FlytrapCare Carnivorous Plant Forums

Hi everyone. I've just bought some large lava rock for my Pinguicula, and I was wondering if there are any other easy carnivorous plant species that will grow alongside my pings attached to the rock.

It isn't a carnivorous but a mounted orchid might look pretty awesome there.

Patrick

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Depends on what kind of rock. The black or red lava rock looks very porous but in my experience it doesn't really hold water effectively, so you'd have to drill it and fill with medium. If it's pumice then it will often wick the water all the way through and you'll get a nice growth of moss in time. Some orchids might be nice, also Tillandsias.


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It's the red scoria rock. I don't know where to get pumice where I live.

If you drill holes in it and fill them with media, small sundews and bladderworts will do well. If you want plants that grow /on/ the rock, orchids and other epiphytes are your best bet. Christmas cactus is an epiphytic cactus that would probably look cool.

Would the bladdderworts eventually colonize the whole rock, or would they be stuck in the hole?

It would depend on the bladderwort species, how many holes the rock has, and how wet you kept the rock. If the rock was almost like lace rock and had a network of holes all through it, and you kept it wet enough, the bladderwort could probably creep all through the rock. Especially if you kept it wet enough for moss to grow all over the rock and provide substrate for the bladderworts. If it didn't have any way to get anywhere, it'd stay in the hole.

I forgot to post a picture of the rock. Another question should I use or not?

I don't know about the rock quality, but Sarracenia Northwest has a video about their rock gardens, and it seems like if you keep the rock wet enough anything can grow on there.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ZuBAEsZinA

For pumice, call your nearest landscaping rock supplier.


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I did, and all they have is red lava rock. I'll probably have to go to Sacramento to get pumice.

Dang. But I've had such good luck with pumice (and bad with scoria) that it's definitely worth looking for. You can ask about "feather rock" too. Right now I'm experimenting with lace rock but it's early to say anything for sure.


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Hmm. I have a pumice fountain, but it's way too big to find something to hold it.

I'll give the scoria a try with some moranensis, and moctezumae x gigantea plants I got from pullings. Hopefully it will work great

Well I planted it with the plants in the previous post. I hope they grow well.