Nepenthes Bicalcarata

It has deadly fangs. I can’t understand the logic. The idea is for insects and small creatures to fall into the pitcher and drown. But the sight of the fangs should actually send them running for cover. Unfortunately for insects, the lure of the nectar-producing pitcher seems to be too strong. Many curious ants have [...]

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Nepenthes Competition

“We’re starting the monthly plant competitions again – but only with the nepenthes. Will you support the competition? Just send us a photo of your plant.” It was a modest online nepenthes competition with no prizes at stake. Did I want to enter? I had seen my friends prepare for these competitions. And it involved [...]

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Feeding Pitcher Plants

I’d look out for plump flying ants whenever it rains the night before. Fortunately for me, the recent rains brought some. They swarm around the lights outside the house and invariably find their way indoors. So I’d get them – before they get in. I swing my flyswatter around with as much panache as a [...]

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Nepenthes Ampullaria

    These ground-hugging squat pitchers look like nature’s tea-cups or shot glasses. Except that I wouldn’t want to take a sip of its slimy cocktail of drowned insects. But ampullaria pitchers are lovely with their wide lips and narrow lids. There are two sorts of pitchers; aerial pitchers and basal ones. The aerial pitchers [...]

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Hooked on Nepenthes Hookeriana

Nepenthes rafflesiana – I can take it or leave it. Maybe it’s the shape of the pitcher that doesn’t appeal to me. But when crossed with ampullaria, the resultant hybrid is a winner. The oval, sometimes globular, shape of the ampullaria is distinct in the hybrid hookeriana. So too is the wide peristome. What I [...]

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Nepenthes Albomarginata Penang Hill

  “Would you like a red albomarginata?” a gardening friend asked. “But it doesn’t have any pitchers,” KC warned. Would I like one? It may have been small and pitcherless, but I have a dreadful weakness for nice red neps. So the albomarginata joined the rest of my CPs. A red albo, I thought happily. I [...]

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Nepenthes Gardentech

Yuks. What a name. When someone asked me if I was keen to buy one, I actually sniffed and said “I think not.” But I changed my tune as soon as I googled and saw a picture. This hybrid is a real beauty. A cross between nepenthes ventricosa and ampullaria, this nepenthes looks like neither [...]

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