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BACPS | Newsletter |
| Summer 2004 |
Highlights of the May 15 Meeting
Darlingtonia and the Exploring Expedition
You Might Be a Carnivorous Plant Grower If....
by Stephen Davis
As you all know, the plant show has been growing over the last few years. 2004's Plant Show is going to be the biggest and best ever. Some people have been preparing their plants for some time now, and we are expecting some more incredible entries this year.
For those of you bent on acquisition, there will be literally hundreds of plants for sale. We have quite a few growers bringing in plants, and we'll have an incredibly wide selection for people to ogle and buy. If you have a few, bring them in too. The more the better! Oh, and don't forget your money. If you are wondering how much to bring, well, I'd suggest just bringing all of it. Let's stop kidding ourselves. This is a HEALTHY addiction, right?
Now is the time to finish primping and cleaning up the plants! Remember, presentation is part of the judging! No cobwebs, although I don't think you will get dinged if your plant is in the middle of a meal. Some of my Sarracenia have been pushing out their fall pitchers, so we can expect some great plants will be ready to show off their fall plumage!
As a reminder, this is a fun event. We are not a professional-level plant society with members who have been growing plants forever and always win all the awards. We are a grassroots kind of group that has a good time, and a beginner can still win. Everyone can enter, and there are not a lot of stifling rules, just a few basics, such as you have to have owned and grown the plant yourself for the last 6 months. Mostly common sense. Even if you grow only one plant that is growing well and you are proud of, bring it in. Who knows, you may have found just the right conditions, and everyone will oooo and aaahhhh over how well your plant has been grown.
Several press groups, and even the leader of an education project featuring CP, have expressed an interest in attending the show, and we are looking forward to showing the plants and helping them educate the public. Perhaps one or two members will be interviewed!
Quite a few people have offered to help, but we could use a few more volunteers. Remember, arrive early to help and get first dibs on sale plants. Send me an email and we will get you slotted to help. Some key roles have yet to be filled. You don't have to spend the entire time with any job, you can sign up for just an hour.
Directions and more details are on the www.bacps.org website in the Next Meeting section and in the August Bulletin.
The huge seed order from Allen Lowrie's seed list made its way safe and sound from Australia and has been refrigerated. I have a feeling many people are going to have quite a bit of work ahead of them to plant all the seeds.
Some require special preparation, so be aware that you will need to check the instructions. Our seed masters, i.e., the old CP growers, will be available to answer questions on preparation. Some seeds will require smoke to germinate, and the Byblis seeds came with GA3. If you ordered Byblis, please contact Stephen Davis as we need to work out a way handle the GA3 between us.
There is an instruction sheet that accompanies the seeds. We may place another order before his fall seed list comes out if there is demand for it; otherwise we will wait until the November 13 meeting to start collecting orders for the next round.
We cannot mail the seeds to you, so you must come to pick them up. If you are having someone else pick up the seeds for you, it would be best if you email Stephen Davis ahead of time so we can expect them. Someone will have to sign for the seeds to pick them up. We will be checking drivers licenses and passports and taking fingerprints.
For those who missed ordering seeds, the BACPS did order some seeds that will be for sale at the show.
The potluck was a lot of fun this year. It's been many years since someone
did this, and I felt it was well past time. Besides, I've spent a lot of time
on my back yard and I haven't had much opportunity to share it.
Several people came with plants to sell, trade, and just plain give away. We had some first timers, as well as some true veterans of the CP world. The entire Bay Area was represented. I believe someone must have driven well over an hour and a half to get here. There was more than enough food, and I want to thank everyone for bringing such great vittles. Recipes were even swapped for several of the dishes.
I gave a tour of my back yard and home, which is less than ideal for carnivorous plants. However, I have spent the last seven years finding any bright place, and modified a dark one or two, so that I can grow these plants.
The tour featured the bog garden surrounding my pond in the back yard. The
large bog is an eclectic mix of carnivorous plants with plenty of everyone's
favorite weed, Drosera capensis, as well as pygmy Drosera, pings,
Sarracenia, Darlingtonia, Venus Fly Traps, and a few other species.
It is a garden that can be enjoyed from a distance, as well as on bended knee.
I also have a large growing area on the side of my house that is about 2.5 feet wide and 12 feet long, with two depths -- one for 1-gallon pots, mostly of Sarracenia, and the other for shorter pots. These are smaller Sarracenia, Drosera, and other plants. A short distance past that is a cold frame. There is also a large black pot by the deck with some cattails in it, and if people looked, a nice growth of Utricularia gibba.
Inside were a couple of terrariums, one with a light, while the other
depends on the light of a nearby window. There were some
Nepenthes sprinkled
around. A couple on the deck for the summer, with one or two left inside in
the bathroom window.
I was sorry that my bog wasn't at its best this year. I believe the cool summer and increased shade from my ever larger redwoods may have had something to do with it. Wouldn't you know, a couple of weeks later the Sarracenia leucophylla started to put up its fall leaves, and some of the bog orchids are starting to put up their spikes. Fortunately, people did get the tail end of the Disa orchids bloom. Yes, I know, they are not carnivorous, but they are spectacular, and they grow in the same conditions as most CP.
I can't thank those that attended enough. I enjoyed all of your company, and I always have a good time showing my gardens and plants. I learned a lot from many of you, and I hope I was able to return the favor. Thanks also for bringing the food, and a special thanks to my wife, as she worked hard to get the garden and yard in shape, and managed the food and so many of the details.
by Christina Palmer
I spoke with Allen Lowrie, who tells me Joe Mazrimas's order for BACPS shipped July 30. Included with the order is a CD of scientific papers and over 250 digital color photographs, including some species new to science. Allen wanted to make sure we are aware of the CD and suggested we show the pictures at the next meeting. He loves his new digital camera and no longer uses his film camera, although he still brings it on expeditions as a backup.
Allen has enough new data for Carnivorous Plants of Australia, Volume 4. He recently discussed the feasibility of reprinting volumes 1 and 2 with University of Western Australia Press. A minimum reprint of 2000 copies would be required for financial viability; however, due to printing cost and storage requirements, there will be no reprint of volumes 1 and 2. Instead, all of the information from volumes 1-3 and what would have been volume 4 will be published as a single large "coffee table" format book, with additional technical detail that will serve both the scientific and enthusiast communities. Allen estimates one more year of work to finish the new book.
The May meeting featured a panel discussion on soil mixes and the
cultivation conditions that affect choice of soil type.
BACPS Vice-President Bill Baumgartl moderated the event, which
featured panelists Joe Mazrimas, Larry Logateta, Bill Weaver, and Don Elkins.
Unfortunately, BACPS Secretary Judith Finn was unable to attend the meeting and take minutes, but Joe Mazrimas (shown at right with his really spectacular Drosera regia) kindly provided a summary of his talk:
"I grow nearly all my large plants in a pot with 4/5ths straight perlite and capped off with a 2-inch layer of live sphagnum moss to keep the perlite from floating to the top. Smaller plants are grown in a peat moss-perlite mix at about 50-50. Utricularia and Genlisia are in pure sphagnum moss. All my pots sit in trays that are two inches high and 12 × 18 inches in area. They sit in water produced by reverse osmosis and are automatically watered every day for 25 minutes through a fountain pump sitting in the bottom of a 33-gal barrel. Actually, I have two barrels connected by siphon tubing. A question from the audience asked if I was growing them hydroponically. I answered, probably I did in a way but I did this for over 40 years and the plants never rebelled. Perlite is sterile and RO water is sterile so it makes sense to have a system that lasts a long time."
Other highlights of the meeting included the distribution of Allen Lowrie's seed list and the taking of seed orders.
by Melissa Mork
It won't even need a scholarship.
Mills College is constructing a carnivorous bog garden that now has the grand total of six plants. Needless to say, they need more. They're looking for Sarracenia species or other hardy species (especially from California) that can happily take Oakland weather and won't overrun or overwhelm their neighboring plants.
So if you want to make room for new plants and have an extra bog-appropriate plant or two that you wish to donate to a good cause (preferably no hybrids), it will have a home. You can even visit your little friends! Dana Ecelberger, the Botanical Garden Coordinator at Mills, will be at the September 19 show to recieve your donation and thank you.
If you have any questions about this project, please contact Melissa Mork at.
by Stephen Davis
As many of you may have noticed, our website went down for several days at the end of August. I want to thank our webmaster, Albert Huntington, for spending a huge amount of time fixing it. We have changed providers and have the site on a new server. There are a few more things we can do on the new server, so we might make some changes to the site.
Again, thank you, Albert, for all the support and hard work with the website. By the way, Albert has been supporting this for the BACPS for some time, and in fact has donated the URL and the server himself.
by Tony Gridley
When I was helping out with the Spring Newsletter back in May, I was trying to be a conscientious copy editor and make sure we had Darlingtonia's discoverer's name right. So I dutifully looked up Mr. Brackenridge and found out why he was in the vicinity of Mt. Shasta in 1841. Members might be interested in some of the story, which begins with the possibility that the earth is hollow and its interior reachable through holes at the poles.
In the early nineteenth century, a retired army captain living in St. Louis, John Cleves Symmes, described his hollow earth theory in publications, a series of lectures, and a petition to Congress that requested ships for an exploring expedition to sail into the world's interior. Not everyone was completely convinced by his theory -- though Edgar Allan Poe was actually quite taken, and Audubon sketched a portrait of Symmes in 1820 -- but there turned out to be plenty of others who had their own reasons for wanting to explore the South Pacific, whether the entrance to the inner world could be found there or not. A disciple of Symmes together with various commercial interests, the U.S. Navy, navigators, scientific societies, and President John Quincy Adams finally managed to convince Congress to pass a resolution in 1828 authorizing an expedition.
To those of us who have been raised on countless episodes of "Star Trek" to believe that our descendants will have little else to do but go on exploring expeditions, it is sobering to learn how difficult it was for America to launch its first one. After years of bureaucratic wrangling, delays, and false starts, the six ships of the United States South Seas Exploring Expedition -- carrying, in fairness, not just one science officer, but nine -- finally set sail in August 1838 under the command of Lieutenant Charles Wilkes. Aboard the Expedition's flagship, the Vincennes, was the expedition's 28-year-old horticulturist (later also assistant botanist), William Dunlop Brackenridge, who had been head gardener at the Edinburgh Botanical Gardens while still a teenager, and who had arrived in America the previous year.
From 1838 to 1842, the Exploring Expedition circled the globe and collected 50,000 plant specimens of 10,000 different species. In addition, they managed to discover Antarctica, name it, and chart it for 1,500 miles ("Wilkes Land"), survey 280 Pacific islands, gather vast amounts of linguistic and geologic data, and bring back so much stuff -- shells, Samoan war clubs, fish, human skulls, Fijian masks, birds, corals, mammals, and much more -- that essentially the Smithsonian Institution and the U.S. Botanic Garden came into being to house it all.
In 1841, the Expedition arrived to survey the Oregon Territory, ownership of which was disputed with Britain. Brackenridge went on three overland journeys -- east as far as Idaho, along the Columbia River, and then south to San Francisco, which was of course part of Mexico. On this third trip he found his Darlingtonia, described in his journal as "Sarracenia sp. -- leaves 3 ft. long -- flower stem exceeding the leaves in height, hab. wet places." John Torrey took another dozen years to publish a description partly because Brackenridge collected it in October, when there were no flowers. From my own limited experience with this plant, I'm not entirely sure there are ever flowers in any season, but Torrey patiently waited to publish until his friend Dr. Gilbert White Hulse found some in 1851. Torrey named the new genus after his friend William Darlington, a botanist, doctor, banker, and congressman from West Chester, Pennsylvania, who in fact had a minor role in helping the Expedition planners decide what kinds of plantsmen to send.
The Expedition's plants from Oregon and California almost didn't make it home at all. They were sent from Hawaii on a ship that was supposed to go back to the States, but sailed instead to Chile, then China, then Europe -- where it was sold -- and the plants were unloaded in Havana.
When Brackenridge got home, he wrote the Expedition's book on ferns and was also hired to care for the Expedition's live plants (and plant the seeds), originally housed in a greenhouse built behind the U.S. Patent Office. Until his plants were established, he was allowed to refuse all requests from important people, including an indignant First Lady, Mrs. Tyler, who felt themselves entitled to plants and flowers from the new government greenhouse.
The greenhouse eventually morphed into the U.S. Botanic Garden, and Brackenridge lived long and prospered as a nurseryman in Baltimore and gardening editor of American Farmer.
McKelvey, S.D. Botanical Exploration of the Trans-Mississippi
West, 1790-1850. Jamaica Plain, N.Y.: Arnold Arboretum, 1955.
Philbrick, N. Sea of Glory: America's Voyage of Discovery: The
U.S. Exploring Expedition, 1838-1842. New York: Viking, 2003.
Stanton, W. The Great United States Exploring Expedition of 1838-1842.
Berkeley, Los Angeles, London: University of California Press, 1975.
Viola, H.J. and C. Margolis, eds. Magnificent Voyagers: The U.S. Exploring
Expedition, 1838-1842. Washinton, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1985.
Freeman, L. "Darlingtonia californica: Correcting Errors Perpetuated in the Literature" http://www.siskiyous.edu/shasta/art/smith/darcal.htm
The Smithsonian Institution's Exploring Expedition website: http://www.sil.si.edu/DigitalCollections/usexex/
by Joe Mazrimas
| BACPS TREASURY | |||
| FEBRUARY 28, 2004 | |||
| INCOME | DEBIT | BALANCE | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sellers | $ 17.00 | ||
| Raffle | $159.00 | ||
| TOTAL | $176.00 | ||
| Current Balance (02-28-04) | $ 176.00 | ||
| Previous Balance (11-08-03) | $3982.19 | ||
| TOTAL | $4158.19 | ||
| UC Berkeley Fund (separate) | $1427.50 |
*************************************************************
| BACPS TREASURY | |||
| MAY 15, 2004 | |||
| INCOME | DEBIT | BALANCE | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Raffle | $ 76.00 | ||
| Sellers | $ 52.00 | ||
| TOTAL | $128.00 | ||
| Lowrie Seed Project BACPS contribution | $120.00 | ||
| Current Balance (05-15-04) | $ 8.00 | ||
| Previous Balance (02-28-04) | $4158.19 | ||
| TOTAL | $4166.19 | ||
| UC Berkeley Fund (separate) | $1427.50 | ||
| Total Lowrie Seed Order | $ 724.00 |
by Melissa Mork
Okay, I've seen a lot of lists like this from the reptile and amphibian hobbyists, but why should they have all the fun? Aren't we just as twisted? In order to help us recognize ourselves and each other, I am very proud to present "You might be a Carnivorous Plant Grower if..."
Original list compiled by Melissa Mork, though some items are a takeoff from "You might be a herper if," at www.anapsid.org. If you can think of more items for this list, please contact Melissa Mork. Ideally list items should be rated PG or less, humorous, and either from actual experience or very, very imaginable.
September 19: Summer Meeting/Plant Show, Lakeside Park Garden Center, Lake Merritt, Oakland
November 13: Fall Meeting, UC Botanical Garden
The BACPS Newsletter is a quarterly publication produced by the Bay Area Carnivorous Plant Society. For more information on membership, subscriptions, or events, please visit our website: www.bacps.org.
BACPS