The winter of 07/08 was a bad one for my Agave bed- it is the main bed in my garden and the one you first see when you come into the garden. In the autumn of 07 i'd dug in a lot of grit to improve the drainage, but this disturbance to the plants roots left them more exposed to the cold so a lot died that winter.
Being disheartened, but also excited by the prospect of trying something new- I decided to move away from the drought tolerant succulent plants in the main bed and grow something wanting completely the opposite- lush leaves and moisture lovers.
Being disheartened, but also excited by the prospect of trying something new- I decided to move away from the drought tolerant succulent plants in the main bed and grow something wanting completely the opposite- lush leaves and moisture lovers.
I decided to it would be a great place to plant out some of my Carnivorous plants- I love these plants and had been building up a small collection of them. Up till then they had their own bog barrel but this was looking a bit full now so a Carnivorous plant area in the new bed was just what I needed!
My old Carnivorous plant barrel:
Sarracenias have a few basic growing requirements in order to keep them happy:
1) Grown in full sun- bogs are generally devoid of tall vegetation so do not grow in shade.
2) Watered only with Rain water
3) The soil is devoid of nutrients- and prefer a 1:1 mix of Peat Moss:Play Sand
Sarracenias have a few basic growing requirements in order to keep them happy:
1) Grown in full sun- bogs are generally devoid of tall vegetation so do not grow in shade.
2) Watered only with Rain water
3) The soil is devoid of nutrients- and prefer a 1:1 mix of Peat Moss:Play Sand
Making the bog garden:
The bed has grown really well this year (to be honest it was stuffed to capacity so it certainly filled out easily) however I found that even the small amount of shading the plants got from some gingers and a fern- caused them to loose a lot of the red colouration I was expecting to see on the leaves- so they just turned a plain green colour instead. I look forward to seeing if I can do better with them this year!
My favourite plant- Sarracenia purpurea purpurea- a beautiful plant and very hardy to the cold!
Great stuff Owen!! As I've said in my comment on the previous post below, I'd like to create a small bog garden for Sarracenias and maybe a couple of other carnivores next to a pond, although I'd have to buy a little extra liner as the pond will be made out of an old mould.
ReplyDeleteThat bed filled out really well last year, although I see what you mean about losing the coloration, but that gives you something to work on for this year. Loving the Monty you've got there too, and the Maurelii too, although I think I've lost mine from last year as it's shrinking a lot and not growing at all, which I'm a bit annoyed about as it hasn't been frosted or anything. Still, I'll be growing it again this year!!!