Winter blues

It's that time of the year again. Yep, that time where it is cold, snowy and freezing outside and even if I were to be able to get down the slope that leads to my greenhouses without slipping up, I'd still be greeted with plants that are in dormancy and are doing absolutely nothing of interest. A theme that will be reoccurring for the next 4 months or so.

Still, it's been a very good year. I made a couple of hundred quid in plant sales, and my YouTube visitor counter is now at the 3.2 million mark! As you'd expect, I will be making more videos and having more updates next year when the plants come out of dormancy. I've re-potted a few of my plants, namely lots of Venus Flytrap Big Mouth's, but that will be it. I simply don't have the room to divide any more. Not until I manage to sell a bunch at least. Here's hoping that happens next year.

You can find me on twitter: @plantsthateat

Until then, to carnivorous plant enthusiasts and people who are reading this blog,
have a Happy New Year!

Ready.....set........repot!

Although February is the most 'ideal' time to repot, or at least the most common time among carnivorous plant collectors to do it, I tend to lack patience. A week or two early won't make a difference anyway!

So far, I have repotted all of my Venus Flytraps, most of my Sundews, and started on my Pitcher Plants. For the flytraps, I was using a slightly different compost mix to usual. I bought it from a different site and its one that I have used for my flytrap seeds, and they seem to be doing really good. I think I will end up preferring this new compost as it is already quite damp, so unlike the previous compost, I don't need to be standing there watering it for 11 hours just to get it a bit damp.

I have had a few deaths, admittedly. Most, if not all of which, were sundews. Typically the tropical ones which don't tend to like temperatures dropping below about 8'c, which doesn't help when some days it is just above freezing. Still though, a handful of sundew deaths while over 40 still remain is a pretty decent ratio.

Speaking of ratio's, once again my venus flytraps surprise me. Times when I thought I could divide a plant 2 or 3 times and end up splitting the contents of a single pot into 8 pots is always great. Assuming they all survive this winter, I will be rockin' over 300 flytraps alone.

I've had less success with the divisions of the pitcher plants though. Admittedly, you are supposed to divide them every couple of years rather than every year, which would explain why I have taken half a dozen out of their pots, only to realise they are one whole plant and don't want to be divided yet.

I'm also doing a bit of experimenting this year with plant sizes. Pitcher Plants are said to be able to grow to just over 1 metre in height. My tallest ones last year were about 2ft in height, so to help encourage them to grow further, I have ordered and received a few extra large plant pots, which are 5cm wider and 5cm deeper than my current largest ones. This is obviously to encourage the roots to dig deeper and give them more space. Hopefully at least one of my plants can reach the 1 metre mark in the next couple of years!

It's also worth noting that I have made several divisions of the Cobra Lily's. There is certainly a fascination about them among people who see my plants. Truth is, they are still relatively 'new' to me in terms of understanding how they work and what conditions they like compared to other carnivorous plants. Still, I have 7 or 8 pots of them now and this is the first proper divide that I have put them through, and their root systems seem slightly different to that of my other plants, so we will see how well they do.

It's the dormant time of the year again...

I hate this time of the year. Yes its cold, often damp, probably soon to be snowy and icy and the days are far too short. To top that off though, carnivorous plants go dormant until about March/April time and currently look.........a bit crap really. In Spring, they will once again form new traps and stand colourful and tall and ready to help diminish the insect population.

Until then though, I am continuing to work on the new website. And by "work", I mean of course telling the designer what I am after! All being well, it will be up and running by next spring and I can start selling some plants. Not just via the website though, but also, perhaps even more importantly, through car boot sales. I enjoyed being at the Caythorpe Gala this year (or last year if your reading this in January!). It was a good opportunity to talk to people about these plants and also to put my finger on the pulse of what people were after and interested in. One of the best examples being that although venus flytraps are the most well known plant, it was the Pitcher Plant's that generated probably the most interest for people.

I also found out this year that Venus flytraps, or any plants for that matter, can't be posted internationally to Europe. I put a group of 6 flytraps on ebay, setting the, erm, settings to make sure only people from the UK could buy them. Somehow, the winning bidder was from Latvia. I didn't really bother questioning how it happened in spite of my specific settings, but instead set out to post it to his/her country, curious as to how much it would cost me in postage.

I took the parcel to the post office, and the lady said "do you mind me asking what is in the box?". I told her "oh, nothing too expensive, just a few venus flytraps". "Oh", she said. "You can't post them to Europe". Low and behold, she gave me a leaflet containing the 7000 item categories you're not allowed to post abroad, and the 3 items you are. I apologised to the ebayer and refunded him/her. Was feeling slightly crushed that being an international seller of these plants went out of the window though. Still, this mean's that I will be completely focused on the national sales for these plants and frankly, I can't wait!