FlytrapCare Carnivorous Plant Forums

Just ordered my first ever Ceph from FTS!!!!!!!!!!!
I've been checking at random for Cephs for a while now and almost forgot to check after getting on the site. When I did THERE IT WAS!! I just checked again and it looks like its out of stock so I'm pretty pumped.
Feel like such a loser for being so excited over a plant but I figured people here probably get the same way as I do.
Will post pictures upon receiving it

Feel like a looser for being excited lol.

I have been known to do the happy dance. It's kind of like a combination of Kung fu fighting and hip hop without any coordination or sense of balance.

It happens...... Congrats on a ceph they rock

Congratulations! I remember Cephs going for $60+ a few years ago. I'm glad they're more affordable and available to people now.

Agreed!!!

Hahaha Cory that's pretty much what I've been doing for the past half hour

Hay I got mine yesterday!!! It's hard for people to understand the covet I have for my plants .

Once you've experienced it, it's quite unique. People can not take it from us, and they cannot understand it themselves until they've struggled and succeeded with these plants.

Congrats on getting the Cephalotus! It's a wonderful plant!

I thought I've seen that message couples of times when people got their hands on a Ceph haha. I remembered when I got my first Ceph, I was pretty excited too. I was checking on it every day and I was very sure the plant didnt grow at all! When I compared the pictures half a year later. I was surprised. It was growing underneath my nose all this time

Take pictures when it arrived

AMEN!!! Regular peeps have no idea of the carnivorous plant struggle!!!! @David

@Tish I'm super excited. Did you have any troubles with your first one? Thats my biggest fear!!

I have not problem at all. It was a small one in LFS. The instructions given to me is top water with tap water gently until water flows out from the bottom every 3 days. Which is wrong now that i know better.

The only problem i had was when it crowds the top. I try to split it into 3. They died back due to root diaturbamce. 1 went as bad as 80%. But they came back to strong after not disturbing it anymore. The fittest 1 has a mature pitcher and i repot it and it died back 80% again

A video before repoting

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vZPztvn0THY[/youtube]

Ahhhh so they don't like being bugged pretty much. I have a friend who does cuttings and usually has good results. Great gallery by the way

Thanks!

Is it there yet???!?!?

Hey Megan. You'll enjoy your Ceph. they are quite a special plant. In my opinion, FTS Cephs. are usually pretty hardy plants and ship very well. My advice to you is when you get it cover it until you noticeably see new growth. When you cover it make sure that you do not have it where it can be baked. What I've done in the past with freshly shipped Cephs is put a small clear pot of cup over the top. I elevate the cup so it gets a little air flow but still keeps the humidity up. Being shipped they lose the juices inside their pitchers (spills out) so they dehydrate a lot quicker and most Cephs the FTS sells still usually have a majority of immature pitchers, which makes it difficult to refill them. That is why I like to cover them when I get them shipped to me. By the time I see new growth, usually the pitchers have produced their pitcher's fluid back and it is ready to start acclimating it to lower humidity levels. I'm pretty sure you know how to do that. In my growing conditions I find them much like a flytrap. They can stand much drier soil conditions then other CP. Being winter I'm sure its cooler in your house so make sure you do not keep consistently wet. Let the top layer dry out before watering it again which being covered should take a while. There are many success stories here with Cephs so don't be scare to ask questions. We all want you to have success with them.

Don't forget to post pictures

Edited:

KissMegan wrote: I have a friend who does cuttings and usually has good results.

I forgot to mention. I did several leaf cuttings this past year. Close to 20 and every single one of them were successful. I used milled dried sphagnum and sand or fine perlite. I plant the leaf as low as I can into the sphagnum with the leaf blade as close to the sphagnum as possible basically laying on top. This keeps the leaf from dehydrating and allows for longer time to callus and strike. I placed all my cutting in a tray and kept about a quarter inch of water in the tray. The pots I used were two inch square pots. If you get some non-carnivorous leaves I'd try it. I haven't done to many pitcher cuttings but I've seen it work the same way. I just like to see the pitchers and rather cut the leaves.

jwbates26 wrote:Hey Megan. You'll enjoy your Ceph. they are quite a special plant. In my opinion, FTS Cephs. are usually pretty hardy plants and ship very well. My advice to you is when you get it cover it until you noticeably see new growth. When you cover it make sure that you do not have it where it can be baked. What I've done in the past with freshly shipped Cephs is put a small clear pot of cup over the top. I elevate the cup so it gets a little air flow but still keeps the humidity up. Being shipped they lose the juices inside their pitchers (spills out) so they dehydrate a lot quicker and most Cephs the FTS sells still usually have a majority of immature pitchers, which makes it difficult to refill them. That is why I like to cover them when I get them shipped to me. By the time I see new growth, usually the pitchers have produced their pitcher's fluid back and it is ready to start acclimating it to lower humidity levels. I'm pretty sure you know how to do that. In my growing conditions I find them much like a flytrap. They can stand much drier soil conditions then other CP. Being winter I'm sure its cooler in your house so make sure you do not keep consistently wet. Let the top layer dry out before watering it again which being covered should take a while. There are many success stories here with Cephs so don't be scare to ask questions. We all want you to have success with them.

Don't forget to post pictures

Excellent advice!

Hey jwbates! That is amazing advice. Thanks so much for taking the time to write all that! I should be getting my ceph this afternoon and first thing I'm going to do is re read your post haha. I'm hoping for the best and I'll post some pictures once I receive it!!!