spectabilis that is a very easy grower. i love the red and yellow colors.

That's a nice cross I hadn't seen before. It has a reverse-spectabilis pattern!

sanguinearocks101 wrote:I never knew it was a finicky species, mine have been pitchering and growing a lot, maybe I’m lucky and I have good conditions for their location data. My setup isn’t very humid and they’ve been growing fine. They are also under some decently bright lights and the leaves are all red, though not in an unhealthy looking way.

Mileage seems to vary a lot - a lot of people (like myself) think they're pretty tetchy, others have a fine time. Maybe you have perfect conditions for it, maybe you got a particularly hardy one. Either way, I am jealous I've had issues with 3/5 of my incoming plants (sometimes just dropping pitchers, sometimes longer lasting problems) but we are slowly moving towards everyone being happy. I would not have guessed one would be my first plant to flower, however.

Oh, and mine all also reddish leaves. They seem very prone to it (which I like).

Mine has red leaves as well

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My BE-3177 'sibuatan' has finally forgiven me for buying it and started to pitcher again! It will be fun to see what it turns out. It's been so long I've forgotten what this one looked like.



My delightfully vigorous, ugly little BE-3322 is now holding my tent record at 12 active pitchers.